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Dell Diagnostics: Dell Latitude CPx H-Series/J-Series User's Guide
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Dell™ Diagnostics: Dell Latitude™ CPx H-Series/J-Series
User's Guide
Unlike many diagnostic programs, the Dell Diagnostics helps you
check your computer's hardware without any additional equipment and without destroying any
data. By using the diagnostics, you can have confidence in your computer's operation. And
if you find a problem you cannot solve by yourself, the diagnostic tests can provide you
with important information you will need when talking to Dell's service and support
personnel.
| NOTICE: Use the Dell Diagnostics to test only your Dell
computer. Using this program with other computers may cause incorrect computer responses
or result in error messages. |
The Dell Diagnostics provides a series of menus and options from
which you choose particular test groups or subtests. You can also control the sequence in
which the tests are run. The diagnostic test groups or subtests also have these helpful
features:
- Options that let you run tests individually or
collectively
- An option that allows you to choose the number of times a test group or subtest is
repeated
- The ability to display or print out test results, or to save them in a file
- Options to temporarily suspend testing if an error is detected, or to terminate testing
when an adjustable error limit is reached
- A menu category called Devices that briefly describes each test and its
parameters
- A menu category called Config that describes the configuration of the
devices in the selected device group
- Status messages that inform you whether test groups or subtests were completed
successfully
- Error messages that appear if any problems are detected
Whenever a major component or device in your computer does not
function properly, you may have a component failure. As long as the microprocessor and the
input and output components of your computer (the display, keyboard, and diskette drive)
are working, you can use the Dell Diagnostics. If you are experienced with computers and
know what component(s) you need to test, simply select the appropriate diagnostic test
group(s) or subtest(s). If you are unsure about how to begin diagnosing a problem, read
the rest of this section.
Perform the following steps to start the diagnostics:
- Turn off the computer.
- Undock the computer if you have it docked.
- Turn on the computer.
- Press <F2> at the Dell BIOS splash screen to access the System Setup menu.
- Select the following boot sequence:
- Boot First Device: Diskette Drive
- Boot Second Device: CDROM / DVDROM Drive
- Boot Third Device: Internal HDD
- Insert the Dell System Software CD into the CD-ROM drive.
- Turn the computer off.
- Turn the computer on. The system restarts and automatically begins to
run the Dell Diagnostics.
- When you have completed running diagnostics, remove the Dell System
Software CD from the CD-ROM drive.
To change the boot sequence, repeat steps 1 through 5, customizing
the boot sequence to fit your needs. Then restart your system.
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NOTE: Before you read the rest of
this subsection, you may want to start the Dell Diagnostics so that you can see it on your
display. |
When you start the diagnostics, the Dell logo screen appears,
followed by a message telling you that the diagnostics is loading.
After the diagnostics loads, the Diagnostics
Menu appears (see Figure 1). The menu allows you
to run all or specific diagnostic tests or to exit to the MS-DOS prompt.
For a quick check of your computer, select the Quickly Test
All Devices option. This option runs only the subtests that do not require user
interaction and that do not take a long time to run. Dell recommends that you choose this
option first to increase the odds of tracing the source of the problem quickly. For a
thorough check of your computer, select the Fully Test All Devices
option. To check a particular area of your computer, select the Select Devices to
Test option.
To select an option from this menu, highlight the option and press
<Enter>, or press the key that corresponds to the highlighted letter in the option
you choose.
Figure 1. Diagnostics Menu
When you select Select Devices to Test from
the Diagnostics Menu, the main screen of the diagnostics
appears (see Figure 2).
The main screen lists the diagnostic test device groups, lists the
devices of the selected device group, and allows you to select categories from a menu.
From this screen, you can enter two other types of screens.
Information on the main screen of the diagnostics is presented in
the following five areas:
- Two lines at the top of the screen identify the version number of the
Dell Diagnostics.
- On the left side of the screen, the Device Groups
area lists the diagnostic test groups in the order they will run if you select All
from the Run tests menu category. Press the up- or
down-arrow key to highlight a test device group.
- On the right side of the screen, the Devices for Highlighted
Group area lists the computer's currently detected hardware and some of the
relevant settings.
- The lower-right side of the screen displays information about your
integrated drive electronics (IDE) hard-disk and CD-ROM drive(s).
- Two lines at the bottom of the screen make up the menu area. The
first line lists the categories you can select; press the left- or right-arrow key to
highlight a menu category. The second line gives information about the category currently
highlighted.
|
NOTE: The options displayed on your screen should
reflect the hardware configuration of your computer. |
Figure 2. Dell Diagnostics Main
Screen
When you boot your computer from your diagnostics diskette, the
diagnostics checks your system configuration information and displays it in the Device
Groups area on the main screen.
The following sources supply this configuration information for the
diagnostics:
- The system configuration information settings (stored in nonvolatile
random-access memory [NVRAM]) that you selected while using the System Setup program
- Identification tests of the microprocessor, the video controller, the
keyboard controller, and other key components
- Basic input/output system (BIOS) configuration information
temporarily saved in RAM
Do not be concerned if the Device Groups
area does not list the names of all the components or devices you know are part of your
computer. For example, you may not see a printer listed, although you know one is attached
to your computer. Instead, the printer is listed as a parallel port. The computer
recognizes the parallel port as LPT1, which is an address that tells the computer where to
send outgoing information and where to look for incoming information. Because your printer
is a parallel communications device, the computer recognizes the printer by its LPT1
address and identifies it as a parallel port. You can test your printer connection in the Parallel
Ports tests.
Six comprehensive, menu-driven, online Help categories provide
instructions on how to use the program and explain each menu item, test group, subtest,
and test and error result. To enter the Help menu, perform the following steps:
- Highlight Select Devices to Test in the Diagnostics
Menu.
- Press <Enter>.
- Press <h>.
The six Help menu categories are Menu, Keys, Device Group, Device,
Test, and Versions. The
online Help also provides detailed descriptions of the devices that you are testing. The Help
categories are explained below.
Menu Category
The Menu Help category provides descriptions of the
main menu screen area, the Device Groups, and the
different diagnostic menus and commands and instructions on how to use them.
Keys Category
The Keys Help category explains the functions of
the all of the keystrokes that can be used in Dell Diagnostics.
The Device Group Help category describes the test
group that is presently highlighted in the Device Groups
list on the main menu screen. It also provides reasoning for using some tests.
The Device Help category is the educational section
of online Help. It describes the function and purpose of the highlighted device in
the Device Groups. For example, the following
information appears when you select the Device Help category for Diskette
in the Device Groups list:
Diskette drive A:
The diskette disk drive device reads and writes data to and
from diskettes. Diskettes are flexible recording media, sometimes contained in hard
shells. Diskette recording capacities are small and access times are slow relative to hard
disk drives, but they provide a convenient means of storing and transferring data.
Test Category
The Test Help category provides a thorough
explanation of the test procedure of each presently highlighted test group subtest. An
example of the Diskette subtest Diskette Drive Seek Test
is as follows:
Diskette drive A: - Diskette Drive Seek Test
This test verifies the drive's ability to position its
read/write heads. The test operates in two passes: first, seeking from the beginning to
ending cylinders inclusively, and second, seeking alternately from the beginning to ending
cylinders with convergence towards the middle.
The Versions Help category lists the version
numbers of the subtests that are used by the Dell Diagnostics.
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