HP COMPAQ D230, COMPAQ D220, COMPAQ DC5000, D325 MICROTOWER, COMPAQ D248 User Manual

Testing on HP Business Desktop PCs

Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 2

Importance of Desktop Testing............................................................................................................... 2

Test Tool Development.......................................................................................................................... 3

Hardware Evaluation Test Development .............................................................................................. 3

Software Image Development ............................................................................................................ 3

Types of Testing................................................................................................................................... 4

System Board Validation Testing ........................................................................................................ 4

Platform Validation Testing ................................................................................................................ 4

Mechanical Validation Testing........................................................................................................... 5

Module Functional Testing................................................................................................................. 5

System Integration Testing ................................................................................................................. 6

Performance Testing ......................................................................................................................... 7

Desktop Certifications....................................................................................................................... 7

Tested Configurations........................................................................................................................... 8

Hours of Testing................................................................................................................................... 8

Observations during Testing.................................................................................................................. 9

On-going Qualifications ....................................................................................................................... 9

For More Information ......................................................................................................................... 10

Introduction

Testing is an important part of the value supplied by HP to our customers. Many companies can
assemble personal computers. HP has the engineering expertise and resources to perform the tens of
thousands of hours testing every desktop platform we develop. This testing provides our customers
with peace of mind, knowing that hundreds of different tests have been performed to provide a stable
and reliable experience.

In our quest to continuously improve the customer experience, HP uses a disciplined and methodical
development and test process. We verify that each new desktop platform meets or exceeds HP quality
standards for structural integrity, reliability, and compatibility. This white paper describes the various
forms of testing performed by HP engineering when developing a new HP Business Desktop PC
platform.

Importance of Desktop Testing

Business Desktop PCs represent a large portion of the worldwide computer shipments and are often
the workhorses of business. As such, it is critical that they be durable and able to support a vast array
of operating systems, languages, applications, and add-in options. Helping to ensure this
compatibility and flexibility requires extensive, well-engineered testing.

In this industry, quality is a differentiator. Business customers recognize the value of a more reliable
PC, and that is a major factor in their purchase selection. The time and resources we invest in our
testing yield benefits to them and to HP. A well-tested product can lead to a more efficient factory,
lower costs, fewer failures in the field, and more satisfied customers.

The PC business is a dynamic industry in which new technologies are created and adopted. It is
imperative that we have a robust test process that can react to new technologies, verify their quality,
integrate them into our product lines, and get them to market quickly.

The following sections provide more details of the HP test tool development and capability and the
types of testing performed. These sections also provide a closer look at the investment of time in our
test process and how we track the results of tests conducted on HP Business Desktop PCs.

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Test Tool Development

An essential element of the HP test process is our attention and dedication to continuously improving
the tests and processes used during product development. Two such areas of concentration are
Hardware Evaluation Test Development and Software Image Development. Hardware Evaluation Test
Development designs tests to help ensure that hardware components conform to published functional
engineering design specifications. Software Image Development architects image databases,
processes, and tools used to test and deliver software images on business desktop products.

Hardware Evaluation Test Development

The Evaluation Test Development (ETD) team designs and provides hardware and software test tools
necessary to help ensure that the hardware components of HP products conform to published
functional engineering design specifications. This engineering organization, established in 1988, is
shared by most of HP. The ETD tools are used throughout all R&D organizations within the Personal
Systems Group (PSG) and most R&D organizations within the Enterprise Systems Group (ESG), in
manufacturing sites, and by HP field engineers. The ETD tests enable product development teams to
better evaluate new designs and resolve most design issues, and they help improve manufacturing
volume production.

• Hardware and Software design evaluation tools—ETD tests emulate most states of a targeted sub-
system, they are low cost and easy to setup, and they enable product teams to test a large number
of units, which helps to identify yield failures. These tools provide detailed error messages that aid
in debugging, and they provide reproducible test cases.

• ETD HW and SW tests are executed on all business desktop products and are used on the
following product sub-systems:

– Microprocessors and chipsets, including cache memory, interrupts, and timers
– System memory
– PCI/PCI-X/AGP/PCI Express Graphics subsystems
– Hard Drive and Removable Storage interfaces
– Network Interface Cards and modems
– Parallel, Serial, and USB 1.0/2.0 ports, Bluetooth, and Firewire
– Power Management
– Cardbus/PCMCIA

Software Image Development

Software Image Development is optimized for time-to-market delivery, quality, and release integrity. A
dedicated tool development team was formed in 1998. Their charter was to design software image
databases, processes, and tools that encompass the following elements:

• Test Management—Database tools enable test teams to generate and manage test plans and test
procedures in a centralized, repeatable environment with assurances that the test configurations
conform to product definition and requirements.

– Comprehensive test procedures within test plans contain pass/fail criteria that can be leveraged

by any workgroup. Rigorous database rules help verify that each test procedure criteria is
executed only when certain conditions are met.

– Test configurations are tracked at the hardware revision level of each device, including

firmware (FW)/BIOS revisions, and at the software versions level for each component used
during software image download and test.

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