BIOS POST Code "FF" on Tiger K8W?

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan (More info?)

Hi,

what does the BIOS POST Code "FF" mean on Tyan Tiger K8W (S2875)
mainboards?

Some days ago my Radeon 9600 Pro started to flicker now and then.
Unplugging the monitor-cable and reattaching it seemed to resolve
the issue.
But yesterday after some hours the screen went completely blank
without a warning. So I thought the Radeon might be defective.
I installed an old Voodoo 3 PCI graphics card to check what is
still functional. Surprisingly the Windows XP Hardware-Manager
as well as the Linux tools (lspci and alike) still seem to
properly recognize the Radeon so I supposed it is not totally
defictive at all. I even can start XFree86 using the Radeon but
the screen stays black. The Radeon was removed and I wanted to
use the Voodoo 3 card until I can get the Radeon repaired or get
a replacement card.

But when I switched the computer on today it did only show a blank
screen on the Voodoo 3 Card, too. Even worse it does neither beep
nor boot. So I removed everything but the power supply, one of the
two Opteron 240 and the graphics card. Two other power supplies were
tested, too, but the screen stays black.

Normally the mainboars shows its current state on a small two-
digit display on the mainboard so one can tell what is wrong by
looking into the user manual's appendix where all the hex-codes are
listed.

But in this case the mainboard keeps showing a "FF" BIOS POST Code
right from the start and does not run throught any other states
like normal. One more thing is that it now simply ignores the power-
switch attached to the mainboard. As soon as the power-supply is
switched on, the board does power up and activate all fans. But
that's it - switching power on, showing "FF" and nothing else
happens.

Now the "FF" code seems to be the only one not documented in the
user manual so I do not know what went wrong.

If anyone knows if this is a known issue that can be resolved, please
help.


Regards,
Tony

"FF" on most boards means the board has successfully completed all POST operations and ready to start the OS load.......
On others, and this may be your problem guys, it means there is a power problem somewhere. I have had a PSU go bad once that lit everything up on the board, and spun the fans, but it would do absolutely nothing else.

VooDoo card? Holy cow how long has it been since I ran one of those.....I can't even remember! But I know I had one, or maybe even 2 of them way, way back when......

I had the same problem on the S7002 Tyan board. I fixed this by taking out the battery for about 10 secs and then put it back in again. Give it a try...