Why Del Key? BIOS Boot Menu

[redblade8]

Hallo, I have been trying to figure out forever how to boot from CD or USB on a windows 7 ASUS N53SV. I thought that to do this, you would always have to tap a 'F1*' key. Well, none of those keys brought me into the BIOS or a Boot-Menu. Pressing 'F10' ws the closest thing to what I was looking for, which said something about booting, and 'winload.exe' which did nothing. I finally read today on another thread that pressing 'Del' will also bring you into BIOS to change the boot menu or something else, which on my ASUS, of course brought me there...

So why did ASUS choose the delete key to go into BIOS and not a F11 key or something?? What's so great about making delete the key to go into BIOS ? To find out your F11 key's do nothing you want them to do?

 

[essenbe]

Different motherboard manufacturers use different keys to get into bios. When you boot up, usually below the manufacturers logo screen it will tell you which key to push for BIOS and which key to push for te one time boot menu. If it does not, your manual will. Use the one time boot menu to boot from CD/DVD or USB. That only affects that one boot, it does not change the boot order you set in BIOS. In BIOS, I usually set my CD/DVD as first boot device and the hard drive as second boot device. That way if you have a bootable CD/DVD in the tray it will boot from that.

 

[derekimo]

I'm not really sure why, mine is the DEL key too for my Biostar.

BIOS Access Keys for Popular Motherboards (ASUS, MSI, EVGA, GIGABYTE, etc.)

 

[alphanumeric]

F8 will bring up the one time boot menu on both of my ASUS motherboards. It will boot to what ever you select that one time, and go back to what was originally set in BIOS on the next boot after that. Del gets you into the full BIOS menu on both boards. As mentioned, it depends on who made the BIOS and any customization the OEM wants.

 

[redblade8]

Interesting, I was just going to make a thread on how to change my boot order so I could boot from a cd here. I was trying to boot from it, but any F1, F2 ect, key I press doesn't go into a boot menu. It's wierd how Alpha can go into a 'one time only boot menu' pressing F8. On my ASUS, I think this just goes to boot option's ( normal, safe mode, safe mode with networking...etc. )
Well, at least I can boot from CD's now that I found out it was the Delete key on my ASUS that can change boot order.
It was from a post here saying to go to : Boot Priority - Change - Vista Forums
that I found out that Delete can go into BIOS. When my ASUS starts up, it doesn't give you any options anywhere on the screen to do anything ( ex: press F2 to go into BIOS , press F8 for safe mode or whichever. ) It's just a blank screen showing an ASUS logo and Intel logo with none of that writing on it. ( which then goes to 'starting windows' straight after that. )

 

[alphanumeric]

F8 is also the Windows safe mode key, so if you are a little slow in pressing it during boot up thats where you end up instead. My ASUS BIOS boot logo lists the different keys what they do during the post. There is also a "Press Delete to enter setup" BIOS message across the bottom of the screen during the post. Its not there very long so you have to be quick.

 

[smarteyeball]

It's just a blank screen showing an ASUS logo and Intel logo with none of that writing on it. ( which then goes to 'starting windows' straight after that. )

Disable the Boot Logo in the BIOS. It will show the POST screen instead.

 

[ariawatson]

I am using ASUS Laptop X35U and N550JV. It also create confusion for me (Del key for BIOS Boot MENU). So I saved a image for ASUS laptops boot menu. Image Source - Boot Menu Key for Asus Laptops

 

[AddRAM]

The bios key on my Asus Sabertooth Z77 is Del

Agreed, get rid of the boot logo, disable it in the bios and set your boot timeout to 5 seconds, if possible.

 

[edwar]

As soon as you see the BIOS splash screen TAP the F8 key repeatedly. That will bring up the Boot Menu screen where you select which device to boot from.

 

[TVeblen]

I am using ASUS Laptop X35U and N550JV. It also create confusion for me (Del key for BIOS Boot MENU). So I saved a image for ASUS laptops boot menu. Image Source - Boot Menu Key for Asus Laptops

Great chart!

The take away is that we cannot assume to know the keys that someone else will use to get into BIOS settings or the Boot Menu.
The owner must check their system as was suggested earlier in this thread.

As we can see here, Asus is partial to the ESC key for the Boot Menu.