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8.1
General Failure and Power-On-Self-Test (POST) |
PC
Partner motherboards are incorporating industry
standard BIOS (Basic Input Output System)
including Phoenix/Award or AMI on various models
respectively. These BIOS feature POST (Power-On-Self-Test)
codes send to the logical IO port 80 (hex) during
power up time. Capturing these POST codes helps
to perform trouble shooting in case the system do
not function as expected. Diagnostic
card for capturing and displaying these POST
codes are available at various sources, including
your local computer store. Each BIOS supplier (Phoenix
/Award, AMI) has its own set of POST code
defination.
The diagnostic procedures
listed below provides a general idea of the
trouble-shooting that can be performed by a
normal user, to identify which module to be the
cause of problem. It is recommended that
component level repairing of boards should only
be made via experienced technician, while
electrical safety rules must be observed.
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8.2 No
display, no beep sound, no post code change |
This condition
implies that possibly the CPU is not able to run
any instruction. Please check for a bad CPU,
improper inserting of CPU at the socket, wrong
setting around the CPU type / voltage jumpers, or
even the DC power cables from the power supply to
the motherboard.
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8.3 No
display, with beep sound, post code changes |
This tells that
the CPU is at least doing some primitive jobs
like checked for memory, checked for diaplay
card, checked for other low level hardware, and
beeps the speaker. Please check for properly
inserted display card, display signal cable,
memory modules...etc. Refer to the following
list of speaker beeps sound (Phoenix/Award BIOS),
with the possible error source :
- Long
beep sound repeatedly -> RAM detection
error
- One
long beep following by two short beeps ->
Display Adaptor Error
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8.4
With display, error message on POST screen |
The following are
common error messages on the POST screen, with
respective possible causes : CMOS
CHECKSUM ERROR -
On board
CMOS backup battery might be used up, try replace
the battery. Or there might be an accidental
"clear CMOS" during hardware
installation. Try restarting the system, press
<Del> key to enter CMOS Setup, load the
CMOS "Optimized Default", Save and Exit.
DISK
BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
-
No
bootable device is found. This could mean that
either a boot drive was not detected, or the
drive did not contain proper system boot files.
Check if there was any floppy diskette present in
the Drive A:, remove it and press <Enter>.
Check that the attached HDD is formated as a
bootable device.
KEYBOARD
ERROR OR NO KEYBOARD PRESENT -
Cannot
initialize the keyboard. Make sure the keyboard
is attached correctly and no keys are being
pressed during the boot. If you are purposely
configuring the system without a keyboard, set
the error halt condition in Setup to HALT ON ALL,
BUT KEYBOARD. This will cause the BIOS to ignore
the missing keyboard and continue the boot.
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8.5
Display screen quality problems |
Check for properly
installed Display Driver Software, and possible
conflict with some other installed application
software. If you had installed extra memory to
your display card, make sure these display memory
are compatible with the display card requirements.
Also
check if your display monitor is capable of the
resolution and frequency requirement of your
display mode.
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8.6
IDE Hard Disk related problems |
If your hard disk
is running fine on the PC in the past, but failed
suddenly for unknown reasons, please check for
mechanical damages to the hard disk due to
mechanical shock. The data may also be corrupted
due to damages at certain sectors. Also watch out
for computer virus that may infect th hard disk.
This may call for re-format of the hard disk in
order to recover. If your hard disk
is a brand new one, first time installation into
your PC, please check for the proper power /
signal connection to the drive. Then make sure
the proper jumpers for Master/Slave connection is
set. If all these hardware factors are correct,
then check for proper software setting from the
BIOS CMOS Setup. Normally the "Auto"
type hard disk setting will be able to take care
of most brands of HDD.
Under
very rare conditions, the motherboard BIOS
version may be respobnsible for hard disk
compatibility. Try upgrading to newer BIOS, by
following the description on Flash BIOS upgrade.
The last resort is to suspect on the hard drive
as malfunctioning.
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8.7
IDE CD-ROM related problems |
IDE CD-ROM drives
are attached to motherboard at one of the IDE
connectors. The preferable connection of IDE type
CD-ROM drive is to have a separate 40-ways flat
cable for the CD-ROM drive, rather than sharing a
flat cable with the IDE HDD. IDE CD-ROM drives
should be detected at power up screen, if BIOS
CMOS setting is made as such. Normal DOS / Win 3.1X
environment operation requires real-mode software
driver to be loaded, but Windows 95/98/ME/2K/XP
will try to detect the presence of IDE CD-ROM
drives and operate in the 32-bit protected mode.
Please check for the proper software be installed
and the hardware is reocgnized by the software.
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8.8 I/O
functions related problems |
Common IO
functions are implemented onto PC Partner
motherboards, including floppy interface, serial
ports, parallel port, keyboard, PS/2 mouse port,
USB ports, Sound. These ports are implemented via
the Super IO chip, Sound Controller chip plus the
core logic chipset. Problems in these
area are most likely related to the system
resource conflicts in IRQ, DMA, IO address, and
can be resolved by re-configuring from the CMOS
Setup. Please check for the usage of system
resource by other add-on devices in the system.
Cable
connection and orientation are also common
sources of problems.
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8.9
Add-on cards related problems |
Add-on cards
related problems are more complicated, because
they can be related to hardware design issues of
the add-on card, software conflicts of the add-on
cards the existing operating system, or the
system resource conflicts (IRQ/DMA/IO Address).
The
general practice is to clear up system resource
conflicts first, then try installing software
driver step by step, to locate where the conflict
is, and try alternatives software options.
Ultimately,
if the problem comes from hardware design issues
of the card manufacturer, please contact the card
supplier , and look for possible software patch
from the supplier's web site.
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