Owners Manual

Troubleshooting your system
Safety first — for you and your system
CAUTION: Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician. You should only perform
troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation, or as directed by the online or
telephone service and support team. Damage due to servicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by
your warranty. Read and follow the safety instructions that are shipped with your product.
NOTE: Solution validation was performed by using the factory shipped hardware configuration.
Topics:
• Installation Problems
• Minimum configuration to POST
• Troubleshooting system startup failure
• Troubleshooting external connections
• Troubleshooting the video subsystem
• Troubleshooting a USB device
• Troubleshooting a serial input and output device
• Troubleshooting a NIC
• Troubleshooting a wet system
• Troubleshooting a damaged system
• Troubleshooting the system battery
• Troubleshooting power supply units
• Troubleshooting cooling problems
• Troubleshooting cooling fans
• Troubleshooting system memory
• Troubleshooting a drive or SSD
• Troubleshooting a storage controller
• Troubleshooting expansion cards
• Troubleshooting processors
Installation Problems
Perform the following checks when you troubleshoot installation problems:
● Check all cable and power connections (including all rack cable connections).
● Unplug the power cord and wait for one minute. Then reconnect the power cord and try again.
● If the network is reporting an error, verify that the system has enough memory and disk space.
● Remove all added peripherals, one at a time, and try to turn on the system. If after removing a peripheral the system works,
it may be a problem with the peripheral or a configuration problem between the peripheral and the system. Contact the
peripheral vendor for assistance.
● If the system does not power on, check the LED display. If the power LED is not on, you may not be receiving AC power.
Check the AC power cord to make sure that it is securely connected.
Minimum configuration to POST
The three components mentioned below are the minimum configuration to POST:
● One power supply unit
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168 Troubleshooting your system