Monitor will not display bios setup screen

[lsilvest]

I recently had a short in my system and had to RMA and replace the motherboard - LanParty UT Nf3 250GB, and the power harness. After replacement, the system booted fine into Windows XP Pro SP2 and everything seemed fine. Since it was a new board, I wanted to check the bios settings, so I tried to enter the bios setup. It was apparent the system had paused and entered the setup, but I could not get the video (Samsung 191T LCD) to display. I next tried resetting and pressing f8 to see if the windows boot options screen would come up, but no luck there either (in either case, it was obvious the system had entered those screens and was waiting for input). I could still get Windows to boot alright and the display was fine there.

 

I thought maybe resetting the bios might help, but now the system is pausing at the setup screen waiting for input, and now I can't get past that for windows to boot. I tried booting with an old Win98 boot disk, but nothing there either, and I could get nothing using a boot disc for flashing the bios. I tried switching from DVI to Analog, but no luck there either.

 

I hooked the monitor up to my laptop and booted into the bios setup for the laptop and the monitor worked fine, displaying the bios setup screen.

 

I don't have another video card available to swap out the AIW 9800 Pro that's in the system to see if that's the problem. If it didn't work at all it would be much easier to diagnose. It's apparent the problem has to be either the video card, which could have been damaged by the short, or some problem with the AGP slot. I'm going to see if I can get another video card to swap, but would like to know if anyone has run into this same problem before, or has any other ideas or suggestions.

[sir_italia]

Ok first off you need to make a signature or no one will be able to help u out.

Have u tried to clear the cmos and left it for 10 minutes?

[Branjo]

Yeah bro you need to tell us what components you have in your system so people with similar setups can help you better. at this point it could be anything and we would just be guessing.

[lsilvest]

Sorry, I only listed the components I thought were relevant, but here's the whole system:

 

Antec P160W case w/2 120 fans

Ultra 500W PS

DFI LanParty UT Nf3 250GBC

AMD 64 3700+ CPU w/Zalman CNPS7000 heatsink/fan

2-512MB Corsair XMS3200C2 Memory

ATI AIW 9800 Pro 128MB video card

Seagate Barracuda 300MB SATA 150 boot drive (no Raid)

160MB WD IDE drive

2 I/O Magic 16 DL DVD RW drives

3.5 Floppy drive

A-Tech wireless KB and mouse.

Windows XP Pro SP2 w/ all updates

 

PS was tested, voltages fine. Last check when in Windows, CPU temp 39, system temp 27 or 28 and voltages all within range.

 

System was running fine in Windows, all components working, no glitches or crashes. Only reason it won't boot to windows now is after resetting the bios it's obviously hanging up at the bios setup screen, waiting for input (such as change of boot devices, etc) and I haven't been able to get the right key combinations to get into and out of setup so it'll proceed to boot. Somehow, the monitor is just not receiving a signal (or the right signal) until windows starts to boot. I realize some LCD's have a problem initializing, but this one never has and still doesn't as evidenced by the display off the Laptop boot. It's not the keyboard either, because I could tell the system was hesitating when I pressed the delete key to get into the bios setup before I reset the bios. Total failures are much easier, this one is just strange.

 

Hope this information helps.

[4x0n]

Put that info in your sig, it's pretty clear in the forum rules. There is a 7 day ban for starting a help thread without system specs in you sig. Just a heads up.

[lsilvest]

Thanks 4xON, Signature has been entered - didn't see it when I registered.

[Barney Fife]

Hi lsilvest. Welcome to DFI-Street.

 

After reading your first post, it appears to me that, when you got your replacement board and fired-up, your LCD won't display after bios posts. And also you can't get into Windows Safe Mode either.

 

Did you clear CMOS and fresh-install Windows after you got the board and set it up?

 

Did you setup BIOS (Boot priority) drive accordingly?

 

Did you setup Video display option in the BIOS to AGP?

 

Did you OC CPU/GPU/RAM Etc?

 

Is your SATA drive limited to 1.5GB instead of 3GB by placing drive jumper apropriatly to

 

1.5GB?

 

Also what version of the BIOS are you using?

 

Please post the answers.

 

 

Good Luck.

[Branjo]

Maybe the monitor's resolution is set to high to display the BIOS which is a very low resolution to begin with. Sometimes my LCD will do what you described and I just turn it off and on and it re-recognizes the resolution.

[lsilvest]

Hi lsilvest. Welcome to DFI-Street.

 

After reading your first post, it appears to me that, when you got your replacement board and fired-up, your LCD won't display after bios posts. And also you can't get into Windows Safe Mode either.

