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I bought a motherboard from ANTONLINE which was defective, despite repeated requests for assistance I purchased this product to definitively identify the problem as a defective motherboard. The product is a little expensive but when ordering from vendors like ANTONLINE which have poor return policies, it is helpful to be able to identify whether they have sent you a defective produce or not. This card is a helpful addition to my diagnostic toolkit.
Requires a 5 volt PCI slot, which rules out some newer systems (mine included). They should've made this a universal PCI card that could be used in either 3.3V or 5V slots.
This simple PCI board shows the BIOS boot code during the system POST making troubleshooting mainboards and peripherals no guesswork. Each of the POST (self test) stages outputs a hexadecimal code as the test progresses, and when the error is located, the system halts and the code remains on the readout for referencing in the manual.
For the money one pays, it would be better to include a cable with an LCD display on the end which plugs into the card.The worst point about this POST card is the horrible, misspelled, incomplete documentation. It does not list what corrective actions might be appropriate for a given code. The card installs in the PCI slot so that the LCD unit mounted on it is upside down and you have to tilt the system unit backwards, hunker yourself down, and generally experience discomfort in order to view the code coming on the card. I needed to test a dead computer as quickly as possible and Amazon could get this to me quickly. This PCI Post Card is barely acceptable. Also, this card should have an LCD attached to a cable which can plug into the card body, making it easy to read the POST codes. Poorly done documentation should be unacceptable for technical equipment.The manual doesn't explain what a POST code of 00 means. By this I mean a technical writer who natively speaks, reads, and writes English.
That might be the best thing to do with this type of hardware, I don't know; I just feel that if a manual is included with the hardware it should be well written and decently comprehensive. The documentation was written by an Asian person who learned English as a second language and learned it poorly at that. I bought this unit because time was very short for me. I had to Google search for such information. You might as well make sure you have several websites handy which list POST codes and explains their meaning and what action, if any, you should take. The vendor ought to hire a qualified technical writer fluent in English to write the manual. In summary, the biggest reason for not buying this card is the miserable documentation. This should come standard for the price.
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