Debug LED's: Why don't more mobos have them?

F

fsh42na

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
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Rant on:

I'm not sure how you all feel about the usefulness of Debug LED's on mobos, but I wouldn't mind having them on my mobos. I hark back to my EPOX mobos days and their Debug LED's. Why don't more companies use them? They can't be terribly expensive to include. Heck, EPOX used them and they were hardly high end mobos. Nowadays, I only see them on EVGA, Gigabyte (higher end models) and Asrock mobos. The puzzling thing for me is that Asrock is a budget minded subsidiary of ASUS and they're using them on their mobos, while big brother ASUS doesn't. Why is that?

Rant off

I'm glad I got that off my chest:D
 
Cause 99% of people do not even know what the beep codes mean. Actually reading the manual to find out what a numeric display of an error code is would make there heads explode, assuming they can read. Secondly, basically the only really useful codes would be:

00 - its working
01 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead video card
02 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead memory module

Any actual fault on the motherboard is not repairable by the end user anyway.

So really we just need all motherboards to have a single two color LED light indicator that Green means OK and red means dumbass.

There is an argument that might could be made that a "cpu good" indicator was needed. However IMO the failure rate of a new CPU is basically zero if installed correctly and the keying makes it almost impossible to put one in wrong not to mention the 5 pages of color pictures in the manual telling one how to do it. So maybe a tri-color LED, Green - OK, Yellow - dumbass, Red - too stupid to build a computer.
 
BillParrish said:
Cause 99% of people do not even know what the beep codes mean. Actually reading the manual to find out what a numeric display of an error code is would make there heads explode, assuming they can read. Secondly, basically the only really useful codes would be:

00 - its working
01 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead video card
02 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead memory module

Any actual fault on the motherboard is not repairable by the end user anyway.

So really we just need all motherboards to have a single two color LED light indicator that Green means OK and red means dumbass.

There is an argument that might could be made that a "cpu good" indicator was needed. However IMO the failure rate of a new CPU is basically zero if installed correctly and the keying makes it almost impossible to put one in wrong not to mention the 5 pages of color pictures in the manual telling one how to do it. So maybe a tri-color LED, Green - OK, Yellow - dumbass, Red - too stupid to build a computer.
Click to expand...

Bill - you just put a very big smile on my face LOL. I think you should put that tri-color LED scheme in the suggestion box for the mobo companies, hehehehehe.
 
My new motherboard has it, Biostar 890FX, but as stated its just not needed. Check what their code values represent and you see that most of the codes will never be thrown or are irrelevant for an end user.
 
The classic beep codes will also get the user's attention whether or not he is looking at the board or not. Again, they just need beep codes like Bill said. Long beep is for ram, videocard and CPU errors should get beeps too instead of not posting.
 
More motherboards are starting to include them. My Biostar mobo (sig) is a low end one and it has the led thingmaji. Helped me find out that I had a dead stick of ram and RMA'ed it accordingly.
 
BillParrish said:
Cause 99% of people do not even know what the beep codes mean. Actually reading the manual to find out what a numeric display of an error code is would make there heads explode, assuming they can read. Secondly, basically the only really useful codes would be:

00 - its working
01 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead video card
02 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead memory module

Any actual fault on the motherboard is not repairable by the end user anyway.

. So maybe a tri-color LED, Green - OK, Yellow - dumbass, Red - too stupid to build a computer.
Click to expand...

:D

That's great!

BillParrish for President!
 
LOL thanks was worried some would be insulted. It was mainly ment to be funny. I think a lot of us have at one time or another got "the mobo from hell" etc. I have set off the "dumbass" light a couple of times myself.
 
About 3 years ago I "fixed" the lack of Debug LEDs by purchasing one of those PCI analyzer cards and it needs an analyzer for the many different manfg codes it displays.

The instruction booklet is 33 pages of code and how to read it. :eek:

A buddy and I used it once and he told me to put it back in the bag and not bring it over again. :D
 
would have saved me some trouble. either the ram my sis sent me is dead or its incompatible (which i find hard to believe) :p
 
Old Hippie said:
About 3 years ago I "fixed" the lack of Debug LEDs by purchasing one of those PCI analyzer cards and it needs an analyzer for the many different manfg codes it displays.

The instruction booklet is 33 pages of code and how to read it. :eek:

A buddy and I used it once and he told me to put it back in the bag and not bring it over again. :D
Click to expand...


hehehehehe:D
 
BillParrish said:
Cause 99% of people do not even know what the beep codes mean. Actually reading the manual to find out what a numeric display of an error code is would make there heads explode, assuming they can read. Secondly, basically the only really useful codes would be:

00 - its working
01 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead video card
02 - dumbass, you plugged in a dead memory module

Any actual fault on the motherboard is not repairable by the end user anyway.

So really we just need all motherboards to have a single two color LED light indicator that Green means OK and red means dumbass.

There is an argument that might could be made that a "cpu good" indicator was needed. However IMO the failure rate of a new CPU is basically zero if installed correctly and the keying makes it almost impossible to put one in wrong not to mention the 5 pages of color pictures in the manual telling one how to do it. So maybe a tri-color LED, Green - OK, Yellow - dumbass, Red - too stupid to build a computer.
Click to expand...

haha, that was awesome. I have set that yellow light off a couple times myself, but that's what you get for taking used memory off a friend's dead computer :D
 
Old Hippie said:
..."fixed" the lack of Debug LEDs by purchasing one of those PCI analyzer cards and...
Click to expand...

Could've really used one of these, back in "the day" (1997); I had no idea they were this cheap now.

Too bad they still can't clean out the chassis' mouse droppings or 1CM think cake of nicotine yet.

Where's that Nanotech damnit, besides on my "stain-free" Dilbert Pants.


:confused:



Glow
 
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