Serial/Infrared Ports Test Group; Subtests - Dell PowerEdge 4300 Installation And Troubleshooting Manual

5-20 Dell PowerEdge 4300 Systems Installation and Troubleshooting Guide
A command that is typed in an incorrect form (usually called a syntax error) is another
possible cause of diskette drive problems. Be sure you have entered the command in
the proper form.
If the diskette(s) and command syntax are eliminated as causes, the following symp-
toms usually suggest a drive problem and warrant running a subtest in the Diskette
Drives test group:
An error message appears on the screen stating that the computer cannot read
from or write to a diskette.
A diskette cannot be properly formatted, or format error messages appear on the
screen.
Data on diskettes is corrupted or lost; these problems may be intermittent.
The subtests in the Serial/Infrared Ports test group check the computer's interface
with external devices, such as a printer and a mouse, that are connected to the com-
puter through a serial or infrared port. The subtests in this test group are not intended
as a diagnostic test for the actual peripheral attached to each port.
NOTES: With certain modems installed, the subtests in the Serial/Infrared Ports test
group may fail because the modem appears to the diagnostics as a serial or infrared
port, but it cannot be tested as a serial or infrared port. If a modem is installed and
one of the subtests in the Serial/Infrared Ports test group fails, remove the modem
and run the diagnostic tests again.
If an external loopback connector is not attached to a serial or infrared port, the Serial
External Transmission Test will fail for that port and the results of this test should be
ignored. An external modem connected to the port does not substitute for an external
loopback connector.
The four subtests in the Serial/Infrared Ports test group and the port functions they
test follow:
Serial/Infrared Baud Rate Test
Checks the baud rate generator in each serial communications chip against the
computer's clock
Serial/Infrared Interrupt Test
Checks the serial port's ability to send IRQs to the microprocessor
Serial/Infrared Internal Transmission Test
Checks several internal functions of the serial port using the internal loopback
mode of the serial communications chip