cannot see BIOS screen

[johnbhoy]

Strange problem this. I have worked around it before as i had an old crt monitor i used to plug in but i have now got rid of that.

Basics are that when i boot up my pc i only get a picture on the screen when it starts actually booting into windows. Now this is fine most of the time but i need to get into bios to change some setting and i cannot do it. I have tried pressing delete whilst booting up so i believe the pc is sitting in bios mode( cos it does not continue to boot into windows)

Think its due to crappy monitor . its an acer al1714. the message on the screen when i cannot see anything is "input not supported" so would indicate to me that something like the refresh rate or resolution is too high or low whens its initially booting up, hence why i cannot see anything. Once windows is up though it uses the specified settlings so i can then see whats going on.

Anyone had this before. or better yet know how to fix it ???

As above i used to use an old crt monitor that i would plug in just to change things if needed and i was able to see boot up screen etc on that.

Edit - Should add the card is an older pci ATI 9600se and that the monitor is woken up when booting up the pc. I just get a black screen before booting into windows.

 

[dnrc]

judging by your description i would say there wasn't much you could do except getting another monitor.

you could try hitting DEL or whatever you would use to get into the bios and then trying an auto adjust on the monitor though.

 

[faiz]

Strange problem this. I have worked around it before as i had an old crt monitor i used to plug in but i have now got rid of that.

Basics are that when i boot up my pc i only get a picture on the screen when it starts actually booting into windows. Now this is fine most of the time but i need to get into bios to change some setting and i cannot do it. I have tried pressing delete whilst booting up so i believe the pc is sitting in bios mode( cos it does not continue to boot into windows)

Think its due to crappy monitor . its an acer al1714. the message on the screen when i cannot see anything is "input not supported" so would indicate to me that something like the refresh rate or resolution is too high or low whens its initially booting up, hence why i cannot see anything. Once windows is up though it uses the specified settlings so i can then see whats going on.

Anyone had this before. or better yet know how to fix it ???

As above i used to use an old crt monitor that i would plug in just to change things if needed and i was able to see boot up screen etc on that.

Edit - Should add the card is an older pci ATI 9600se and that the monitor is woken up when booting up the pc. I just get a black screen before booting into windows.

What the problem is the monitors refesh rate, now what you need to do is get into you bios and slow down your boot,so you can see it.

Getting in simple as pressing ESC and F2, what ever the keys are requiredto get into the bios.

 

[little_pob]

If you've got onboard graphics remove the ATI card and see if that solves the issue. If it does you might want to upgrade to a newer gfx card.

If you're using DVI try VGA or vice-versa.

 

[johnbhoy]

ta.

got it sorted. Have a small portable tv so managed to connect the tv out to that and i could see the bios on the tv. Job done.

cheers