Service Manual

Troubleshooting

Flashing the BIOS

You may need to flash (update) the BIOS when an update is available or when you replace the system board.

Follow these steps to flash the BIOS:

1. Turn on your computer.

2. Go to www.dell.com/support.

3. Click Product support, enter the Service Tag of your computer, and then click Submit.

NOTE:

If you do not have the Service Tag, use the auto-detect feature or manually browse for your computer model.

4. Click Drivers & downloads > Find it myself.

5. Select the operating system installed on your computer.

6. Scroll down the page and expand BIOS.

7. Click Download to download the latest version of the BIOS for your computer.

8. After the download is complete, navigate to the folder where you saved the BIOS update file.

9. Double-click the BIOS update file icon and follow the instructions on the screen.

Enhanced Pre-Boot System Assessment (ePSA)

diagnostics

The ePSA diagnostics (also known as system diagnostics) performs a complete check of your hardware. The ePSA is embedded with the

BIOS and is launched by the BIOS internally. The embedded system diagnostics provides a set of options for particular devices or device

groups allowing you to:

• Run tests automatically or in an interactive mode

• Repeat tests

• Display or save test results

• Run thorough tests to introduce additional test options to provide extra information about the failed device(s)

• View status messages that inform you if tests are completed successfully

• View error messages that inform you of problems encountered during testing

NOTE:

Some tests for specific devices require user interaction. Always ensure that you are present at the computer

terminal when the diagnostic tests are performed.

Running the ePSA Diagnostics

Invoke diagnostics boot by either of the methods that are suggested below:

1. Power on the computer.

2. As the computer boots, press the F12 key when the Dell logo is displayed.

3. In the boot menu screen, use Up/Down arrow key to select the Diagnostics option and then press Enter.

NOTE:

The Enhanced Pre-boot System Assessment window displays, listing all devices detected in the computer.

The diagnostics starts running the tests on all the detected devices.

4. Press the arrow in the lower-right corner to go to the page listing.

The detected items are listed and tested.

5. To run a diagnostic test on a specific device, press Esc and click Yes to stop the diagnostic test.

6. Select the device from the left pane and click Run Tests.

7. If there are any issues, error codes are displayed.

Troubleshooting 87