User Guide

Running the System Diagnostics 173
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 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 Online 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