Question May need to flash my bios?

[Moss11770]

Hi,

I will begin from the beginning since its been a while since i have messed with computers.
I picked up a free Dell Studio XPS 8000 which only needed a video card and hard drive to get it started.
I plugged in a new video card off amazon I had sitting around, and my old hard drive from an Acer (this is where my problem began, probably should have formatted it first).
I was unable to get into the boot menu 9t setup even though it says to hit f2/f12. I have tried many different other boot keys as well.
I removed and replaced a new battery and now get the cmos checksum error.
Worst part is I cannot boot into the system to see what bios I have no more.
All because I couldn't remember my password for vista

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Some Dells, basically REQUIRE a "Dell Keyboard", they won't really work well with a non-Dell keyboard, at least, for entering the BIOS. The other issue is that by default, it may have Secure Boot and Fast Boot enabled, and the BIOS isn't giving you a chance to register the hotkey keystroke(s) for entering the BIOS.

Try unplugging all storage devices from the system and booting. It may display a prompt "No Boot Device Found, press F1 to Continue or DEL to Enter Setup". Usually something like that. At least, you should be able to enter the BIOS at that point.

 

[Shmee]

What are the full specs of the computer? This would help us a bit in troubleshooting and for recommendations. If it is an older computer, depending on if you can get a flash drive or DVD/CD to boot, I would just wipe it and install a light Linux of some sort.

 

[Moss11770]

To tell you the truth, i dont really know. What I do know is
Studio XPS 8000
12 gb ram
I7 core
Windows 10
I added a video card as well.
Someone was giving it away free as they bought a new computer.

 

[Shmee]

From what I can gather from a quick search, it is likely a first gen i5/i7 platform, Lynnfield I believe. This would be too old to have a secure boot option; it is pre UEFI I believe. It may be that due to it's age, the motherboard is a bit flaky, or even could be failing. You could try clearing CMOS again, and going back into the BIOS setup, but I am not sure how much that would help if you cannot boot from anything. If you can, you could try testing the memory (DDR3) in another system, to see if maybe memory errors are giving you problems.

Also, what GPU did you add?

 

[Moss11770]

I know the system works. It was working alright, when i first inserted the hard drive and booted it up .

Where i went wrong was forgetting the password which drove me crazy. That and stress from work.
I was able to login into my guest account, but limited to what i could do.
Including trying to find a boot menu.

I do understand what you mean by motherboard going flaky, especially since i dunno how the person before me used the computer or what it was used for.
I was hoping to get in there and see if quick booting was enabled. Because it did boot up fast, especially when it was running. Tomorrow though, i will try the other answer i recieved. As i have been trying with a "non dell", keyboard. But a generic wireless keyboard.

I am going a little crazy still over it. But i do appreciate all feedback. If i can get it up and running. I will post all stats

 

[ksosx86]

Hi,

I will begin from the beginning since its been a while since i have messed with computers.
I picked up a free Dell Studio XPS 8000 which only needed a video card and hard drive to get it started.
I plugged in a new video card off amazon I had sitting around, and my old hard drive from an Acer (this is where my problem began, probably should have formatted it first).
I was unable to get into the boot menu 9t setup even though it says to hit f2/f12. I have tried many different other boot keys as well.
I removed and replaced a new battery and now get the cmos checksum error.
Worst part is I cannot boot into the system to see what bios I have no more.
All because I couldn't remember my password for vista

Any help would be appreciated.

To boot to UEFI or BIOS:

1. Windows is already installed, from either the Sign on screen or the Start menu, select Power (
   
   ) > hold Shift while selecting Restart. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware settings.
2. From the firmware menus, boot to drive or network while in UEFI or BIOS mode:
   On the boot device menu, select the command that identifies both the firmware mode and the device. For example, select UEFI: USB Drive or BIOS: Network/LAN.
   You might see separate commands for the same device. For example, you might see UEFI USB Drive and BIOS USB Drive. Each command uses the same device and media, but boots the PC in a different firmware mode.

Regarding your Dell Studio XPS 8000's BIOS

• It doesn't matter if you don't recall what BIOS version you have installed or not because this installer won't proceed running unless the one on the machine is older.
• If you can get into Windows 10 right now (not sure if the password is an issue or not - was a bit confused reading your post) then you can simply install and run CPU-Z and check the motherboard tab to check what BIOS is installed.
• If you're trying to get into a Legacy BIOS from a cold boot use a wired USB keyboard & check if there is an FN key on it, if so toggle; check in conjunction with the F2 key once a second to enter the System Setup.