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Boot error – cannot enter BIOS
Problems booting a Toshiba S50A laptop. It has Win 11 installed on hard drive. Get a PXE-M0F error; says to Reboot or Insert Boot Media USB or DVD. If I insert bootable USB or DVD (I have both), nothing changes. It will not go into the BIOS so I can reset where to boot from I have tried F2, F10, F12, ESC and several other things to get into BIOS. About 1 time in 25 attempts, it will boot into Win 11 and run fine until I have to shut down; then it starts over. Is there anything I can do to get into the BIOS setup while the Win 11 is running? Some program I can download to do it? Maybe I can then reset it back to booting off of C: drive.
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1 Reply
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Hi Mike,
That PXE-M0F message means the laptop is trying to boot from the network because it can’t find a usable boot device. Since Windows starts up fine sometimes, this points more toward the internal hard drive (or its connection) starting to fail, not a simple boot order issue.
Next time Windows boots up, back up your important files right away. Then try getting into the BIOS/UEFI directly from Windows:
- Open Settings > System > Recovery.
- Next to Advanced startup, select Restart now.
- Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings > Restart.
If “UEFI Firmware Settings” isn’t an option, open Command Prompt as administrator and run:
shutdown /r /fw /t 0You shouldn’t need any extra software for this. Toshiba’s other suggestion is to power the laptop all the way off, then hold F2 while pressing the power button. Holding F12 instead should bring up the boot menu.
Once you’re in the BIOS, look for the internal hard drive or Windows Boot Manager and move it above network/PXE boot. Heads up, the BIOS won’t label it as the C: drive. If the internal drive doesn’t show up at all, or only shows up sometimes, that’s a strong sign the drive or its connection needs professional service. If the drive is failing, it may need to be swapped out for an SSD.
Since repeated boot attempts could push an already unstable drive over the edge, get those files backed up before running any repairs or a Windows reinstall. Sorry you didn’t get an answer sooner on this one.
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