Dell 1800 P/E; can't get to Advanced Boot Options menu

[CNUprogrammer1]

I have a Dell PowerEdge 1800 tower that has been down for 5 hours now; when you try to boot you get a quick message related to a driver/device error, followed by a BSOD. The BSOD happens right before the Windows login screen typically would show on bootup. I cannot access the Advanced Boot Options screen to go into safe mode with F8 or any other hot key I have tried. So far I have:
-run Dell diagnostics and utilities, which show no errors.
-Boot from 2003 server disk, ran Repair, to no avail.

Anyone know of a different way that I can get to the Advanced Boot Options menu to go into Safe Mode??? Thanks in advance.

 

[tesaka57]

A little late, but:

F8 should've done it. And you say the BSOD is after the Dell splash screen as well as the Windows load screen but before the Login screen. You should've been able to enter adv. boot menu. Try checking your keyboard connection, try using a PS/2, swap with another kbd.

What kind of server is this? File server, exchange?

If you just need data, you could try sticking it in a working server as a slave drive and getting data off of it, rebuild.

Was there any hardware installations before the BSOD? If so, try removing if can. Reseat everything, Boot up with minimal devices attached.