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Newbie question about red LED
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MidnightBanshi View Drop Down
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    Posted: 05 Mar 2017 at 11:15pm
red led on board

I just built my system yesterday, and everything seems to be working just fine. The only problem - and I'm no sure it is a problem, is that there is a red LED at the bottom of the board, and when I boot up, the display next to it is showing something like A2 or A6, which in the book seems to be a SATA error, yet all drives work just fine.

The image shows the light, and how I have my SATA drives hooked up.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
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MidnightBanshi View Drop Down
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Points: 17 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MidnightBanshi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar 2017 at 11:18pm
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Xaltar View Drop Down
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Points: 24053 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Xaltar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Mar 2017 at 12:10am
There is nothing that can be done about it, it indicates which BIOS is in use. I stuck a bit of black electrical tape over mine LOL
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Xaltar View Drop Down
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Points: 24053 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Xaltar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Mar 2017 at 12:13am
As for the Debug LED that is perfectly normal behavior. The only time it indicates a problem is if the system hangs, freezes or otherwise does not work during POST. If there is a problem the indicator will display a fixed code that will give you an idea of where the problem is coming from.

If the Debug LED clears and the system begins to boot the system is working fine, or at the very least it has passed all the POST tests/initialization. 
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parsec View Drop Down
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To add a bit more detail, your board has dual UEFI/BIOS chips, normal and backup. The red LEDs next to the UEFI/BIOS chips (with the labels with "1.30" on them, identifying the UEFI/BIOS version installed at the factory) identify which UEFI/BIOS chip is being used, if there is any question in the owners mind.

Your board's full User manual describes these things, which seems to be a Z270 Taichi, and can be downloaded here:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z270%20Taichi/index.asp#Manual

If the OS booted, or you can get into the UEFI UI, POST completed successfully. The SATA drive POST tests and initialization are the last things done in POST, since hardware like the CPU, memory, video source, etc, must be working correctly before the SATA drives can be checked. Plus SATA HDDs are much slower to begin working than the other hardware in a board.

You may see a residual POST code on the Dr Debug display after POST completes. Any Ax POST code is related to SATA or other storage drives.
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Xaltar View Drop Down
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Points: 24053 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Xaltar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Mar 2017 at 1:40pm
Thanks for adding more info Parsec. I will also add that you will typically only get residual post codes if you set the Debug LED to always on in the UEFI. In this case it will usually display an A(x) code as Parsec said.  

If the system is booting into the OS then it is completing post successfully regardless of POST codes displayed. The debug LED is only useful when the system fails to POST, otherwise just ignore it Wink
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wardog View Drop Down
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In playing around here previously, IIRC, if you Disable the Good Night LED in the BIOS these codes Dr Debug displays will not be shown/displayed/lit up on it after the BIOS passes off to the OS.

I forget now just how I did it here once. But I think that does it.
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parsec View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Xaltar Xaltar wrote:

Thanks for adding more info Parsec. I will also add that you will typically only get residual post codes if you set the Debug LED to always on in the UEFI. In this case it will usually display an A(x) code as Parsec said.  

If the system is booting into the OS then it is completing post successfully regardless of POST codes displayed. The debug LED is only useful when the system fails to POST, otherwise just ignore it Wink


You're right, that is an excellent point, I don't have a window in my PC cases, so I don't see the Dr Debug display. That should be the difference between the Auto and Enabled settings.
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MidnightBanshi View Drop Down
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Points: 17 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MidnightBanshi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Mar 2017 at 4:30am
Originally posted by wardog wardog wrote:

In playing around here previously, IIRC, if you Disable the Good Night LED in the BIOS these codes Dr Debug displays will not be shown/displayed/lit up on it after the BIOS passes off to the OS.

I forget now just how I did it here once. But I think that does it.
I found how to keep the alpha-numeric display to go out after it goes to the OS, but the bright red beacon next to it stays lit.  I think I'll just take the advice I saw earlier in the post and just put a neat square of electrical tape over it.
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