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July 7th, 2025 21:41
XPS 15 9530 P31F - "inaccessible boot device" after replacing CMOS battery
Hello,
I'm working on a friend's Dell XPS 15 9530 P31F laptop, she said she had contacted Dell and they diagnosed the issue as a CMOS battery failure and sent her replacements. She didn't feel comfortable doing the replacement herself so I offered to help her as I have little bit of experience working on computers, though not enough for this issue I guess lol.
I replaced the CMOS battery for her but when I turn the laptop back on it says "boot device not found". I've googled and tried a lot of solutions to this and so far all have failed.
I've checked that it's booting to AHCI; I've tried the other options ATA and Intel Smart Response Technology, but that didn't change anything.
I've set the Boot mode to UEFI boot mode (not Legacy) and it didn't change anything.
I also ran a ePSA pre-boot system assessment, the only thing that failed is the primary battery which already suspected may be an issue since the laptop won't turn on without it being plugged in, but that probably wouldn't have anything to do with this issue...right? Either way I'm going to recommend she replace that...but that's a separate issue.
Anyone have any thoughts on what is going on?
ejn63
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July 7th, 2025 21:58
Is there one drive in the system, or two?
KierraO
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July 7th, 2025 22:19
@ejn63 I'm fairly certain there is only one
ejn63
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July 7th, 2025 22:47
It was very common 10 years ago to have these shipped with a small cache SSD (mSATA) and a hard drive -- does the system see one or both, and if both -- is Smart Response (forerunner to Intel RST) configured (not just set at the boot mode)?
KierraO
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July 7th, 2025 23:12
@ejn63 I'm not sure, this is what I see in the set up utility:
<Private data removed from public view. DELL-Admin>
Does that help?
(edited)
HedgeFundManager
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July 7th, 2025 23:56
The XPS 9530 is 13th gen Intel. It has one M.2 NVMe slot. Could be you need to boot a windows USB to see if the SSD is mangled.
The UEFI should be able to find the SSD
ejn63
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July 8th, 2025 00:12
This is not that system - it's a 2013 model XPS 9530 (Haswell CPU). Very similar model number, but much older.
It appears to have just the one mSATA SSD. Chances are the system setup of the SSD has changed, which is the source of the problem. Is there anything on the drive that's not backed up? If not, a clean install of Windows is next.
(edited)
KierraO
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July 8th, 2025 00:58
@ejn63 Apparently she hasn't backed up for awhile, so unfortunately she will probably loose data in a clean install. I'll check with her to make sure.
anne_droid
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July 8th, 2025 10:29
Hi
I would try a Rescue/Repair USB...
Hiren’s BootCD PE
SystemRescue
Ubuntu (or any other Linux live CD/DVD)
FalconFour’s Ultimate Boot CD (older hardware)
Ultimate Boot CD
ESET SysRescue disc
KierraO
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July 9th, 2025 04:12
She got very lax with her back ups and thinks it's been over a year, so she would loose data in a clean install. She's ok with it but would prefer if it's more of a last resort option if at all possible.
(edited)
anne_droid
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655 Posts
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July 9th, 2025 09:35
Hi
In that case it is an "over the top" install to preserve the DATA, properly called an "in place upgrade" for W10 or W11.
https://www.elevenforum.com/t/repair-install-windows-11-with-an-in-place-upgrade.418/