SOLVED Unable to Boot to BIOS Menu on Toshiba Laptop

[Geoff Olding]

Hello there

I have an issue with not being able to boot my Toshiba Laptop to a repair DVD or a USB recovery drive. I have recently created both from the laptop and am trying to test them.

I am unable to get the laptop to boot into the BIOS menu.

I have tried the following:

• All the functions keys (F1 to F12), plus the “Esc” and “Del” keys.
• Clicking off “Turn off fast start-up (recommended)” in Power Options.
• Rebooting from “EFI Usb Device” and “EFI DVD\CDRom” (Settings\Update & Security\Recovery\Advanced start-up\Restart now\Use a Device)

None of these have any effect – the laptop always just boots into Windows 10 as normal.

It is a Toshiba Satellite L50-C-20M.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Geoff Olding

 

[Ben Myers]

The manual seems to say that you hold down the F2 key while powering on, then release.

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Ben

 

[Geoff Olding]

Hi Ben

Thanks for your reply.

Holding down the F2 key when powering on and then releasing it doesn't do anything.

 

[Saltgrass]

If an F key does not function as expected, you may have to use a Function key with it to get the correct key.

On many systems, you don't hold keys down, but tap them rapidly, even before the screen comes up, until you get a message saying it is going to the Bios setup.

 

[Geoff Olding]

I am indeed using the FN key along with the function key. I have tried pressing the key rapidly.

 

[Grizzly]

<F2> is usually needed to get into BIOS, for the Boot menu press <F12>. At least this is how I do it on my Toshiba Satellite.
Note: on my Toshiba laptop I can't get the keys to work if on the bottom of the start screen (where it counts the memory) the line:
Press <F2> for Bios or <F12> for boot manager
does not appear. This usually happens when I turn the laptop off and/or change the drive. Then it takes some effort to get the line to appear again, usually after one or two restarts. My Toshiba laptop does not have a CMOS battery but must have some big capacitor to act like one (just have not found it yet)...

maybe this info helps....

 

[Geoff Olding]

Thanks for your reply. In the end I realised it was an issue with the "Fn" key - I was using the "Fn" key along with the "F2" key, however I had mapped the "Fn" key to the "Ctl" key ages ago using SharpKeys because of another issue I was having (which seems to have gone away). I removed the mapping in SharpKeys, downloaded a utility called "HWSetup" to allow me to use the function keys on their own, and I can now boot to the BIOS menu by just pressing F2.

 

[Trouble]

Glad you figured it out.
I wouldn't have ever thought that such a piece of software for remapping keyboard keys would have had any effect on the keyboard during the POST (Power On Self Test) portion of the startup process.
The author of the program states that

SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard act like other keys.

SOURCE: https://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/

 

[Grizzly]

I would never have guessed that too as the BIOS usually loads the standard keyboard. Guessing that the program writes in the BIOS too (although it shouldn't)..

 

[Trouble]

the BIOS usually loads the standard keyboard

Yep.... that was my thought as well.
Unfortunately and especially with laptops sometimes it is difficult to be certain, that the device is actually fully powered off completely.
All I'm relatively certain of is that a piece of software the hacks the Windows Registry to remap keyboard keys should not have any effect while the system posts and counts memory and enumerates hardware devices that are attached to the system.

 

[Grizzly]

Yep.... that was my thought as well.
Unfortunately and especially with laptops sometimes it is difficult to be certain, that the device is actually fully powered off completely.
All I'm relatively certain of is that a piece of software the hacks the Windows Registry to remap keyboard keys should not have any effect while the system posts and counts memory and enumerates hardware devices that are attached to the system.

You are absolutely correct. That is my thinking as well...