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AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsDonald J. Eckardt, David C. Stewart
Estimating the term…
A method and apparatus are provided for diagnosis of a processor in an operating system-absent environment (i.e., without or prior to an operating system boot). A boot operation of the processor is begun, and a Power-On Self test (POST) process is run. If a failure in the POST process occurs, the failure is detected and information regarding it is stored. The processor is then rebooted and the POST process is begun again. The stored information of the prior POST failure is then used for diagnosis during the reboot operation. To assist in the diagnosis, information about the state of the boot process can be displayed as a supplement to beep codes customarily used for diagnosis. In another aspect of the invention, after a boot failure is detected, a Pre-boot Diagnostic System Loader can be run. Information stored in the Pre-boot Diagnostic System Loader can then be used to boot a diagnostic partition. Also, in order to permit diagnosis and repair by establishing connection with a remote location, a voice connection and a network connection can be separately established between the processor and the remote location on separate lines. The voice connection and the network connection can then be correlated with one another by using a Lightweight-Directory-Access-Protocol (LDAP) database which stores information to permit the correlation. Once the correlation is established, diagnosis and remote repair can be achieved. All of these operations can be run in the OS-absent environment.
A method for providing diagnosis of a computer system comprising:
A system comprising:
A machine readable medium having embodied thereon a program for execution by a computer system for providing diagnosis of the computer system, the program comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Detection or location of defective computer hardware by testing during standby operation or during idle time, e.g. start-up testing: by power-on…
Bootstrapping: network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]
Computing and data processing
Term ended 29 Dec 2018 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
The present invention relates to diagnosing problems in a processor which occur during an operating system boot.
A significant area of concern in the computer industry involves how best to provide for management of computers, including, for example, providing maintenance. A big problem with personal computers (PCs) today is that they are perceived to be hard to use by a majority of non-PC owners (and even many PC owners). In one particular example, when PCs have problems, they produce cryptic behavior and require a high level of expertise to fix. One of the ways ease of use can be improved on PCs is to make them either self-diagnosing or to enable them to be diagnosed remotely by a support technician.
In the past, it has been common to provide service contracts for personal visits by repair personnel to maintain and repair computer equipment. Obviously, this is an expensive and time consuming approach.
FIGS. 1-4 are flowcharts showing operation of a processor in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 5 shows a boot timeline which can be used in the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing steps taken at a user processor to permit connection to a remote diagnostic location in accordance with the present invention.
FIGS. 1-4 show flowcharts of operations which occur using the present invention during a boot process. In particular, FIGS. 1-4 illustrate an operation which sets a flag to indicate a POST error during a boot process, followed by rebooting and using what was learned in the earlier boot attempt to help diagnose and repair the problem during the reboot operation. As can be seen, these flowcharts in FIGS. 1-4 include both self-diagnosis and remote repair, depending on the situation encountered.
Referring to FIG. 1, the operation starts with a standard Basic-Input-Output System (BIOS) initialization step 100. In step 102, it is determined whether a POST error flag has been set from a previous boot attempt. If a POST error flag has been set in a previous boot attempt, a display is provided in the processor indicating “POST error” in step 104. The flag is then cleared in step 106 and a remote connection instruction RemCon is set for connection to a remote repair facility in step 108. Step 110 determines whether such a remote connection instruction RemCon has been set, or, alternatively, whether the user has made a manual request (for example, with a hot key) for such a remote connection to a remote repair facility. As can be seen in FIG. 1, if no POST error flag is set from a previous boot attempt, the system will proceed directly from step 102 to step 110.
If step 110 determines that neither a remote connection instruction nor a hot key request have been set, program A is initialized (see FIG. 2). In program A, the normal POST operation is carried out in step 200. In self-diagnosing step 202, it is determined whether a fatal POST error is detected during step 200. If no fatal POST error is detected, step 204 checks whether diagnosis has been manually requested either by a flag or by a hot key. If no diagnostics have been requested, step 206 checks to see if a bootable device is available. For example, a self-diagnosis check is made to determine if a proper Master Boot Record (MBR) exists, as will be discussed hereinafter. If a bootable device is available in step 206, a normal boot operation is carried out.