Dell E6400 Login Blocked So Swing the Lid

Sometimes, I couldn’t log in to my Dell Latitude E6400 laptop because booting never got to the BIOS login screen. The OS didn’t matter, because that wouldn’t get booted into until later in the boot process. Before the BIOS login screen, the screen just stayed gray, with no lowline blinking. If, once the NumLock LED was on, I pressed the Esc (Escape) key up to eight times, power turned off. Pressing the power button brought the computer back to life but, commonly, the problem repeated.

The solution, often, was to let the monitor lid swing all the way back, so that it was nearly flat and behind the main part of the laptop. I don’t know why that would ever work, unless it was by coincidence. But, anyway, that didn’t always work.

Usually, the next power-up got me the big Dell logo and the progress bar. That was soon followed by the BIOS login screen.

I have no idea why leaning the lid back made a difference, when it did, but it was OK by me.