Patent ID: 8099630

Claim:
A system for determining hardware diagnostics during initial program loading, comprising: a processor; a storage facility that stores hardware identifications corresponding to hardware to be tested; a memory having stored thereon a utility which executes on the processor to provide the functions of: allocating a space for a diagnostics hardware table configured to store hardware identifications corresponding to hardware to be tested during the initial program loading; detecting new hardware by a hardware monitor function; adding hardware identifications corresponding to the new hardware detected to the diagnostics hardware table; detecting defective hardware by the hardware monitor function; adding hardware identifications corresponding to the defective hardware detected to the diagnostics hardware table; selecting hardware manually; adding hardware identifications corresponding to the selected hardware to the diagnostics hardware table; acquiring the hardware identifications to be tested while hardware objects are built by a system Hardware Object Model (HOM); setting diagnostics flags within the HOM according to the diagnostics hardware table; performing diagnostics on the hardware objects having set diagnostics flags during the initial program loading; clearing the diagnostics hardware table following completion of the diagnostics to prevent testing of hardware associated with the hardware objects having set diagnostics flags during the initial program loading during a subsequent initial program loading; and running an operating system following completion of the initial program loading.