Hardware | Installation |
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Debug LEDs
The Debug LEDs give an indication of the status of the system during
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| Explanation | ||
X | X | X | L | Initialization of the chipset. The MCH and ICH registers will be set to the most | |
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| conservative values by the BIOS to make sure the system boots up properly. | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | ||
X | X | L | X | The BIOS is now decompressing the BIOS code into shadow RAM. Most of | |
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| the BIOS code is stored in the BIOS Flash ROM IC in compressed form to | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | save space. At | |
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| execution. | |
X | X | L | L | The checksum for the decompressed code is calculated and checked. The | |
checksum is calculated by adding all data bytes together and storing the result | |||||
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | in the BIOS ROM. If the calculated checksum is different from the checksum | |
stored in the ROM, the code stored in the FLASH ROM is corrupted. | |||||
X | L | X | X | The chipset (MCH and ICH) registers are set to the values selected by the user. | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 |
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X | L | X | L | Now the BIOS will set the CPU Vcore voltage and the FSB bus frequency to | |
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| the user selected value. If the system stops at this point, the settings selected by | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | ||
the user are inappropriate. Please select more conservative settings. | |||||
X | L | L | X | The Hardware Monitor Functionality is initialized. The settings the user | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | selected in the BIOS for the Hardware Monitor are written into the Hardware | |
Monitor registers. | |||||
X | L | L | L | If the VGA card does not work or is not inserted at all, the system will display | |
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| this code for a short period of time. | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | ||
L | X | X | X | At this point the BIOS is initializing the CPU. The L2 cache latency values are | |
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| set, and more important, the CPU | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | ||
L | X | X | L | Now the system is testing the RAM inserted on the board. The screen will | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | show the BIOS testing the RAM by a running counter. After finishing the test, | |
the screen will show the amount of RAM in your system. | |||||
L | X | L | X | The super I/O registers are set to the default values. This includes the serial, | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | parallel and IR etc settings. | |
L | X | L | L | At this point the IDE busses (primary and secondary) are scanned for devices. | |
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| This includes HD drives and ATAPI | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | ||
IDE bus. After scanning the detected devices are displayed on screen. | |||||
L | L | X | X | The serial and parallel port registers are set to the values selected by the user. | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 |
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L | L | X | L | Now the BIOS will scan the peripheral busses for | |
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| the PCI and AGP busses. If any | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | ||
requires are assigned by the BIOS in accordance with user settings. | |||||
L | L | L | X | The ESCD and DMI (Desktop Management Interface) values are checked. If | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 | there are changes, the BIOS will flash the new values into the BIOS Flash | |
ROM IC. | |||||
L | L | L | L | At this point the BIOS passes control to the Operating System (OS). All LEDs | |
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| will be on and will stay on to indicate a successful boot. | |
D8 | D3 | D2 | D1 |
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