How to open the BIOS on non-standard PCs

Many critical system settings of the PC are wired in the BIOS, a small microcircuit on the motherboard, which is an autonomously functioning minicomputer testing the system during bootup. The abbreviation BIOS is deciphered from English as follows: basic input / output system.

The simplest example of a setting that can not be changed from the operating system is time and date. More complex, provided on some systems - the rotation speed of the CPU cooler. There you can also include an integrated sound chip, a network card, set interrupts for devices. Therefore, the question of how to open the BIOS is natural if you are faced with an atypical system. The fact is that on conventional desktop PCs it has become almost a standard that you can enter the BIOS with the DEL key, but notebook manufacturers have worked hard to ensure that the demand for spare parts and services is consistently high, for this reason they have an algorithm for entering the BIOS can be Completely different.

In this article, the maximum number of combinations and tricks to achieve success is collected; If you have a question, how to open the BIOS - try them all. Of course, if you are a qualified service engineer and often come across setting up and repairing laptops, you already know everything, but there are situations when you have to understand what's called "on the fly," and a good manual is very useful ...

First, you should try the top row "efok" from Escape to F3 and from F10 to F12. Often, at the preload stage, a prompt appears, which key to press to enter the treasured menu. However, you may not have time to consider it. For this purpose it is convenient to use the Pause button, which is very useful for stopping the download during the POST testing phase. A common situation is that instead of a black screen, when the laptop is loaded, a logo is displayed. Try to remove it with the Esc key to see the hint.

There are less common combinations. Their scope of application is old and rare notebook models, as well as "branded" PCs like Dell, Compaq, Hewlett Packard and so on. Try the combinations Ctrl + Alt + Esc, Ctrl + Alt + Ins, Ctrl + Alt, Ctrl + Alt + Enter, Ctrl + Alt + Del, Fn + F1, Ctrl + Alt + S, Ctrl + Ins. Some of them will definitely help.

If you do not want to guess, try differently to decide how to open the BIOS. Note that for each laptop brand is characterized by a special combination of keys to enter the administration of its parameters:

- For Acer, you can use Ctrl + Alt + Esc or F1.F2.

- The manufacturer of computers of non-standard form factors ALR prefers that the problem of how to turn on the BIOS, solved using a combination of Ctrl + Alt + Esc or F2.

- AMD Corporation prefers F1 for all its products.

- If you are the lucky owner of the "brand" AST motherboard, try combinations Ctrl + Alt + Del, Ctrl + Alt + Esc.

- Note that in addition to the standard DEL, there are variations of Award BIOS with Ctrl + Alt + Esc.

- Compaq - not so rare in Russia, especially among office PCs; To enter the BIOS, press F10.

- Uncommon Cybermax prefers that users, before turning on the BIOS, press the Esc key.

- Dell - a huge American corporation with a developed model line, so for Dell Latitude should come up the combination of Fn + F1 and F2. In the Inspiron and Dimension series, F2 is used for this purpose. And on the series "400" - F1 and F3.

- IBM traditionally prefers F1 and F2, although there are exceptions. So that you do not puzzle over how to open BIOS in IBM PS / 2, these are the combinations (they must be repeated one by one): Ctrl + Alt + lns, Ctrl + Alt + Del.

- Toshiba, like all companies focused on the domestic market, prefers originality; To enter the BIOS of laptops of this illustrious brand, use the ESC and F1 buttons.

- Sony in its popular VAIO series notebooks prefers the F1 and F3 keys.

- Packard Bell - this is usually an old PC, living out their age on the desk of the office. The BIOS of the Packard Bell system blocks can be accessed using F1 or F2.

- Micron can be met quite rarely, but still the system blocks of this brand sometimes come across, so it will be useful for you to know that you can open their BIOS by pressing F1 or F2.