System information

Troubleshooting Strategy
1-1
Chapter 1
Troubleshooting Strategy
This chapter describes the troubleshooting strategy for AlphaServer 800 systems.
• Questions to consider before you begin troubleshooting
• Diagnostics flows for each problem category
• List of service tools and utilities
• List of information services
1.1 Questions to Consider
Before troubleshooting any system problem, first check the site maintenance log for
the system's service history. Be sure to ask the system manager the following
questions:
• Has the system been used and did it work correctly?
• Have changes to hardware or updates to firmware or software been made to the
system recently? If so, are the revision numbers compatible for the system?
(Refer to the hardware and operating system release notes).
• What is the state of the system? Is the operating system running?
If the operating system is down and you are not able to bring it up, use the
diagnostic beep codes and console environment diagnostic tools, such as the
power-up display on the VGA terminal and ROM-based diagnostics (RBDs).
If the operating system is running, use the operating system environment
diagnostic tools, such as the DECevent management utility (to translate and
interpret error logs), crash dumps, and exercisers (DEC VET).