SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Dell ‘s financial advisers tried to persuade 71 potential bidders to make an offer for the troubled personal computer maker before two of them emerged to challenge a proposed $24.4 billion deal with the company’s founder, according to documents filed Friday.

The wide-ranging efforts to ignite a bidding contest for Dell Inc. are among the morsels of new information contained in a voluminous recitation of the events that have thrust the world’s third largest PC maker on to the auction block.