Features of the dell diagnostics, When to use the dell diagnostics, Starting the dell diagnostics – Dell Inspiron 3700 User Manual

Page 37: Dell diagnostics main screen, Overview, Confirming the system configuration information, How to use dell diagnostics

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8. Turn the computer on. The system restarts and automatically begins to run the Dell Diagnostics.

9. When you have completed running diagnostics, remove the 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.

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

Dell Diagnostics Main Screen Overview

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:

l

Two lines at the top of the screen identify the version number of the Dell Diagnostics.

l

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.

l

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.

l

The lower-right side of the screen displays information about your integrated drive electronics (IDE) hard-disk and CD-ROM drive(s).

l

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.

Figure 2. Dell Diagnostics Main Screen

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.

NOTE: The options displayed on your screen should reflect the hardware configuration of your computer.

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