Debug Card - PC Diagnostics

Diagnostic Card 

Laptop Dual 

Version 1.0 

User’s Guide 

Model: dual_10 

For use only in a laptop model computer with mini-PCI slot or 

LPT (printer port) connection. (Device must be powered by USB). 

1 

User’s Guide

INTRODUCTION 


The Dual 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 mini-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 Dual Notebook Diagnostic Card itself only requires an empty mini-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. 

Tech Support 

� Tech Support support@pc-diagnostics.com 

Dual 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: 

POST Code Display 

� Dual Notebook mini-PCI & LPT Printer Port Bus Card 

The POST Code Display is made up of a dual, dot matrix hexadecimal read-out that displays Power 

On Self Test (POST) status codes. 

2

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: 

CLK Motherboard Clock Signal. Should be on when power is supplied to the 

motherboard even without CPU. 

+3.3 Motherboard Clock Signal. Should be on when power 3.3V is supplied to 

the motherboard even without CPU. 

INSTALLING Dual Notebook Diagnostic Card 

Installation Procedure 

TO INSTALL A Diagnostic Card: 

1) Install the Notebook Diagnostic Card in mini-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 mini-PCI slot mode. 

3

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). 

NOTE: A few machines use the parallel port to display POST codes instead of the Diagnostic 

Card. 

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. 

4

Error Code 

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 

Award (Edition: ELITEBIOS 4.51PG) 

5 

Appendix A

3D Initialize &Install Mouse 

3E Setup Cache Controller 

3F Reserved 

BF Chipset Initialization 

40 Display virus protect disable or enable 

41 Initialize Floppy Drive & Controller 

42 Initialize Hard Drive &Controller 

43 Detect & Initialize Serial/Parallel Ports 

44 Reserved 

45 Detect & Initialize Math Coprocessor 

46 Reserved 

47 Reserved 

48-4D Reserved 

4E Manufacturing POST loop or display message 

4F Security Check 

50 Write CMOS 

51 Pre-boot Enable 

52 Initialize Option ROMs 

53 Initialize Time Value 

60 Setup Virus Protect 

61 Set Boot Speed 

62 Setup Numlock 

63 Boot Attempt 

BO Spurious 

B1 Unclaimed NMI 

E1-EF Bios Setup Page 

FF BOOT UP 

Appendix A 

Error Code 

AMIBIOS Edition ( 071596) 

D0 NMI is Disabled.CPU ID saved. Init code Checksum verification starting 

D1 To do DMA init ,Keyboard controller BAT test ,start memory refresh and going 

to 4GB flat mode 

D3 To start Memory sizing 

D4 To comeback to real mode . Execute OEM patch. Set stack 

D5 E000 ROM enabled . Init code is copied to segment 0 and control to be transferred 

to segment 0. 

D6 Control point is in segment 0.To check key and verify main 

BIOS 

Checksum. If eitheris pressed or main BIOS checksum is bad 

Go to check point E0 else goto check point D7 

D7 To pass control point to Interface Module. 

D8 Main BIOS runtime code is to be decompressed. 

D9 Control to be passed to main BIOS in shadow RAM 

6

Appendix A 

E0 On Board Floppy Controller (if any)is initialized. To start base 512K memory test 

E1 To initialize interrupt vector table 

E2 To initialize DMA and interrupt controllers 

E6 To enable floppy and timer IRQ,enable internal cache 

ED Initialize floppy drive. 

EE Start looking for a diskette in drive A: and read 1 st sector of the diskette 

EF Floppy read error 

F0 Start searching ‘MIBOOT.ROM’ file in root directory 

F1 ‘AMIBOOT.ROM’ file not present in root directory. 

F2 Start reading FAT table and analyze FAT to find the clusters occupied by 

‘AMIBOOT.ROM’ file 

F3 Start reading ‘MIBOOT.ROM’file cluster by cluster. 

