Asus A7V8X-X no POST screen if HDD

[Penley]

I'm installing an A7V8X-X as an upgrade. I wonder if I have a bad one. It boots OK, but I don't get a splash screen during the POST unless I unplug the hard disk drive. When you cold-boot all my other computers, the screen shows:

1. Message about the video BIOS.
2. Energy Star logo
3. Memory check counter.
4. Message to press Del for setup.
5. Eventually, you get a display from the BIOS of all the found drives and IRQs or some such.

With this board, I get 2 results depending on whether the HDD is connected. Without the HDD, I get:
1. Asus display with green ball and fancy "A7V8X-X" picture and "Press Alt-F2 to autoflash the BIOS.
2. Display of all the found drives, etc.

WITH the HDD, the screen is black through the POST. The first thing I see is the list of drives, with the top part already scrolled off the top of the screen.

This doesn't look right. Anybody know what I SHOULD be getting? Or what's causing this? The BIOS boot setting for "Full Screen Logo" is Enabled.

I'm using BIOS 1005, but 1006 gave the same results.

Thanks, all.

----------
Asus A7V8X-X
Athlon 2500+ Barton
Zalman CNPS3100+ cooler
512 Mb Crucial PC3200 DDR400 (BIOS set to 266 for now, to match the FSB)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
WD 80 Gb
Creative CR-R
Lite-On CD-R/W 48x24x48
Sound Blaster ?
Pc Power & Cooling Silencer 400
Windows XP Pro

BTW, memtest86 shows no memory erros after 2 hours. CPU temperature is 37 degrees C.

 

[mechBgon]

If you haven't tried already, jumper your WD drive for "Single Drive" and put it on its own IDE cable (at the end connector). Good luck!

 

[bootoo]

yup, that's what I had to do - same problem!

 

[fell8]

What abut overall boot times? Is the monitor "cold" when booting?

It could be taking a little longer looking for HW when the HDD is detatched, giving the monitor more time to display early boot-up info.

 

[Penley]

Thank you all!

1. The motherboard is OK, since you have the same problem. I don't have to RMA it. That's the good news.

2. But, man, this is wierd. Indeed, if I set the HDD as a master (with the jumper on the drive), then problem solved. At boot, I see the usual BIOS report. But then the HDD doesn't work. So I see that the HDD setting controls the problem, but it's not a solution.

I'll live with it. I thought Asus would be better than this. Oh, well.

In any case, if I press Del when the lights on the keyboard blink, I'll get the BIOS screen (not the boot report screen, but the screen where you can change things).

3. Another factor is the monitor. I have a beautiful Samsung 172T set up to use the digital cable (out of the Radeon 9700Pro graphics card). If I'm using the digital cable, then even the BIOS screen doesn't come up. Until I turn the monitor off and then on again. Then it's OK. With the analog cable, the BIOS screen comes up fine without the off/on business.

So I've buttoned the case back up and sent #1 son off to college with a note about all of this in the box that has the computer manuals. Since he never goes into the BIOS anyway, it'll be OK.

Thanks to all.


3. Of course, you have to Disable the splash screen display (a BIOS setting), or you get the green Asus ball instead of the default BIOS report. But OK.