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About the checkout procedure

Before you perform the checkout procedure for diagnosing hardware problems, review the information in this section.

  • Read the safety information, see Safety.
  • The Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) program provides 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 DSA, 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 DSA.
    Exception
    If multiple error codes or light path diagnostics LEDs indicate a microprocessor error, the error might be in the microprocessor or in the microprocessor socket. See Microprocessor problems for information about diagnosing microprocessor problems.
  • Before you run 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 UEFI/POST error codes. If the server is halted and no error message is displayed, see Troubleshooting by symptom and Solving undetermined problems.
  • For information about power-supply problems, see Solving power problems and Power-supply LEDs.
  • For intermittent problems, check the event log; see Event logs and DSA diagnostic test results.