Debug cards

[fref]

A friend of mine has a problem with her PC since last week. The computer appears to turn on properly, but not image appears on screen, and no hard drive activity is heard. I unplugged everything non-essential from the motherboard (video is onboard), and the problem still occurs, so I am at a point where I think the problem is either a defective motherboard or a defective CPU.

So, I was wondering, are those debug cards that you put in a PCI slot and check the error code on a LED display any good? How good/precise are they in identifying problems? Are there different features from model to model that I should look for? I am considering buying one because I often have to deal with problems similar to the one described above.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[fref]

Anyone?

 

[cubby1223]

Well, you'll stick the post card in the pci slot, and it'll tell you a number. Now, what does that number mean? Hardly any motherboard these days lists post codes in their documentation.

Was more useful back long ago. But nowadays everything's plug & play, self configured, and self correcting, that post cards do not help much at all. They used to tell you what to troubleshoot & reconfigure. Now they just say, yep the motherboard cannot boot.