Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 March 7

= March 7 =

Change Boot Order Priority to SSD, then dvd
How do I make the dvd player load up last and ssd first on a dell laptop? -- Thegooduser  Life Begins With a Smile :)  🍁 03:47, 7 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't know exactly offhand, without knowing the precise model. However a cold reboot and watching the screen should give you a key to press to enter "BIOS Setup", and then it's usually pretty obvious within that to select the boot order. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:34, 7 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes look for something like Andy says. Sometimes that gets bypassed by default, but there is usually a way to bypass the bypass.  Something here might help, e.g. hold down the F2 or F12 key while turning on the power and waiting for the bios to start. 73.93.155.112 (talk) 18:42, 7 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Other keys to try are Escape and Delete. On some computers you need to repeatedly press the key instead of holding it down. 93.142.81.174 (talk) 23:39, 7 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Were talking an insprion 5570 I know how to access the bios (sorry for not being very specific) but where do I change the boot order without messing things up? Thegooduser   Life Begins With a Smile :)  🍁 23:41, 7 March 2020 (UTC)
 * You might need to disable Secure Boot first (from this same place), then reboot and go in again. Andy Dingley (talk) 23:55, 7 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Secure [OFF] Legacy [ON] UEFI [OFF] Should I change it to these settings? Thegooduser   Life Begins With a Smile :)  🍁 01:07, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * You generally want UEFI on as it's the modern replacement for the very antiquated BIOS technology (which is what "Legacy" refers to). It's impossible to say exactly what happens for every possible computer, but in general UEFI makes things faster, more convenient, and easier for you. Either way things should work though. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 05:43, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * If you already have an OS installed, there's a fair chance turning off UEFI will prevent your OS from being able to boot up, as it's probably set up for UEFI boot-up and may not have done the necessary for BIOS boot up. Especially if your drive is GPT partitioned. Nil Einne (talk)
 * OP states UEFI is off, so his OS is most definitely not set for UEFI boot up. It is set for legacy and if legacy is turned off then his OS will fail to boot. Take note that some mobos don't support UEFI and legacy at the same time. If he turns UEFI on, the most likely interesting thing that is going to happen is that he gets confused trying to boot the DVD via UEFI and failing because most bootable CDs/DVDs want legacy mode. This is a mostly useless and potentially dangerous thing to change (tho no lasting damage once you set the correct mode again) unless you're repartitioning the system drive. 93.138.43.92 (talk) 20:16, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I missed that UEFI as off, although as you say, the same point applies. I wouldn't agree changing to UEFI is useless. I haven't really used CD or DVD boot for a long time so cannot comment on that aspect, but for pretty much anything else, UEFI boot is so much easier to deal with that once you've tried, you probably never ever want to go back to BIOS. That said, if you already have an OS installed, it may not be worth the hassle of changing unless you are reinstalling or otherwise need to modify the boot. Edit: I was uncomfortable with the DVD/CD think, but since I haven't used one for booting I couldn't safely comment. But thinking about it more, I'm actually fairly unconvinced things are that bad there either. A lot of the time I've created my bootable USBs simply by downloading the ISO, extracting or copying the content to a FAT16 or FAT32 (possibly even FAT12 once) formatted USB drive, and booting. No need to do anything else, or worry about any media creation tool. It simply works since the EFI directory etc are there.  This means the basic structure of the CD or DVD was clearly designed for EFI boot. Perhaps the mainboard UEFI still had problems booting from it from a CD or DVD, but I'm not convinced. I'm also fairly sure I've used EFI with VMs and bootable ISOs too. I'm sure there are a bunch of esoteric Linux, BSD let alone more obscure ISOs which don't support EFI booting, but I suspect the number is dwindling rapidly given their limitations.  I mean I'm sure there are a bunch of mainboards which have weird issues with various issues. But compared to various weird crap you have to put up with while trying to boot from BIOS I'm fairly sure it's a lot less. (It is true that most of the weirdness comes from USB or SATA etc  hard disks or floppy disks, and it's not something you encounter so much with CDs or DVDs unless someone screwed up when making them. Still dealing with CDs and DVDs has too many annoyances to make up for that IMO.)  Nil Einne (talk) 17:34, 11 March 2020 (UTC)
 * The only thing you can "mess up" is making it look for the operating system on the DVD drive first, in which case you just reboot, go back in, and fix your mistake. The computer won't catch fire and explode. I know a lot of non-"computer people" seem to be scared of touching settings like this, but they're usually designed to be pretty straightforward. You usually have to really work at it to mess things up in some way that's difficult to undo. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 05:43, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Although I lost my favourite laptop at Christmas and it (forensically) appears as if an unexplained BIOS change to a CPU clock multiplier has turned into a real Halt and Catch Fire instruction 8-(  Andy Dingley (talk) 10:53, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Huh, most CPUs these days except for the models specifically for overclockers have a locked multiplier, meaning it can't be changed. Is the laptop older? Is it just totally dead? If it powers on and at least lets you get into the BIOS, you might just need to reset the BIOS to an older version. Also this is why it's often best to not bother installing a BIOS/UEFI upgrade unless it's really necessary. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 00:59, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Haven't had the time to investigate. The motherboard is designed for a long production life, with a range of CPUs in it, so the multipliers are configurable, although probably not the most obvious setting. It appeared to be an overheat fault from the usual "time to clean out the fan" cause and running it on battery (which gives a lower multiplier) didn't show the same problem. To get it working again I just swapped the HD into a duplicate chassis, although this is slightly older, has a lower rated CPU and a lower multiplier. It also runs several degrees cooler, just by the leg temperature! Andy Dingley (talk) 10:39, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

I am a computer technician myself, I was just asking here to make sure I was doing it right :) Thegooduser   Life Begins With a Smile :)  🍁 01:07, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Andy Dingley: I think the number of modern mainboards which cannot handle multiple different CPUs with different multiplier is close to zero. Especially given things like Turbo and Speedstep/Cool and Quiet. However 47 is correct that most CPUs for a long time have had locked multipliers and will not allow overclocking via the multiplier. Since the introduction of Speedstep/Cool and Quiet, these have only locked upwards, but that's not relevant here. There are special CPUs sold for overclocking without locked multipliers but you are unlikely to encounter these on a laptop, especially not a commercial one. Turbo has confused things a bit, but still not that much. Other than a few other exceptions or bugs, it doesn't matter what your mainboard is. Believe me, people have often tried hard to find some way to overclock using increased multipliers. (With good ratios and the end of the FSB etc, overclocking using the core clock is a lot less problematic than it once was. But unlocked multipliers is still an advantage hence the special CPUs etc.) In addition, it's IMO quite difficult to permanently kill a CPU simply by using the wrong multiplier for a short time. Even with the wrong core clock is difficult. The wrong voltage has a far greater chance, although even then you often have to go to extremes IMO. Minor damage over long time, may be a different issue. Nil Einne (talk) 09:39, 11 March 2020 (UTC)