Computer geek needed...

[Tanimaga]

I'm trying like hell to access my setup screen on my Dell. Its a Pentium III/866Mhz dinosaur. I swear it had a "Press XXXX button to go to setup" during a boot, but it's not there anymore, and absolutely no key press will open up the menu. I'm at a loss. Is there any way to access or modify it thru windows, or the dos prompt?

Could I have somehow disabled it?

This may be a dumb question to some, but I'm lost.

[DoctorP]

Usually press delete or F1 immediately after starting up the PC.

[Tanimaga]

Both done..no setup screen. I did every key....all "F" keys F1,F2, etc..

All Insert/Delete/Pg up&down...

Still nothing.

[DoctorP]

Why do you need to do this?

[Tanimaga]

Attempting to overclock a bit..

I know I've been on the setup screen before. Going nuts trying to figure it out.

[DoctorP]

One piece of info I just read said L and R at the same time...but don't know if that has any truth to it.

[dk]

Have you tried up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, A?

[Tanimaga]

"L" and "R" keys together, or left & right arrows?

[DoctorP]

Best info I have found is to use F2 or DEL to access the BIOS. It is possible that you are waiting too late to press the button.

This is a dimension tower right?

Check this info here: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

[DoctorP]

Have you tried up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, A?

You nutcase! That's PS0ne talk there! :rolleyes:

[Tanimaga]

I'm a master tech on my Atari 2600...

This is a tower, yes.. I hit the key as soon as the power on light starts up.

I'll try it again to be sure.

[Tanimaga]

The only screen that will show is the windows advanced option page by pressing "F8". No other keys seem to work, and the BIOS is not accessable by the options presented by F8.

[DocTurtle]

Actually, from what I remember, you can't overclock dells. They have locks on everything thing. So even if you could get into your BIOS screen...you would not be able to change anything...maybe the date...but that's about it.

[Bones]

As posted by DocTurtle:

Actually, from what I remember, you can't overclock dells. They have locks on everything thing. So even if you could get into your BIOS screen...you would not be able to change anything...maybe the date...but that's about it.

DocTurtle is correct on this, you can't overclock the Dell systems. I have a Dell Dimension XPS Gen4, Pentium4, 3.8 gig.hz.

NBTP

[Tanimaga]

Problem solved then! Thanks!

[DataDink]

I know the overclocking isn't and issue any more. But for the future; its lame, but due to the massive amounts of off the wall BIOS I've seen over the years, here is any easy tip.
Hold multiple keys on the keyboard when you power up. Most of the older and newer BIOS will report a keyboard error, and show you the option to continue, or the option to enter setup.
Within the BIOS you should see the option to turn on/off the setup message.

[Tanimaga]

Strange enough, it says keyboard error when it is booting up without any keypress. Always has.