All computers are programmed with special keys that, when pressed, allow access to newer UEFI firmware or older BIOSes. are activated pressing a certain key during the hardware testing phase What happens when we start the personal computer. This gives us access to the underlying I/O systems that run when the device boots up and provide low-level communication, operation, and basic system hardware configuration.

The problem is that this type of keys is not standardized and sometimes we don’t know them. They should appear on the screen at startup, but with the fast boot modes of today’s personal computers, especially laptops, this is not always the case. The manufacturers also do not make it easy because each uses different firmware solutions and different keys. The only positive thing is that they tend to be repeated in all teams of each brand.

Also interesting are the dedicated keys for the internal boot menu, with which we can choose to boot from various computer storage devices, whether they are internal disks such as hard disks or SSDs or external ones, flash disks, USB disks or CD/DVD optical drives.

BIOS access keys

we’ll leave you one non-exhaustive list of major manufacturers. Most of them use one of the “Function” or “Escape” keys, but they are different and should be familiar. We have added special Apple keys that are also different.

portable

• Acer: F2
• ASUS: F2 or Delete
• Compaq: F10
• Dell: F2
• Fujitsu: F2
• HP: Exhaust or F10
• Lenovo: F1, F2 or nano key
• Packard Bell: F8
• Samsung: F10 or F2
• Sony: F1, F2, F3 or assist button
• Toshiba: Escape, F2 or F1

after dinner

• Acer: Delete or F2
• ASUS: F8, F2 or Delete
• Compaq: Escape or F9
• Dell: F2
• HP: Exhaust or F10
• Lenovo: F1 or F2

internal boot menu

• Acer: F12, F9 or Escape
• ASUS: F8 or Delete
• Dell: F12
• Fujitsu: F12
• HP: Escape or F9
• Intel: F10
• Lenovo: F12, F10 or F8
• Packard Bell: F8
• Samsung: Escape, F10 or F2
• Sony: Escape or F11
• Toshiba: F12

Apple laptops

• Command + Option + P + R: Resets PRAM and NVRAM.
• Command + S: Boot into single user mode.
• Command + V: Run with verbose status.
• Option: Select the boot volume of the hard disk.
• Option + N: Boot from server image.
• Shift: boot into safe mode.
• C: Boot from optical drive.
• D: Boot into recovery mode and test the hardware.
• N: Network boot.

Other manufacturers and access modes

If you build your own PC, the manual for the ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI or ASRock motherboard will contain the access key to the UEFI – BIOS, as well as the corresponding key to select the first storage drive that will work at boot. We repeat that all these keys you have to press them during the process Power-on self-test this occurs when the computer starts and before the corresponding operating system starts.

In newer laptops, superfast SSDs usually don’t leave much time for key activation. In these cases, it is more convenient to turn off the computer, press the access key to UEFI or the corresponding internal boot and hold it to start the computer.

On Windows computers, you can access a special menu that includes Safe Mode and access to the BIOS without having to press any access keys at startup. To do this, hold down the Shift key, restart the computer from the boot menu and look for the BIOS option.