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Problems at boot up

  • 14-01-2007 11:08am
    #1
    Aquos76
    Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 9,075 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Dont know if this is the right area, but I apologise before hand if not. Here it goes, I have a Dell E521 and I installed a internal USB card reader, which gives me awlful trouble at boot up. I went in to the boot sequence menu and disabled the USB device at boot up, and rebooted. However, I now have a major problem, it looks like none of my 6 USB ports are working, so therefore, I cant get back into the setup menu to change it due to the fact that my keyboard is usb.

    Any ideas as to how I might manage to get out of this.

    Much appreciated


Comments

  • #2
    8T8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭8T8


    Your motherboard should have a clear CMOS jumper located on it & disconnect from the mains power as well before doing that.

    See location 12 on this page for where to look.

    That will wipe the settings in the bios and restore them to factory defaults.

    You cant disable the card reader in the bios just so you know the only way to disable such a device is to pull the data cable that connects it to the motherboard, I'm assuming it used the internal USB header connection.


  • #3
    Aquos76
    Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 9,075 Mod ✭✭✭✭Aquos76


    Many thanks, I managed to get back in. Never realised that the bios sees usb devices during start up as ps2.

    With regards to not been able to disable the card reader, I am trying to disable it during start up is all. What tends to happen is that at start up while the card reader is connected, the pc locks up on the Dell screen, and yet if I disconnect the internal card reader, the pc starts up no problem at all.


  • #4
    ethernet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,568 ✭✭✭ethernet


    Got the same Dell model at work last week. A great beast and really quiet too.

    The keyboard wouldn't work for me when I first booted. I was trying to get past accepting the EULA by pressing any key. I thought it was down to USB support being activated in the BIOS but couldn't access it. It turns out that the printed and scanner were stopping the keyboard from working. I disconnected them and set up the system. After installing drivers for the printer and scanner, everything works perfectly now.

    That card reader is strange alright. I put a RS-MMC card in it yesterday and it made 'My Computer' freeze.


  • #5
    8T8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭8T8


    Are there any bios updates for the E521 out perhaps it is a bug that has been fixed in relation to card readers.

    Aquos76 if all you used was the internal USB header to connect and I assume it was keyed so it could not go in the wrong way then there is not much else I can think of bar Dell maybe uses it's own custom pin out.

    ethernet was that a built card reader that came with it or an after market one. If it was one that came with it did it explicitly mention RS-MMC support ?

    One trick I picked up to avoid the drive letter madness of card readers is to use the mount as folder feature.
    One of the odd features of the new computer is that it has a 9-in-1 multi card reader built into the front panel. This is a cute feature, but it is also frustrating since it gobbles up four drive letters.

    But that's okay. I already described how you can fix this when I talked about the infinitely recursive directory tree. I created a directory called C:\CARDS and inside it created directories C:\CARDS\CF, C:\CARDS\SD, and so on. I then used the Disk Management snap-in to de-assign drive letters from each of those card readers and instead mounted each card reader into the corresponding folder I had created. Now I can access the contents of the CF reader by going to C:\CARDS\CF.

    Once in disk management right click on the removable drive letter and select change driver letter and them remove it. Now right click again and change drive letter & select mount in the selected NTFS folder & point it to the Cards\MMC folder to see if that works out for you.


  • #6
    Aquos76
    Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 9,075 Mod ✭✭✭✭Aquos76


    8T8 wrote:
    Are there any bios updates for the E521 out perhaps it is a bug that has been fixed in relation to card readers.

    Aquos76 if all you used was the internal USB header to connect and I assume it was keyed so it could not go in the wrong way then there is not much else I can think of bar Dell maybe uses it's own custom pin out.

    It seems that there are quite a few know issues with USB devices and the E521. I googled "E521 Bios" and found many are having the same problems, however Dell released a new bios 1.1.4 on the 1/12007 and many are reporting positive results since upgrading.

    I have just carried out the update also, so I'll post back how it works out for me over the next few hours or so.

    The new bios can be found here for those that have the same machine


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