Inspiron 5720 can't enter BIOS or boot menu

Hi there. So I'm working on a computer that might have a hardware issue, but I'm not sure yet. I thought about posting this in Hardware, but I think it's a flaw in the firmware perhaps, though that means replacing hardware. There's never an easy place to fit my problems.

This Dell Inspiron 5720 had a failing hard drive. It already has been much harder to get it to boot to a proper disc or USB, but now it's much worse. I've worked with a few hundred UEFI computers (though I'm no great expert still) and have pretty much gotten them to be able to boot w/ either MBR or UEFI support every time. Whichever one I need. Anyways, I turned on Legacy first (because I'd already had a lot of trouble with booting UEFI) and now..

I can't get F2 or F12 to work at all.

When I turn it on, I have ample time to hit the buttons and the text even glow, like "F12 Boot Options" at the bottom right corner. Then it just boots to Windows. There's a gear button also that doesn't work for me either.

I have a hard drive from a similar Dell in it and it boots to a copy of Windows so I'm thinking I'm going to install the network driver and whatever else in order to hopefully install a firmware update if it can.

Any advice? This is just so annoying. :cry

 

Well, I posted that too soon. Put the BIOS update on a USB, ran it, I'm in.

I wanted to make sure people would have time to reply, so I posted first. Ah well. Until next time. Case dismissed.

 

According to the owner, everything started happening when they updated to 8.1, 64-bit version. Since that's what they were licensed to, I installed 8.1 fresh as I have noticed issues with myself and others after upgrading from 8 to 8.1.