smart short self test timed out?

Hi Jonathan,

That usually means that the test is not completing in the needed time. If you want to test your hard drive, I suggest running the diagnostics after booting to your Dell drivers and utilities disc.

Hello Osprey4, thanks for your post, I'm having the same "SMART Short Self Test Timed Out" problem as the original poster.

Can you please point me to the specific step-by-step instructions for "running the diagnostics after booting to your Dell drivers and utilities disc."? Thanks again for your help. 

Hi Brucebogart,

To test your hard drive using your Dell Drivers and Utilities disc:
1. Reboot your system. When you see the Dell logo, hit F12 to enter the boot menu.
2. Insert the Dell Drivers and Utilities disc in your CD/DVD drive.
3. Pick the option to boot from the CD/DVD drive.
4. You will be prompted to hit any key to continue booting from the CD/DVD drive.
5. You will be prompted to hit 1 to run the Dell diagnostics. You may see two such menus.
6. Select Test System.
7. Select Custom Test.
7. Use the arrow keys or mouse to select your hard drive.
9. Click Run Tests.
10. Write down any error messages.

Hello Osprey4, thanks for the fast reply! Sadly, my Studio XPS didn't come with a Dell Driver and Utilities disc and I haven't been able to find one yet. I did find an ISO (driverId=W0R66) for the "Dell Systems Service and Diagnostics Tools ISO, v7.0" . Do you know if it contains the drivers and utilities I need?

You inspired me to try Checkdisk with the selections to auto fix file system errors and attempt recovery of bad sectors. I checked progress several times during a lengthy reboot and didn't see any errors or corrections however Dell Checkup now reports that all system tests completed successfully. I'm feeling very relieved and extremely fortunate that my drive is back to normal. Now I'd like to better understand what went wrong and what I can do to avoid/correct similar problems in the future. Do you have any advice or guidance regarding this?

Thanks again for your help!  

Wow, that IS good to hear.

Bad sectors can occur for a variety of reasons. Actually all hard drives have a few bad sectors, but the problem is when you get what I call "bad sector cancer", where the bad sectors keep happening and multiplying. This is a sign of impending HDD doom, for which the only solution is to replace the drive. The two take-aways would be to (1) keep your data backups up to date, and (2) check the drive integrity using either the Dell diagnostics or another hard drive diagnostic tool, such as Seatools.

The ISO you refer to is the correct one, but you can also prepare a bootable flash drive with the Dell diagnostics downloaded from the main support site. Just as important to keep a few diagnostic tools handy as it is to keep a jack and jumper cables in the trunk of your car.