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5.4. After Boot Diagnostics Software 

We have many diagnostics software as application package. They are run after the booting of the operating system. They can be used for the following functions: 

 Making a list of active devices  Run the PC continuously 

 Finding addresses of interrupt, DMA, I/O etc. 

 Initialize some devices. Several diagnostics packages are Chekit, QAPlus, PC-Technitian, Displaymate, SpinRite etc. 

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5.4.1. Listing Active Devices 

These programs detect and display a list of all active devices in a computer. Using these diagnostics software, many problems can be detected. For example, you have installed a LAN card in your computer, but the list does not show any LAN card. Then you can say that, the LAN card or the device driver of the LAN card has some problem. 

5.4.2. Run the PC Continuously 

Some problems can not be detected if the PC does not run continuously for several days. Simple diagnostics programs are not sufficient for this purpose because the need many user inputs different times to perform a job. Special diagnostics packages are available which do not need any intermediate user response for continuous operating. They keep an error-log file and print all the errors happened between this long running period.

5.4.3. Finding Address Mapping 

Some troubles are happened for interrupt, DMA or I/O address conflict. For example, if two expansion boards are configured to use the same interrupt address, none of them will work properly. Using some diagnostics software, the interrupt address used by the boards can be displayed and any interrupt conflict can be detected. 

5.4.4. Initialize Some Devices 

Some diagnostics packages are used to initialize some devices. For example, many packages are available to partition and format the hard disks or performing low level format on the older hard disks.