T510 bios boot order locked

[Beldar]

When I first got my T510 two weeks ago I could see the boot devices and order in the BIOS. I must have done something wrong because now in the BIOS I cannot get into that, I'm locked out, and it won't boot from an ISO on a USB thumb. Is there any fix? Mind you, if it's software to do it I need it to run on Linux.

[RealBlackStuff]

Try booting from a CD/DVD ISO.

[Beldar]

thanks, i'll try that. i assume the F1 is to be keyed before the iso starts to really boot?

[RealBlackStuff]

Nope, at startup you press F12 to select what to boot from.

[Beldar]

Thanks again, I'll try F12. Have a pint on me.

[Beldar]

Maybe I misunderstood. I booted from an ISO disc and held down F12 but no BIOS screen came up. Then the disc's own boot menu appeared with several choices. Scanning down to the screen bottom I noticed something about F12 in fine print. OK then, I held F12 again, but it was too late, the ISO started to auto-boot some more.

So I guess I'm meant to F12 as soon as I see the ISO disc's menu appear?

[RealBlackStuff]

From a cold boot, hit F12 immediately a few times, until the laptop's boot-menu shows.

[Beldar]

OK I just did that, your #7, and it did bring up some BIOS screens, but it denied access to the boot devices/order screen, saying something like "must be supervisor". Another screen allowed me to set BIOS settings back to Default, which I did and Saved. Then the next F12 showed me only 3 choices, none of which looked like a USB drive.

[Cigarguy]

You already know about F12 being the option to select boot devices. This function is controlled by the BIOS and has got nothing to do with any boot manager software tried to any OS. Also, I noticed that older BIOS will not boot from a USB 3 key. It won't show up in the list of bootable devices. Find and load the OS onto a USB 2 key.

[cadillacmike68]

OK I just did that, your #7, and it did bring up some BIOS screens, but it denied access to the boot devices/order screen, saying something like "must be supervisor". Another screen allowed me to set BIOS settings back to Default, which I did and Saved. Then the next F12 showed me only 3 choices, none of which looked like a USB drive.

It appears that you have a locked BIOS that requires a supervisor password.