Recently I've discovered that some notebooks have an advanced menu hidden in their BIOS setting which might be unlocked by simple steps like:
- press Fn+Tab three times in the BIOS, then rebooting.
- press F4, 4, R, F, V, F5, 5, T, G, B, F6, 6, Y, H, N while the laptop is turned off.
- Hold Fn+Tab while starting the computer, before entering the BIOS.
Source: Unlock Advanced Menu for InsydeH20 Rev. 5.0 BIOS (Acer Aspire A514-52)
I have already tried all these in my old Gateway notebook (see specs bellow) but, unfortunately, none of them worked.
Question
Is it possible to unlock the advanced menu of my old Gateway notebook? How?
Hardware Specification
- Model Name: Notebook Gateway NE56R05b | User Manual
- CPU: Intel Celeron B820
- BIOS Setup Utility: InsydeH2O Rev. 3.7
root@debian:~# dmidecode --type bios
# dmidecode 3.3
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information Vendor: Gateway Version: V1.13 Release Date: 10/09/2012 Address: 0xE0000 Runtime Size: 128 kB ROM Size: 3584 kB Characteristics: PCI is supported BIOS is upgradeable BIOS shadowing is allowed Boot from CD is supported Selectable boot is supported EDD is supported Japanese floppy for NEC 9800 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h) Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h) 5.25"/360 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h) 5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h) 3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h) 3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h) 8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h) CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h) ACPI is supported USB legacy is supported BIOS boot specification is supported Targeted content distribution is supported UEFI is supported BIOS Revision: 1.13 Firmware Revision: 0.01 Answer
Settings available in a given BIOS are determined my the laptop manufacturer.
If the manufacturer has set up an advanced menu set then that information will be published and available.
In my experience many laptops have very limited settings in their BIOS, especially for consumer grade devices.
Also in my experience laptops that have an advanced feature set in the BIOS most often have a simple switch in the BIOS that switches between the simple and advanced feature set.
In other words, it's unlikely you'll find a special set of BIOS settings on a Gateway device, and if you do, it'll most likely be a clearly labeled switch in the BIOS itself that enables it.
1
