This article will cover how to run a diagnostic on a Dell Laptop or Desktop.  Dell Diagnostics may also be accessed from the Utility Partition. If you are running this on a laptop make sure it’s plugged in.

1. Turn your computer on. Upon start-up you will first be greeted by the splash screen.

2. At this screen you will press F12 to enter the Boot Menu.

3. Boot Menu

Select “Diagnostics” and Press ENTER. In some cases if “Diagnostics” is not shown then select the Dell Utility Partition to begin diagnostics.

4. It should start the diagnostics. If not, follow the prompts to run the desired diagnostic.

The Hard drive test is the most important, if it fails then you need to replace the hard drive. The hard drive is the most common problem in computers. If anything fails then you should address the issue right away, problems only get worse with time.

For further information: http://support.dell.com/support/

If you have any other questions please join the Forums

Pickled PC is not associated with any of the companies represented in this article in any way, except as an end user.