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- USB Ports will not boot from External DVD Drive

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11-14-2024 08:54 AM
This relates to my previous post. It was so puzzling that I couldn't get the PCs to boot from an external DVD or USB flash drive like any normal PC would allow. Well, it's been figured out. I'm just adding this so if anyone has a problem like this, my experience may help them.
So, I was thinking about recycling the PCs. They worked okay but I wanted to install something else on them. I was looking at one of them with the cover off and I looked at the CMOS battery. I thought, what the hey, maybe I can remove the battery and it will reset something. So I did. Then when I restarted the PC I got into the CMOS setup and got a message that I needed the administrator password to do anything. So, I looked it up in the Maintenance Service Guide I got online. It told me how to reset the password with a jumper. I did that and restarted the PC.
Then a message came up asking me to input a Bit-Locker password. Ah ha!
The company that had set up these PCs for the previous owner had installed Bit Locker and that's why the USB plugs were not active while booting. And then I saw the next section header about resetting the CMOS. There is a button on the motherboard that you can reset the CMOS by pressing and holding it for 5 seconds.
So, after doing all of that, the USB plugs were active during boot-up. Problem solved.