F4 AMIBOOT.ROM’ file not of proper size 

F5 Disable internal cache 

FB Detect Flash type present. 

FC Erase Flash 

FD Program Flash 

FF Flash program successful.BIOS is going to restart 

In F000 Memory Address for a real time code 

03 NMI is Disabled . To check soft reset /power-on 

05 BIOS stack set . Going to disable Cache if any. 

06 POST code to be uncompressed. 

07 CPU init and CPU data area init to be done. 

08 CMOS checksum calculation to be done next. 

0B Any initialization before keyboard BAT to be done next 

0C KB controller I/B free. To issue the BAT command to keyboard controller. 

0E Any initialization after KB controller BAT to be done next. 

0F Key board command byte to be written. 

10 Going to issue Pin-23,24 blocking/unblocking command. 

11 Going to check pressing of , key during power-on 

12 To init CMOS if “Init CMOS in every boot ” is set or key is pressed. 

Going to disable DMA and Interrupt controllers 

13 Video display is disabled port-B is initialized. Chipset init about to begin 

14 8254 timer test about to start 

19 About to start memory refresh test 

1A Memory Refresh line is toggling .Going to check 15us ON/OFF time 

23 To read 8042 input and disable Megakey Green PC feature .Make BIOS segment 

able to write 

24 To do any setup before Int vector init 

7

Appendix A 

25 Interrupt vector initialization about to begin. To clear password if necessary 

27 Any initialization before setting video mode to be done . 

28 Going for monochrome mode and color mode setting. 

2A Different BUSes init (system,static,output devices)to start if present.(please see 

appendix for details of defferent BUSes). 

2B To give control for any setup required before optional video ROM check. 

2C To look for optional video ROM and give control. 

2D To give control to do any processing after video ROM returns control 

2E IF ega/vga not found then do display memory R/W test. 

2F Ega/vga not found .Display memory R/W test about to begin. 

30 Display memory R/W test passed. About to look for the retrace checking. 

31 Display memory R/W test or retrace checking failed. To do alternate Display 

memory R/W test. 

32 Alternate Display memory R/W test passed. To look for the alternate display 

retrace checking 

34 Video display checking over .Display mode to be set next. 

37 Display mode set . Going to display the power on message. 

38 Different BUSes init (input,IPL,general devices) to start if present.(please see 

Appendix for details of different BUSes) 

39 Display different BUSes initialization error messages.(Please see appendix for 

details of different BUSes). 

3A New cursor position read and saved. To display the Hit message. 

40 To prepare the descriptor tables 

42 To enter in virtual mode for memory test. 

43 To enable interrupts for diagnostics mode. 

44 To initialize data to check memory wrap around at 0:0 

45 Data initialized. Going to check for memory wrap around at 0:0 and finding the 

total system memory size. 

46 Memory wrap around test done. Memory size calculation over. About to go for 

writing patterns to test memory 

47 Pattern to be tested written in extended memory. Going to write patterns in base 

640K memory 

48 Pattern written in base memory .Going to findout amount of memory below 1M 

memory. 

49 Amount of memory below 1M found and verified.Going to findout amount of 

memory above 1M memory 

4B Amount of memory above 1M found and verified. Check for soft reset and 

going to clear memory below 1M for soft reset.(if power on,go to check 

point#4Eh) 

4C Memory below 1M cleared. (SOFT RESET) Going to clear memory above 1M 

4D 

4E 

4F 

50 

Memory above 1M cleared.(SOFT RESET)Going to save the memory size.(goto 

check point #52h). 

Memory size display started. (NOT SOFT RESET)About to display the first 64k 

memory size. 

Memory size display started. This will be updated during memory test. Going for 

sequential and random memory test. 

Memory testing /initialization below 1M complete. Going to adjust displayed 

memory size for relocation/shadow. 

51 

52 

53 

Memory size display adjusted due to relocation/shadow. Memory test above 1M to 

follow. 

