Acer Aspire TC-895-UA91,Can't get into BIOS. I try to hold either ESC, F1, F2, F9, nothing happens

frustratedinwpg

Hello,

I have an Acer Aspire TC-895-UA91

I am trying to get into BIOS. Nothing I tried works:

- I try to hold either ESC, F1, F2, F9, F12, Delete, and a few other keys, during boot, but nothing happens.

Instructions that I found online usually say to hit one of these keys when the logo/splash screen appears, but no such screen shows up during my boot.

- I try holding shift during reboot.

- I also tried going into (from Windows) into System > Recovery > Advanced Startup.

Problem is all of these things, don't get me into BIOS and the computer boots normally.

I also tried these things after disabling "fast boot" in the control panel, but, it doesn't change anything (except for the boot being slower).

So, I am getting extremely frustrated about this. How can I get into BIOS?

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]
[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Larryodie

Try holding the FN KEY & Delete together.

When I 1st got my TC-895 that was the way?

Larryodie

I can't get the shift key to work on mine while restarting ANYMORE. It'll take you in to SAFE MODE.

I think that SHIFT works when booting to Safe mode. I'll retry soon.

frustratedinwpg

Thank you for the tips.

I tried holding FN + DEL, also FN + F2, got the same result unfortunately.

One thing I forgot to mention in my first message (I was super tired when I wrote it), is that sometimes, when I hit certain keys, it doesn't actually "boot normally", but the boot is just stalled and nothing happens until I CTRL+ALT+DEL or power off and restart.

That, combined with the fact that I don't see a splash screen on booting my PC, makes me wonder if, for some of the things I tried, I actually * was * in the BIOS, but my monitor was just not showing it?

I read somewhere that having 2 monitors sometimes causes issues (I do have 2) but when I tried with to unplug one monitor I still got the same result.

Thanks for the help though. I will keep trying.

billsey

Entering the Setup Utility
When you power on the system, BIOS enters the Power-On Self Test (POST) routines. POST is a series of
built-in diagnostics performed by the BIOS. After the POST routines are completed, the following message
appears:
Press DEL to enter SETUP

At that point you should be able to just hit the Del key, no Fn needed. Note that if you aren't getting through POST, you won't be able to get into the BIOS, which sounds like it could very well be your issue.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/698981/acer-aspire-tc-895-ua91-cant-get-into-bios-i-try-to-hold-either-esc-f1-f2-f9-nothing-happens

Get into bios through Win-10 OS, its a simple thing. Look at this guide How to Enter the BIOS on Windows 10

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

frustratedinwpg

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1254201#Comment_1254201

I believe I know what you are referring to, but unfortunately, I'm not getting the power on self test either.

The more I think about it, this might be less an issue about "getting into BIOS" (as I thought originally) as it is about my monitor set-up.

The reason I say that is because the monitors aren't showing * anything * until I am just about to log into windows.

On some (but not all) attempts, when I hit DEL it stalls my boot-up, and my fan starts making lots of noise, and nothing happens until I reset. This leads me to think I might actually be in bios but the monitor is just not working yet.

My monitors (both of them) are VGA but have a VGA to HDMI adapater. The computer itself only has HDMI ports.

I'm thinking something about using this adapter makes it so that the monitors don't show anything until Windows is loaded and the appropriate drivers are loaded, or something along those lines, I don't know. Seems weird but it would make sense (and would also explain why I never see any kind of splash screen when I boot up).

Thanks for the insight.

billsey

That is very possible. Most monitors handle scaling up from the low resolutions used by the BIOS easily, so a 640x480 (for example) signal is scaled to 1920x1080 with black borders and you can then see it. Some just ignore anything that's not in the scale they support though, and in those cases you don't see anything at those low resolutions. Your BIOS display might be 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768… Can you try with a different monitor or TV?