There are two issues. From a cold boot, using F8 to go into safe mode fails. Since I have an unreadable screen, I end up just powering off. If I let the computer boot into Windows, everything seems fine but using Fn +F3 does not bring up the familiar battery screen. I did have the suggested download but if I remember correctly this addresses USB devices. I do get into BIOS with F2, no problem and the F12 works fine. I haven''t tried the diagnostics for the keyboard since in most ways the keyboard seems fine.
What version of Windows? And is it 32 bit or 64bit.
I would run "chkdsk c: /F" from a command prompt (without the quotes). For Vista and Seven you will need to right click on the command prompt icon and select run as adminstrator. You will get a message about the disk is locked, do you want to schedule for next boot. Prress the "Y" key. Restart the system and chkdsk will run.
If that does not fix it then you will need to look at the startup options using msconfig.
The Fn + F3 bit is because the software is not installed or disabled. Or the Fn key is broken. You could try a re-install of the software.
Thank you for the help so far. I will try the check disk command next. I have no idea how the Fn function is turned on or off. I did run diagnositcs, even was able use the Fn +F3 command in diagnostics but not so far in Windows. I exchanged keyboards also as a trial but that has no effect on the problems. Sometime during one of our moves, the software that came with the laptop has disappeared so I don't have that to fall back on. (WIN XP Pro SP3)
bacillus
2 Intern
•
14.4K Posts
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February 28th, 2011 15:00
Did you install the Dell Notebook System Software?
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
Enceladus
297 Posts
0
February 28th, 2011 16:00
The title of your post makes this question unclear.
Are you saying that tapping F8 when the Dell logo appears at cold start does not bring up the menu with the Safe Mode options?
And that the blue Fn key does not work at all?
If you tap the F2 key on cold start, do you get the bios setup menu?
Likewise if you tap F12 do you get the select boot device menu?
Might be you need a new keyboard. Try running Dell diagnostics on the keyboard. There is an option to test each key.
PS.You don't press the blue Fn key with one of the F keys on the top row to get those menus.
Oxfam
6 Posts
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February 28th, 2011 17:00
There are two issues. From a cold boot, using F8 to go into safe mode fails. Since I have an unreadable screen, I end up just powering off. If I let the computer boot into Windows, everything seems fine but using Fn +F3 does not bring up the familiar battery screen. I did have the suggested download but if I remember correctly this addresses USB devices. I do get into BIOS with F2, no problem and the F12 works fine. I haven''t tried the diagnostics for the keyboard since in most ways the keyboard seems fine.
Enceladus
297 Posts
0
February 28th, 2011 18:00
What version of Windows? And is it 32 bit or 64bit.
I would run "chkdsk c: /F" from a command prompt (without the quotes). For Vista and Seven you will need to right click on the command prompt icon and select run as adminstrator. You will get a message about the disk is locked, do you want to schedule for next boot. Prress the "Y" key. Restart the system and chkdsk will run.
If that does not fix it then you will need to look at the startup options using msconfig.
The Fn + F3 bit is because the software is not installed or disabled. Or the Fn key is broken. You could try a re-install of the software.
Oxfam
6 Posts
0
March 1st, 2011 13:00
Thank you for the help so far. I will try the check disk command next. I have no idea how the Fn function is turned on or off. I did run diagnositcs, even was able use the Fn +F3 command in diagnostics but not so far in Windows. I exchanged keyboards also as a trial but that has no effect on the problems. Sometime during one of our moves, the software that came with the laptop has disappeared so I don't have that to fall back on. (WIN XP Pro SP3)
bacillus
2 Intern
•
14.4K Posts
0
March 1st, 2011 14:00
Check in bios...