Memory testing/initialization above 1M complete. Going to save memory size 

information 

Memory size information is saved. CPU registers are saved. Going to enter in real 

mode 

8

Appendix A 

54 Shutdown successful, CPU in real mode. Going to disable gate A20 line and 

disable parity /NMI. 

57 A20 address line ,parity/NMI disable successful. Going to adjust memory size 

depending on relocation/shadow. 

58 Memory size adjusted for relocation/shadow. Going to clear Hit message. 

59 Hit message cleared. message displayed. About to start DMA 

and interrupt controller test 

60 DMA page register test passed. To do DMA# 1 base register test 

62 DMA# 1 base register test passed. To do DMA#2 base register test. 

65 DMA#2 base register test passed. To program DMA unit 1 and 2 

66 DMA unit 1 and 2 programming over. To initialize 8259 interrupt controller. 

7F Extended NMI sources enabling is in progress. 

80 Keyboard test started . clearing output buffer,checking for stuck key ,to issue 

keyboard reset command. 

81 Keyboard reset error/stuck key found. To issue keyboard controller interface test 

command 

82 Keyboard controller interface test over. To write command byte and init circular 

buffer 

83 Command byte written , Global data init done . To check for lock-key. 

84 Lock-key checking over. To check for memory size mismatch with CMOS 

85 Memory size check done. To display soft error and check for password or bypass 

setup. 

86 Password checked. About to do programming before setup. 

87 Programming before setup complete . To uncompress SETUP code and execute 

CMOS setup. 

88 Returned from CMOS setup program and screen is cleared.About to do 

programming after setup 

89 Programming after setup complete . Going to display power on screen message. 

8B First screen message displayed. message displayed . PS/2 Mouse 

check and extended BIOS data area allocation to be done. 

8C Setup options programming after CMOS setup about to start . 

8D Going for hard disk controller reset. 

8F Hard disk controller reset done. Floppy setup to be done next. 

91 Floppy setup complete . Hard disk setup to be done next. 

95 Init of different BUSes optional ROMs from C800 to start.(please see Appendix-I 

for details fo different BUSes). 

96 Going to do any init before C800 optional ROM control 

97 Any init before C800 optional ROM control is over. Optional ROM check and 

control will be done next. 

98 Optional ROM control is done. About to give control to do any required 

processing after optional ROM returns control and enable external cache 

99 Any initialization required after optional ROM test over. Going to setup timer data 

area and printer base address. 

9A Return after setting timer and printer base address.Going to set the RS-232 base 

address 

9B Returned after RS-232 base address . Going to do any initialization before 

Coprocessor test 

9C Required initialized. Before Coprocessor is over. Going to initialize the 

coprocessor next. 

9D Coprocessor initialized. Going to do any initialization after Coprocessor test. 

9E Initialization after coprocessor test is complete . Going to check extd keyboard, 

keyboard ID and num-lock 

9F Keyboard ID command to be issued. 

A2 Going to display any soft errors. 

9

A3 Software error display complete. Going to set keyboard typemate rate. 

A4 Keyboard typematic rate set . To program memory wait states. 

A5 Going to enable parity/NMI 

Appendix A 

A7 NMI and parity enabled. Going to do any initialization required before giving 

control to optional ROM at E000. 

A8 Initialization before E000 ROM control over. E000 ROM to get control next 

A9 Returned form E000 ROM control. Going to do any initialization required after 

E000 optional ROM control 

AA Initialization after E000 optional ROM control is over. Going to display the 

system configuration. 

AB To build MP table if needed. 

AC To uncompress DMI data and execute DMI post init. 

B0 System configuration is displayed 

B1 Going to copy any code to specific area. 

00 Copying of code to specific area done Going to give control to INT-19 boot loader 

Testing Point 

2A Different BUSes init (system,static,output devices)to start if present. 

38 Different BUSes init(Input ,IPL,general devices) to start if present. 

39 Display different BUSes initialization error messages. 

10

Debug Card - PC Diagnostics

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?