Embedded Diagnostics: Dell® OptiPlex® XMT575/590/5100/5120/5133

Embedded Diagnostics: Dell OptiPlex XMT575/590/5100/5120/5133

Starting the Embedded Diagnostics | New Beep Codes | Running the Embedded Diagnostics | Tests | Diagnostic Messages

Starting the Embedded Diagnostics

Embedded diagnostics are started in one of the following ways:

Pressing your computer's reset button twice in quick secession at any time after the system has been turned on
Pressing the dedicated diagnostics button (if one is present)
Pressing the reset button down and holding it down for one second

When the embedded diagnostics are started, the computer enters the embedded diagnostics instead of going through the boot routine.

NOTE: If the Reset Button category has been set to Disable in the System Setup program, you can still press the reset button twice in quick succession to start the embedded diagnostics, but only during the first few seconds after you turn on the system. To be able to access the embedded diagnostics at any time during a work session, you must set the Reset Button category to Enable.

When the embedded diagnostics starts, a welcome screen appears on the monitor's screen. The embedded diagnostics welcome screen is displayed until you press the reset button to start running the embedded diagnostics test. If you do not want to run the embedded diagnostics, turn off the computer, and then turn the computer back on.

New Beep Codes

Beep Code	Cause	Action
3-2	Unexpected interrupt	See the chapter titled "Getting Help" in the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.
3-3	No PCI configuration space for video controller	See the chapter titled "Getting Help" in the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.
4-1	Fail-safe timer expired	See the chapter titled "Getting Help" in the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.

Running the Embedded Diagnostics

The embedded diagnostics does not require any user interaction to run. When you start the embedded diagnostics, a predefined series of tests immediately begins checking the hardware in the computer. As each test runs, the diagnostics lists the test being run and displays its current status.

The status messages are as follows:

Running . . . indicates that a test is in process.
N/A indicates that a test is not applicable for this system or that a component was not detected by the embedded diagnostics.
Pass indicates that the component has successfully completed its test.
Warning indicates that a warning condition has been detected.
Fail indicates that a major component failure has been detected.
Status indicates that the test provides information about the status of the hardware (for example, whether a diskette drive has or has not been detected).

During several tests, the following caution appears at the bottom of the screen:

CAUTION: Do not turn off system during this test.

Caution: If you turn off your computer during a test, when the caution message appears, you may corrupt the configuration information stored in the NVRAM.

In addition to the caution, the following note also appears in the message area of the screen:

NOTE: Reset button disabled

When testing is complete and no major component failures are found, the following message appears at the bottom of the screen:

Press reset or turn off system to end diagnostics.
Current cycle: 0000X

The number displayed after Current Cycle: in the messages indicates how many times the diagnostic tests have been run. the diagnostic tests run continuously until you press the reset button to run the boot routine and begin working with your system or until you turn the system off.

If the diagnostics detects a warning condition, the program provides information about the warning condition, and the test sequence continues. However, the diagnostics skips all subsequent tests that are dependent on the warning condition.

If the diagnostics detects a major component failure, the program provides information about the failure, and all testing stops. The following message is displayed at the bottom of the screen:

A failure condition has been detected. See your diagnostics documentation. Diagnostics failed on cycle 000x - Please reset or turn off system.

Tests

The following are the new or revised embedded diagnostic tests:

Test Group	Subtests	Description
Cache Snoop	Primary Cache Snoop Secondary Cache Snoop Combined Cache Snoop	Tests the ability of the microprocessor and cache subsystem to correctly read information from the primary and secondary caches.
Direct Memory Access	DMA Registers DMA Transfer DMA Interrupt	Tests the addressing capability of and the ability to read from and write to the DMA registers. Also tests DMA functionality and the ability to generate DMA interrupts.
Diskette Subsystem	Diskette Controller Diskette DMA	Tests the basic operation of the built-in diskette drive controller and the ability to read data from the diskette in the diskette drive.
Floating Point Unit	Floating Point Unit	Tests the internal functionality of the integrated floating-point unit.
ISA System Controller	ISA System Controller	Tests the address capability of and the ability to read from and write to the ISA system controller registers.
Memory Configuration	Memory Configuration Parity Memory Detection	Identifies the installed system RAM and configures the memory controller for the appropriate SIMM configuration. Also identifies whether or not the installed system memory supports parity checking.
Memory Refresh	Memory Refresh	Tests the ability of the memory controller to refresh system RAM.
Parallel Port	Parallel Port Registers Parallel Port Interrupts	Tests the addressing capability of and the ability to read from and write to the parallel port registers. Also tests the ability of the parallel port to generate interrupts.
PCI IDE Interface	PCI IDE Interface	Tests the addressing capability of and the ability to read from and write to control registers of devices connected to the built-in EIDE interfaces.
Power Management Support	System Management Interrupt CPU Clock Stop/Scaling	Tests the addressing capability of and the ability to read from and write to the system management registers. Also verifies the ability to generate the appropriate system management interrupt, save and restore the microprocessor context state, and stop and scale microprocessor instruction execution.
Primary Cache Subsystem	Primary Cache SRAM Primary Cache Tags Primary Cache Functionality Primary Cache Locking	Tests the data SRAM, the tag SRAM, and the operation of the primary cache in the Pentium® microprocessor. Also tests the ability to load and lock diagnostic code into the primary cache.
Secondary Cache Subsystem	Secondary Cache Memory Secondary Cache Locking	Detects the presence and size of the secondary cache. Tests the SRAM, address capability, and data bus and control signals of the secondary cache. Also tests the ability to load and lock diagnostic code into the secondary cache.
Serial Port	Serial Port Registers Serial Port Functionality Serial Port Interrupts	Tests the addressing capability of and the ability to read from and write to the serial port registers. Also tests the functionality of the built-in serial port and its ability to generate interrupts.
Video Subsystem	Video Memory Sizing Video Controller/Memory	Tests the addressing capability of and the ability to read from and write to the video controller and DAC registers. Also detects, sizes, and tests the installed video memory and character generator memory.

