I have an old, but working Dell Optiplex GX280 with XP SP3.
Lately it has been taking too long (like 2-3 minutes) to boot up.
I thought to look at the BIOS to see if anything there could be
causing trouble, and have discovered that I cannot enter the BIOS. I
have tried <F2> and <Delete>. Nothing. I also have tried <F8> to
come up in Safe Mode. Again nothing. I changed keyboards and USB
connections. Again nothing.
Any ideas?
Tarzan
According to the online manual at:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_optiplex_desktop/optiplex-gx280_user%27s%20guide_en-us.pdf
you need to hit the F2 key while the Dell logo is still displayed. Do
you see the logo splash screen when you do a *cold* boot of the
computer? If you have a CRT monitor, it might be taking longer to warm
up to show anything but which is too late; i.e., it's warming up and may
not display anything until after the logo screen has passed.
If you aren't seeing the logo screen during which you have to hit F2 to
go into the BIOS, insert a non-bootable floppy or CD into its drive. If
the BIOS is configured in its boot priority order to first boot from
removable media (floppy, CD, USB)
Make sure ALL other USB devices are disconnected. This computer has no
PS/2 ports so you're stuck having to use USB keyboard and mouse. Unplug
any USB-attached printers, scanners, cameras,
Whose brand and model of keyboard are you using? Some have an F-lock
key which, if off, means you get the alternate function of the F keys,
and that means NOT issuing the F-key scan code but the alternate
function. Make sure the F-lock key has its LED lit so the F-keys
actually issue F-key scan codes when pressed.
If it's an undersized (e.g., laptop style) keyboard then maybe it has a
Fn key to switch functions of a set of keys in the alpha section of the
keyboard.
When you cold boot (power off and then power on), do you see the LED
lights on the keyboard flash? On a cold boot, the CPU issues a clear
(reset) signal to all devices to initialize them so they are in a known
starting state. Make sure you are doing a cold boot. Some computers'
Power button actually goes into low-power mode instead of powering off
the computer. Power off using the button and then yank the power cord
from the back of the case. Wait a minute, plug the cord back in, and
then power up using the button.
If it's a really old computer then its CMOS battery is dead. They only
last about 5 years. With a dead battery, the copy of the BIOS settings
in the CMOS table may be corrupt. You may need to get inside to short
the 2-pin CMOS header to clear the CMOS table and reload it from default
BIOS settings. First replace the CMOS battery (typically a coin cell
type, like CR-2032) and then jumper the 2-pin reset header for about 10
seconds, remove the jumper, and reboot to see if you can get into BIOS.
Just at what point are you measuring the time it takes for the hardware
to "boot up"? Are you waiting until the POST screen appears but before
the OS loads? Or are you including the time for the OS to load? If so,
are you counting until the logon screen appears or until you've been
logged in (automatically) and the desktop settles and the computer
becomes usable? "boot up" doesn't say to what point you are measuring.
2-3 minutes to start the hardware, load the OS, and logon and let
startup process load is not a long wait.
