I Just purchased the Studio XPS 435 MT with Windows Vista Premium Home.  When I first boot up, the system hangs up on the Dell splash page with the BIOS graph.  I have to give it a second try to fully boot up.

Hello L THOMAS, Your issue seems very much like a BIOS issue. Dell released a BIOS for your system on 11-18-2008.

You can find the link HERE . I would download and install this BIOS update and see if it resolves your issue.

It did mention something about hangs during the boot process.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I had aready tried that solution.  Vers 1.0.2 is what I now have, but it does not solve the problem.  Any other ideas?  Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I had aready tried that solution.  Vers 1.0.2 is what I now have, but it does not solve the problem.  Any other ideas?  Thanks.

Hello L THOMAS, I did notice the version number. Dell usually is behind on the BIOS and drivers that ships with their systems, but yours may have shipped with the newer version.

If you did not download and install the BIOS, even though it is the same version, I would do it again, just in case the first update did not install properly. I have had this happen before.

I would also, after the BIOS update, unplug the power cord for a few seconds, just to clear any data that might have remained from the previous update.

You usually don't need to do this, but in earlier days you did.

Just some thoughts, that may or may not help.

Hello L THOMAS, I am sorry to hear that. Sometimes the system will not let you re-flash a BIOS with the same version.

The only other suggestion I could offer would be to reset the BIOS via the "resetCMOS" jumper.

You must have the power cable disconnected during this process.

This would involve going into the case and locating the jumper pin close to the onboard battery.

You would just remove the small jumper from the center pin and the outside pin and install it on the center pin and the other outside pin for about 10 seconds.

Then reinstall the jumper to its original pin location, reconnect the power cable and reboot the system and see if it performs as it should.

This would reset the BIOS to its original default settings.

You may not want to attempt this, since it requires opening the case.

And this may not resolve the issue, but just something else to try. It has worked for me when everything else did not.

Hope this helps.

Try this turn off the computer completely and pull off the power to the tower and press and hold the power button for about 15sec then plug back the power to the computer

Again, thanks for the thoughtful suggestions.  The computer shipped with Vers 1.0.1 and i downloaded the 1.0.2 version and installed it.  I've tried to re-install, thinking that maybe the first attempt was corrupted.  The message I get says something to the effect "cannot install the same version of BIOS."

[quote user="L THOMAS"]Thanks for the suggestion.  I had aready tried that solution.  Vers 1.0.2 is what I now have, but it does not solve the problem.  Any other ideas?  Thanks.

Hello L THOMAS, I did notice the version number. Dell usually is behind on the BIOS and drivers that ships with their systems, but yours may have shipped with the newer version.

If you did not download and install the BIOS, even though it is the same version, I would do it again, just in case the first update did not install properly. I have had this happen before.

I would also, after the BIOS update, unplug the power cord for a few seconds, just to clear any data that might have remained from the previous update.

You usually don't need to do this, but in earlier days you did.

Just some thoughts, that may or may not help.

[/quote]

L THOMAS I have the same issue (on a machine received 12/24/08 with the latest BIOS as noted above).

My machine consistently hangs when trying to restart (turning it off and starting again as noted by Hanspuppa will result in a successful boot).  Haven't yet tried to redownload the updated BIOS. This has create all kinds of complications as I tried to restore an image (using the latest version of Acronis Trueimage Home) which requires a restart...

Hey. I've had the same problem exactly as stated: "When I first boot up, the system hangs up on the Dell splash page with the BIOS graph."

I have figured out how to fix it without messing with my 1.0.1 bios. I unplugged an external USB drive and it no longer hangs up (Seagate FreeAgent). Obviously not a permanent solution, but for the moment, I can plug that external drive in after boot. It causes system lags a bit anyway. It's almost as if the BIOS do not wait long enough for the drive to wake up and anounce itself. And somehow that causes eternal wait mode. I'd be interested if someone else had hardware that might "sleep" till called upon, and takes a moment to wake up.

I contacted Seagate and here is their response:

Dear L Thomas,

Thank you for contacting Seagate Technical Support.

It appears that the computer's BIOS needs to be adjusted to disable the USB boot device or change the boot sequence to the main internal hard drive. When a device is that does not have the Master Boot Record on it the computer will not know how to start up.
Please follow this link that will help you determine the order of the boot sequence. http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=199571&Hilite=set+boot+sequence+Boot+Sequence
Reformatting the drive has nothing to do with the boot sequence.

Thank you for sending your Seagate E-mail inquiry.

If you have any additional questions, please let us know.

Regards,

Darrel

Seagate Technical Support
Phone: 800-732-4283 (North America)
00.800.4.SEAGATE (Europe)
1 800 759 109 (Asia, Australia and New Zealand)
Web:  www.seagate.com/support/index.html

Though I haven't tried any of this yet, I think the easiest answer is to just plug the thing back in after a booting up.  Good luck and thanks to all who weighed in on this.

The info in your link seemed like a sure thing, but it didn't seem to fix it. In the XPS 435MT BIOS 1.0.2: Boot Device Config > Hard Drive Boot Priority > 2nd Drive, i disabled it (was listed as USB drive: Seagate FreeAgent). I also tried turning off Fast Boot (worth a try). I'm still using the super technical solution of pulling the plug on the Seagate, or just double-starting the computer every time. Will post if anything new comes along.