Running System Diagnostics 303
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Running System Diagnostics
If you experience a problem with your blade, run the diagnostics before 
calling for technical assistance. The purpose of the diagnostics is to test your 
blade'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.
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 described in the remainder of 
this section. The system diagnostics program is run from the iDRAC6 Express 
System Services menu or from the hard-drive utility partition.
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 on a blade. 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