Kingwin PC Computer Motherboard Analyzer Kit [Digital PCI & ISA PC SDRAM NA Motherboard]. 4 Digit PCI & ISA PC Tester, Diagnostic Debug Post Card External Display (CMBA-4)

I'm really shocked they still make these. I was in no place to use one in the 90s, but I remember them being a fairly big thing years ago. The manual didn't explicitly say it otherwise, but it made reference to machines being under or over 300Mhz and gave a list of backdoor BIOS passwords that I know I saw being passed around on the Web as old lists fifteen or more years ago. Like, probably 286/386 era stuff!I used the ISA header on a late 486 system with PCI from 1995, and it did indeed give post codes which corresponded to the Phoenix BIOS codes in the manual.

So I’m rebuilding my graphics PC after 7-years of use, and I’m using a brand of motherboard that I haven’t used before for reasons I won’t bore you with. Anyway, trying to count ‘beep codes’ is a royal pain and online searching suggested getting a ‘POST (Power On Self Test) diagnostics card’ as it will read and display the various codes during boot up. OK, apparently these things are still being made; but aren’t as common as they used to be. So I find one on Amazon with a decent rating for $10. Yeah…yeah, I know $10 isn’t that much for a diagnostics tool; but I found some for half that amount out there with worse ratings.OK, so I order the thing, and it plugs in and doesn’t blow itself or anything else up; but it doesn’t do anything either other than light up the LED’s on the thing. Big deal I’ve got LED’s laying around that I can connect a battery to if I want pretty happy lights. I thought you might like to see the quality construction of this piece of rubbish.1. The first picture is the instruction manual; yes, it did come with a manual written in English that was halfway understandable; but it didn’t explain what the jumper cable is used for and where on the PC it plugs into.2. The second picture shows the QA/QC stamp that they couldn’t even be bothered with putting a checkmark over the month of alleged manufacture. Notice a couple of the black components are scuffed like they were scraped up on the factory floor.3. The rest of the photos show the ‘quality’ construction from Kingwin's supplier. Yes, that is hot glue holding the components on the remote display instead of solder. I just love how carefully some of the doo-dads were properly seated on the boards.So now a bit of commentary as I can’t resist. The environmentalists tell us the earth is in danger due to pollution, etc, etc, etc, ad nauseum; but I have yet to hear one peep out of them over all the Chinese products that ends up in landfills, roadsides, waterways, etc due to poor quality; the amount of resources used to make and transport this junk all over the world; the amount of resources and time used to process this stuff once it reaches the landfill; the amount of energy used to return this junk to the merchant or send it to the landfill, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

I used this item to diagnose a computer that turned on with fans spinning but no beep or boot. I knew psu and disks were good. This item gave me code 00, pointing to bad cpu. I replaced cpu; computer is up and running.

works but what good is it really?

This worked really well for the retro machine I was building. I have an old Baby-AT Socket 7 board that wouldn't POST. Using this card, I could easily tell what was going on and determine that the board was actually getting stuck at loading from the lack of contact from the CPU pins.It's an incredibly useful tool for the price.

Probably one of my better investments as a repair technician. It really helps me pinpoint specific issues when I’m diagnosing. I’ve used tried it on computers as early i486-dx socket 3 motherboards successfully.

After reading the manual I plugged the device into my motherboard, I turned my computer on and one of the chips on this device immediately exploded and caught fire. This product can either not be used on PCIE 5.0 slots or is completely worthless

This item has the most inadequate set of instructions that I have ever seen on a piece of computer gear. 1) the 4" x 3" 31 page "manual" is printed in such small type that you need a magnifying glass to read it. 2) When I searched the Web for a readable manual, it was available as a .pdf download from the Kingwin website, but the file was little to no help, other than for listing the individual error code explanations. 3) There is no explanation as exactly what to do to initialize the board in order to use it. My only clue was to find and read instructions online for a competing product from another vendor. 4) Port J2 on the Analyzer board, intended for connecting the included jumper cable to a motherboard speaker, shows no identifiable polarity markings. Motherboard speaker ports have distinct +/- polarity pins shown in their respective board manuals. I'm frankly disappointed in Kingwin for selling a product with such a poor manual. Plus, although the English manual is readable, it is obvious that the text was not translated (Taiwanese product) by a person for whom English was his/her primary language. Usually Kingwin's products are of much better quality, but then again, most do not require anything much more than being plugged into a socket to work. Next time, I'll purchase something that is US-made, if I can find such a product.