Problem with startup screen not appearing in BIOS settings.
Problem with startup screen not appearing in BIOS settings.
Hi, I just bought a refurbished Dell Optiplex 9020 and wanted to set it up as a home media server for Plex. It works fine when booting Windows, but I can’t get into the BIOS from there. When trying to boot into BIOS, I press F2 and the screen stays black until I hit ESC, which then restarts the PC. I’ve also tried restarting in UEFI without success. The issue keeps coming up even after clearing CMOS, NVRAM, and swapping display ports. Recently, another monitor isn’t working either. I’m hoping you can suggest a way to access the BIOS for running Truenas Scale as my server OS. Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks.
Are you seeing any error codes from the power LED? That could reveal more than just a few beeps. Checking the CMOS battery might help—replacing it with a fresh one could resolve the issue. Since the machine is over ten years old, it’s possible the problem isn’t critical, and swapping out the RAM in one at a time might clarify things.
It seems unlikely this will cause any damage from a new CMOS battery. I managed to get it running on Windows, but it doesn’t boot with every RAM stick—though each one works alone. The BIOS isn’t showing up on the monitor either. I’ll test another monitor and connection type. Appreciate the assistance!