VMWare: Unable to load the BIOS due to the VMWare Splash screen not showing
This post was published 3 years 4 months 13 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.After upgrading my version of VMWare from VMWare 1.6 to VMWare 2.0, and then installing and updating the VMWare Infrastructure Client, I had a new issue; accessing the BIOS from the VMWare splash startup screen. Before the upgrade, VMWare would display the VMWare splash screen as it loaded the NVRAM (I believe), and had a section that said “Press F2 to enter setup”; it went by fast, but it was at least there. After fiddling around with VMWare for a few minutes, I found a way around this temporarily, and is actually a neat little feature.
VMWare Infrastructure has a setting that will allow you to enable so that when the next time the virtual machine, or VM, is started, it will force the VM to startup in the BIOS. Enabling this is very easy. Open up VMWare Infrastructure Client and login. You should see your VM’s in the left pane, known as the Inventory Pane. Right click the VM you are having issues with and wanting to force the BIOS to be enabled on, scroll down and click on Edit Settings…:
From this menu all you need to do is navigate to the Options tab, then on the left side under the Advanced options, click on Boot Options. From here you will notice the right side of the menu change, an there will be a section that says Force BIOS Setup, with nothing checked by default. Just enable the checkbox and click OK:
Now, just start your VM as you normally would and wait for the BIOS screen to appear. This will only happen once; if you want to get back into the BIOS, you will need to repeat the previous steps if you are unable to get in using the F2 sequence still, after restarting the VM. Let me know if you have any questions.