Cold Boot Corruption

[oralpain]

Try a different vga BIOS.

[andshrew]

I've just put a XFX 7950GT card in a system with a Foxconn P9657AA motherboard and am having the corrupt BIOS screen issue as well. I also get 'Invalid DVI Display Mode" on my monitor sometimes at boot up. Leaving the PC off for about ten minutes usually fixes it.

Just wanted to know if either of you had received replacement cards and, if so, if that fixed it. I'm still suspicious that this is some other type of incompatibility issue between the motherboard/card/BIOSs etc. as the card is rock-steady once running under Windows.

Thanks.

Hi there Boggle,

I did actually send my card back for a replacement however they say it isn't faulty based on all the tests they did (unfortunately they couldn't test it on the same motherboard I have), so I am infact still using the card. I've also started getting the Invalid Display Mode error since receiving the card back however the frequency of the problem has become more random. For instance the last couple of days I've turned the machine on without any problems at all, it just seems to occasionally have the corruption now
I agree with you it seems like this is more of a compatiblity issue between some of the components rather than it actually being something broken.
At a bit of a loss really as to where to go from here, I've still got to try the lattest motherboard BIOS so maybe that might help...VGA BIOS's where can you download them? Are they normally provided on the manufacturer's web site?

[notsobig]

This site has got a few.
http://www.mvktech.net/component/opt...tfolder/cat,4/
but maybe you should contact Leadtek first and ask if they have new or beta bios rom for your graphic card.

BTW, here is a quick rundown of how to flash your bios with floppy(just incase you forgot)
1. Make MS-DOS bootable floppy from you floppy drive's right click menu option,
2. Dowload this file, http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1469
Double click on exe file that will extract "Guru3D.com" folder. Open "setup" sub folder that contains another 2 sub folders. Open "5.33" folder and copy nvflash.exe and CWSDPMI.EXE on your floppy disc.
3. Download bios file(usually ends with .rom extension) and also copy it on your floppy.
4. Reboot your PC and once floppy drive is ready to accept your command, type
nvflash -b backup.rom(your current bios will be saved as "backup.rom" on your floppy)
nvflash -4 -5 -6 new.rom(this has to be the name of the new bios file you wish to flash with)
5. Wait until you recieve "completed" or "successful" dialog and don't shutdown the puter while flashing.

BTW, bios flashing always inviolves risks so be careful. Good luck.

P.S. Where did you get your card from? They really should have given you a new replacement card, hmm.

[emperoralku]

My card is finally in the post after 4 weeks. Mine was apparently faulty. I'll post the results here once i get the card.

This whole RMA thing for PC components is ridiculous. They should replace if the thing is faulty out of the box, not force you to wait 5 weeks for a replacement!

[Boggle]

Just a quick update. I returned the card to the supplier who tested it cannot find any fault (although, of course, they didn't test it with the same motherboard).

I since bought a cheapo ATI card and tried that without any problems at all so I think I'm going to ask for a refund and go for an ATI X1900 instead.

[andshrew]

I've sort of found a solution to this problem at long last (though not really ideal ). If I leave my USB steering wheel pluged in all the time the computer boots everytime without any problems whatso ever.

I'm not really sure why this seems to fix it but it does