Disable Windows 10 Fast Start Up to Access UEFI Bios, Boot to Alternative OS etc
My troubles began on my Dell XPS 8500 with the Windows 10 update this fall of 2019. Fast Start Up was enabled once again... preventing me from accessing my Bios settings or booting to my Linux OS that I had just installed on a separate drive. Like most recommendations, I already tried the "Disable Fast Start Up" in Windows 10 power settings (choose what the power buttons do), but my Dell would not boot to Bios even with all hard drives physically removed from the PC! I even tried removing excess RAM sticks. Tapping F2 or F12 did nothing. Here's how I fixed it.
TL;DR solution:
My bios battery was dead, measuring only 0.5 volts. I replaced it with a new battery, and even did a power drain before installing the battery to reset the Bios (unplug power cord, hold power button down for at least 10 seconds). After the power drain, I installed the new battery, booted up the PC saw a new message that the Bios had been reset. Glory to God; we've made progress. "Press F1 to continue, or F2 for boot options". Ok... I then pressed F1 and F2 countless times but the screen seemed frozen.
I finally tried a different keyboard (my wireless Logitech K330) and it works every time without fail! I could finally access the Bios (F2) and boot up options (F12). I am not sure why my main Logitech G510 keyboard would not register the F keys on startup. *edit* See this forum for why the G510 will not boot to Bios for some motherboards. To boot to Bios, they say you should use a simple keyboard that does not have its own firmware, because the ones with firmware take too long to initialize and by that time it is too late to enter a key to boot to bios.
Before putting the extra drives and all back in the PC, I got the windows 10 hard drive and the Linux drive back in the computer to test if I could boot to either one. I rapidly pressed F12 when powering on until I saw the boot menu; this allowed me to select which hard drive I wanted to boot from. You might want to note which drives are which because the hard drive names that the Bios displays are not necessarily going to tell you which OS is on which drive. Doing this before adding other drives back in can make the process simpler and easier. I was able to choose either Windows 10 or Linux and got to the desktops of each.
You can set which hard drive you want to boot from by default in the Bios settings (F2). I changed my boot mode from "Legacy" to "UEFI" and chose my Linux drive as the default boot drive.
You can still choose which drive you want to boot to by repeatedly tapping (F12) at boot up / power on, no matter what drive is the default boot up drive. So in my case, Linux is the default boot drive if I press nothing, but I can still choose to boot to the Windows 10 drive if I tap F12 at boot up / power on.
For more convenience, my next step will probably be to set up Grub bootloader on my Linux drive and get Grub bootloader to recognize my Windows 10 hard drive as a boot option. Grub requires some configuring, but it allows you to set a default OS and has a 10 second countdown so you can choose something different if you want, all without the hassle of tapping F12 at boot up / power on. If both OSes are on the same drive, Grub typically recognizes them and it's simple. But separate drives require some tweaking as the link above will show. I hope this information saves you some time and some trouble. Best wishes booting up!
Update
I got busy plugging back in more devices to my working PC, but my Bios later got hung up trying to boot from an external USB storage hard drive. F2 and F12 did nothing; it just froze at the Dell logo on screen. Worked fine after unplugging the USB hard drive and rebooting, then I changed the boot device order in Bios, moving USB devices farther down the list.
TL;DR solution:
- If the above does not work, try a different keyboard. This was my main problem!
- Disable Fast Start Up in Windows 10 "Choose What the Power Buttons Do" options.
- Unplug all external USB hard drives / thumb drives. My bios was trying boot from those and stopped booting.
- Tap F2 or F12 as soon as you power up / boot up the PC, like you're starving at a vending machine. Holding the key down or pressing it too late did NOT work for me. Start tapping fast as soon as you boot up / power on.
- Check if bios battery is dead and replace if needed. This was my second problem.
- In Windows 10, hold Shift when clicking "Restart" to see Advanced Options. This might help you set the Bios from legacy to UEFI and also change other settings.
My bios battery was dead, measuring only 0.5 volts. I replaced it with a new battery, and even did a power drain before installing the battery to reset the Bios (unplug power cord, hold power button down for at least 10 seconds). After the power drain, I installed the new battery, booted up the PC saw a new message that the Bios had been reset. Glory to God; we've made progress. "Press F1 to continue, or F2 for boot options". Ok... I then pressed F1 and F2 countless times but the screen seemed frozen.
I finally tried a different keyboard (my wireless Logitech K330) and it works every time without fail! I could finally access the Bios (F2) and boot up options (F12). I am not sure why my main Logitech G510 keyboard would not register the F keys on startup. *edit* See this forum for why the G510 will not boot to Bios for some motherboards. To boot to Bios, they say you should use a simple keyboard that does not have its own firmware, because the ones with firmware take too long to initialize and by that time it is too late to enter a key to boot to bios.
Before putting the extra drives and all back in the PC, I got the windows 10 hard drive and the Linux drive back in the computer to test if I could boot to either one. I rapidly pressed F12 when powering on until I saw the boot menu; this allowed me to select which hard drive I wanted to boot from. You might want to note which drives are which because the hard drive names that the Bios displays are not necessarily going to tell you which OS is on which drive. Doing this before adding other drives back in can make the process simpler and easier. I was able to choose either Windows 10 or Linux and got to the desktops of each.
You can set which hard drive you want to boot from by default in the Bios settings (F2). I changed my boot mode from "Legacy" to "UEFI" and chose my Linux drive as the default boot drive.
You can still choose which drive you want to boot to by repeatedly tapping (F12) at boot up / power on, no matter what drive is the default boot up drive. So in my case, Linux is the default boot drive if I press nothing, but I can still choose to boot to the Windows 10 drive if I tap F12 at boot up / power on.
For more convenience, my next step will probably be to set up Grub bootloader on my Linux drive and get Grub bootloader to recognize my Windows 10 hard drive as a boot option. Grub requires some configuring, but it allows you to set a default OS and has a 10 second countdown so you can choose something different if you want, all without the hassle of tapping F12 at boot up / power on. If both OSes are on the same drive, Grub typically recognizes them and it's simple. But separate drives require some tweaking as the link above will show. I hope this information saves you some time and some trouble. Best wishes booting up!
Update
I got busy plugging back in more devices to my working PC, but my Bios later got hung up trying to boot from an external USB storage hard drive. F2 and F12 did nothing; it just froze at the Dell logo on screen. Worked fine after unplugging the USB hard drive and rebooting, then I changed the boot device order in Bios, moving USB devices farther down the list.
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