Please help with dead system

External Since: Nov 12, 2006 Posts: 42

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 03:18:38 GMT,
a?n?g?e?l@lovergirl.lrigrevol.moc.com (The little lost angel) wrote:

>On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:00:57 -0500, Tony Hill
><hilla_nospam_20 RemoveThis @yahoo.com> wrote:
>>??? Uhh, care to point to some "specification" for sig delimiting?!
>>----------------------------
>>Tony Hill
>>hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca
>
>RFC 2646 (on format=flowed etc) includes:
>
> 4.3. Usenet Signature Convention
>
> There is a convention in Usenet news of using "-- " as the
>separator
> line between the body and the signature of a message. When
>
> generating a Format=Flowed message containing a Usenet-style
> separator before the signature, the separator line is sent as-is.
> This is a special case; an (optionally quoted) line consisting of
> DASH DASH SP is not considered flowed.
>
>Sorry! =X

Hehe, no problem L'Angle. I stand corrected, this does indeed seem to
standard covering sig delimiting, I stand corrected.

Should be fixed now.
--
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

External Since: Sep 10, 2005 Posts: 125

On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 20:57:22 -0500, Tony Hill
<hilla_nospam_20.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> put finger to keyboard and composed:

>Do I honestly care about a "traditional POST" beep code? I'm talking
>about the REAL WORLD of today! I don't care what the IBM XT or AT
>did, because they haven't existed for ages!
>
>The fact of the matter is that MANY systems will give some form of
>beep, LEDs or voice command if a CPU is missing during their power up
>self-test.

<snip>

>Just in case you forgot what this discussion was all about, here is
>exaclty how it started:
>
>
>http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems/browse_thread/thread/e75baff40e678220/e31d990701839d94?lnk=st&q=insubject%3APlease+insubject%3Ahelp+insubject%3Awith+insubject%3Adead+insubject%3Asystem+author%3Atony+author%3Ahill&rnum=1#e31d990701839d94
>
><quote>
>>>>One thing you may try is removing the CPU and see whether you
>>>>get beep codes. If you do not, then the mainboard is likely
>>>>broken.
>>>
>>>If the CPU is not present or is not working, then you will not get any
>>>beep codes.
>>
>>That depends entirely on the system and how the CPU failed. Some
>>systems will beep if they do not detect a CPU, others will not. Of
>>those that will beep if a CPU is not detected, they *might* beep if
>>the CPU has failed or they might not. Beep codes are (usually)
>>handled entirely by the motherboard with no CPU intervention.
><end quote>

And there's the problem. If you had intended to mean that BIOS beep
codes do not require a CPU, then that is clearly absurd. If OTOH you
had intended to mean that certain low-level "pre-POST" checks could
produce a beep in the absence of a CPU, then this is clearly an
exception to the norm. Words such as "many" and "usual" are
inappropriate, to say the least. Instead the OP should proceed on the
more reasonable assumption that the motherboard will be inactive
without a CPU. I'd hate to think that he could end up tossing a board
simply because it was one of those 99.9% that needed a brain in order
to beep, blink, or talk.

>Now, I've already provided you with MANY examples of systems that WILL
>produce beeps, LEDs or even a voice response if the CPU is not being
>detected, so really the proof is in the pudding.

You've provided *one* example ... maybe.

As for those motherboards that can talk, I confess I have no
experience with these. However, I found the manual for an Albatron Via
motherboard which has a Voice Genie chip. I notice that the voice chip
can be enabled or disabled via the BIOS setup. This suggests to me
that the status of the chip would need to be fetched from CMOS RAM (or
perhaps the flash BIOS) at power-on. Only a working CPU (and BIOS
code) could do this. The only other [unlikely] alternative would be a
user configurable area within the voice chip itself.

As for the blinking LEDs, I've suggested on two occasions that they
could be attached to a standard diagnostic port at 80h (such as is
used by POST cards). I've even provided a simple DOS method to confirm
or disprove this.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.