3

Short version

What options are there to enter the UEFI firmware settings when rebooting into them is not possible?

Long version

The situation is as follows: My computer runs fine, but when I reboot the computer, the computer will freeze up. My backlighted keyboard will flash, one of my coolers (I suspect the GPU cooler) will shortly run on max and stop doing that and after that nothing. I can get out of this by pressing the reboot button on my PC. I have not given this matter much attention, because turning the computer on and off works fine, as does sleeping, so it is seldom an issue.

Now I want to change something in the UEFI settings (because I suspect my virtualization options are not as they should be ). My first hunch was to press some key when the computer is starting up, but this does not work: the first things that I see after the monitor turns on is the Windows log in screen. I found the regular procedure (in short, press shift when pressing restart in the Windows menu and pick troubleshoot/advanced/uefi settings). The computer starts to reboot, but the problem in the previous paragraph kicks in. After I get the computer to reboot properly again, the option to go to the UEFI settings is forgotten and I am presented with the regular Windows login screen.

The next steps I need to take are more time intensive and I wondered what my best course of action would be. Is there an alternative way to enter the UEFI settings? I probably should fix my restarting problem, but the (preliminary) research I have done so far suggest I might need to update the firmware of the motherboard or reinstall Windows, both which I would like to avoid for now.

Community
  • 1
Niels
  • 151

5 Answers5

2

I solved the problem. The solution, in case someone else thinks he or she has this problem:

My computer was rebooting just fine and entered the UEFI settings just like it should. I do not know if it worked if I would used the F2 or DEL keys (it probably would, I just did not try it anymore), but just using the normal Windows 10 facilities to reach it worked.

The problem turned out to be my graphics card (or me, that depends how you look at it). I have four output ports on my card, 2 HDMI and 2 display port. I have an old monitor with only a VGA port for the input. Only when Windows loaded the video output would switch to the display port I was using with an adapter.

Off topic: The previous time I was in the UEFI settings, was when I installed Windows after building it and was eager to see what it could do. At that time I used a television (HDMI connection obviously) for screen temporarily, while I waited for the VGA/Display port adapter tocome with the mail. Had I thought of this earlier...

Niels
  • 151
1

My problem turned out to be the following: monitor connected with DisplayPort never showed the "Press 'del' or 'F2' to enter BIOS screen" because the monitor restart was slower than the reboot of my pc.

Connecting to a monitor with hdmi solved it for me (and clicking the boot to uefi setting).

TBthe1
  • 11
  • 1
0

See the Boot options menu in Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE). You can access the Firmware menu from there. The Entry points into WinRE section of that page describes how to restart to recovery mode. The following are the two that are likely to be relevant; choose one of the following two:

  • From the login screen, click Shutdown, then hold down the Shift key while selecting Restart.
  • In Windows 10, select Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery > under Advanced Startup, click Restart now.

Note that the article does not make it clear how to get to the UEFI Firmware menu after the restart. Click Troubleshoot, then click Advanced Options.

Sam Hobbs
  • 119
0

What finally worked and even more recently was the removal of the CMOS battery.

Tamer Ziady
  • 101
-1

The only way I know of to get to the UEFI settings is using the BIOS. There has to be a key even though it's not displayed.

The most common keys are:

  • F2
  • F12
  • DEL

Try them immediately after applying power. It is usually boot option but BIOS Setup might be there too.

If you can supply the manufacturer and model of the computer the manual should tell you what the key is.

timotree
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ZiggyStardust
  • 175