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Q-Led Code List?

ShadowC
Level 7
Does anyone have the whole q-code list for the IX series, i find that the one in the manual is not so good and missing alot of q-codes...
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4 REPLIES 4

Korth
Level 14
I could find no such list.

I also can't imagine any real use for a complete list, unless you're deliberately attempting to display every possible error code for entertainment. 😛

When people can't find their Q-Code in the manual (or they simply don't bother to read the manual) they always specify their Q-Code while asking what it means and how to fix it - you might find some "missing" Q-Codes revealed/explained in the responses to their questions.

I've found that ASUS has a tendency to recycle their design blocks (in hardware and in firmware), modifying and updating and optimizing each version and revision as needed for each specific platform (re-)release. This isn't a bad thing, it saves time and money and effort, it allows them to build upon proven tech they already understand intimately instead of wasting their efforts figuring out how to invent the wheel from scratch again and again (and engineers always have to work within the many restrictions imposed by their bosses, shareholders, competitors, budgets, timelines, supply chains, regulatory protocols, marketing teams, and customer demands). In practice this means that the latest-and-greatest ASUS tech always packs a bunch of (unused?) legacy ASUS tech: undocumented Q-Codes for newer ASUS products sometimes turn up in the documentation for older ASUS products.

I've also found that the overwhelming majority of "missing" Q-Codes (in my R5E firmware, anyhow) are in fact not present and thus could never be displayed. Although I admit my examinations/analyses of R5E BIOS images were not at all exhaustive or complete. ROG mobos (probably) also run additional (proprietary and code-locked) firmware in their magical "ROG Chip", although I don't think any of it relates to the Q-Code display (which seems to be fully defined in the UEFI/BIOS images).

From time to time people ask about strange (non-hexadecimal, non-readable) Q-Codes which actually turn out to be some sort of malfunction in the Q-Code module or even in the LEDs themselves. Adding these one-of-a-kind sorts of things to the list would be meaningless.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]

JustinThyme
Level 13
The user manual has whats in use.



“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, I'm not sure about the former” ~ Albert Einstein

Chino
Level 15
ShadowC wrote:
Does anyone have the whole q-code list for the IX series, i find that the one in the manual is not so good and missing alot of q-codes...


Like which ones?

Korth
Level 14
All of the documented and observed Q-Codes are hexadecimal values (00 through FF) which allow for 255 discrete permutations, even if fewer than 255 are specified in the user manuals. ASUS could have deliberately included undocumented hexadecimal Q-Codes - for factory motherboard testing and diagnostics - for (re)programming proprietary firmware - for ongoing vendor/technical support - for legal protection (as "Copyright Traps", aka "Steinlaus Codes" or "Easter Eggs") - which would only be displayed when interfaced with specialized (ASUS-controlled) hardware or under other extremely improbable and extremely specific conditions.

But the Q-LED panel uses 14 LED segments which (as a group) would allow for 16384 discrete permutations. There's really no reason for undocumented features to obey the same rules as documented features: hidden Q-Codes could be (and, I think, likely would be) non-hexadecimal symbols, "artwork", sequences, or patterns which ASUS would not want revealed in public domain.

I doubt having a comprehensive list of undocumented Q-Codes would be useful for motherboard troubleshooting. It might be useful (outside of ASUS) only for reverse-engineering, hacking, modifying, or duplicating the motherboard hardware/firmware. The Q-LED is only a display: undocumented Q-Codes cannot be exploited the same way as undocumented opcodes, changing values on the Q-LED display will not change any motherboard functions (aside from possibly triggering internal errors, faults, and halts).
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]