Long boot phase with no video

[Mandi]

I'm reparing a machine that has an odd long boot phase without video. I don't get a video signal until the machine is all the way up to the XP login screen (you know, click on the user name and supply your password.)

I can *hear* it going through the POST, etc. - but no visual. The big problem is that it also seems to not be accepting input either - I can't force the BIOS screen to pop open, and I also cannot view the POST to see what BIOS version we have. (I'd like to flash the BIOS if it needs it, which I suspect it does.)

Ideas? Maybe reset CMOS?

[Randall]

Does this PC have both onboard video and a video card by any chance? Surely it's sending a video signal somewhere ... I don't get a video signal until the machine is all the way up to the XP login screen (you know, click on the user name and supply your password.) That would be the point where the Windows video driver kicks in, I betcha. Is it some kind of oddball video card that doesn't support standard VGA?

Randall

[Mandi]

Does this PC have both onboard video and a video card by any chance?
:stardanc: http://www.stehnfamily.com/yaaps/smilies/kiss.gif http://www.stehnfamily.com/sharing/dunkindonuts.gif

Thank you, that was it exactly. I *knew* there was a reason I like to pull legacy equipment . . . but client said to leave it (to better protect it from mucky toddler fingers at their house, I suspect.)

He added it at a time when his onboard stuff was screwy, a situation that continued to deteriorate to the point where it came home with me. Yeah, 200 Ad-Aware hits will do that to a machine :eeww:. Client, meet your new firewall . . .

And holy cow, I cannot believe how much that second card situation was slowing down the boot cycle . . . !! I'm confident that improvement alone will make it worth having the card pulled.

[Randall]

Now I feel like I actually earned that pastry I had with my lunch. :smile:

It wasn't a donut, but you take what you can get... And holy cow, I cannot believe how much that second card situation was slowing down the boot cycle . . . !! I'm confident that improvement alone will make it worth having the card pulled. There might have been a BIOS setting to disable the onboard video -- people generally do want to see what's happening during the POST, after all. :wink: Maybe it would have shortened the boot process a little?

Randall

[Mandi]

I'll disable it if he decides he prefers the card's video to what's onboard; I would myself, but they are not doing anything remotely high-end where the difference will be noticeable.