There is no standard way to access the BIOS. There are different key combinations for certain computers and some computers even have software packages for accessing your BIOS in Windows. Luckily most computers have easy access at startup and those will be the computers we discuss in this article.
During the boot process of your PC, the BIOS supplier will be displayed. If you see the logo for your computer manufacturer, press ESC to see the information you are looking for. If the information goes by too quickly, press the Pause | Break key to pause the computer.
Now that you have found out who manufacturers your BIOS, you can find out which key combination opens the BIOS configuration screen.
I have compiled a list of the major BIOS suppliers and the keys that open them. For BIOSs that are listed with more than one key combination, you may have to try a few to get where you want to be. If your computer is not listed or you have any questions please ask your question in the hardware support section of our friendly forums.
Acer F1, F2, CTRL+ALT+ESC
ALR PC F2, CTRL+ALT+ESC
AMD F1
AMI DEL
Award CTRL+ALT+ESC, DEL
Dell F1, F2, F3, F12, DEL
DTK ESC
eMachines DEL
Gateway F1, F2
HP F1, F2, ESC
IBM F1
Phoenix CTRL+ALT+ESC, CTRL+ALT+S, CTRL+ALT+INS
Sony F2, F3
Toshiba F1, ESC