Motherboards with visual/LED POST codes

[reikred]

After having severe trouble with a motherboard that randomly would
not pass the power-on self-test (POST), I feel compelled to ask the
following question:

Who makes motherboards with *visual* POST debug support?

It appears less and less common for mobo manufacturers to include a
*visual* POST code in the form of a 2-digit 7-segment LED display or
similar method.

Does anyone know which motherboard manufacturers still include such a
feature in 2009? I looked at some ASUS boards that did NOT have it,
including the M2NPV-VM I have been having problems with. In fact, this
mobo does not even play audible POST codes on the case speaker. or by
any other means for that sake.

I had an EPOX board that had a great 2-digit LED readout, but EPOX
seems to have faded...

 

[Paul]

After having severe trouble with a motherboard that randomly would
not pass the power-on self-test (POST), I feel compelled to ask the
following question:

Who makes motherboards with *visual* POST debug support?

It appears less and less common for mobo manufacturers to include a
*visual* POST code in the form of a 2-digit 7-segment LED display or
similar method.

Does anyone know which motherboard manufacturers still include such a
feature in 2009? I looked at some ASUS boards that did NOT have it,
including the M2NPV-VM I have been having problems with. In fact, this
mobo does not even play audible POST codes on the case speaker. or by
any other means for that sake.

I had an EPOX board that had a great 2-digit LED readout, but EPOX
seems to have faded...

The Nvidia contract manufactured boards include it. EVGA for example,
resells boards that come from Nvidia. EVGA puts their own
heatsink and logo on the board. Nvidia gets them contract manufactured
somewhere. Those tend to have Port 80 displays on them.

On this EVGA SLI board, the Port 80 display is in the upper
right hand corner of the picture.

EVGA 122-YW-E173-TR (LGA 775, NVIDIA nForce 750i)
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-188-033-S03?$S640W$

This DFI Lanparty board has it as well

DFI LANPARTY LT X48-T3RS (LGA 775, Intel X48)
http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-136-052-04.jpg

So you can find it, but there is no systematic way to do so.
It may not receive much attention in advertisements for example.

Paul

 

[reikred]

The Nvidia contract manufactured boards include it. EVGA for example,
resells boards that come from Nvidia. EVGA puts their own
heatsink and logo on the board. Nvidia gets them contract manufactured
somewhere. Those tend to have Port 80 displays on them.

Excellent lead. I was looking for an am2+ board, but I used your
suggestion and found

EVGA 113-M2-E113-TR AM2+/ nForce 730a/ GF8300

Thank you.

I did not know about the "port 80" terminology, so I learned something
new there as well.

Apparently one can also purchase a pci-32 "port 80 test card" which
will read and display addresses 0x80 and 0x84, which is where BIOS
stores the POST codes.