Abstract Modeling and simulation is an expanding area in several domains. In this work, the currently available methods for detecting inconsistencies in systems of equations coming from both static and dynamic models are briefly reviewed. For the dynamic case, a new algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm allows a detailed diagnosis of the dynamic degrees of freedom and valid initial conditions of differential-algebraic equation (DAE) systems. The algorithm is scalable for large problems and is a promising diagnosis tool to spread the usage of equation-oriented dynamic simulators.