Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
More info?)
As a last resort to access the motherboard's BIOS setup menus, there's always
the old 10-key chord trick. Power up the computer and quickly hold down as many
keys on the keyboard as one's fingers can touch. The BIOS will smartly sense
that something is not right with the keyboard, generate a BIOS keyboard error
message, and give you the option to access the CMOS setup to "correct" the
error. This seems to work on nearly all brands of computers and motherboards,
except maybe MicroChannel and EISA computers which had their own setup diskettes
rather than a CMOS setup integrated in the BIOS.... Ben Myers
On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 10:14:08 -0500, Ogden Johnson III <oj3usmc@yahoo.com> wrote:
>"Cordelion" <richardbeney@nospam dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
>
>>Its a Dimension 4100. It booted OK at first, but after a friend loaded XP
>>Pro for me the trouble began.
>>It doesn't respond to Del to get into the BIOS.
>
>I am preparing a similar era [Dimension L733r} machine for sale
>[reinstalling XPPro from scratch after clearing all data, etc.].
>The Del key didn't fail to get me into BIOS, but you do have to
>keep hitting it as soon as you hit your computer's on button.
>There's a relatively small window [e.g., supposed to be after the
>POSTs, and before the boot gets to where it starts loading the
>OS.
>
>From the dim recesses of memory, hitting the <Esc> key will abort
>that memory check. Used to use it all the time in the BADD.
>
>In the BIOS, depending on era, you will find some options. On my
>L733, they were labeled "Quick Boot" and "Quiet Boot". In my
>case, it what the "Quick Boot" setting that did away with that
>RAM check, among a couple of other things. The "Quiet Boot"
>means that the "Dell Logo" would stay on the screen until the OS
>boot process started. Back in those BADD, I actually liked to
>watch config.sys and autoexec.bat marching up the screen -
>reminding me what I had in them. Nowadays, anything you would
>see on the screen would scoot up the screen faster than you could
>read it, and there's nothing much to read in the first place with
>Win. And that is only if your monitor is warm/has warmed up
>enough to show anything before the OS boot starts. So the Quiet
>Boot doesn't lose you much, if anything.
>
>[BADD = Bad Old DOS Days for the age challenged.]
>--
>OJ III
>[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
>Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]
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