Viewing the System Setup Screens
Turn on (or restart) your computer.
When the Dell™ logo appears, press F2 immediately.
If you wait too long and the Windows® logo appears, continue to wait
until you see the Windows desktop. Then shut down your computer
(see page 42) and try again.
Depending on your computer, you may also be able to enter the system
setup program by pressing Fn F1 at any time while the computer is
running.
System Setup Screens
The system setup screens display the current setup information and settings
for your computer. Each screen is laid out with the system setup options
listed at the left. To the right of each option is a field that displays the
setting or value for that option. You can change settings that appear as
white type on the screen. Options or values that you cannot change
(because they are determined by the computer) appear less bright.
A box in the upper-right corner of the screen displays help information for
the currently highlighted option; a box in the lower-right corner displays
information about the computer. System setup key functions are listed
across the bottom of the screen.
The screens display such information as:
System configuration
Boot (start-up) configuration and docking device configuration
settings
Basic device configuration settings
Battery charge status
Power management settings
System security and hard drive password settings
Commonly Used Options
Changing the Boot Sequence
The boot sequence, or boot order, tells the computer where to look to find the
software needed to start the operating system. You can control the boot
sequence using the Boot Order page of the system setup program.
The Boot Order page displays a general list of the bootable devices that may
be installed in your computer, including but not limited to the following:
Diskette Drive
Modular bay HDD
Internal HDD
CD/DVD/CD-RW drive
During the boot routine, the computer starts at the top of the list and scans
each enabled device for the operating system start-up files. When the
computer finds the files, it stops searching and starts the operating system.
To control the boot sequence, you can select (highlight) devices using the
the ↑ and ↓ keys and then enable or disable them or change their order in the list.
To enable or disable a device, highlight the item and press Space bar. Enabled items appear as white and display a small
triangle to the left; disabled items appear blue or dimmed without a
triangle.
To reorder a device in the list, highlight the device and then press U or D
or (not case-sensitive) to move the highlighted device up
or down.
Boot sequence changes take effect as soon as you save the changes and exit
the system setup program.
