Running the System Diagnostics 85
Running the System Diagnostics
If you experience a problem with your system, run the diagnostics before calling for technical assistance.
The purpose of the diagnostics is to test your system's hardware without requiring additional equipment
or risking data loss. If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, service and support personnel can use
diagnostics test results to help you solve the problem.
Using Dell PowerEdge Diagnostics
To assess a system problem, first use the online Dell
™
PowerEdge
™
Diagnostics. Dell PowerEdge
Diagnostics is a suite of diagnostic programs, or test modules, that include diagnostic tests on chassis
and storage components such as hard drives, physical memory, communications and printer ports,
NICs, CMOS, and more. If you are unable to identify the problem using the PowerEdge Diagnostics,
then use the system diagnostics.
The files required to run PowerEdge Diagnostics for systems running supported Microsoft
®
Windows
®
and Linux operating systems are available at
support.dell.com
and on the CDs that came with your
system. For information about using diagnostics, see the
Dell PowerEdge Diagnostics User's Guide
.
System Diagnostics Features
The system diagnostics provides a series of menus and options for particular device groups or devices.
The system diagnostics menus and options allow you to:
• Run tests individually or collectively.
• Control the sequence of tests.
• Repeat tests.
• Display, print, or save test results.
• Temporarily suspend testing if an error is detected or terminate testing when a user-defined error
limit is reached.
• View help messages that briefly describe each test and its parameters.
• View status messages that inform you if tests are completed successfully.
• View error messages that inform you of problems encountered during testing.