Troubleshooting With The Diagnostic Tests; Starting The Diagnostic Program - 3Com EtherLink III User Manual

5-2 C
HAPTER

Troubleshooting with the Diagnostic Tests

The diagnostic tests on the EtherDisk diskette check the
NIC's overall operation and permit the isolation of faults.
You can run the diagnostic tests after installing one or
more 3C509B NICs, or you can run them when a fault is
suspected. If the tests in their default configuration do not
isolate the problem, you can change the test parameters to
meet specific situations.
Always run diagnostic tests with no device drivers or
memory managers installed.
To boot your system without installing device drivers or
memory managers, boot using a DOS diskette.
The diagnostic tests are divided into three groups:
If the NIC passes all three tests successfully, hardware
failure is ruled out. If a problem still remains, look at
cabling, software, drive configuration, and other issues
that affect functionality on the network.

Starting the Diagnostic Program

To use the EtherDisk diskette Configuration and
Diagnostic Program, follow these steps:
1 Boot the PC using a DOS diskette.
2 Put the EtherDisk diskette in floppy drive A.
5: T
ROUBLESHOOTING
The Group 1 tests check the physical components,
connectors, and circuitry on the NIC.
The Group 2 test (for the 3C509B-TPC and
3C509B-COMBO NICs only) checks the NIC's ability
to transmit and receive data via the coaxial transceiver.
(For twisted-pair connections, the link LED gives
similar results.)
The Group 3 test (the Echo Exchange Test) tests the
NIC's ability to transmit and receive data while on
the network.