Diagnostic Card Laptop / Desktop

NTRODUCTION
The Desktop / Notebook Diagnostic Card is a powerful diagnostic tool for technicians and
administrators to troubleshoot various problems of notebook PC PII/III/ P4 by using a PCI and
LPT (printer port) Bus. It is easy to install, yet extremely powerful to use. With this card in hand,
you no longer have to go through tedious and time consuming process of trying to figure out what
is wrong with your hardware. Notebook Diagnostic Card will indicate exactly what is wrong with
your notebook in just seconds. It saves your time and money.
- Our new and improved design of Diagnostic Card, it can work with almost all popular types of
CPUs, Motherboards, and BIOS.
All though we try, it is not possible to update this manual every time a new motherboard is made
by the manufactures. It is always advised to visit the bios manufacture website, and download the
latest codes per bios revision. Or visit bioscentral.com for an online reference.

System Requirements
The Desktop / Notebook Diagnostic Card itself only requires an empty PCI slot or LPT port
connection. It is not necessary to install memory chips to perform analysis. “POST Codes” can be
displayed through the hexadecimal display panel.

Desktop / Notebook Diagnostic Card INDICATORS
‘Indicators’ are any light emitting diodes(LED) or hexadecimal display panel is mounted on
extended cable. This section discusses the following indicators that appear on the Notebook

Diagnostic Card:
Desktop / Notebook PCI & LPT Printer Port Bus Card

POST Code Display
The POST Code Display is made up of a dual, dot matrix hexadecimal read-out that displays
Power On Self Test (POST) status codes.
Power On Self-Test (POST) Codes
This card can test the AMI/AWARD/PHOENIX BIOS, while it can be used in widely model of
notebook. During system booting up, this card displays can show the post codes. Refer to
Appendix A, it shows almost POST codes provided by BIOS manufacturers.

PCI Signal Definition:
FRAME PCI Bus Frame. Should be on under normal circumstances and flashes
when a PCI Frame Signal is detected.
CLK Motherboard Clock Signal. Should be on when power is supplied to the
motherboard even without CPU.
12V Power Supply, 12-Volt Positive. Should be on all the time otherwise there

is a short circuit.
-12V Power Supply, 12-Volt Negative. Should be on all the time otherwise there
is a short circuit.
+3.3 Motherboard Clock Signal. Should be on when power 3.3V is supplied to
the motherboard even without CPU.

Installation Procedure

TO INSTALL A Diagnostic Card:
1) Install the Notebook Diagnostic Card in PCI slot or LPT Printer Port
2) Power on the machine and monitor the code shown on LED
3) When using the LPT printer mode, USB cable must be used to supply power to PC
Diagnostic card. USB cable not required when using PCI slot mode.
4) Install JP2 External Speaker Connection if required, see note below.
5) Observe POST CODE.

POST Codes
When the machine is turned on, the hexadecimal display should show the various POST codes
(Post 80H + 84H) as the system executes (unless it has a rare BIOS that does not display POST
codes).
If the machine does not boot, system POST has detected a fatal fault and stopped. The number
showing in the hexadecimal display on the Notebook Diagnostic Card is the number of the test in
which POST failed. Refer to Appendix A for a listing of POST codes.

Troubleshooting During POST

After initial power up, Power-On Self-Test (POST) codes begin displaying on the Notebook
Diagnostic Card’s hexadecimal displays (for most machines).

THE POST PROCESS

The ROM built onto the motherboard of the computer rums its built-in POST (Power-On Self-Test)
when you switch power on to the computer, press the reset button on the computer, or press
Ctrl-Alt-Del (warm boot). POST performs a tightly interwoven initialization and testing process
for each of these methods, but it typically does not test or initialize memory above 64K for warm
boot. You can get an even better idea of the detailed process by studying the POST code listings in
Appendix A.

JP2 EXTERNAL SPEAKER CONNECTION

On some older motherboards you may encounter no onboard speaker or non functional
motherboard speakers. Use the 2-pin gray jumper wire included to jump the connection from the
speaker terminals on the motherboard header to the JP2 jumper on the PC POST Card. This will
connect the onboard speaker of the PC POST card so you can hear BEEP CODES as well as see
POST CODES.

Error Code

Award (Edition: ELITEBIOS 4.51PG)

C0 Turn Off Chipset Cache

01 Processor Test 1

02 Processor Test 2

03 Initialize Chips

04 Test Memory Refresh Toggle

05 Blank video,Initialize keyboard

06 Reserved

07 Test CMOS Interface and Battery Status

BE Chipset Default Initialization

C1 Memory Presence test

C5 Early Shadow

C6 Cache Presence test

08 Setup low memory

09 Early Cache Initialization

0A Setup Interrupt Vector Table

0B Test CMOS RAM Checksum

0C Initialize Keyboard

0D Initialize Video Interface

0E Test Video Memory

0F Test DMA Controller 0

10 Test DMA Controller 1

11 Test DMA Page Registers

12~13 Reserved

14 Test Timer Counter 2

15 Test 8259-1 Mask Bits

16 Test 8259-2 Mask Bits

17 Test Stuck 8259’s interrupt bits

18 Test 8259 Interrupt Functionality

19 Test stuck NMI Bits

（Parity/IO check）

1A Display CPU Clock

1B-1E Reserved

1F Set EISA Mode

20 Enable Slot 0

21-2F Enable Slots 1-15

30 Size Base and Extended Memory

31 Test Base and Extended Memory

32 Test EISA Extended Memory

33-3B Reserved

3C Setup Enabled