[mightywhelk]

Hello,

When my machine starts, it no longer gets past the Dell splash screen. I have tried pressing F2 and/or F12 but nothing happens. I believe this could be because I have a wireless keyboard that hasn't been intialised in the start up process yet (no lights on the sender unit). So I then tried a wires USB keboard but that didn't work either. This is probably because I have recently installed Windows 7 Pro and never used that keyboard with it and therefore it hasn't installed any drivers for it.

I have to confess that I have probably caused the problem myself by trying to get my PS3 controller to work on the PC. In doing so, the third party program requires a safe mode reboot but with no way of pressing F2 or F12 how can I do this? I now only want to get in to get to a previous system restore point (i dont care about the pad - too many problems). Alternatively, I'm happy to reinstall Win 7 from scratch but again, I can get into BIOS to get it to boot from the DVD drive.

I would be grateful for any advice as I currently have a very expensive paperweight!

Cheers

Scott

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You get to Safe Mode by tapping F8 key at computer's startup.

[Broni]

You get to Safe Mode by tapping F8 key at computer's startup.

[mightywhelk]

Thanks for the reply but the problem seems to be that the keyboard (wired or USB) seems to be unresponsive so any tapping of F2, F8 or F12 does nothing. I'm open to any other solution though!

[Broni]

Use (borrow) PS/2 keyboard, something, everyone should have stored somewhere.

[mightywhelk]

Thanks again but on checking, there is no PS/2 input on this model.

[Broni]

Did you try different USB ports?

[mightywhelk]

Indeed I have but to no avail. I have never used the USB keyboard with Win 7 so I assume that the drivers have not been found and thus it isn't picking up the input for it. Any other ideas?
Thanks, Scott

[Hanspuppa]

mightywhelk wrote: I can get into BIOS to get it to boot from the DVD drive.

Hello mightywhelk, If you can get into the BIOS, you have to be using the keyboard by pressing the "Delete" key on a Dell system.

Once in the BIOS, make sure the Legacy USB option is enabled.

Also you can make sure the first boot device is the onboard CD\DVD drive.

If all else fail, when in the BIOS, just select the default settings, save the settings, and reboot the system.

After you see the Dell Logo screen, start pressing the F8 key several times, and you should see a menu page where you can use the arrow keys to navigate to the Safe Mode line. Press enter and the system should boot into Safe Mode.

Windows 7 should have all the USB drivers needed during the install process.

You may be able to go back to an earlier Restore Point, and you may not.

Hope this helps.

Edited by Hanspuppa, 20 December 2009 - 04:22 PM.

[Broni]

He can't get to BIOS, because his keyboard doesn't work.

[Hanspuppa]

He can't get to BIOS, because his keyboard doesn't work.

Excuse me. It appears he can't type correctly either.

It also appears I am more of a distraction here than any help.

Regards

[mightywhelk]

Hi Hanspuppa, It seems that in my original post I omitted a very important apostrophe and a 't'. It should have read "I can't get into BIOS to get it to boot from the DVD drive".

Sorry for misleading you as I hadn't noticed my mistake until you brought it to my attention.

So with no keystrokes registering from either a wired or wireless keyboard I cannot get into the BIOS to change any settings or boot priorities. This is probably a ridiculous question as I know very little about hardware but is it possible to make a physical change to the motherboard (a switch or jumper) to force it to boot from DVD or reset it's settings so I could go about reinstalling Windows 7?

If not, I think I may well have screwed up my machine for good. I'm desperate for any help anyone could give in my rather unusual (and sadly self inflicted) problem.

Regards
Scott/Mightywhelk

[mightywhelk]

Update - Strangely, after removing the hard drive, installing another and attempting to reinstall windows (which didn't work as I couldn't get it to boot from the DVD) and then putting the original hard drive back, I found that when I next switched it on, it booted into windows as normal!

I have no idea how this cured the problem but I'm happy that it has! Needless to say, I have learned from my mistake and I won't be running grotty little third party applications in the future.

Thanks to Broni and Hanspuppa for your suggestions.

Scott

[Broni]

Good news
One of those miracle computer solutions...LOL