So... here is an interesting problem.

[rattrap1337]

Before I begin:
Dell inspiron 3520
RAM: 4gb
Intel core i3-2370m CPU @ 2.40ghz (x2)
Windows 8.1

The problem: It starts up but in a weird way. It shows the dell icon when I push the power button but that's all. Forever. For days if I let it. Until I push and hold a button on the keyboard. Then it will start up. It only started doing this a day or 2 ago and I did nothing to warrant this weird behavior.
If I only push a button, it will load 10% and 10% for every key press.

How do I fix this? If at all?

EDIT: I did some searching around and it might have to do with it's POST start up thingy or something like that.... and I figured out as a side effect of this weird bug/error, I cannot access the boot menu... at all. All it does it load normally when I try to spam the button.

 

[Math Geek]

that is rather odd. my first shot would be to get into the bios and reset it. usually there is a setting for "restore defaults" or something like that. plus it usually has a page that reports the status of the system. could show you any error messages about a piece of hardware. may get lucky and it'll undo whatever started happening.

after that, i'm not sure where i would go. but it does sound like a bios issue since it happens before windows gets booted up. did you happen to drop the laptop or anything like that? might indicate a hardware problem with something going bad. it may be attempting to show you an error message and when you click a button it is dismissing the message you can't see. then it shows it again and repeats until it gets booted up.

this is about the only explanation i have for what you mare seeing.

 

[rattrap1337]

I ended up finding that out on my own. In the bios I ended up disabling a thing called secure boot and it worked perfectly after that.

 

[Math Geek]

yah secure boot is a pain in the arse and should be disabled. it's not really needed and does nothing positive for the machine.

glad you found the right setting to change.