The Prodigy SE now has a hardware diagnostic built into the on-board PROM. The diagnostic serves as a good confidence test to help isolate problems on the Prodigy SE if they exist. Remember that the unique reverse emulation mode, standard with all Levco accelerator products, is the first thing to try if you suspect something may be wrong with your Prodigy SE. To run in emulation mode and disable the Prodigy SE, hold the interrupt part of the programmers switch in while turning the power to the Macintosh ON. (After the bell sounds you can release the interrupt switch.)
If the Macintosh functions properly in emulation mode, the next thing to do is run the Prodigy SE self test. The Prodigy SE self test will help determine if the source of the errant behavior is caused by a malfunctioning Prodigy SE, Macintosh SE, a corrupted system file or even a program bug.
Due to the low level nature of the self test, the Prodigy RAM disk will not survive this test. Therefore it is highly recommended that you copy the files that are in the RAM disk to a real disk before running the Prodigy SE test. Once the test is started, the only way to exit the program is to REBOOT!
Running the Prodigy SE test.
To run the Prodigy SE test, quit any programs you may be running including MultiFinder, then double click the Prodigy SE test application. You'll be presented with an alert reminding you that the recoverable Prodigy RAM disk will be destroyed by the low level diagnostics and that you should save any files on the RAM disk before going any farther. After selecting the continue button, another alert will come up giving you one last time to quit before starting the self test. The self test performs an orderly shut down as if you had selected "Shut Down" from the "Special" menu while in the finder, then it initiates the self test routine in the Prodigy PROM.
If the Prodigy SE test program can't locate the Prodigy SE, (Prodigy is disabled) or the PROM is an earlier version that doesn't have the self test feature, you will see a dialog box explaining what happened.
Just for fun...
Try holding down the Command key when you run the Prodigy SE Test.
What's going on now?
When the Prodigy SE is testing itself you will see a black screen with white text that has status information. The upper left hand corner of the screen will flash with the word "Testing" to indicate that the Macintosh is running the self test. When the test nears the end of each pass (it will be testing the video RAM) you will see the screen go black and later turn white then change to different patterns and even hear strange sounds from the Macintosh. This is normal. With some patience and about 7 minutes per pass for 1 meg, 15 minutes for 2 meg, and 25 minutes for 4 meg, you will see the counter increment the number of passes that have been completed. Should the self test detect a malfunction, it will stop running with an error message of some sort (we have seen a very small number of Macintosh SE motherboards (2) that will only get through one pass of the test then hang). If the pass counter keeps incrementing, the Prodigy SE is passing the test. This test is useful to determine if the functions of the Prodigy SE are working properly. It will not be of any help if the Macintosh SE / Prodigy SE is unable to boot a disk. If the Macintosh seems to boot disks with the Prodigy SE disabled, but won't boot disks with the Prodigy SE running, you most likely will need to have the Prodigy SE repaired.
