cosrocket Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 We had a power outage today and afterwards our 6 year old Dell desktop PC (running Windows 10 upgraded from Windows 7) will not finish loading the BIOS. the blue bar goes about halfway and just stops and doesn't move. I tried unplugging and plugging it in again, and pressing F2 to get into the BIOS setup but nothing works, it just comes back up to the Bios bar at the halfway point. Dell has a BIOS recovery tool but it's only for PC's from after Dec. 2015. Is there anything else I can try to do to get the BIOS to boot or to reset it? If I can't, since I have some old programs which I don't have the disks for can I just remove the hard drive and put it into another PC? I know that Windows 10 is identified by the motherboard so would it be activated? Does it make any difference that it was upgraded from Windows 7, or would I have to buy a new Windows 10 license to activate it after putting it hard drive into a new desktop PC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 (edited) What is the model, or better off, the service tag for your dell? There is probably a jumper that you can move, to reset the bios. The other option you can try, is unplug the power cord from the PSU and remove the battery on the motherboard (silver looking coin). Discharge any electricity still within the caps by pressing the power button a few times. If that does not work: 23 minutes ago, cosrocket said: which I don't have the disks for can I just remove the hard drive and put it into another PC? You might, but it also might not boot because of the drivers. If it is a similar machine, or at least similar architecture, you might be able to do this. 23 minutes ago, cosrocket said: I know that Windows 10 is identified by the motherboard so would it be activated? Most likely not, seeing as it is a new unit and the hardware ID will not be tagged to that unit. 23 minutes ago, cosrocket said: Does it make any difference that it was upgraded from Windows 7, or would I have to buy a new Windows 10 license to activate it after putting it hard drive into a new desktop PC? If you scrap this computer, and have the Windows 7 key still, you can use that again on a new unit and it should activate. At worst, you can call microsoft and they WILL activate it for you. I have done this for a friend who had their tower go bad a few months after upgrading from 7, we frankensteined another tower for them and reused the key. I called microsoft and explained the situation and they activated it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted October 25, 2017 MVC Share Posted October 25, 2017 Does it boot faster if only to a black screen if you unplug the hard drive and try turning it on with the hard drive disconnected? The times I've seen this sort of issue, it's been when it was having a problem initiating a hard drive on post. Joe User 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevTech Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 On 10/24/2017 at 5:54 PM, cosrocket said: We had a power outage today and afterwards our 6 year old Dell desktop PC (running Windows 10 upgraded from Windows 7) will not finish loading the BIOS. the blue bar goes about halfway and just stops and doesn't move. I tried unplugging and plugging it in again, and pressing F2 to get into the BIOS setup but nothing works, it just comes back up to the Bios bar at the halfway point. Dell has a BIOS recovery tool but it's only for PC's from after Dec. 2015. Is there anything else I can try to do to get the BIOS to boot or to reset it? If I can't, since I have some old programs which I don't have the disks for can I just remove the hard drive and put it into another PC? I know that Windows 10 is identified by the motherboard so would it be activated? Does it make any difference that it was upgraded from Windows 7, or would I have to buy a new Windows 10 license to activate it after putting it hard drive into a new desktop PC? 1. This should be in hardware forum 2. Unplug RAM modules and jam them in again tightly - strangely effective on old Dells 3. reset CMOS - common fix for power spikes 4. Your power supply might have been pushed over the edge if it has bad capacitors. 5. Technically, you cannot transfer an OEM license which is tied to a mobo. But mobos fail and also the Win 10 upgrade gave you a Digital Entitlement that is tied to your Microsoft Account, so in practice it would be very unusual if a phone call to Microsoft did not result in activation. DConnell 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 What model? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 And abandoned... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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