Computer stuck in bios while booting up

Thanks> i unpluged my new joystick and comp seems to bootup ok now:smileywink:" unless it was a fluke" tested it twice booted up ok..thanks again..just gonna have to plug it in after bootup i guess only use it to play battfield 2..done away with dell mouse mat could be that causing my mouse cursor to go all over the place,weird tho it did work ok on it for a while...

Have you installed any USB devices recently?  I've had this occur with my Dell and my previous computer that I built.  Certain USB devices would prevent the computer from booting.

I'd suggest removing everything but the keyboard and mouse and see if it still occurs.

Yeah noticed my Steering Wheel was being checked during post and would hang as well. just plug in now when I need it.

Make sure

* Click Start- Shutdown- Shutdown- Ok or Click Start- Turn Off Computer- Turn Off
* Turn on your computer, and watch the keyboard lights. As soon as they flash, press the F2 key
* The message, Entering Setup should appear
* Down arrow to Integrated/Onboard Devices [press Enter]
* Set USB Emulation/USB Controller to No Boot
* Press the [Esc] key, and then [press Enter] to save the changes and reboot the system

Just tried the no boot in controllers still won't boot while joystick left in usb

I've turned of the USB boot option as well and it made no difference.  Do you have your joystick plugged directly into the computer or a hub?  If a hub, you may try plugging directly into your pc otherwise you can try vice versa.  Just a thought - it may or may not work for you but it worked for me.

P.S   have to re -calibrate the joystick tho everytime i plug it in otherwise it dont work properly,which is annoying:(

its plugged in computer USB port dont have a HUB.presume hub is a seperate box for dsl and network stuff ect..at back of pc i got 4 usb slots in a row which are all in use -mouse /keyboard/dsl/joystick.....do have 2 more below but nothing will work in those? just thought id try a different port,according to setting up my pc they suppose to have keyboard and mouse in those lol..

Know what you mean,i had serious doubts about getting a pc through post but thought DELL was a reputable company and been on go for a while so  thought there shouldnt be any problems with the pc's they sell.Hope it doesnt turn out that i should of paid a bit more and got a pc made up to my spec from a local shop where i can at least take it back or see someone about any problems.by time you've paid a large phone bill or paid out to send it back or whatever, it  would of made the price up.Guess we stuck with faulty goods then and may need to use local store to sort our pc's out after all in end.Ive only just started paying for my pc lol hope it keeps going before i finish paying for it..I should of done my homework before buying..I live in UK paid out £1400.00 for mine..thought a XPS would do ok playing battlefield 2 but mine seems to struggle with graghics turned up but not to full...3.2 mhz 1gb ram with top of range ge-force card...game freezes for a sec bit like lag but pings at 50..ps  just bought a new mouse (hope its not a start of things to come)it works fine dont know why dell's mouse went funny...

All,

Did you try all front and rear USB ports?

all but the front which i dont really want cables showing there as my 1 year old will pull on it,and if i take the joystick out i have to recalibrate it as it doesnt seem to want to remember ive already done it..

Message Edited by MARK40 on 12-20-2005 04:52 PM

I have tried any and all combinations of USB ports. Also I have tried with just the minimum USB connections possible, the keyboard. I even hooked up the mouse using the old style PS2 connection. That made little difference. The more USB devices connected the more likely it is to fail but it fails wwith a minimal configuration nonetheless. Additionally, I have tried the keyboard in each one of the six USB ports in the back of the machine and experienced failures on boot each time. When a boot failure occurs the numbber 4 system trouble light is always lit and sometime the number 3 light is lit as well.

I hope you are not expecting too much but I'm afraid you are. Also a previousl poster is much more forgiving than I am, at this price the machine should work out of the box, no exceptions, no excuses. This thread has been going for at least 2 weeks and there are simular threads throughout this forum. Finally a Dell rep actually posted something, a question with no suggestions but a post! Up until that simple question, which could have been answered if the rep had read the entire thread, Dell's feedback had been completly absent.

Specifically, I suggest he look at my service requests and call record. I have spent a minimum of 20 hours with tech support (Dell's term for the group - not mine!). I suggest the Dell rep read the entire thread before asking another question that has been previously answered in various posts and all the fixes that have already been tried.

I even had one support tech tell me that I should expect this - "it is a complicated machine and that is just what is going to happen because of residual power". When it wouldn't boot from the Dell resource CD I was told - "why do you want to do that - use the Windows CD" excuses no solutions - I'll stop now as all of this is in previous messages to this thread. The worse part is the complete lack of any comments, suggestions or even an aknowledgement of the problem. I cited a Business Week article early in this tread that reported BIOS problems with some of the early machines. Dell has finally agreed (or so they have said) to send me a new tower, but that was more than a week ago and there is nothing yet in the system about the replacement and my emails have not been answered. Although in the email they stated to write if I had any questions.

The machines have a problem, plain and simple and Dell is doing nothing to address our concerns. Spending > $2000 and possibly as much as $3,500 you would think they would try to provide some service.

Enough ranting and venting on my part but I wish all of you in the same noat as me to please keep calling tech support, write letters make as much noise as you can so Dell will start to pay attention and work on a fix to this problem.