"A2" might not be a problem (Taichi z370)

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I have a good tip to pass on! Manual for my z370 has an omission.

During outside-the-case breadboarding I tried power-up to prove ability to POST before placing 
everything inside the case. I borrowed a cheap HDMI-only monitor from my work area that 
might have had weird interface characteristics... or the HDMI drivers aren't
 native, but there were never ANY glimmers of successful POST during 
these attempts. I always ended with "A2" displayed on the LED code 
display. This has a message provided in the mobo manual requiring that 
the user remove all SATA or IDE (!) devices. Nothing like that was 
connected at this stage. The only other piece attached was my new 
Samsung 960 Nmve 512 M@ "drive".

I called ASRock 
headquarters and asked if I could speak to someone for a tech question, 
and a helpful gentleman told me that "A2" was a "good" code. I should 
check the HDMI cable or the monitor. He told me that this code would be 
displayed after the stage of POST during which the screen was asking me to hit F1 or F2 for the dive 
into the BIOS. (There are two other function key interrupts listed on that splash image...)

In other words, I had missed the prompt to go to the BIOS screen(s). I saw the BIOS as soon as I 1. switched for another monitor that I connected to the DisplayPort output of the motherboard graphics instead of HDMI, and 2. hit "F2" as the board was initializing and the codes were flying by. 
He was right. That other monitor did it - a Display Port unit. There was the BIOS, aqua colors and to me, as big as Manhattan. Beautiful.
 (That second monitor a bit old and VGA/DVI - so the cable had a DP-to-DVI 
adapter on it and that was OK for this situation, thankfully.)

So
 the printed manual was misleading about the meaning of "A2". At the 
very least it leaves out important possibilities in the code's meaning. I mentioned that a word about this would be an excellent addition to the manual; the tech was defensive a bit, telling me that the error text segments were "given to us" by what sounded like an electronics group outside ASRock's ability to control. Odd. The purpose of the manual is to help *and" keep tech calls to a minimum to help the company's bottom line. Win-Win when done well.

Let me say that I was very grateful he was staffing the phone and I told him so. I would have gone nuts waiting for answer by web-page-inquiry form (while my work surfaces were occupied by an uncompleted build...) 

Edited by jonathan7007 - 30 Nov 2017 at 4:52am

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jonathan7007 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 28 Nov 2017 Status: Offline Points: 58	Post Options Post Reply Quote jonathan7007 Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply *Topic: "A2" might not* be a problem (Taichi z370)** Posted: 30 Nov 2017 at 4:50am
	I have a good tip to pass on! Manual for my z370 has an omission. During outside-the-case breadboarding I tried power-up to prove ability to POST before placing everything inside the case. I borrowed a cheap HDMI-only monitor from my work area that might have had weird interface characteristics... or the HDMI drivers aren't native, but there were never ANY glimmers of successful POST during these attempts. I always ended with "A2" displayed on the LED code display. This has a message provided in the mobo manual requiring that the user remove all SATA or IDE (!) devices. Nothing like that was connected at this stage. The only other piece attached was my new Samsung 960 Nmve 512 M@ "drive". I called ASRock headquarters and asked if I could speak to someone for a tech question, and a helpful gentleman told me that "A2" was a "good" code. I should check the HDMI cable or the monitor. He told me that this code would be displayed after the stage of POST during which the screen was asking me to hit F1 or F2 for the dive into the BIOS. (There are two other function key interrupts listed on that splash image...) In other words, I had missed the prompt to go to the BIOS screen(s). I saw the BIOS as soon as I 1. switched for another monitor that I connected to the DisplayPort output of the motherboard graphics instead of HDMI, and 2. hit "F2" as the board was initializing and the codes were flying by. He was right. That other monitor did it - a Display Port unit. There was the BIOS, aqua colors and to me, as big as Manhattan. Beautiful. (That second monitor a bit old and VGA/DVI - so the cable had a DP-to-DVI adapter on it and that was OK for this situation, thankfully.) So the printed manual was misleading about the meaning of "A2". At the very least it leaves out important possibilities in the code's meaning. I mentioned that a word about this would be an excellent addition to the manual; the tech was defensive a bit, telling me that the error text segments were "given to us" by what sounded like an electronics group outside ASRock's ability to control. Odd. The purpose of the manual is to help *and" keep tech calls to a minimum to help the company's bottom line. Win-Win when done well. Let me say that I was very grateful he was staffing the phone and I told him so. I would have gone nuts waiting for answer by web-page-inquiry form (while my work surfaces were occupied by an uncompleted build...) Edited by jonathan7007 - 30 Nov 2017 at 4:52am
	Taichi z370, i7-8700K, Samsung Pro960 512GB, Asus GTX1060 3GB GPU, EVGA 850 PSU, Win10

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 24638	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 Nov 2017 at 6:29am
	Thanks for sharing


jonathan7007 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 28 Nov 2017 Status: Offline Points: 58	Post Options Post Reply Quote jonathan7007 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 Nov 2017 at 8:44am
	Xaltar, It's a way to give back to all those who help me in a forum like this. I do appreciate your thanks. Documentation is so sparse, and in fairness to the companies that offer such sparse docs, a huge percentage don't read even these thin booklets or have poor reading comprehension. (...was a elementary teacher so I know this first hand...) And RTFM was a [sad]thing even back when docs were thick books written carefully by tech writer specialists. So we crowd-source it and have the responsibility to get aback in and share. And hope the search algorithms are up to the task!
	Taichi z370, i7-8700K, Samsung Pro960 512GB, Asus GTX1060 3GB GPU, EVGA 850 PSU, Win10

DrFranco Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 13 Aug 2018 Location: San Diego, CA Status: Offline Points: 1	Post Options Post Reply Quote DrFranco Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13 Aug 2018 at 11:28am
	Thank you so very much! Based on the manual this code would indicate a SATA error. Been banging my head against the wall for hours because of this.

dez496 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14 Aug 2018 Status: Offline Points: 1	Post Options Post Reply Quote dez496 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 14 Aug 2018 at 3:19pm
	I know this is an old post but I am confused. Should I try out another monitor, new cable?

"A2" might *not* be a problem (Taichi z370)

"A2" might not be a problem (Taichi z370)