Table 6-1 Troubleshooting resources and their descriptions (continued)
HP Resource Tool Description Link
Subscribers Choice Allows you to sign up for HP product updates. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/subscribe/
HP Support Forums Provide discussions about HP products and 
issues.
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/
Service Access Workbench 
(SAW) (available for technicians 
and Business Partners only)
Provides navigable content intended for use by 
internal and outsourced call center staff and can 
be a resource for support and product division 
professionals.
http://sawpro.atlanta.hp.com/km/saw/
home.do
Vendors’ web sites Provide additional information for associated 
components such as Intel (processor, WLAN), 
Microsoft® (Windows 7, 8, 10), AMD®/NVIDIA® (GPU), 
and so on.
http://www.intel.com/
content/www/us/en/homepage.html
http://www.amd.com
http://www.nvidia.com
General troubleshooting steps
This section helps you become familiar with troubleshooting methodology and efficiently resolve 
problems.
Proceed through the steps in the following table until the issue is resolved, and then move on to the 
next step that is relevant to the issue. For example, if you resolve a memory issue using the HP PC 
Diagnostics (UEFI) tool in step 6, you can then move on to step 10 to reseat the memory into its memory 
slot.
NOTE: You can ignore troubleshooting steps that do not apply to your issue.
Table 6-2
Troubleshooting methodology and general troubleshooting steps
Identify issue Analyze issue Resolve issue Verify solution
1. Understand the issue 
on page 70
2. Examine the 
environment on page 72
3. Perform a visual 
inspection of hardware 
on page 72
4. Update BIOS and 
drivers on page 73
5. Remove or uninstall 
recently added hardware, 
software on page 73
6. HP Hardware Diagnostics 
and Tools on page 73
7. Status lights, blinking 
light codes, troubleshooting 
lights, and POST error 
messages on page 76
8. Hard reset on page 79
9. Soft reset (Default Settings) on 
page 80
10. Reseat cables and connections 
on page 80
11. Test with minimum configuration 
on page 81
12. Test with verified working 
configuration (hardware or operating 
system) on page 82
13. Replace the system board on 
page 83
Verify solution 
on page 83
Identify the issue
Use these guidelines to correctly determine the problem.
General troubleshooting steps
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