Alpha Diagnostics Beep Codes
Beep codes are helpful for when the machine has no other means of output,
for example a machine failing Power-On-Self-Test (POST) in the middle of
a headless cluster.
The following sounds may be emitted by Alpha Diagnostics in error
situations:
-
dot dot dot
- Machine check. Either a hardware ECC error has occurred and been detected
by the processor, or the motherboard system controller (often referred to as
the southbridge has detected an error and generated a Non-Maskable
Interrupt (NMI).
-
dash dot
- VGA Warning. There was an attempt to initialise a VGA device
which failed.
-
dot
- Console Warning. No console is available, or an attempt to
start a new console routing has failed. Sometimes these beep codes are
generated if there is no default console set (using the tty_dev
environment variable) and Alpha Diagnostics is looking for likely possible
console routings.
-
dot dot
- Software Error. A software error has occurred. Often this means
a bug in Alpha Diagnostics but it is also possible that the machine is
confusing the software in mysterious ways.
-
dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot (SOS)
- Halt Button Asserted. On the CH320 chassis, there is a
toggle-switched halt button next to the reset button. If this switch is
on then SRM console will not start. Alpha Diagnostics checks for the halt
button state and notifies the user if it is asserted.
-
dash dash dot dot
- Irregular System Timer. The system periodic timer interrupt is
measured against the processor cycle frequency to check for irregular, fast
or slow rates. If the system periodic timer is not accurate then this may
lead to drifting system time measurements while running the operating system.
-
dash dot dot
- Jumper Setting Mismatch. The motherboard jumpers are configured in
an invalid combination which may lead to undefined consequences or
system failure.
-
dot dot dot dot
- Processor Frequency Miscalculation. The CPU clock speed is passed
to Alpha Diagnostics from the reset PALcode (SROM). This value is
cross-referenced with the motherboard configuration jumpers. If they are not
matched then an alert is raised. This error condition may be related to
a jumper setting mismatch or an irregular system timer.
-
dash dot
- Reboot Timeout. On reboot of an embedded operating system kernel,
the primary processor waits for all other processors to "call-in" before
signalling the reboot. If the number of processors that calls in does not
match the number of processors participating in the original boot, this
error condition is signalled.
-
dash dot dash dot
- Reboot Failure. On reboot of an embedded operating system kernel,
if Alpha Diagnostics is unable to reload the kernel or PALcode for restarting
the OS, this error condition is signalled. It may mean that the firmware has
become corrupted.
-
dot dash dot dash
- System Health Alert. All API motherboards are designed with
integrated system health monitors. These devices include temperature, voltage
and fan speed sensors. If a system health monitor is found to be operating
outside its designated safe range then this alert is raised.
-
dot dash
- Non-volatile log corruption. Diags has found that the ROM region
used to store system log messages has been corrupted, and is not in a
workable state. An attempt will be made to "roll over" the log and start
again.