No DVI Display During Post \ Weeeirdd POST Codes

Franklyn

I removed the OEM VGA card - Gainward GF4 MX440 SE 128 MB AGP 4X
driver : " NVidia N17 vga BIOS v. 4.17.00.69.00 "

and installed a DVI-I out card - ATI All In Wonder 9000 Pro 64 MB AGP 4X
driver : " ATI RV250 BIOS 113-95901-100 "
My plug and play Flat Panel Monitor has both VGA and DVI-I inputs.

Now I must toggle the monitor controls to enable VGA mode during boot
up if it's not already in VGA, otherwise booting becomes interminably
long. If the Flat Panel Monitor is left set to DVI mode, no Boot screen at
all will display, only when Windows XP finally does load will the Monitor
display video in DVI.
When powered on, the OEM Nvidia card immediately displayed
" Nvidia VGA BIOS N17 v. 4.17.00.69.00 " preceeding Boot up. When this
DVI-I Radeon is powered on, there is no display of an ATI video BIOS
before the Boot screen.

I believe that either the motherboard BIOS does not support DVI display
during booting or else the ATI video card's firmware BIOS has some
compatibility conflict with the motherboard BIOS or the motherboard AGP
driver.
I have tried reinstalling WindowsXP, the ATI Catalyst drivers and nothing
else.
I have already contacted GIGABYTE about the Award BIOS and have
reflashed their latest edition F5 BIOSfor this GA-7DPXDW-P motherboard.
System interrogation utilities identify it as:
Award 6.00 PG, AMD2P-42302e31.

A checkpoint code P.O.S.T. diagnostic card displays POST Codes that are
not standard Award BIOS POST Codes not v. 4.51 and not v. 6.0 .
GIGABYTE is unable to provide any information for this.

If the sequence is begun in DVI mode, the display shows Code <E2> this
then becomes <A2> just before windows loads.
If the system has been inactive for several days, the POST Code is <AA>
when turned on in DVI. Then resumes as above.

When started in VGA the display shows code <A2> as the Boot screens
appear accompanied by a single Beep and Flash of the keyboard number
lock LED.
A warm Boot always begins displayng <A2> in VGA.

After the POST screens, prior to initializing Windows, the display
permanently becomes <00>
( i.e. checkpoint diagnostic completed )

Once Windows is initialized the BIOS LED flickers for ten seconds until the
Windows XP desktop displays on the Monitor. Before and after this activity
the BIOS led is always dark.

Do you have any thoughts on any of this? I'm at my wits end.

P. S.
I could edit the bios modules if I knew how and what,
with " Award Bios Editor "
see < http://awdbedit.sourceforge.net/ >

Ritchie · BIOS Guru Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 761

I know that Windows does tend to change the display mode around a few times, so that between the time you press the power button and the Windows desktop is fully ready for your use, the display will change, shift, flicker and go in and out of standby and other modes a little. However if it all comes up properly in the end I do not get too concerned.

I did not think the DVI for an add-on display card came into play in a mainboard BIOS, but I could be wrong.

With regard to your monitor settings always defaulting back to VGA, I suspect you may be changing the settings when you set the monitor, but not choosing the option to save the setting, in which case the setting would default back the default on power-down.

Franklyn · Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:33 pm Post subject:

Thank you for your imput, I am now wondering if my monitor's driver
may be responsible. I dismissed the idea since it is a signed driver that comes with the Windows XP cache. I know that other's have had troubles with Dell monitiors not displaying in DVI and remaining in sleep mode, though mine is a Philips Flat panel, I will contact Philips.

Franklyn · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 7:47 pm Post subject:

It seems I am my own best troubleshooter, I was right. Below is Philips
response :

We have had a few reports of problems with ATI video cards, where they are not
running a VESA standard driver during the bootup process. Once Windows is
enabled a VESA driver is used, so the problem disappears. We have no fix if this
is the problem.

You might try to download and install the specific monitor driver from the URL
below to see if that makes a difference, but since the problem is in the boot
process I do not expect it will

Ritchie · BIOS Guru Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 761

Possibly the monitor may not be keeping it's settings, even if you think you are saving them. I came across an LG monitor this week that seems to revert back to default adjustments after a while, with no user intervention.