No bios display when using external monitor

I recently bought a M14x R2. I have the A12 bios installed.
My configuration:

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• i7-3630QM
• 12GB DDR3 at 1600MHz
• 2GB GDDR5 NVidia GeForce GT 650M
• WD Momentus 750GB SSHD (Data partitiions + Windows User, Temp, etc)
• Crucial 256GB mSATA SSD (OS)
• Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230
• Samsung S27B350H LED monitor using VGA connector.
• Windows 7 SP1

My issue:
When I cold boot, the following expected screens on the external monitor:

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• Intel Rapid Store Technology bios
• Alienware head, progress bar with boot menu & bios key legend
• Starting Windows animation
• Logon Screen

When I warm boot (restart), the following screens appear on the external monitor:

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• Logon Screen

If I open the laptop on a warm boot (restart), I see all 4 expected screens.

What up?? Is this what other M14x R2 owners experience? This is a pain when I want to access the boot menu or bios.

I phoned Dell Alienware "Support"... I was told the the problem could be resolved by using HDMI rather than VGA for my external monitor connection. So, I purchased an HDMI cable. Yeah, you guessed it....no change in behavior.

My installed drivers follow:


This reeks of a bios issue or maybe Optimus?

I would really appreciate some feedback. Even substantiation that this behavior is what I'm stuck with would be welcome. I'm anal retentive and won't sleep nights until this is resolved.

Love and Kisses,

Uncle Bill