公开(公告)号：US06393586B1

公开(公告)日：2002-05-21

申请号：US09245148

申请日：1999-02-04

Applicant: Jeff Sloan ,  Tim Sullivan ,  David Springer

Inventor： Jeff Sloan ,  Tim Sullivan ,  David Springer

IPC: G06F1134

CPC classification number: G06F11/006 ,  G06F11/2284

Abstract: Method and apparatus for conveniently diagnosing and conveying to a user the cause of a catastrophic failure during POST of a non-booting PC is described. In one embodiment, when an ID code identifying a POST procedure is written to port 80h, the ID code is also written to a POST code field in a non-volatile memory device. If the PC “hangs” prior to completion of POST, there will be a non-zero byte in the POST code field identifying which POST procedure resulted in the hang. Accordingly, if during boot-up of the PC, a non-zero byte is detected in the POST code field, the ID code will be beeped to the user to identify the POST procedure that caused the PC to hang. If POST completes successfully, the POST code field is set to zero and POST continues through the normal sequence. In an alternative embodiment, after the ID code identifying the next POST procedure to be performed has been written to port 80h and to the POST code field, a timeout value is added to a watchdog timer, at which point the POST procedure is initiated. If the watchdog timer times out, the PC will automatically re-boot. Upon re-boot, if the value stored in the POST code field is non-zero, the POST code field value will be beeped as a message to the user, as described above.

Abstract translation: 描述了用于在非启动PC的POST期间方便地向用户诊断和传送灾难性故障的原因的方法和装置。 在一个实施例中，当将识别POST过程的ID代码写入端口80h时，ID代码也被写入非易失性存储器件中的POST代码字段。 如果PC在POST完成之前“挂起”，则在POST代码字段中将有一个非零字节，用于标识哪个POST过程导致挂起。 因此，如果在PC启动期间，在POST代码字段中检测到非零字节，则ID代码将被提示给用户以识别导致PC挂起的POST过程。 如果POST成功完成，则POST代码字段设置为零，POST会继续通过正常的顺序。 在替代实施例中，在将要执行的下一个POST过程的ID代码写入端口80h和POST代码字段之后，将超时值添加到看门狗定时器，此时POST过程被启动。 如果看门狗定时器超时，PC将自动重新启动。 重新启动时，如果POST代码字段中存储的值不为零，则POST代码字段值将作为消息发送给用户，如上所述。