Latitude 7490 boot up issue

taid said:

RickC said
>>> When in the BIOS/UEFI, do you not have a Load Defaults button under Settings > General > System Information? <<<
I don’t have a ‘load defaults’ at the bottom of that screen but I do have ‘restore settings’ am I being an idiot and they essentially mean the same? They refer to system/memory/processor and device information which the user can’t change. Could some of it have become corrupted? I’ve read down the list and it ‘looks’ ok to me. Is it safe to click on ‘restore settings’ ?

On looking at this again I see the Restore Settings box stays at the bottom of the screen no matter what I select from the menu on the left so it obviously applies to ALL the settings, not just to the one page...

IMO 'Restore Settings' means the same as 'Load Defaults', i.e. 'restore default settings'... and is safe to click on.

(If it wasn't safe then surely the option wouldn't be there?)

I went ahead and selected Restore Settings in UEFI and chose BIOS defaults from the drop down menu (see enc) then Exit. I would normally make a note of any previous settings before changing things as dalchina suggested but as I had not previously changed any of the Bios settings I thought it safe to restore.

The laptop re-booted and the two splash screens remain.

I had another look at the various options in the UEFI screen and noticed a couple of interesting things.

(a) Under System Config – Drivers - are two options - Sata 2 and M.2PCIe and both were selected. I de-selected the Sata 2 and the laptop booted up as usual – still with the two Dell splash screens. When I looked in the Manual I saw that having ‘both’ options selected was the default.

(b) Post behaviour was set at thorough, I changed this to minimal but again obviously doesn’t change the boot issue – it just takes less time to boot.

(c) T he Extend Bios Post Time was set to 0 seconds. This apparently allows the user to see POST status messages and I changed this to 10 seconds. The laptop takes longer to boot but No messages are shown.

(d) Warnings and Errors is set to ‘Prompt’

I presume if I again select Restore Settings in the boot menu that the changes I have made will all revert to default.

In the Restore Settings drop down menu there are other options, one refers to Factory Settings but after Googling I still can’t see what the difference is.

Thanks for your help.

After a lot more head scratching I’ve finally been able to clear the two-Dell-splash-screens-at-boot-up issue in my Latitude 7490.

This involved resetting what Dell call the RTC – the Real Time Clock.

According to Dell:-
“…The RTC reset resets the BIOS to factory default settings, reset the computer date and time, and unprovision Intel vPro (The IT administrator’s vPro account and password on the computer is unprovisioned, and you must complete the setup and configuration process again to connect it to the vPro server)…”

There are two ways to reset the BIOS to factory default settings. In pre 2019 machines it was necessary to disconnect the TWO internal batteries and leave them disconnected for a short period of time, note TWO – not just the cmos battery… This presumably being done with the charger disconnected. Around 2019 the means of resetting was changed. It now involved leaving both batteries connected and turning the laptop ON and holding down the power button for 25 seconds. The charger had to be connected and powered up whilst the reset operation was being carried out. The process takes a couple of minutes after which the laptop would start, requesting time & date to be re-set.

In my case there was some confusion as whilst my Latitude 7490 Manual indicated I could use the latter means, the 7490 is not actually listed on the Dell webpages as one of the machines on which this would work.

I decided to try the updated method and it worked

So now my boot up is back to normal. Thanks to everyone here who offered suggestions, I learnt a lot. TenForums is a great place to be.

And finally my apologies for drawing out the Dell RTC reset procedure – it just might help someone.

Thanks again.