Desktops General - Read Only

[nat--]

I was doing some prep for Windows 8 upgrade. 

I went into the Legacy BIOS settings and switched to UEFI (because my understanding is that allows Windows 8 to use Secure Boot feature). 

On restart, the computer stopped with a message that  said something like "no bootable device found". 

Anyone else have this issue?

The BIOS version to A09.

Thanks!

[DELL-Saurabh A]

Hi,

It appears that you have accidentally selected 'Legacy Mode' in BIOS. The default Boot Mode is set to UEFI and the operating system is installed in the UEFI Mode from the factory. The System will display the following error if the Operating System was installed in UEFI Mode and the Boot Mode has been changed to Legacy or Vice Versa.
  

To correct this error, please recheck and change the Boot Mode in the System Setup from Legacy to UEFI Mode. You may want to refer to the following steps to change the Boot Mode in System Setup to UEFI.
- Restart / Power on your computer
- At the first text on the screen or when the Dell logo appears, tap <F2> until the message Entering Setup appears
- Boot Mode will be listed under Boot
  

Select UEFI using the arrow keys to navigate and press enter
Save and Exit the System Setup
  

Hope this helps. Do reply if you have any further questions. I would be glad to assist.

[nat--]

This XPS 8500 is in Legacy mode, which is how it came to me. When I try to switch to UEFI, I got the error message saying "No boot device".

[DELL-Saurabh A]

Hi,

Thank you for a prompt response. Your computer is running with the latest BIOS version (A09) currently available. By design XPS 8500 is shipped from the factory with UEFI boot mode and the factory installed operating system is also installed in UEFI mode. Therefore I recommended you to recheck and retry switching between UEFI and legacy modes. Apart from this, you may also try to 'load BIOS factory defaults'. This will take the BIOS settings back to factory condition and will eliminate the confusion completely.

To load defaults, please follow the below mentioned steps:
- Enter BIOS (By tapping F2 on start-up)
- Tap < F9 > (You will be prompted with load defaults message)
- Use arrow keys on keyboard to highlight < Yes > and tap < Enter >
- Tap < F10 > to 'save' settings
- Exit BIOS and recheck if the computer loads into 'Windows'

In either case, please re-enter in system BIOS and check the updated status of 'Boot Mode'.

Do reply if you have any further questions. I would be glad to assist.

[nat--]

This was a refurb system that I purchased last month. Perhaps that has something to do with why my system came with a different configuration? I will try as you suggest.

[Davet50]

If you truly were in legacy mode you cannot just change it to UEFI and boot. you would have to reinstall windows.

[nat--]

Really? Hmm, so if that's the reason I get the boot failure then in theory I could try to change my boot order and boot from Windows 8 install media. I really didn't want to do a clean install and then have to reinstall everything. Maybe Secure Boot isn't that necessary :)

[redduc]

I have an XPS 8500 that I am trying to fresh install Windows 8. My refurb system also came with Legacy option as default (that is the A09 default.) Upon setting it to UEFI and rebooting, it does not even recognize the bootable DVD in the drive - giving me the No Boot Drive found problem.

Is this something with the firmware? Is UEFI and secure boot support on the XPS 8500 with A09 firmware?

[sawaddi]

My XPS 8500 received on 10/23  also came set to "Legacy" and the manual indicates Legacy is the default.

[sawaddi]

UEFI only works with x64 OSes.