Granted Patent B2

US 11,599,436 · App. 17/189,810 · Granted Mar 7, 2023

Inventors: Craig L. Chaiken (Pflugerville, TX); Siva Subramaniam Rajan (Austin, TX)

Assignee: Dell Products L.P.

G06F11/2284G06F9/4401G06F11/079G06F11/0793G06F11/1417G06F13/36G06F2201/805

Abstract

Claims (35)

1. An information handling system comprising:

a processor; and

a basic input/output system (BIOS) comprising a program of instructions executable on the processor, the basic input/output system configured to:

during production of the information handling system, determine which variables associated with the BIOS are critical boot variables and flag such variables as critical boot variables; and

upon occurrence of a predetermined number of failures to complete a power-on/self-test (POST) of the information handling system:

for each particular critical boot variable of the BIOS stored in a memory associated with the BIOS, read a backup variable for the particular critical boot variable, if available, and write a value of the backup variable as the critical boot variable; and

attempt to reboot the information handling system with values of the backup variables used for the critical boot variables.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the BIOS is further configured to:

upon failure to complete POST following the reboot, for each particular critical boot variable of the BIOS, read a default value for the particular critical boot variable and write the default value as the critical boot variable; and

attempt to again reboot the information handling system with values of the default variables used for the critical boot variables.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the memory is a non-volatile random access memory associated with the memory.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the BIOS is further configured to, in response to performing a write operation associated with a critical boot variable, write a backup variable to the memory in addition to writing a new value of the critical boot variable to the memory.

5. A method comprising, in an information handling system comprising a processor and a basic input/output system (BIOS) comprising a program of instructions executable on the processor:

during production of the information handling system, determining which variables associated with the BIOS are critical boot variables and flagging such variables as critical boot variables; and

upon occurrence of a predetermined number of failures to complete a power-on/self-test (POST) of the information handling system:

for each particular critical boot variable of the BIOS stored in a memory associated with the BIOS, reading a backup variable for the particular critical boot variable, if available, and writing a value of the backup variable as the critical boot variable; and

attempting to reboot the information handling system with values of the backup variables used for the critical boot variables.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

upon failure to complete POST following the reboot, for each particular critical boot variable of the BIOS, reading a default value for the particular critical boot variable and writing the default value as the critical boot variable; and

attempting to again reboot the information handling system with values of the default variables used for the critical boot variables.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the memory is a non-volatile random access memory associated with the memory.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising, in response to performing a write operation associated with a critical boot variable, writing a backup variable to the memory in addition to writing a new value of the critical boot variable to the memory.

9. An article of manufacture comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and

computer-executable instructions carried on the computer-readable medium, the instructions readable by a processor, the instructions, when read and executed, for causing the processor to, in a basic input/output system (BIOS) of an information handling system:

during production of the information handling system, determine which variables associated with the BIOS are critical boot variables and flag such variables as critical boot variables; and

upon occurrence of a predetermined number of failures to complete a power-on/self-test (POST) of the information handling system:

for each particular critical boot variable of the BIOS stored in a memory associated with the BIOS, read a backup variable for the particular critical boot variable, if available, and write a value of the backup variable as the critical boot variable; and

attempt to reboot the information handling system with values of the backup variables used for the critical boot variables.

10. The article of claim 9 , the instructions for further causing the processor to:

upon failure to complete POST following the reboot, for each particular critical boot variable of the BIOS, read a default value for the particular critical boot variable and write the default value as the critical boot variable; and

attempt to again reboot the information handling system with values of the default variables used for the critical boot variables.

11. The article of claim 9 , wherein the memory is a non-volatile random access memory associated with the memory.

12. The article of claim 9 , the instructions for further causing the processor to, in response to performing a write operation associated with a critical boot variable, write a backup variable to the memory in addition to writing a new value of the critical boot variable to the memory.

Assignments (10)

Continuity (1)

Cited By (1)

US 12,579,019