 

--- NO -- no display UNTIL windows boots - system will boot to windows and run normally with normal display - video will not display until windows boots. I am sure it will get into bios setup, but cannot tell for sure with black screen. I can tell what is going on just from the normal boot procedure, but cannot see anything. I mentioned F8 only to point out that when pressing F8 key just to see if I could get the windows boot options screen to display, I could tell system paused, but still no video. I didn't need Safe Mode since windows was running fine. It's like the video card is sending no signal or the wrong signal until the windows drivers set in.

 

Did you clear CMOS and fresh-install Windows after you got the board and set it up?

 

--I stated I had cleared CMOS (for more than 1/2 hr) and wish I hadn't because now I cannot boot to windows since the system is pausing waiting for me to go into bios setup, most likely to reset boot order (which is normal when a drive is replaced or in this case when CMOS reset). After I installed the board, windows booted right up, which actually surprised me, but it was the same model MB that was in there before and all other components were the same.

 

Did you setup BIOS (Boot priority) drive accordingly?

--It was originally alright since it was booting to windows fine and you can't set something you can't see - that's the problem.

 

Did you setup Video display option in the BIOS to AGP?

--Again, the problem is I have no display to see the BIOS setup screens. Besides, the BIOS always defaults to PCI initially but this has never prevented recognizing the AGP card.

 

Is your SATA drive limited to 1.5GB instead of 3GB by placing drive jumper apropriatly to

1.5GB?

--No - drive is working perfectly and for this problem, it wouldn't matter if I even had a drive or an OS since the BIOS and post screens should still display.

 

Also what version of the BIOS are you using?

--I don't know, I couldn't see any screens until windows booted and I forgot to check when I could still get to windows to run diagnostics and system info. I would think that DFI RMA would have installed the latest BIOS which was May of 2005. Remember, I just installed the board and have never been able to see the screen to check anything in the BIOS setup. The video card could have been damaged by the short in the system when the MB died and there was no way to tell until I installed another board.

 

I just got back from picking up an old AGP and a PCI video cards which work and will swap them into the system tomorrow as it seems the problem really has to be with either the video card or possibly the AGP slot/MB. If the AGP card works I'll know it's the video card, if it doesn't work I'll try the PCI card and if that works it says the slot/MB is the problem. If neither works, I have no idea where to go. I posted this mainly because I have never run into this specific problem nor even heard of it before and neither have a couple of people I know that have computer shops - apparently neither has ATI. I thought it was interesting and a little more than strange.

[Brando]

Have you tried using a PSU-connection keyboard?

[Barney Fife]

--- NO -- no display UNTIL windows boots - system will boot to windows and run normally with normal display - video will not display until windows boots. I am sure it will get into bios setup, but cannot tell for sure with black screen. I can tell what is going on just from the normal boot procedure, but cannot see anything. I mentioned F8 only to point out that when pressing F8 key just to see if I could get the windows boot options screen to display, I could tell system paused, but still no video. I didn't need Safe Mode since windows was running fine. It's like the video card is sending no signal or the wrong signal until the windows drivers set in.

 

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Your problem is that you can't see the BIOS-Posting but Windows does load fine and you can log? Wow! your problem is one a kind, first time I ever heard of.

 

--I don't know, I couldn't see any screens until windows booted and I forgot to check when I could still get to windows to run diagnostics and system info. I would think that DFI RMA would have installed the latest BIOS which was May of 2005. Remember, I just installed the board and have never been able to see the screen to check anything in the BIOS setup. The video card could have been damaged by the short in the system when the MB died and there was no way to tell until I installed another board.

 

I would think that DFI technicians would flash BIOS to the oroginal version the baord was sold on, Or they loaded more stable up-to-date version of the BIOS. Either way, if you can log into Windows, download CPU-Z system tool here http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php . It will give you all the system info of your rig including BIOS version.

In the "Mainboard" tab of CPU-Z, write down the "Date" in the BIOS section and post it here please.

 

I just got back from picking up an old AGP and a PCI video cards which work and will swap them into the system tomorrow as it seems the problem really has to be with either the video card or possibly the AGP slot/MB. If the AGP card works I'll know it's the video card, if it doesn't work I'll try the PCI card and if that works it says the slot/MB is the problem. If neither works, I have no idea where to go. I posted this mainly because I have never run into this specific problem nor even heard of it before and neither have a couple of people I know that have computer shops - apparently neither has ATI. I thought it was interesting and a little more than strange.

 

Try both cards with your system and see what happens.

It could be ATI not getting alone with NForce3, or unstable/out-of-date BIOS. Who knows. Anyway you look at it, that's some weird problem you got there.

 

If none of the above works, drop a line or give DFI support a call.

 

Good Luck.