Chapter 4. General Checkout; Checkout Procedure; About The Checkout Procedure - Lenovo ThinkServer TD200x Hardware Maintenance Manual

Chapter 4. General Checkout

You can solve many problems without outside assistance by following the troubleshooting procedures in this
Hardware Maintenance Manual and on the Lenovo Web site. This document describes the diagnostic tests
that you can perform, troubleshooting procedures, and explanations of error messages and error codes.
The documentation that comes with your operating system and software also contains troubleshooting
information.

Checkout procedure

The checkout procedure is the sequence of tasks that you should follow to diagnose a problem in the server.

About the checkout procedure

Before you perform the checkout procedure for diagnosing hardware problems, review the following
information:
• Read the safety information that begins on page vii.
• The diagnostic programs provide the primary methods of testing the major components of the server,
such as the system board, Ethernet controller, keyboard, mouse (pointing device), serial ports, and
hard disk drives. You can also use them to test some external devices. If you are not sure whether a
problem is caused by the hardware or by the software, you can use the diagnostic programs to confirm
that the hardware is working correctly.
• When you run the diagnostic programs, a single problem might cause more than one error message.
When this happens, correct the cause of the first error message. The other error messages usually will not
occur the next time you run the diagnostic programs.
If multiple error codes or EasyLED diagnostics LEDs indicate a microprocessor error, the error might be in
a microprocessor or in a microprocessor socket. See Microprocessor problems for information about
diagnosing microprocessor problems.
• Before you run the diagnostic programs, you must determine whether the failing server is part of a shared
hard disk drive cluster (two or more servers sharing external storage devices). If it is part of a cluster, you
can run all diagnostic programs except the ones that test the storage unit (that is, a hard disk drive in the
storage unit) or the storage adapter that is attached to the storage unit. The failing server might be part of
a cluster if any of the following conditions is true:
– You have identified the failing server as part of a cluster (two or more servers sharing external storage
devices).
– One or more external storage units are attached to the failing server and at least one of the attached
storage units is also attached to another server or unidentifiable device.
– One or more servers are located near the failing server.
Important: If the server is part of a shared hard disk drive cluster, run one test at a time. Do not run
any suite of tests, such as "quick" or "normal" tests, because this might enable the hard disk drive
diagnostic tests.
• If the server is halted and a POST error code is displayed, see POST error codes. If the server is halted
and no error message is displayed, see Troubleshooting tables and Solving undetermined problems.
• For information about power-supply problems, see Solving power problems and Power-supply LEDs.
• For intermittent problems, check the system-event log; see Event logs, System-event log, and Diagnostic
programs, messages, and error codes.
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