Owners Manual

Running the System Diagnostics 147
5
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 Online Diagnostics
To assess a system problem, first use the Online Diagnostics. Online
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
Online Diagnostics, then use the embedded system diagnostics.
NOTE: The files required to run Online Diagnostics are available
at dell.com/support.
The embedded system diagnostics can be launched using Lifecycle
Controller. For more information about using the controller, see Lifecycle
Controller documentation on the Dell Support website at
dell.com/support/manuals.
Embedded System Diagnostics Features
The embedded 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