Okay. Someone please help me figure out why my computer is doing this.

Every time I boot my computer, boot manager comes up and asks me to select which operating system I want to use. (I only have one os installed!).

I recently reformatted my laptop, and during the set-up I created 2 partitions, one 30gb and one 80gb. I am not sure if this is relevant or not, but it shows up as "Disk 0 partition 2" and "Disk 0 partition 3" (there apparently is no partition 1). I have tried reinstalling, but boot manager continues to show up every time I start my laptop.

I have run msconfig and checked the boot settings. It only shows one operating system (windows vista) and it shows that it is set as the default.

Any ideas? Does my description of whats happening make sense?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

pkrsccr, hello. Get a copy of the freeware utility, EasyBCD. This program will show you the boot manager settings and let you change them. Click the "View Settings" button, left-click in the text window that shows up on the right, select all the text with Ctrl+A, then paste it here (Ctrl+V) in a reply. This information will help us figure out what the extra entry is and which one can be deleted.

Even though there is only one entry, "Windows Boot Manager" prompts me to select an operating system every time I start my computer. I have tried everything I can think of to no avail. Please don't give up on me ScottW! I have done the proactive task of selecting the detailed (debug) view setting in hopes it will give you some sort of suggestion for me. Here it is:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
displayorder {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 5

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {e8709fb7-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
nx OptOut

I am not sure if this is of any help. But I greatly appreciate any further assistance you can provide.

Unfortunately this did not solve my problem. Even after unchecking that (and I could have sworn I had both of those unchecked/set to 0 before now), boot manager still shows up when I boot my computer. I really am at my wit's end.

Any other ideas? I have already reformatted/repartitioned my hard drive a various number of times in an attempt to resolve this annoyance, so I am willing to try anything (it isn't even a real issue for my computer; I just find it very irritating because I know it isn't supposed to be there. lol)

I've been doing some experiments here to try and understand what is happening. When I uncheck the "time to display..." on a system with two operating systems, it boots right into the default OS without stopping at the boot manager. Also, on a system with only one OS, if I check the box and set a time it still does not stop at the boot manager. So, basically, I can't re-create the conditions that you are seeing.

I would like to see what your boot manager screen looks like, so I am posting an example below so you can describe yours based on this one. Is there more than one entry in the list (maybe a hidden one)? Is there a countdown timer as shown here, "Seconds until the highlighted choice..."?

When I change the time to display the list of operating systems to 10 seconds, and restart my computer. The boot manager menu does not load, but instead there is a series of short fast beeps (like 15 of them) before windows loads.

I have a Dell XPS M1710 with windows vista business 32bit. The latest bios version is A07 and was released 7/5/2007. I have had this version of the bios nearly since the time it was released. I have just recently reinstalled this same versions of bios, hoping that it might correct this problem I am having but it seemed to have no effect.

If the error is coming out of the BIOS, then reinstalling Windows will not fix it. And if the problem is hardware-related, updating the BIOS won't change that either.

Try the Pre-Boot System Assessment (PSA) diagnostics for your system -- it's the first link on this page at Dell support. If you hear a beep code, note the number of beeps and the pauses between beep groups. For example, you might hear (beep)(pause)(beep-beep-beep)(pause)(beep-beep). That would make the beep code, 1 - 3 - 2.

Do you think this boot manager issue could be due to some type of hardware problem? I guess I had never considered that. It is strange how I did not have any type of issue with this until I changed the partition sizes when I reinstalled vista.

Thanks for all of your help ScottW. Dell techincal support is pretty worthless. I have had many bad experiences with Dell. I do not believe money spent on Dell is well spent; especially for their technical support. I guess I will just ride this problem out; if it is just a harmless boot manager annoyance, then lucky me. If it a serious hardware problem; then so be it, and I will finally be rid of this Dell P.O.S. Time will tell I suppose. Thanks again, ScottW; I really appreciate your input.