386SX Notebook Diagnostics

Notebooks produced by Leading Edge were bundled with several software utilities. One of those utilities that came with the 386SX Notebook line−up was the 386SX Notebook Diagnostics software. This software allowed the user to run 10 different diagnostics tests on the user's laptop. Some such tests included a memory test, video test, and peripheral port test.

The 386SX Notebook Diagnostics software was contained on one 3.5" 1.44MB disk. The disk was dark−blue and the label consisted of about 2/3 of the label being white in color while the remaining 1/3 was blue. At the top of the label was italicized text of the name of the disk, "386SX Notebook Diagnostics" in inverted colors to the label. Below the disk title is a small red text area within the white field that stated, "Retain for use by Service Personnel". Finally, at the label's bottom was Leading Edge in all−caps with the "LEADING" portion being colored in gold over the white background and the "EDGE" portion being colored in white over the blue background.

After loading the software, the user was presented with a simple graphical splash screen prompting the user to press any key to proceed. The next page that occurred after the splash screen was a system configuration screen that offered the user information about the computer system including but not limited to: the CPU type, hard drive information, and video type. It seems that this information is gleaned from the BIOS because tests indicated that if a drive type was changed in BIOS, for example if the BIOS was told there was no hard drive, it would report that there was no hard drive even though there is one present. Even inputting an incorrect configuration for a hard drive and booting off of a floppy would indicate that the incorrectly configured hard drive was present. Once the user was past the information screen, a main menu was shown. Tests could be run by the user by selecting the corresponding function key as indicated on the menu or press Esc to terminate the program and return to DOS. Please see the photographs for sample tests as run on a 386SX 9100−20 Notebook and a 386SX Plus Notebook, or download and try it yourself.

See below for a downloadable image in the original 3.5" 720 KB format.