As the subject says, my SK8N (Opteron 200 series)
won't boot, no beeps. Carefully rechecked all
connectors, seating of video card, etc.
A POST display card shows code D4 steadily,
I can't find that code for the Award BIOS
(I'm assuming that's the BIOS). I've got
a pair of Corsair XMS3200RE registered
ECC 400MHz DDR in the black DIMM slots.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Charles
This is a link I found before with some POST codes:
http://www.bioscentral.com/
http://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/amibios.htm
The only instance of D4 on that page says
"Uncompressed RUNTIME code"
Now, that doesn't mean too much to me, as I thought
the purpose of POST codes, was to identify which
software module is executing or has just executed.
It almost sounds like the flash chip is corrupt or
partly unprogrammed (a block of zeros).
Your motherboard has CrashFree2 BIOS feature, and
you may be able to recover with that. Since the POST
card is displaying a code other than 0x00 or 0xFF,
there is at least some code in the ROM, but what we
don't know, is if the boot block is intact. If it is,
you have two options (documented in the manual):
1) Use the EZ-Flash procedure. Press <alt> <f2> and
have a floppy with the .rom file on it prepared.
2) The crashfree procedure requires the BIOS to
recognize that the BIOS is corrupted (i.e. the
non-boot-block part), and using the same kind of
floppy with .rom file on it, the board can
automatically reflash the BIOS.
If the boot block is damaged, you'll need the services
of either RMAing the board, getting a new flash chip
from badflash.com or similar, doing a "hot flash" with
another similar board, using an EPROM programmer etc.
Post back with what happens, as we need as many
experiences about recovery from blasted BIOS as
possible (for future reference).
Someone will probably pop in here and recommend
clearing the CMOS, but in this case, I cannot imagine
how the contents of the CMOS would give your symptoms.
If you do decide to try clearing the CMOS, unplug the
computer before doing whatever procedure is given in
the manual. (This is to guarantee that +5VSB from the
power supply is dead and cannot burn anything during
the clear CMOS attempt. The green standby power LED
(item #11) on the motherboard should be extinguished
when the computer is unplugged.)
Good luck,
Paul
