White Papers

Simplifying the Replacement of a Failed Motherboard
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The replacement of a computer motherboard in a system chassis is a tedious and time consuming
operation. The technician needs to remove the damaged motherboard, set the new motherboard in
place, and install the same BIOS the customer was running. The technician then needs to configure the
With the new method of using Backup and Restore for motherboard replacement, the whole restore
process is automatic, the time needed to reset the configuration is shortened considerably, and the
risk of manual error is eliminated. The Backup and Restore process-enabled motherboard has the
capability to pick up an image file from vFlash, network, or USB drive via the Unified Server
Configurator, and to restore all firmware and settings on a motherboard without the intervention of
the host operating system (see Figure 1.)
Figure 1. Manual vs. Restore process comparison
Detailed walkthrough of Restore
The most time consuming portion of replacing a motherboard is updating the firmware levels and
configuration settings on the new motherboard to match those of the old/damaged motherboard. If
done manually, this process is extremely tedious and is susceptible to human error. By using Dell’s
Restore software, this process is handled automatically and in far less time.
What is restored?
 Service Tag (Motherboard replacement only)
 Component firmware
 Component configuration data