Dell PowerEdge 3250 - 9 POST Codes; North and South Port 80;81 Cards

POST Codes Intel® Server Platform SR870BH2
Revision 1.1
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9. POST Codes
In order to indicate progress through BIOS POST, and in special cases where errors are
encountered during BIOS POST, three common mechanisms are employed by the SR870BH2
BIOS.
 The first and most common method is Audible, encoded beep sequences emitted by the
PC speaker when an error is encountered. Beep codes are employed before the display
screen is enabled, and generally indicate fatal errors. Beep codes are coupled with
special port 80 error codes.
 The second method is to display an error message to the display screen after the Video
has been initialized.
 The third method is to display port 80/81 codes to an I
2
C* adapter connected to the main
board. This method is described as an option but is beyond the scope of this document.
9.1 North and South Port 80/81 Cards
The SR870BH2 server is designed to use an I
2
C port 80 card to display POST status codes.
The Port 80 card is attached to I
2
C ports in two different places on the server. One port 80
device serves the north flash ROM and the other serves the south flash ROM. Since the I
2
C port
POST decoders are considered specialized test equipment, error codes that require the use on
of a Port 80 card are beyond the scope of this document.