2

First, I'm not sure if this is the correct place, so apologies for that.

Second, I want to know how to easily identify the hardware faults.

I heard about this PCI card that when connected to the PC just gives a Code, this code identifies the fault in the hardware. If someone can tell me what this card is, or tell me how to identify the faults easily.

Thanks.

Improve this question
2

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

@Zoredache is correct.

enter image description here

It's called a POST card and they have an LED display. The display shows the value that is written to port 0x80 (or possibly other ports, not sure if that's a standard). BIOSes write to this port as they progress through their startup sequence. If something causes the sequence to stop, the last written value can reveal why.

Some POST cards have more than one edge connector (i.e. ISA and PCI connectors, the card is rotated according to what system you want to connect it to) and I did see in searching mini-PCI and mini-PCIe for laptops.

Of course this is specific to each BIOS manufacturer and I'm not sure at all how UEFI handles this.

There also isn't a lot of user-replaceable hardware on modern boards unless you have things like a rework station, etc. Maybe you do, though. :)

Improve this answer
3
  • So, this card can be connected to all motherboards? Or every make/model will require a different card?
    – sikas
    Nov 25, 2013 at 17:13
  • 2
    If the motherboard has the slot type of the card, you can attach it. You probably want to get a PCI or PCI-E type. Mini-PCI or Mini-PCIe for laptops. It's not motherboard-model specific.
    – LawrenceC
    Nov 25, 2013 at 17:14
  • 1
    @sikas If it has a PCI slot you can connect it. The problem is that different boards use the numeric codes to mean different things; and unless there's a variant of the board with a 2 digit debug on the board the mobo vendor probably will not have published the POST codes anywhere. So you'll have codes but no way to translate them to specific errors. A lot of newer mobos don't have legacy PCI slots any longer; and I've yet to find a POST card for PCIe. Like ultrasawblade I'm also unaware of if UEFI boards generate codes like this at all.
    – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Nov 25, 2013 at 21:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .