diff --git a/prodtests/full-system-test/start_tmux.sh b/prodtests/full-system-test/start_tmux.sh
index 22b603f48a0d0..22b658856803a 100755
--- a/prodtests/full-system-test/start_tmux.sh
+++ b/prodtests/full-system-test/start_tmux.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,39 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+### --- Early safety checks ----------------------------------------------------
+
+# Skip checks if FST_RUN_WITHOUT_CHECKS=1
+if [[ "${FST_RUN_WITHOUT_CHECKS:-0}" != "1" ]]; then
+
+  # 1. Abort if running inside a Slurm shell
+  if [[ -n "${SLURM_JOB_ID:-}" ]]; then
+    echo "ERROR: This script must not be run inside a Slurm job (SLURM_JOB_ID=${SLURM_JOB_ID})." >&2
+    echo "Please run it from a normal ssh shell." >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
+  # 2. Abort if FMQ shared-memory files exist in /dev/shm
+  if compgen -G "/dev/shm/fmq*" > /dev/null; then
+    echo "ERROR: Found existing /dev/shm/fmq* files." >&2
+    echo "Please clean them manually before running the FST." >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
+  # 3. MI100 check: detect MI100 GPU but EPN_NODE_MI100 not set or set to 0
+  if lspci | grep -qi "MI100"; then
+    if [[ -z "${EPN_NODE_MI100:-}" || "${EPN_NODE_MI100}" == "0" ]]; then
+      echo "ERROR: MI100 GPU detected on this node, but EPN_NODE_MI100 is not set to 1." >&2
+      echo "Please export EPN_NODE_MI100=1 before running this script." >&2
+      echo "See installation instructions here:" >&2
+      echo "  https://alice-pdp-operations.docs.cern.ch/o2install/#install-and-validate-the-new-o2pdpsuite-on-one-production-epn-using-the-fst"
+      exit 1
+    fi
+  fi
+
+fi
+
+### ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
 if [ "0$1" != "0dd" ] && [ "0$1" != "0rr" ] && [ "0$1" != "0tf" ]; then
   echo Please indicate whether to start with raw-reader [rr] or with DataDistribution [dd] or TfReader [tf] 1>&2
   exit 1