A list of BIOS and Boot Drive function keys... in very early stage. I'm tired of guessing, especially when doing remote support. Half the time these don't show on the screen because the screen takes a few seconds to warm up.
Windows Safe Mode (XP) - F8
Dell Recovery Partition - Ctrl+F11 (not sure if this is on all models or some)
TOTRY - this is supposed to reboot to BIOS: shutdown /r /fw /f /t 0
Boot Device - F12
- Dell: Dimension 2400, Dimension C521, Optiplex 990, Latitude E5530, Optiplex 3011, Inspiron 5000
Dell Vostro 1000,
Dell Vostro 270s,
Dell Inspiron 530,
Toshiba Lattitude 350
- Boot Device - F12
- BIOS - F2
Dell Optiplex 3020
- BIOS - F2
- Power Button - squarish - black (on black) - top left corner when box is in "tall" position.
- Power Status - power button backlit blue/white solid when computer powered up in Windows (and BIOS)
- LED on back of PSU will turn green when computer is powered on. It is NOT lit when plugged in but computer is off.
Dell Lattitude E5530, E5540, E5450
- BIOS - F2
- Wireless Switch (E5450) - Fn + PrtScr
Dell Inspiron 5000
- BIOS - F2
- Boot Menu - F12
- Power Button "above" keyboard on right hand side
Dell Service Tags: The software to read the service tag can be wrong. I assumed the tag was in the BIOS, but I believe it's stored on the HDD. On a Vostro 200S, where I had swapped hard drives, the application reports a different tag than the sticker!
Vostro 200
- Power light: steady blue is powered on; blinking blue is standby; steady amber is power problem; blinking amber other problem, e.g. RAM
OT: Random Dell Notes:
Get product key by command line: wmic csproduct get vendor,name,identifyingnumber
tags: function, key, shortcut, support