Z440 Desktop - Cannot get into Boot menu

[servo75]

I am trying to boot from a USB drive, but cannot get into the F10 Boot utility to do so. I reboot the machine and press F10 immediately. Sometimes it ignores the keypress and starts Windows anyway. If I press down multiple times, then usually what happens is I have a blank screen with a small window (mini DROM Display) that says

" Initializing Intel Boot Agent GE v1.5.50. PXE 2.1 Build 092 (WfM 2.0)"

From there it either ignores the keypress and starts Windows normally, or freezes at that point. I then have to C-A-D to re-start.

From the research that I've done, I understand that message can appear when the system is trying to network boot since it can't find a boot system in the disk. However, the system DOES boot normally into Windows if I do nothing. F12 starts to bring me into a boot menu but then I get a message "Media test failure. Check cable."  followed by a blank screen with a cursor. Again I have to reboot.

The system update says I have the latest BIOS. Could it be corrupted? Could I just re-set it to factory settings?  I'm trying to install Windows but on a different partition than the current one.

[itsmyname]

Shutdown Windows.

Disconnect the power-cord.

Disconnect the "data" and "power" cables from the disk-drive.

Reconnect the power-cord.

Power-on the computer.

It might show "no bootable device" and then "press the <BLAH> key to enter BIOS SETUP". Press that key.

>  I get a message "Media test failure. Check cable."  

Your computer tried to boot from a networked "boot-server" on your local network.

Finding no such server, you get that message, as you would if the computer's Ethernet cable is not connected to any other computer.

[servo75]

Thank you so much for your reply! I will try that. I am curious, though, why my computer even tried to boot from a network server. Maybe because I pressed F10 and the BIOS is messed up somehow not telling it to even look for a local hard drive?

[DGroves]

actually, it's F9 to select boot device

F10 enters the Bios

boot from network is the default bios option if no bootable local hard drives are found

[SDH]

Lots changed in the ZX40 workstations in BIOS...

Don't press F10 repeatedly.  Instead, press the ESC key at slightly faster than 1/second, and start doing that repeated pressing from the first sign of any electrical activity at the monitors.  This is after you've started from a full power off.  It gets you to a BIOS dialog where you can single press F9 or F10, and go from there.

You use F9 and F10 later, in response to getting into BIOS via the repeated EXC press method.

[itsmyname]

> why my computer even tried to boot from a network server

In the BIOS, there can be a list of "bootable" devices, including "boot from network".

Enter BIOS SETUP, and see if you can "disable" that entry , to remove it from the list of bootable devices.

Usually, booting from the network is the secondary or tertiary choice, not the primary choice, which would be your disk-drive, if the disk-drive has not "failed".

[servo75]

@Itsmyname Great suggestion. I would definitely try that if I could get in to BIOS setup, but that's the whole problem 😃.

I've tried all the solutions above except disconnecting everything and re-connecting. I was hoping not to resort to that but I guess I'll have to. The main thing is that if I press F9 or F10 or F12 or ESC or whatever, what basically happens is I get this tiny box in the top right of the monitor saying "boot manager" and the boot process just freezes there. My general conclusion at this point is that it won't enter the boot manager because it somehow insists on finding a network boot, where there is none. No network boot means no boot menu. How it got that way I have no idea, I don't recall ever going into the BIOS on this box before.

So I'm really at a loss here. I want to re-install Windows on a new SSD. So I made a USB boot device but I can't tell the PC to boot there unless I can at least get into the boot menu, but F10, F9, ESC, don't work, and I think F12 brings me into some repair menu and then I select to enter boot settings and it says it can't find a network boot. "Well, duh, there is no network boot, it boots from a hard drive. You must know that because that's what you do 99.9% of the time I turn you on, but you won't listen to me!" Yes, I'm talking to my computer, that's how desperate I am 😑

If only there was a way to flash it or restore to factory settings so I can at least get in there.

[DGroves]

replace the keyboard

[servo75]

Truly? Are you suggesting it's not reading the F9 keypress? I would say that it is reading this because there is a difference. If I don't press F9, it boots normally, if I does it freezes at the boot loader.

[SDH]

Go primative... I have gotten myself out of USB keyboard binds in the past by using a PS2 keyboard instead.  It is a different pathway, and uses different drivers.  I actually finally switched over to using PS2 keyboards during all of my clean builds and experimenting, and do that to this day.

If you have some corruption anywhere along your USB interface this is a good way to circumvent that.

HP still sells them new, and they are easy to find new via eBay for very good prices including shipping.  I hope you have on close by...