M1330 remote diagnosis boot prob. CMOS battery??

My wife is on another continent and the M1330 I set up for her is not booting.

She reports it does not ask for the system/hard disk password (as was configured to do) and it issues the message along the lines:
"remove the disks or other media, press any key to restart"

As far as I can tell there is no USB or CD in the device so I am suspecting - could it be the CMOS(BIOS) battery? Or could it be disk connection or corruption?

Can she press the Home button to re-install Windows from the recovery partition? What do you lose if you do that? Could that actually cause the problem if a recovery is aborted after being mistakenly launched?

[The machine has Windows Vista on SSD. Intel graphics (no Nvidia)]

 

If you get that error and nothing else is connected, could be a bad motherboard?

 

Hi Nalada,

Since you have confirmed that there are no external devices like a USB key, CD or a Memory card connected, please check and confirm if the Hard Drive is being detected in the BIOS.

• Press F2 at the Dell logo during startup.
• The system now boots into the BIOS
• Under the header ‘System’ please locate ‘Device info’
• Once you select ‘Device info’ on the right hand side please check the details about the installed Hard Drives.
• If the Hard Drive is detected by the system please run a diagnostics on the hardware.

Please use the link mentioned below in order to find details on how to run a “Pre-boot System Assessment” and to get a list of the Error Codes.

Pre-Boot System Assessment (PSA) Diagnostics and Error Codes For Dell Computers | Dell

The ‘Home’ button on the system launches the Dell MediaDirect application. It is also called Dell MediaDirect button. When the computer is turned off or is in the Sleep mode, you can press the Dell MediaDirect button to start the computer and automatically launch the Dell MediaDirect application. It has no correlation with restoring the system or re-installing the Operating system.

I hope this helps. Please do write back in case you need any further assistance on the same.

Thanks & Regards
Swapnajan MC
#iworkfordell

 

Hi Swapnajan MC

Thanks for helping.
I am pretty sure I would have resolved this already with the computer in front of me - unfortunately I am in the UK, the PC is in China, and the recovery disks are in the US.

Before I saw your post I managed to do some debugging via Skype.
When powering on computer boots through Dell Splash screen and prompt for system and hard disk password. Also in the latter prompt the hard disk serial number isn't obviously garbled so I conclude the hard disk is being seen by the system.
I had my wife check the BIOS settings and the hard disk is the first item in the boot sequence so I am also confident that it isn't trying to boot off some other media.
I had her start the Dell Diagnostics and no obvious hardware problem was detected though I think I got her to abort the tests during the memory check so it may not have properly checked the hard disk.
I will try and get her to follow the Pre-boot assessment exactly as you specified and also check to see if a boot menu can be got to (I doubt it).

The reason I mentioned the Dell Media Direct was because in the back of my mind I think I remember something about the way it is launched. If I am correct, it is a embedded Windows XP operating system booting from a different partition and that to swap between the two partitions (that and Vista) the active partition or some similar critical part of the disk MBR/Partition/Boot sector may be modified. This gives the opportunity for some corruption to occur.
I think if that is the cause it is potentially recoverable.

I suspect this is going to need a boot from recovery media. Difficult when they are in the wrong country (and I am also not sure of the reliability of the DVD drive... that had been playing up on both M1330's we have). I wonder if there is a way to format a USB thumbdrive to do recovery of critical hard disk format parts.

[Incidentally, trying to boot Dell Media Direct results in the Dell Media Direct splash screen and then a hang]

 

This is a postscript... I didn't get to do further diagnostics as my wife reported that the computer is now working again.
She claims to only have hit the F12 key during boot and not done anything else (not even selecting any item from a menu).
I wait to see if the issue re-occurs.