Apparatus to facilitate functional shock and vibration testing of device connections and related method

An apparatus and associated method are disclosed for facilitating the testing of device connections, including functional shock and vibration testing of peripheral card slots or any other desired connector interface. In part, a power supply located on the peripheral device, or some other external power source, is used to power fault detection circuitry. In this way, faults can be identified, such as through visual fault indicators, without the necessity of powering the system. In addition, simulated peripheral cards are provided that include adjustable weights so that the weight distribution of an actual card can be simulated without the necessity of having a functional peripheral in hand.