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ispea

How to get to bios, boot [COMPLETED]

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I just got hold of a Dell XPS tower from 2016 with a Core i5 processor and license for Windows 7. I need to know how to get into the bios so I can set them up. The internal hard drive is blank, so no OS or anything else on it.

I put in my Windows 10 November 2019 bootable install disk from my laptop, I want to boot from that and then use it to check out the computer, see what it has, and whatever.

The instructions from Dell are to start the computer, and watch for the prompt to push F2, and when you see it, then press it immediately, before it disappears -- and that will take you to the bios. But the screen is just a blank when I turn on the computer, nothing, no Dell logo, nothing at all, just a lit screen. So, I can't see when, or if, the F2 prompt shows.

And the computer is not booting from the Win 10 install disk -- is that because it was made from another Win 10 installation? That is, the install file downloaded from Microsoft to go to the latest iteration of Windows 10 was made into a bootable DVD from that laptop. If so, then how am I to get a new OS on this tower?!

The startup is not even defaulting to the DVD as the only drive in there with an OS. That might be because Win 10 requires that you switch bios to Legacy in order to boot the DVD.

Still, I need to get into bios to at least set up the order as needed. I need to get into anything at this point, I have a compete zero so far -- but this computer is supposed to work.

 

EDIT: Never mind. I just found the problem. It is the monitor. I forgot about that. I tried it some years back, would not show anything during booting, but was fine after booting. I thought it was something specific to that computer and OS, as I found many people with that setup having the same problem, and it was with a VGA monitor only. But I tried another monitor now, and I see all during booting, got right into bios, it is now booting the DVD. 

So, now I know that problem was not that computer, as it was with other people. It is that monitor. Must be a bad line in the cable, but its a built-in cable.

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Ok and Cool :) I'm happy you figured it out and some monitors the cable can be replaced, But it might not be worth the time and trouble ;)

Also I have an OEM Edition of Pro and a 10 in 1 I'll be posting tomorrow :)   

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I haven't used a CRT in about a decade. Man, the scanlines, now those were the days... 

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I have a ViewSonic 21 inch CRT Monitor if you want ;) It's the Monitor Graphic folks loved

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RE the CRT monitor -- thanks, but I don't need that. As for a link to Pro, I have Home installed now. And, I'm pretty sure the only difference in the two installers is what you use for the serial. At least, that's how it used to be. If you give it a Pro activation, all the features of Pro are available.

BTW, I'm encouraging posters here to please post any crack or serial or whatever separately from the applications. Often, I can get the application from a much faster download place -- like Microsoft itself. But to get the crack of serial or whatever here, I have to download an enormous file, and you guys here always use such slow sites. I recommend one like https://workupload.com/. They give a pretty good speed for download, and you can upload files as large as 2 GB, so you don't have to split them up into a bunch of parts that must be concated later.

I'm going to go look for Office 2019 later (desktop edition, not 365), but I know when I find it, it will probably be in 30-50 pieces, and will download so slow it would take a week or more to get it -- and so I just will skip it as basically impossible to get, and I won't have the crack or serial either.

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PM me if you can't see my post in the Operating System section if you would like Pro

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