System and method for information handling system thermal diagnostics

• US 20060271335A1
• Filed: 05/17/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Shabbir, Hasnain, Makhija, Vinod, Kahr, Barry, Montero, Adolfo, Schulke, Drew
• Granted Patent: US 7,275,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/183
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/24 Marginal checking or other specified testing methods not covered by G06F11/26, e.g. race tests
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3093 Configuration details thereof, e.g. installation, enabling, spatial arrangement of the probes

Abstract

Thermal subsystems of manufactured information handling systems are tested for compliance with desired parameters by running a thermal diagnostics module in firmware during one or more manufacturing activities performed on the information handling system. The thermal diagnostics module monitors and stores one or more thermal parameters detected at the information handling system, such as the maximum temperature zone detected during a manufacturing activity. The stored thermal parameter is read after the manufacturing activity and compared with an expected value to determine the status of the thermal subsystem. For instance, an information handling system maximum operating temperature is detected by firmware running on an embedded controller during imaging of a hard disk drive and fails thermal testing if the detected maximum operating temperature exceeds a predetermined value, such as a value that would not be reached if the thermal subsystem functioning properly.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

a housing having an interior;

a CPU disposed in the housing interior and operable to process information;

memory disposed in the housing interior and interfaced with CPU, the memory operable to store information;

an I/O device operable to interface with a user;

firmware disposed in the housing interior and interfaced with the CPU, memory, and I/O device, the firmware operable to coordinate interaction of the CPU, memory and I/O device;

a thermal subsystem disposed in the housing and operable to cool the interior of the housing; and

a thermal diagnostics module integrated in the firmware and operable to track one or more thermal parameters during a predetermined manufacture activity associated with the information handling system, the thermal parameters indicative of thermal subsystem performance.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the predetermined manufacture activity comprises copying an image to the memory.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the predetermined manufacture activity comprises running diagnostics to check the operation of hardware loaded on the information handling system.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the predetermined manufacture activity comprises running to check the operation of applications loaded on the information handling system.

5. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the one or more thermal parameters comprises the highest detected temperature zone.

6. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the one or more thermal parameters comprises the highest detected fan speed.

7. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the thermal diagnostics module comprises firmware running on an embedded controller of the information handling system, the firmware having a disable flag, the disable flag selectable to preclude operation of the thermal diagnostics module after completion of the manufacture activity.

8. A process for testing an information handling system thermal subsystem during manufacture of the information handling system, the method comprising:

assembling hardware components into an information handling system, the components operable to process information at least in part under the control of firmware, the components including a thermal subsystem;

embedding a thermal diagnostics module in firmware of the information handling system;

powering up the information handling system;

performing one or more manufacturing activities on the information handling system;

monitoring one or more thermal parameters with the thermal diagnostics module during the manufacturing activity;

reading the thermal parameters after completion of the manufacturing activity; and

comparing the monitored thermal parameters with expected thermal parameters to determine either correct operation or failure of the thermal subsystem.

10. The process of claim 8 wherein embedding a thermal diagnostics module further comprises embedding the module in a BIOS of the information handling system.

11. The process of claim 8 wherein monitoring further comprises monitoring the maximum temperature zone reached within the information handling system during the manufacturing activity.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the manufacturing activity comprises running diagnostics on hardware loaded in the information handling system.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the manufacturing activity comprises copying an image to a hard disk drive of the information handling system.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the manufacturing activity comprises running diagnostics on applications loaded in the information handling system.

9. The process of claim 9 further comprising:

disabling the thermal diagnostics module after a determination of correct operation of the thermal subsystem.

15. A system for testing thermal subsystems of manufactured information handling systems, the system comprising:

a thermal diagnostics module integrated in firmware of each information handling system, the thermal diagnostics module operable to monitor one or more thermal parameters of an information handling system and to store selected of the monitored thermal parameters in firmware;

a manufacturing module operable to interface with each information handling system to perform a manufacturing activity; and

a thermal diagnostics engine operable to interface with the firmware of each information handling system to enable the thermal diagnostics module during the manufacturing activity, to read the stored thermal parameter and to compare the stored thermal parameter with expected values to determine the status of the thermal subsystem of the information handling system.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the thermal parameter is the maximum temperature zone reached by the information handling system during the manufacturing activity.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the manufacturing module comprises a hardware diagnostics module and the manufacturing activity comprises diagnostics run to determine the status of hardware of the information handling system.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the manufacturing module comprises an image engine and the manufacturing activity comprises copying an image to a hard disk drive of the information handling system.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the manufacturing module comprises an application diagnostics module and the manufacturing activity comprises diagnostics run to determine the status of applications loaded on the information handling system.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the thermal diagnostics engine is further operable to disable the thermal diagnostics module after reading the thermal parameter.