Abit BH6 - Doesn't POST without Monitor plugged in..help?

[scsi stud]

Hello,

I recently built a Windows 2000 server machine to use as my company's DNS server; everything works fine, however, i wanted to place it in my server room that doesn't have any monitors connected to any machines (i connect via Terminal Server to do admin work on them), but then I realized that without a monitor plugged into my graphics card on the machine, the PC will not POST. The minute I plug the monitor in, it boots up fine.

I can't seem to figure out why this is the case, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[beatle]

Do you get any beeps from the machine when it refuses to post? If you do, what are they?

 

[scsi stud]

Well, I didn't connect anything to the motherboard as far as PC Speaker, etc.. except the Power Switch.

Now I wish I did...

 

[Chad]

Greatest motherboard ever.

 

[scsi stud]

Can anyone provide any assistance in my issue?

It's real odd that I have to have a monitor plugged in so that the computer boots up/POSTS.

Please help!
Thanks.

 

[Budman]

Try going into your bios and find HALT ON ERROR, when you do try setting it to NONE. this way it will keep booting even if it doesnt finds any video,keybord....

 

[busmaster11]

can you remove the vid?

 

[scsi stud]

busmaster,

what do you mean remove the vid? as in Remove the Video card?


Budman,

The problem I'm having is that the machine doesn't even POST.. i mean, you just turn it on, and a blank screen appears... I'll try to set HALT ON ERRORS to NONE and will see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[dkozloski]

There should be a place in CMOS to select a "no video" option.

 

[Budman]

Cant you find an old ISA video card & stick it in there?

 

[johnjkr1]

How do you know it doesn't post if you don't have a monitor attached?

 

[MplsBob]

My new PC is only a few weeks old. When I was assembling it, it exhibited this same behavior. It would get most or all of the way through POST and just stop dead if no monitor was connected.

My motherboard is an ASUS <SPAN class=kimzbig><FONT class=normal>A7N8X Deluxe v2.0</FONT></SPAN>

 

[johnjkr1]

back to my original question..how did you know it stopped?

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: johnjkr1
back to my original question..how did you know it stopped?

(i connect via Terminal Server to do admin work on them

Read his post again.

He connects to it via terminal server,he connects from network,no boot= no connect.

I got a server in my house doing the same but I have an old video card in mine,any video card will do.

 

[johnjkr1]

Don't you still have to login?

 

[scsi stud]

I know it doesn't boot because when it posts, the Floppy drive turns on, doing it's "check", and then it boots to Windows after a minute or so;

when the monitor isn't plugged in, the floppy drive doesn't turn on at all, and then I know that it's not POSTing or booting up.

I'll try the "no video" or "halt on no errors" options in the BIOS, I haven't gotten a chance to shut off the machine and fiddle around with it. Thanks for the comments.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

I would assume since it's pretty old you ahve the BIOS updated?

 

[scsi stud]

Well, I do recall updating the BIOS to the latest version a couple of months ago.

Can it be a problem with the graphics card?

I tried adjusting the BIOS to not halt on anything, but that didn't work.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[scsi stud]

*bump*

I am still having trouble.. I tried resetting the CMOS, and still no good. I have the updated BIOS (dated summer of 2000).

One thing I noticed is that I am using a 512MB PC100 stick, however, the BH6 only recognizes it as a 128MB stick. Could that be it?

Or maybe the graphics card has something to do with it? Anyone?

Thanks.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: scsi stud
*bump*

I am still having trouble.. I tried resetting the CMOS, and still no good. I have the updated BIOS (dated summer of 2000).

One thing I noticed is that I am using a 512MB PC100 stick, however, the BH6 only recognizes it as a 128MB stick. Could that be it?

Or maybe the graphics card has something to do with it? Anyone?

Thanks.

The RAM problem is because you are running "high-density" SDRAM on a mobo not designed to accept it.

The video problem, is most likely due to the video BIOS on the card itself. Some of them don't want to initialize properly without a monitor connected. I believe that they make "dummy load" connectors, to attach to a VGA output, to make the machine believe that there is a monitor connected. Not sure if modern ones can also spoof the EDID data nowadays, or if that added functionality has rendered VGA dummy load cables obsolete. Might check them out at a store that specializes in PC server parts, as I haven't seen them in ages at any "normal" computer store.

Could also consider getting a cheap ($20 at Microcenter, last time I looked) electronic 2-port VGA/PS/2 KVM switch. Those VGA input cables should function the same way as a VGA dummy load cable.

Edit: that all said, I'm not sure that the video is truely the problem here. It could be, but I've never experienced a case in which a system did not POST at all from having no monitor connected. I've had cases in which the VGA card defaulted to a monochrome/greyscale VGA mode, when I finally got a monitor connected later, as well as a VGA card that simply disabled the VGA output altogether, and I had to shutdown "blind" and reboot to get a display back. I actually wonder if you might not be having some other problem going on, some other intermittent hardware boot failure, that you are incorrectly ascribing to the lack of a VGA monitor present on boot.

Still, it would be cheap to test it out either way, using a cheap KVM or dummy load VGA cable, and/or swapping video cards. I suspect that the memory may be causing boot issues too.