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 system setup.

NOTE:

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

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

Modular Bay HDD

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 down-arrow or up-arrow 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 the space bar. 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 <u> or <d> (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 system setup.

Performing a One-Time Boot

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

utility partition on your hard drive.)

1. Shut down the computer through the Start menu.

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.

4. Turn on the computer. When the DELL logo appears, press <F12> immediately. If you wait too long and the Windows logo appears, continue to wait

until you see the Windows desktop. Then shut down your computer and try again.

5. When the boot device list appears, highlight the device from which you want to boot and press <Enter>.

The computer boots to the selected device.

The next time you reboot the computer, the previous boot order is restored.

Changing Printer Modes

Set the Parallel Mode option according to the type of printer or device connected to the parallel connector. To determine the correct mode to use, see the

documentation that came with the device.

Setting Parallel Mode to Disabled disables the parallel port and the port's LPT address, which frees computer resources for another device to use.

Changing COM Ports

"Performing a One-Time

Boot."

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