Dell AIO will not boot...

On 20/06/2020 03:20, c! wrote:
InÂ* trying to aid an acquaintance who has a Dell 5348 desktop All-In-One
that will not boot into Windows 10;Â*Â* nor will it get to the point of
possibly booting from a DVD such as a Windows installation disk.Â*Â* It
will boot past the Dell splash logo and goes to the rotating icon but
never displays the F2 BIOS option or F12 boot options nor anything else.
Â* The rotating icon will continue "forever," meaning hours.

I've tried per Dell's instruction to do a "cold" reset by removing all
power and holding power switch depressed 20+ seconds and longer.Â*Â* No
change, no effect.

I've detected that the hard drive has corrupt files but I can't deal
with that until I can at least boot past the BIOS and access a DVD or
hard drive.

What are your suggestions or recommendations?Â* TIAÂ* c!

Here is 'DELL's Support page/s for the 'Inspiron 5348'

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en...-5348-aio/docs

Or: https://tinyurl.com/y7x7vzs5

Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 6/19/2020 10:20 PM, c! wrote:
In* trying to aid an acquaintance who has a Dell 5348 desktop All-In-One
that will not boot into Windows 10;** nor will it get to the point of
possibly booting from a DVD such as a Windows installation disk.** It
will boot past the Dell splash logo and goes to the rotating icon but
never displays the F2 BIOS option or F12 boot options nor anything else.
* The rotating icon will continue "forever," meaning hours.

I've tried per Dell's instruction to do a "cold" reset by removing all
power and holding power switch depressed 20+ seconds and longer.** No
change, no effect.

I've detected that the hard drive has corrupt files but I can't deal
with that until I can at least boot past the BIOS and access a DVD or
hard drive.

What are your suggestions or recommendations?* TIA* c!

https://www.dell.com/support/article...system?lang=en

So according to Dell itself, just start pressing the F2 key even if you
don't see the announcement to press the F2 key. Start pressing it as
soon as the keyboard lights start to flash, but don't hold the F2 key
down for too long, as that will be interpreted as a stuck key by the
BIOS. So basically, your human timing is all important here. Now isn't
that just how it's just supposed to be, we're here to serve at the
convenience of our machines?

The screenshot in this article - "1. Click Start flag button menu and
select Settings" implies to me that this will not boot into a normal
BIOS, but into some Windows thingy. For example on the right it has
"Accounts Your account, sync settings, work, family". 'Accounts' in a
BIOS? I don't think so!

What c! needs is to boot into BIOS and stop there. I don't think that
for *Windows 10* - see the tabs at the top of the article - (or Windows
8/8.1 for that matter), F2 will boot into BIOS and stop.

AFAICT, from c!'s desription, the system boots *past* the BIOS into
some Windows thingy, i.e. something from the HDD, and *then* hangs.

On 6/20/2020 9:37 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
The screenshot in this article - "1. Click Start flag button menu and
select Settings" implies to me that this will not boot into a normal
BIOS, but into some Windows thingy. For example on the right it has
"Accounts Your account, sync settings, work, family". 'Accounts' in a
BIOS? I don't think so!

What c! needs is to boot into BIOS and stop there. I don't think that
for *Windows 10* - see the tabs at the top of the article - (or Windows
8/8.1 for that matter), F2 will boot into BIOS and stop.

AFAICT, from c!'s desription, the system boots*past* the BIOS into
some Windows thingy, i.e. something from the HDD, and*then* hangs.

The article is about getting into the BIOS setting through a Windows
program, but at the beginning of the article, they give you advice on
how to get into the BIOS proper, before Windows runs.

Yousuf Khan

On 06/19/20 22:20, c! wrote:
InÂ* trying to aid an acquaintance who has a Dell 5348 desktop All-In-One
that will not boot into Windows 10;Â*Â* nor will it get to the point of
possibly booting from a DVD such as a Windows installation disk.Â*Â* It
will boot past the Dell splash logo and goes to the rotating icon but
never displays the F2 BIOS option or F12 boot options nor anything else.
Â* The rotating icon will continue "forever," meaning hours.

I've tried per Dell's instruction to do a "cold" reset by removing all
power and holding power switch depressed 20+ seconds and longer.Â*Â* No
change, no effect.

I've detected that the hard drive has corrupt files but I can't deal
with that until I can at least boot past the BIOS and access a DVD or
hard drive.

What are your suggestions or recommendations?Â* TIAÂ* c!

BINGO! With everyone's help and a strong hint from Paul it checked out
that the corrupted hard drive was blocking the BIOS from completing.
Earlier today I removed the AIO's HDD and substituted a clean 3.5" drive
and the BIOS proceeded as it should. That machine requires a 7mm drive
- originally WD WDF10JPVX - but Dell has replaced it with a Seagate
ST1000LM049 which should be here Wednesday. Thanks for the help and
suggestions.

Unfortunately the user's most current backup is April 2018 (in spite of
repeated warnings from me including the offer to make the backup for
him). c!

c! wrote:


On 06/19/20 22:20, c! wrote:
In trying to aid an acquaintance who has a Dell 5348 desktop
All-In-One that will not boot into Windows 10; nor will it get to
the point of possibly booting from a DVD such as a Windows
installation disk. It will boot past the Dell splash logo and goes
to the rotating icon but never displays the F2 BIOS option or F12 boot
options nor anything else. The rotating icon will continue
"forever," meaning hours.

I've tried per Dell's instruction to do a "cold" reset by removing all
power and holding power switch depressed 20+ seconds and longer. No
change, no effect.

I've detected that the hard drive has corrupt files but I can't deal
with that until I can at least boot past the BIOS and access a DVD or
hard drive.

What are your suggestions or recommendations? TIA c!

BINGO! With everyone's help and a strong hint from Paul it checked out
that the corrupted hard drive was blocking the BIOS from completing.
Earlier today I removed the AIO's HDD and substituted a clean 3.5" drive
and the BIOS proceeded as it should. That machine requires a 7mm drive
- originally WD WDF10JPVX - but Dell has replaced it with a Seagate
ST1000LM049 which should be here Wednesday. Thanks for the help and
suggestions.

Unfortunately the user's most current backup is April 2018 (in spite of
repeated warnings from me including the offer to make the backup for
him). c!

Hey, thanks for the feedback. One more item to salt away
for the Big Flowchart of Broken Stuff. Watch for broken ESP.
Not every ESP has a Dell folder though :-)

Paul