PCI post card query

[GraFowler]

Dear Fred,
I'm currently working on a friends desktop computer that won't boot, his son was working on it one moment, closed it down then when he went to turn it back on nothing happened but there is a power light coming on and the hard drive light flashes intermittenly very slowly and a noise from the dvd drive trying to work.If I put the PCI post card in will it show me what was the last known problem before it crashed even though it won't boot.
Thanks
Graham

[fwilson]

GraFowler,

The POST card will display the POST code that is being executed.  It is not necessarily an error as it displays POST codes not POST error codes.

This can give an indication as to what is holding up the boot process i.e. if it hangs on a code that relates to memory then memory is the likely culprit.  Likewise if it hangs on a PCI process a add on card is suspect.

-Fred