Dell Inspiron 3000 Reference And Troubleshooting Manual

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Dell Inspiron 3000 Reference And Troubleshooting Manual Manual pdf 82 page image

4-16 Dell Inspiron 3000 Reference and Troubleshooting GuideYou must have a diskette-drive cable to perform the fol-lowing procedure. If you do not have a diskette-drivecable, you can order one from Dell. See Chapter 5, “Get-ting Help,” for information on contacting Dell.Why Run a Diskette Drives Test?Very often, a diskette drive problem may first appear tobe a diskette problem. A box of defective diskettes mightproduce faulty-drive error messages. The test results canbe confusing, so you should run the subtests in the Dis-kette Drives test group more than once using diskettesfrom different sources.Another possible cause of diskette drive problems ishuman error—for example, typing a command in anincorrect form (usually called a syntax error). Be sure youhave entered the command properly.When the diskette and command syntax are eliminated ascauses, the following symptoms usually suggest a driveproblem and warrant running a subtest in the DisketteDrives test group:• An error message appears on the screen stating thatthe computer cannot read from or write to a diskette.• A diskette cannot be properly formatted, or formaterror messages appear on the screen.• Data on diskettes is corrupted or lost; these problemsmay be intermittent.SubtestsThe four diskette drive subtests available in the DisketteDrives test group confirm the following drive functions:• Change Line TestChecks for bent pins on the diskette drive controllerand for defective lines on the diskette cable• Seek TestChecks the drive’s ability to search for a specifiedtrack on the diskette and to position the read/writeheads of the drive to all tracks• Read TestPositions the read/write heads at each cylinder of thediskette and verifies that all tracks on the diskettecan be read correctly• Write TestPositions the read/write heads at each cylinder of thediskette and verifies that all tracks on the diskettecan be written to correctlyHard-Disk Drives (Non-SCSI) TestGroupThe subtests in the Hard-Disk Drives (Non-SCSI) testgroup check the functionality of up to two hard-diskdrives of any capacity. The subtests check the storagecapability of a drive as well as the hard-disk drive con-troller (which affects the ability to read from and write tothe drive).Why Run a Hard-Disk Drives Test?If you check your hard-disk drive to determine theamount of available space, your operating system willprobably report problem areas. Problem areas on hard-disk drives are common, because most hard-disk driveshave a small amount of space that is not usable. Thehard-disk drive keeps a record of this space so that thecomputer will not attempt to use it. Identification ofunusable disk space, unless it is an unusually largeamount (over five percent of the possible total), shouldnot be regarded as a cause for testing the hard-disk drive.These are the most common symptoms that might promptyou to test the hard-disk drive:• The hard-disk drive fails during the boot routine.• Seek errors are reported by the operating system orapplication programs.• An error message appears on the screen stating thatthe computer cannot read from or write to the hard-disk drive.• Data on the hard-disk drive is corrupted or lost; theseproblems may be intermittent. Once saved by a pro-gram, files cannot be properly recalled.55899BK1.BK : 55899c41.fm Page 16 Wednesday, February 4, 1998 1:20 PM