ASF2 Force Off and Shutdown during Boot Up

Question

I have Latitude E6330 which has been working fine for years with Win 7 and original BIOS. Recently, it's been upgrade to Win 10 with latest BIOS. But since then, after a week of working, it start having boot-up issue. When I boot-up the server, it has the Dell Logo then shutdown after few seconds. If I press F2 to go into the BIOS then exit (without changing any setting), it will boot up normally. And this procedure works for a week or so, and now, even using the procedure will not be boot-up. I have checked the BIOS log, it stated that 'ASF2 forced off'. Checking in this error on this community, and seems like there are a number of reason included driver issue, but seems all are related to random shutdown, not constantly shutdown at boot-up time.  There is one respond which seems may be related... the CMOS battery needed to be replaced. As I am on the original CMOS battery and the power battery pack also end of life as reported by the diagnose tool (everything else are showed up as normal during the test), I think this may be the cause. I am ready to purchase and replace both the battery pack and the CMOS battery, but I just want to confirm if this is 'really' the issue (ie. will this be fixed after the replacement)? Just want to be sure before I placed the order.

Mary G · Answer

Make sure you have installed all the windows 10 drivers from Dell Downloads starting with the chipset driver--install that first then the other drivers you need. Change the cmos battery right away. You can buy that anywhere. It's a $2 fix.

Drivers--

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/latitude-e6330/drivers

You might have a hard time getting a genuine Dell replacement battery for a 7 yr laptop. Beware of fakes online. You can try removing the spent battery and use the adapter alone. If that works you can use the laptop as a desktop replacement until you buy a new laptop.

jignasim · Answer

I have a Dell XPS 2018 and I've the same problem than you. Currently, technical service Dell is studing my case. Anyway, I've found a method to avoid this. Please, could you try turn-on your computer without connected to the charger power? In my case, this avoid the shutdowns during boot up, but I don't know why.

btsang · Answer

Didn't help, tried without charger and still the same behavior.

johngto455 · Answer

Mine is a 3 week old xps 15 9570 at $3500.00 plus and it is now doing this on and off?

btsang · Answer

Fixed by replaced the CMOS Battery ...Bosco

prodonjs · Answer

My issue isn't as frequent as yours, but I still have the same ASF2 Force Off BIOS log message after my machine shuts down unexpectedly. This tends to happen when the machine is idle overnight every week to 10 days. Did the CMOS battery replacement end up resolving your issue permanently or do you still have issues?

Also, where did you buy it from and did you need to find one specifically for your machine?

Don K · Answer

Did you get it fixed?  My XPS 15 9570 has the same issue when trying to run on the battery.

Joyce23 · Answer

I had checked my BIOS Settings. It says The primary battery is idle. The health indicates Communication Error.

After that in the System Logs section - Power Events: ASF2 force off and then Power On - Not applicable.

After checking the System Logs tab, it says the following:

1. Warning: The battery is critically low.

2. Alert! Unknown AC power adapter may affect performance.

Can you please help me. Is that because the battery needs to be changed or will it affect the hard disk drives?

Most important: Will that erase all the contents inside the hard disk?

o.harvey · Answer

I experienced this issue with both an XPS 9570 and a Precision 5530 (more-or-less the same machine). Replacing the CMOS battery solved the issue for me – more details here.

Latitude

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