Dell starts in Pre-boot System Assessment?

+In the BIOS, you have an option as to what you want to boot your computer (e.g. CD, floppy, hard drive, etc.). It is possible that you have accidentally set your computer to boot FIRST into the diagnostic partition. By pressing F2 key once or twice while the computer is booting, you can go into the BIOS and check this.

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Pre Boot System Assessment

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It s most likely the hard drive failing. Dell has been putting out new computers with what they call reconditioned parts, which most likely means they take the hard drive out of a returned drive or system, check that it has no error, repartition and reformat it, then warrant these parts for 90 days and charge an exorbitant price for replacement reconditioned parts that are also warranted for no more than 90 days, unless of course, you fall for the extended warranty line that their Indian call center people try to give you, along with a discount if you say it s too much, then a only valid for one day veiled threat that it may be more if you call tomorrow because you want some time to consider the cost. How do I know? Well, I m a computer tech, and this happened to me and a customer of mine this week when we tried to get Dell support for a faulty reconditioned hard drive (Seagate, might I add, the worst failure rate company). I also did a thorough scan of the hard drive which was sold with a system as new in 2011, and found files dated 2003 hidden in the jumbled old partition and formats that demonstrated that it was a used hard drive that wasn t in any way new . Of course, since they re pre-owned drives, Dell can t get a warranty through them, nor would a hard drive manufacturer re-warrant the drive that is reconditioned in this way. I m sure that they get a lot of Seagate drives which wind up in new systems. It s really not worth it to go with a system manufacturer any more. Go to a tech and have him build you a new, or better yet, reconditioned used system. The individual parts of a hand-built system are warranted for up to 5 years in some cases, without paying nearly $200 to extend a crappy Dell warranty.

Ah, Sheila, I've been a software developer for 36 years and have found that the more I learn, the clearer it becomes how much I don't know. I was setting up a bunch of BRAND NEW Dell 3043 All-In-Ones for medical software and they would launch ePSA every boot if they had been unplugged. The Dell guy suggested I reset BIOS to the factory defaults. It worked. I can think of several other factors that would cause this behavior but didn't chase them all down...