Re: Dell C640 always does Diagnostic Boot Selected

On Sep 19, 2:44 pm, DellCA <customer_advoc...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi, Curtis.

My name is John, and I am a support analyst at Dell headquarters. I
found your post, and wanted to see what I could do to help.

What you're seeing is the Pre-BootAssessment, and on theC640, there
are only two ways to launch it. One way, as you noted, is by hitting F12
to get to thebootmenu. The other way is to hold the Access Direct
button while turning on the machine.

Given these two options, I highly suspect that there is something wrong
with that Access Direct button. Is it mashed in, perhaps?

If you need any help, feel free to let me know:

customer_advoc...@xxxxxxxx
ATTN: John

--
DellCA

John,

I am pretty sure the Access Direct "i" button isn't mashed. As a
lease return the machine, it was not set up with the driver for the
"i" button. So after this happened I went to Dell Support, found the
driver, installed it and then used the "i" button to start Internet
Explorer. The button clicks normally and launches Internet Explorer
so I have no reason to believe the button is mashed down. I was
hoping, but no joy. I removed the cover over it and looked and see no
signs of damage either.

I also suspected the "Fn" button but have used it to do "function"
things with the keyboard to eliminate it as well. I did inadvertently
make my boot up screen size real small in the process and had to
figure out how to get it back to normal size again using the Fn key.

In searching the internet I found someone using a D500 (I think) that
had the same problem and eventually cleared it by unplugging and re-
plugging in the cable that feeds the Power Button, the "i" button and
the 3 LEDs (the ones that blink during POST). Why this worked for him
I have no idea and neither did he. For me, getting to that cable
would require a degree of disassembly that may not be warranted. In
the C640 removing the cover over the buttons and LEDs does not seem to
reveal a connector and it looks like keyboard removal is required (not
sure I want to try that just as an experiment). To be honest I did
remove the screws for the keyboard but balked at the step that said
something like "now pry up on the right hand side". Pry? On my
laptop keyboard? Visions of breakage dancing through my head as you
might imagine.

Curtis Eickerman
Phoenix, Arizona

.

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