Support Assist is not very helpful

Welcome to the Dell Community  @PeterW333 

Is your Support Assist up to date???

Dell Update - SupportAssist Update Plugin: "Version 5.0.1.10874, A00"

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=82ngy&oscode=wt64a&productcode=inspiron-15-7570-laptop

Best regards,

U2

It claims it is:

Version [3.4.0.200] |  You are running the latest version of SupportAssist.

I'm not sure what that link was supposed to be so I didn't use it.

Sorry, I know you're trying to help but my problem was that I do not know what the relationship is between the plugin that you mention and the Dell Support Assist app that is installed on my laptop. What does it plug in to? I have installed it anyway and Support Assist is still at version 3. I suspect there may be another interpretation of Support Assist and that we are talking at cross purposes. Perhaps there is a Dell Support Assist website that runs a browser plugin? I have discovered that the History button shows more information and it really does seem to be complaining about the SSD even though it does not offer a replacement SSD as a result. So I do not see how I am going to fix this.

It looks like I answered my own question. So I have now repeated the tests using the online facility. I got the same test results but this time it actually told me that the part I need is no longer available and that I must phone up to find out what my options are. As that is probably downgrade to a magnetic disk which would be intolerable now I'm used to an SSD and as my laptop seems to be working perfectly, I guess I'll just keep using it until it really does fail and then buy a new one. I back up all my important files every few minutes so I am not in danger of losing anything that I cannot recreate. I can always work with data files on external drives if I get nervous.

And if you decide to clone old drive, you'll need a cheap external enclosure for the new SSD - see link below):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5-SATA-USB-3-0-BLK-Hard-Drive-Disk-HDD-SSD-Enclosure-External-Laptop-Case/143287090198?epid=15031751894&hash=item215c937c16:g:5lAAAOSwep1dyOqx

@PeterW333 

This is the USB to SATA cable I use!!!

As the USB only uses 5V it is only meant for laptop 2.5"  HDD/SSD's.

They come in many different types and price range.

eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=usb+to+sata&_sacat=0&LH_ItemCondition=1000&LH_BIN=1&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15

Best Buy:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=usb+to+sata&_dyncharset=UTF-8&_dynSessConf=&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=&sp=&qp=&list=n&af=true&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keys

Much cheaper online!!!

Best regards,

U2

That all looks quite straightforward, I'll give it a go. Just one area of uncertainty. You say I will need an external enclosure but the Crucial instructions for cloning say I only need a USB/SATA cable and the diagram makes it look like the unit itself comes with an adapter. As I have two external HDDs, I am guessing that I can use the cable from one of these, would they be USB/SATA?

Thanks for such a great response.

Aha! Now I have seen a picture of a USB/SATA cable I can see how I misinterpreted the picture. What I took for an adapter is actually the SATA plug itself. I have not seen such a large plug for many years. I used to use SCSI, RS232 and Centronics plugs in the old days, before USB took over most jobs.

Thanks for the clarification.

Your very welcome @PeterW333 

Same here, I still see a Centronics and SCSI every once in awhile, not so much RS232.

I can remember using IBM punch cards to run diagnostics on Gould SEL systems

WOW it has been a long time.

Best regards,

U2

OK, all done now, laptop is still working fine and diagnostics are clean. There were a few issues along the way and I will document them here for the benefit of anyone else who lights upon this article. I will post each one separately.

I watched a YouTube video of how to open the case which made it look easy but it wasn't. Removing the screws was easy enough but it really did not want to come apart. I had to force a pointed object into the crack at the back next to the hinge and when it finally gave way there was the unmistakeable sound of plastic clips breaking. I subsequently found at least one clip fragment inside the case. It all went back together again OK so I guess I didn't do too much damage.

Crucial sell a USB/SATA cable for a more expensive £10 but I went for that to keep things simple. When things go wrong it is easier if everything came from one supplier. The cloning software was easy to use but when it got to an unreadable sector it suggested running chkdsk so I abandoned the cloning and ran chkdsk with /R. It didn't find anything to fix. So I cloned again and clicked Ignore when a sector could not be read. I did this about 12 times (a continuous range of sectors numbered >3,000,000) and then clicked Ignore All so I don't know how many were bad. It took about 30 minutes for my 256Gb disk.

Once it was all back together, but before putting the back on, I booted it up to ensure all was well. It was fine. So I switched off and put the back on. Booted it up again and it showed this week's gallery picture (a Giraffe, as it happens) but when I put my PIN in the screen just went black. I left it for ten minutes but nothing happened so, panic mode. I left it off for a couple of minutes and then booted again. It came on fine and has been fine ever since. I subsequently discovered that the first thing it did after I replaced the SSD was a Windows Update. Aargh! If I was to do this again I think I would disable Windows Update and not re-enable it until I was sure that all was working fine. You can do without the uncertainty of a WU at this time.