Commonly used options, Changing the boot sequence – Dell LATITUDE D400 User Manual

Page 57

Advertising
background image

they are determined by the computer) appear as blue text.

The upper-right corner of the screen displays help information for the currently highlighted option; the lower-right corner

displays information about the computer. System setup key functions are listed across the bottom of the screen.

Commonly Used Options

Certain options require that you reboot the computer for new settings to take effect.

Changing the Boot Sequence

The boot sequence, or boot order, tells the computer where to look to find the software needed to start the operating system.

You can control the boot sequence and enable/disable devices using the Boot Order page of the system setup program.

NOTE:

To change the boot sequence on a one-time-only basis, see "

Performing a One-Time Boot

."

The Boot Order page displays a general list of the bootable devices that may be installed in your computer, including but not

limited to the following:

Diskette Drive

Internal HDD

CD/DVD/CD-RW drive

During the boot routine, the computer starts at the top of the list and scans each enabled device for the operating system

start-up files. When the computer finds the files, it stops searching and starts the operating system.

To control the boot devices, select (highlight) a device by pressing the

or

key, and then enable or disable the

device or change its order in the list.

To enable or disable a device, highlight the item and press

. Enabled items appear as white and

display a small triangle to the left; disabled items appear blue or dimmed without a triangle.

To reorder a device in the list, highlight the device and then press

or

(not case-sensitive) to move the

highlighted device up or down.

Boot sequence changes take effect as soon as you save the changes and exit the system setup program.

Performing a One-Time Boot

You can set a one-time-only boot sequence without entering the system setup program. (You can also use this procedure to

boot the Dell Diagnostics on the diagnostics utility partition on your hard drive.)

1. Turn off the computer.

2. If the computer is connected to a docking device (docked), undock it. See the documentation that came with your

docking device for instructions.

3. Connect the computer to an electrical outlet.

Advertising