[geeks] Dell T105 server arrives

[Chad McAuley]

Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> From: Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
>> Date: 2008/04/02 Wed AM 09:29:14 CDT
>> To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>> Subject: Re: [geeks] Dell T105 server arrives
> 
>> Lionel Peterson wrote:
>>>> To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>>>> Subject: [geeks] Dell T105 server arrives
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>> System diagnostic lights are very useful, but did they have to default  
>>>> to the "OK" status being all four lights turned on?
>>> As I recall, as power-up/self-test progresses, each light turns on and indicates successful testing of each major subcomponent.
>>>
>>> Leaving all the lights on is "The Right Thing To Do" (IMHO), and in a tower config like this it makes sense to locate them on the front (as the back is not as accessible as in a rackmount server).
>> One of my motherboards has an array of four diagnostic LEDs on it that 
>> "count up" POST stages in binary.  0xF is "post succeeded, board is 
>> operating normally."
> 
> Many Tyan MBs have two seven-segment LED displays for POST reporting - really suprised me the first time I built up a Tyan server board...


I had an Epox desktop MB that did the same thing. Like Phil's board, 
0xFF was supposed to be the "successful POST, everything is OK" 
indicator, but it would also show 0xFF in certain failure conditions 
(like, say, if it had bad caps syndrome like mine did).  A lot of people 
that suffered from bad caps or other issues on these used to say that FF 
stood for either "Fully Functional" or "Fatally Fucked"  :)