Invalid setup recovery

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

upon an initial start-up of the computer, determine whether a boot-fail counter exceeds a threshold value, the boot-fail counter representing a number of failed boot attempts the computer has had since a last successful start-up;

upon determining that the boot-fail counter does not exceed the threshold value, increment the boot-fail counter and execute system initialization routines for booting the computer using firmware configuration settings;

upon determining that the boot-fail counter exceeds the threshold value, execute an exception processing routine to reset a progressively larger subset of the firmware configuration settings to default firmware configuration settings as an exception processing counter is incremented; and

upon successful completion of the system initialization routines, reset the boot-fail counter.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the firmware configuration settings comprise configuration settings for a Basic Input Output System (“BIOS”).

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the firmware configuration settings comprise configuration settings for an extensible firmware interface (“EFI”).

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value comprises a pre-defined threshold value.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value comprises a user-defined threshold value.

6. A computer-implemented method for recovering from an invalid configuration in a computer system, the method comprising:

upon initial start-up of the computer system, determining whether a boot-fail counter stored in a non-volatile storage medium of the computer system exceeds a threshold value, the boot-fail counter representing a number of failed boot attempts the computer system has had since a last successful start-up;

upon determining that the boot-fail counter does not exceed the threshold value, incrementing the boot-fail counter and executing system initialization routines for booting the computer system using firmware configuration settings stored in the non-volatile storage medium of the computer system;

upon determining that the boot-fail counter exceeds the threshold value, executing an exception processing routine to reset a progressively larger subset of the firmware configuration settings to default firmware configuration settings as an exception processing counter is incremented; and

resetting the boot-fail counter upon successful execution of the system initialization routines.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein executing the exception processing routine comprises resetting the boot-fail counter upon successful completion of the exception processing routine.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the firmware configuration settings comprise configuration settings for a Basic Input Output System (“BIOS”).

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the firmware configuration settings comprise configuration settings for an extensible firmware interface (“EFI”).

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the threshold value comprises a pre-defined threshold value.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein the threshold value comprises a user-defined threshold value.

12. A computer system comprising:

a central processing unit (“CPU”);

a non-volatile storage medium operatively connected to the CPU, the non-volatile storage medium comprising

a boot-fail counter representing a number of failed boot attempts the computer system has had since a last successful start-up,

a firmware comprising a start-up module and an exception processing module, and

configuration settings of the firmware,

the start-up module of the firmware being configured to

upon an initial start-up of the computer system, determine whether the boot-fail counter exceeds a threshold value,

upon determining that the boot-fail counter exceeds the threshold value, call the exception processing module to execute an exception processing routine to reset a progressively larger subset of the configuration settings to default configuration settings as an exception processing counter is incremented each time the exception processing module is called by the start-up module,

upon determining that the boot-fail counter does not exceed the threshold value, increment the boot-fail counter and execute system initialization routines for booting the computer system using the configuration settings of the firmware, and

upon successful completion of the system initialization routines, reset the boot-fail counter.

13. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the start-up module is further configured to, upon successful completion of the system initialization routines, reset an exception processing counter.

14. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the configuration settings of the firmware comprise configuration settings for a Basic Input Output System (“BIOS”).

15. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the configuration settings of the firmware comprise configuration settings for an extensible firmware interface (“EFI”).

16. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the threshold value comprises a pre-defined threshold value.

17. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the threshold value comprises a user-defined threshold value.