computer won't post (vga or mobo bios) but boots into windows

[theNEOone]

like the topics says....the computer won't post any bios, nor will it make any "beep" notifications, but if i wait long enough, it will boot into windows. this only started recently, no major changes to computer - no hardware upgrades, maybe some minor software installations (which shouldn't do anything to the boot sequence).

i have an msi mega180 sff (nforce2 chipset), 2800+, ti4600, 1gb geil ram (dual channel 512mb pc3200), dvd/cd rw

here's a 2:30 video i made. it doesn't show much, i was just bored. video

 

[johnjkr1]

Ummm, that is very wierd. very. What happens if, just after you reboot, you start pressing f2 or delete...does the bios show? Did you maybe try it with the analog/dvi connector instead?

I choose to blame your silly theme.

 

[Alkaline5]

Either your monitor or your video card is slowly dying, one resolution at a time. I had the same thing happen to me with a no-name monitor a couple of years ago. One day it just quit working at anything other than 1024x768x75Hz (which was my desktop setting, luckily).

 

[theNEOone]

Originally posted by: johnjkr1
Ummm, that is very wierd. very. What happens if, just after you reboot, you start pressing f2 or delete...does the bios show? Did you maybe try it with the analog/dvi connector instead?

I choose to blame your silly theme.

F2/delete actually prevent the computer from booting into windows. maybe it's going into the bios, but just not displaying anything on the monitor?

and i'm not sure about my monitor dying. it's a dell LCD that's only 2.5 years old. i know for a fact that it works at different resolutions. what's the native boot resolution btw? i can try it out in windows i guess

 

[Alkaline5]

BIOS res is 720x400x70Hz, POST & windows boot res is 640x480x60Hz. I'll bet one or both of those don't work.

Delete will still send you into the BIOS, but if your comp won't display that res then it doesn't do you any good. Your computer is working properly, you just can't see it.

Edit: I just read what I wrote. If that last sentence isn't "quote" material, then I don't know what is. 🙂

 

[mechBgon]

Hehe 😀

theNEOone, try a PCI video card if you have one.

 

[Alkaline5]

No reply yet, eh?

Methinks someone changed his desktop res without testing it first, and now he's SOL.

 

[theNEOone]

heya, well i tried 640x480 and it works. i couldn't try 720x400 because windows won't let me select that resolution. however, 720x576 worked. both resolutions were tested at 60hz and 8 and 16 bit.

i'm also trying to get rid of a virus on my computer that just popped up this weekend. maybe the virus is at fault?

 

[Alkaline5]

Very strange. I'm out of ideas, then. It's almost as if your monitor decided to go Macintosh on you.

 

[theNEOone]

Originally posted by: Alkaline5
Very strange. I'm out of ideas, then. It's almost as if your monitor decided to go Macintosh on you.

haha, yah. well i just plugged the monitor into the second dvi port and it seems to be working just fine....i guess the other port is dying on me. 🙁

 

[mobobuff]

I've had this problem before with Nvidia cards. And I'm going to assume you're only using one monitor on your ti4600, but I haven't seen the video yet, it's still downloading. What it was, was that the proper monitor configuration wasn't loaded until the graphics software loaded with the OS. So what I would do is first go into device manager and make sure that under the Monitors menu there is only one monitor listed, and not 2 or 3 "Default monitor"s. Also in display properties make sure the monitor is primary. Restart and see if that helps, and if that doesn't do it, then connect the monitor to the opposite port on the card that you are using right now, that port is most likely the default port the card sends the information to on power-up.

EDIT: I see that you already switched the ports and it worked like I figured. I don't think your other port is dying, I really think it's just display software configuration and maybe a design flaw on Nvidia's part.