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 came with the product.
Troubleshooting System Startup Failure
If your system halts during startup prior to video output, especially after installing an operating system or reconfiguring your system's hardware, check for the following conditions:
If you boot the system to the BIOS boot mode after installing an operating system from the UEFI Boot Manager, the system hangs. The reverse is also true. You must boot to the same boot mode in which you installed the operating system. See Using the System Setup Program and UEFI Boot Manager.
Invalid memory configurations could cause the system to halt at startup without any video output. See System Memory.
For all other startup issues, note the system messages that appear onscreen. See System Messages for more information.
Troubleshooting External Connections
Ensure that all external cables are securely attached to the external connectors on your system before troubleshooting any external devices. See Figure 1-1 and Figure 1-2 for the front- and back-panel connectors on your system.
Troubleshooting the Video Subsystem
Check the system and power connections to the monitor.
Check the video interface cabling from the system to the monitor.
Use the following steps to troubleshoot a USB keyboard/mouse. For other USB devices, go to step 4.
Disconnect the keyboard and mouse cables from the system briefly and
reconnect them.
Connect the keyboard/mouse to the USB port(s) on the opposite side of
the system.
If the problem is resolved, restart the system, enter the System Setup
program, and check if the nonfunctioning USB ports are enabled.
Replace the keyboard/mouse with another working keyboard/mouse.
If the problem is resolved, replace the faulty keyboard/mouse.
If the problem is not resolved, proceed to the next step to begin
troubleshooting the other USB devices attached to the system.
Power down all attached USB devices and disconnect them from the
system.
Restart the system and, if your keyboard is functioning, enter the system
setup program. Verify that all USB ports are enabled. See Integrated
Devices Screen.
If your keyboard is not functioning, you can also use remote access. If the system is not accessible, see Disabling a Forgotten Password for instructions on setting the NVRAM_CLR jumper inside your system and restoring the BIOS to the default settings.
Reconnect and power on each USB device one at a time.
If a device causes the same problem, power down the device, replace the
USB cable, and power up the device.
Ensure that the appropriate drivers are installed and the protocols are
bound. See the NIC's documentation.
Enter the System Setup program and confirm that the NIC ports are
enabled. See Integrated Devices Screen.
Ensure that the NICs, hubs, and switches on the network are all set to the
same data transmission speed and duplex. See the documentation for each
network device.
Ensure that all network cables are of the proper type and do not exceed the
maximum length.
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 came with the product.
Turn off the system and attached peripherals, and disconnect the system
from the electrical outlet.
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 came with the product.
Turn off the system and attached peripherals, and disconnect the system
from the electrical outlet.
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 came with the product.
NOTE: If the system is turned off for long periods of time (for weeks or months), the NVRAM may lose its system configuration information. This situation is caused by a defective battery.
Turn off the system and disconnect it from the electrical outlet for at least
one hour.
Reconnect the system to the electrical outlet and turn on the system.
Enter the System Setup program.
If the date and time are not correct in the System Setup program, replace the battery. See Replacing the System Battery.
If the problem is not resolved by replacing the battery, see Getting Help.
NOTE: Some software may cause the system time to speed up or slow down. If the system seems to operate normally except for the time kept in the System Setup program, the problem may be caused by software rather than by a defective battery.
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 came with the product.
Ensure that none of the following conditions exist:
System cover, cooling shroud, EMI filler panel, memory-module blank, or back filler bracket is removed.
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 came with the product.
If the replacement fan does not operate, see Getting Help.
Troubleshooting System Memory
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 came with the product.
NOTE: Invalid memory configurations can cause your system to halt at startup without video output. See General Memory Module Installation Guidelines and verify that your memory configuration complies with all applicable guidelines.
If the system is operational, run the appropriate online diagnostic test. See
Using Online Diagnostics.
If diagnostics indicates a fault, follow the corrective actions provided by the diagnostic program.
If the system is not operational, turn off the system and attached
peripherals, and unplug the system from the power source. Wait at least 10
seconds and then reconnect the system to power.
Turn on the system and attached peripherals and note the messages on the
screen.
Go to step 12 if an error message appears indicating a fault with a specific memory module.
Enter the System Setup program and check the system memory setting.
See Memory Settings Screen. Make any changes to the memory settings, if
needed.
If the memory settings match the installed memory but a problem is still indicated, go to step 12.
Turn off the system and attached peripherals, and disconnect the system
from the electrical outlet.
If a diagnostic test or error message indicates a specific memory module as
faulty, swap or replace the module.
To troubleshoot an unspecified faulty memory module, replace the
memory module in the first DIMM socket with a module of the same type
and capacity. See Installing Memory Modules.
As the system boots, observe any error message that appears and the
diagnostic indicators on the front of the system.
If the memory problem is still indicated, repeat step 12 through step 15 for
each memory module installed.
If the problem persists after all memory modules have been checked, see Getting Help.
Troubleshooting an Internal USB Key
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 came with the product.
Enter the System Setup program and ensure that the USB key port is
enabled. See Integrated Devices Screen.
Turn off the system and attached peripherals, and disconnect the system
from the electrical outlet.
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 came with the product.
Ensure that the device drivers for the tape backup unit are installed and
are configured correctly. See your tape drive documentation for more
information about device drivers.
Reinstall the tape-backup software as instructed in the tape-backup
software documentation.
For external tape drives, ensure that the tape drive's interface cable is fully
connected to the external port on the controller card. For internal tape
drives, check the cable connections:
Turn off the system and attached peripherals, and disconnect the
system from the electrical outlet.
For SCSI tape drives, verify that the tape drive is configured for a unique
SCSI ID number and that the tape drive is terminated or not terminated,
based on the interface cable used to connect the drive.
See the documentation for the tape drive for instructions on selecting the SCSI ID number and enabling or disabling termination.
If you cannot resolve the problem, see Getting Help.
Troubleshooting a Hard Drive
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 came with the product.
CAUTION: This troubleshooting procedure can destroy data stored on the hard drive. Before you proceed, back up all files on the hard drive.
Depending on the results of the diagnostics test, proceed as needed through the following steps.
If your system has a RAID controller and your hard drives are configured in
a RAID array, perform the following steps:
Restart the system and enter the host adapter configuration utility
program by pressing <Ctrl><R> for a PERC controller or
<Ctrl><C> for a SAS controller.
See the documentation supplied with the host adapter for information about the configuration utility.
Ensure that the hard drive(s) have been configured correctly for the
RAID array.
Take the hard drive offline and reseat the drive.
Exit the configuration utility and allow the system to boot to the
operating system.
Ensure that the required device drivers for your controller card are installed
and are configured correctly. See the operating system documentation for
more information.
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 came with the product.
NOTE: When troubleshooting an expansion card, see the documentation for your operating system and the expansion card.
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 came with the product.
