This paper investigates the use of different techniques for fault detection in voltage-fed asynchronous machine drive systems. With the proposed techniques it is possible to detect and identify the power switch in which the fault has occurred. A diagnosis system which uses only the input variables of the drive is presented. It is based on the analysis of the current-vector trajectory, of the instantaneous frequency in faulty mode, and the evaluation of machine state variables which are processed due to the machine control algorithm. With this algorithm a fast an reliable fault detection can be realized. Furthermore limited drive operation in case of a fault mode will be discussed. All obtained results are based on computer simulation. These knowledge based methods have been test in simulation.