Diagnostics Messages

Dell has improved the messages generated by the embedded diagnostics in the following ways:

If the diagnostics detects a warning condition, a yellow warning box appears on the screen to provide information about the warning condition. Once the reset button is pressed, the warning box is removed and the program continues. If the program started automatically, the warning box disappears automatically after a few minutes.
If the diagnostics detects a major component failure, a red error box appears on the screen to provide information about the failure. The error box contains a standard error message and an extended error message. Write down both the standard error message and the extended error message. The diagnostics can now recover from most test failures and continue. Once the reset button is pressed, the warning box is removed and the program continues testing. If the program started automatically, the error box disappears automatically after a few minutes.
The embedded diagnostics now keeps a running total of failures encountered during the tests at the
bottom of the test screen.

Message	Cause	Action
`0`:`XXXXXXXXXXXXX``1:``XXXXXXXXXXXXX`	Indicates that the Diskette DMA Read test passed (Pass), in the drive (No media), that data could not be read from the diskette (Invalid media), that no diskette drive was detected (No drive).	If a formatted diskette is present in the drive and an Invalid media or media message is displayed, see "Diskette Subsystem Failure" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide. Otherwise, this is a status message, no action is required.
X MB video RAM found	Indicates the amount of video memory detected.	Status message; no action required.
XXX KB secondary cache found	Indicates the size of the secondary cache detected.	Status message; no action required.
XXX MB non-parity memory found	Indicates the amount of system memory detected and that the system memory installed does not support parity checking.	Status message; no action required.
XXX MB parity memory found	Indicates the amount of system memory detected and that the system memory installed supports parity checking.	Status message; no action required.
Both parity and non-parity SIMMs detected	Indicates that some of the system memory installed supports parity checking and some of it does not. No parity checking will be performed.	To enable parity checking, call Dell to order parity SIMMs. For the appropriate number to call, see "Getting Help" in Chapter 8 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
Cache subsystem failure	An error was detected during the Cache Subsystem tests, indicating a probable cache failure.	See "Getting Help" in Chapter 8 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.
Code paging error	An error was detected while the system attempted to load the diagnostics program from ROM.	See "Getting Help" in Chapter 8 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.
CPU (numeric unit) failure	An error was detected during the Floating Point Unit test, indicating a probable microprocessor failure.	See "Microprocessor Failures" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
Diskette subsystem failure	An error was detected during the Diskette Drive Controller or Diskette DMA Read test, indicating that there may be a problem with the diskette drive, the diskette drive controller, or the diskette drive connections.	See "Troubleshooting Data-Storage Subsystem Problems" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
External controller detected	Indicates that a diskette-drive controller card was detected in use and that the built-in diskette drive controller cannot be tested.	Status message; no action required.
External primary only External primary and secondary External secondary only	The only IDE devices detected are attached to an external IDE controller card. The built-in IDE interfaces were not tested.	Status message; no action required.
Failsafe timer expired during test cycle XXXXX	The embedded diagnostics code halted execution.	See "Getting Help" in Chapter 8 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.
Hard-disk subsystem failure	An error was detected during the PCI IDE Interface test, indicating that there may be a problem with the IDE hard-disk drive, the IDE hard-disk drive controller, or the IDE hard-disk drive connections.	See "Getting Help" in Chapter 8 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.
IDEx interface failure	An error was detected during the PCI IDE Interface test, indicating that there may be a problem with the IDE hard-disk drive, the IDE hard-disk drive controller, or the IDE hard-disk drive connections.	See "Getting Help" in Chapter 8 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions on obtaining technical assistance.
Illegal configuration detected	A conflict was detected between devices attached to the built-in IDE interfaces and an external IDE controller card. The built-in IDE interfaces were not tested.	See "Data-Storage Subsystem Problems" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
Memory subsystem failure	Indicates that unreliable system memory was detected during a test that requires system memory in order to run. The test will not be run.	All tests run after this message could be affected by the unreliable memory. This message should be preceded by a message indicating an error in one or more specific SIMMs. Use the specific message to troubleshoot.
Microprocessor failure	An error was detected during the Primary Cache tests, indicating a probable microprocessor failure.	See "Microprocessor Failures" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
Mismatched SIMMs, slots X/Y	At least one memory component is faulty, or memory has been installed incorrectly. SIMMs must be installed in matched pairs in sockets A/B, C/D, and E/F.	See "SIMM Failures" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
No devices detected	No IDE devices were detected attached to the built-in IDE interface.	Status message; no action required.
Primary and secondary Primary only	The only IDE devices detected are attached to the built-in IDE interfaces. Also indicates which built-in IDE interfaces were tested.	Status message; no action required.
Primary with external secondary	IDE devices are attached to the primary built-in IDE interface and to an external IDE controller card. Only the built-in IDE interface was tested.	Status message; no action required.
Secondary cache not present	The system cannot detect a secondary cache.	See "Cache Card Failure" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
Secondary only	The only IDE devices detected are attached to the built-in IDE interfaces. Also indicates which built-in IDE interfaces were tested.	Status message; no action required.
SIMM parity failure, slot X	A parity error was detected in SIMM X.	See "SIMM Failures" in Chapter 2 of the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide.
Unable to run complete test	Some portions of this test were not executed.	Status message; no action required.
Unable to run this test	The attempted test was not executed.	Status message; no action required.