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This is purely hypothetical and technically OS agnostic, but I usually see issues like this suffered by Windows 10 users who have got truly fast machines and have turned on Fast Boot. The process goes something like this:

  • You have a truly fast computer that's been set up for a very fast boot.
  • Your boot order options in your BIOS put your OS's storage medium first in your boot order.
  • Because it boots so fast, traditional tricks for accessing the BIOS (e.g. spam F2 on boot) are impossible. The internet tells you that if you want to access your BIOS, you have to use your OS to tell your machine to boot to the BIOS on its next shutdown.
  • One day, your OS breaks badly. In fact, it's broken so badly that cold boots and turning it on and off again many times change nothing. The case that I typically see is a machine that boots to a black screen after maybe a fraction of a second of showing the manufacture's splash screen.
  • You'd love to use a recovery USB or a USB with your OS's ISO on it to fix this problem, but because you can't access the BIOS (to change the boot order) without accessing your unaccessible OS, you can't.
  • You are now stuck in an awful position.

What is the normal procedure for fixing cases like this? I'm sure that there's a solution for Windows 10 somewhere, but is there a general fix? Nothing that I've said above is unique to Windows 10, so I'd like to hear an OS-agnostic solution if one exists.

J. Mini
  • 282

3 Answers3

4

Power down.
Disconnect the internal disk. Don't insert ANY bootable media.
Boot
It should now get to a "can't find boot-device" screen and give you the option to enter the bios.
When in the bios change boot-order as desired. Exit the Bios and don't forget to save changes.
Shutdown
Re-connect disk.
Problem solved.

Tonny
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1

Windows 10 has a really good way to get into the BIOS in a case like this.

Start the computer and make sure you can unplug the powercord quickly.

Once Windows is loading (the windows logo shows up), unplug the powercord, so windows cannot boot. Even with very fast systems on an SSD, there is always a minimum of 2 seconds. If its really quick, plug your powercord into something with a switch, so you can flip the switch to cut the power. That way, you can turn it on and off in an instant.

Plug the cord back in and repeat the steps 2 more times. The 3rd time, windows should go into automatic repair mode, and give you access to the BIOS, and other options such as command prompt, etc.

Note, it may be that you have to do it a 4th time, if your system was in hyper shutdown on the first reboot sequence, as in that case the first boot technically does not count.

If the system is not loading properly, the normal function keys should work. A last resort can be to reset the BIOS to defaults which should set a timer to access the BIOS or give you a prompt. So far in Windows 10, I never had to resort to resetting the BIOS though.

LPChip
  • 66,193
-1

You don't have to enter BIOS to change the boot selection. Press F8 at boot. It will usually give you an option to go to BIOS as well as your boot selection.Microsoft says

Glorfindel
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JulZ TF
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