Windows 10 HELP! Is it possible to reset BIOS from *within* Windows???

[Mugsy]

I was a very bad boy and did something terribly wrong. I accidentally disabled the USB ports from BIOS on my Win10 tablet.

This disabled the detachable keyboard (and Bluetooth), and while I CAN get back into BIOS, I can't change anything once I'm there (AMI bios. Touchscreen not supported. Volume buttons on tablet only move highlight up/down.) There is no "bios Reset" button on the tablet and the case/cover is sealed (no screws.)

If there was a way to reset the BIOS back to its defaults from within Windows (where the touchscreen still works), I'd be set. I remember long ago you could Flash the BIOS from XP, which suggests there is a way to access the bios from the desktop.

Till then, I have a perfectly good... yet useless... Win10 tablet.

 

[nmsuk]

You could try

 

[Mugsy]

Final update for anyone who was following this thread.

I had to give up. I tried every trick in the book. Nothing worked.

When all attempts to reset the Bios from Windows failed, I found server sources online explaining how you can reset the Bios from a Linux terminal. Unfortunately, Windows-10 makes installing additional OS's difficult (so does the UEFI Bios), but I eventually found WubiUEFI... a "UEFI compatible" version of "Wubi" (a popular old program that installed other OS and a Boot Menu using Windows that no longer worked on computers with a UEFI Bios).

Long story short, "WubiUEFI" didn't work. On reboot, it reports it "can't find" the linux iso, so there's no OS to install.

But it gets worse. "WubiUEFI" relies on "rEFInd"... a third-party (fourth party?) Boot Loader that doesn't support touch screens (which I did not know at the time). With a missing OS as the first choice and no way to move the cursor right to select/boot Windows, I can't get past that menu. So now I have NO working OS!

So, left with no other choice, I opened the tablet up. Based on some photos I found online, you should be able to reset the Bios by shorting a single pin on the Winbond FlashRAM chip, but that too didn't work. I obtained the spec sheet and it mentions a "/Reset" pin, but shorting that didn't work either. I tried shorting the pins before, during and after powering on, but nothing made any difference.

I decided to try again to disconnect the batteries in hopes of clearing the Cmos, this time attempting to turn the tablet On 4-Times in hopes of draining any capacitors or residual charge then letting it sit for an hour before reconnecting the power, but despite all that, the old Bios settings were STILL there.

That made me wonder if it was reading the settings from the built-in SSD, so I disconnected it yet the Bios settings are STILL loading.

So that's it. I can't think of anything else. I will NEVER buy another tablet without a reset button (or w/o a touch-screen bios.) Anyone need an 11.6" lighted serving tray.

 

[kemical]

Hi Mugsy,
thank you for the update.

I was hoping you could open it up and disconnect a bios battery but I guess the internals of a tablet are quite different to a pc...

We never close threads so perhaps someone will see this thread and know of a solution?

 

[nmsuk]

I'm wondering if a keyboard is attached can the bios be interacted with. It has usb so it should work.

 

[kemical]

I accidentally disabled the USB ports from BIOS on my Win10 tablet.

USB has been disabled though Rich.

 

[nmsuk]

This has peaked my interest, there must be away.

 

[nmsuk]

Just a thought, if in the bios the volume up and down move the selection, the power button should actually select the option. It's how it works on my windows tablet.

 

[Mugsy]

Just a thought, if in the bios the volume up and down move the selection, the power button should actually select the option. It's how it works on my windows tablet.

It does. Read closer.

The settings necessary to reset the tablet or undo the disabled options are not on the first page of the Bios. To get to them, you must be able to move the selection left/right, and there is no way to do that using just those three buttons.

 

[nmsuk]

Weird, on mine, when you get to the bottom of the one, it then moves to the other so you can select and modify those.

 

[Mugsy]

Weird, on mine, when you get to the bottom of the one, it then moves to the other so you can select and modify those.

What Bios version do you have?

This tablet has AMI's "Aptio" bios. Going up or down, the selection simply loops back around to the top/bottom.

 

[nmsuk]

AMI "Atom" bios, the maddening this is, there must be away and we're missing something.

 

[Mugsy]

AMI "Atom" bios, the maddening this is, there must be away and we're missing something.

Arguably, there is ONE solution, but I'm not skilled enough even if I had the equipment (which I don't.)

 

[nmsuk]

Silly question but what happens if you hold volume + and power on. At the insignia logo keep holding volume+ device should be plugged in to the charger with usb c

 

[Mugsy]

Silly question but what happens if you hold volume + and power on. At the insignia logo keep holding volume+ device should be plugged in to the charger with usb c

Holding Vol+ & Power at startup gets you into the Bios. Continuing to hold the buttons together has the same effect as holding "Up arrow" & "Enter" once in the Bios.

Trust me, I tried every possible combination of key presses trying to produce some alternative input. They put a standard "desktop" AMI bios on the tablet with no special code for reading tablet buttons differently.

 

[nmsuk]

So what happens if while volume up and minus while powering on?

 

[Mugsy]

So what happens if while volume up and minus while powering on?

Volume Up & Down are on the same rocker switch. There is no way to press them both at the same time.

But even if you could, it would have the same effect as pressing up & down arrows on your keyboard at the same time.

Keep in mind, the AMI Bios used was not designed specifically for tablets, so it would not interpret any key combination differently than your desktop PC would. And even if it was, it wouldn't make sense to code an unnecessarily complicated means of navigating the Bios menu.

 

[nmsuk]

you can, you can hold the whole rocker down. On mine it bring up a boot menu with recovery options. One of which is reset bios

 

[Mugsy]

you can, you can hold the whole rocker down. On mine it bring up a boot menu with recovery options. One of which is reset bios

Do you have an Insignia 11.6" Win10 tablet? You can not hold down both Vol Up/Down simultaneously on mine. It would be like pressing down on both ends of a see-saw at once.

But you are ignoring the fact there is no special "tablet" bios on this computer that will respond to unique keypresses.