Flashing Bios........

admirable

admirable

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This is maybe a bit too geekish for some,

Young lad I know has a a deasktop pc, for some reason the bios will not recognise the sata hard drive. The drivers for the graphics card are on the hard drive and as a result there is no vga output.

So, we have a pc that needs the bios updated to recognise the sata drive but a blank black screen with no info on it cause the drivers for the graphics card are on the hard drive that the bios cannot see, if that makes sense.

How do we flash the bios.

The MB is a MSI neo2 and has a reputation for this problem.

any ideas presuming it's the bios at fault?
 
The BIOS screen does not need the graphics drivers. You should see some output from the BIOS on the monitor during booting.

The BIOS can be flashed in various ways depending on the age/type of motherboard. Every one I have flashed has been able to be done by using a bootable floppy containing a flash program and bios files. Some of the later ones can be flashed from within windows.
The motherboard manual will have a section covering it. MSI website will probably have a copy of it if the original is lost.
 
Hmmm, we have nothing at all on the screen, the fans spin on the power unit, pc and graphics card and the cd drive and keyboard lights flash. The hard drive also spins but no vga signal.
 
Quick question, have you added any new hardware> I had the same issue on time which was due to memory on the motherboard, if I remeber correctly I had to remove one stick of memory for the Graphics card to start up correctly.

When the PC starts up usually the graphics card fan will spin fast and loud for a few seconds then slow down and quieten down. If the fan does not slow down then the graphoc card is having problems, which is when I removed some of the memory from the motherboard, I think from 4gig to 3.

Also windows itself can have an issue with Sata drives if they drivers are not loaded. Which is another can of worms.
 
Deffo not the graphics card/leads/monitor.

I'm unsure as to how the POST shows on the screen if the drivers for the graphics card are on the hard disk.
 
admirable said:
Deffo not the graphics card/leads/monitor.

I'm unsure as to how the POST shows on the screen if the drivers for the graphics card are on the hard disk.
Click to expand...


graphics cards have their own 'BIOS' this allows the motherboard BIOS to output basic text based graphics at switch on. It's only the full OS that needs a driver
 
mrgubby said:
graphics cards have their own 'BIOS' this allows the motherboard BIOS to output basic text based graphics at switch on. It's only the full OS that needs a driver
Click to expand...


Ah, funnily enuf I did think about that but dismissed it.

Looking more like motherboard now.
 
i'd go with eeversons diagnosis, see if you can borrow another graphics card (since it is easier to swap than the mobo) also it would be good if the other gfx card was something basic, and doesnt require alot of power, which could rule out a power supply problem leaving the motherboard as the culprit.

And i can i confirm you dont get any sort of beeps from the motherboard?
 
It's a RD480 Neo2 mobo with ATI radeon X800GTO 256mb graphics.

I have swapped cards.

There is one beep and it should mean all ok according to Google
 
admirable said:
Hmmm, we have nothing at all on the screen, the fans spin on the power unit, pc and graphics card and the cd drive and keyboard lights flash. The hard drive also spins but no vga signal.
Click to expand...

This happened to me on my old desktop and it turned out to be the PSU. Took ages to figure it out because everything "sounded" like it was working - I think there wasn't enough power getting to the system.

On saying that though, the server computer at work also had exactly the same problem and it turned out the motherboard had popped. I came back from holiday to find that other staff had been messing about with it trying to power it on and off (it had hung) and they must have rocked the base unit pretty hard because one of the motherboard pegs had broke off. I'm guess the board touched the case and when pop! :shrug:
 
Probably worth popping on a different PSU from another machine.

You do have the VGA lead in the correct socket on the back of the PC?
 
If the board has a VGA port, then pull everything, and leave 1 stick of ram, 1 CPU + fan, and the PSU attached. If there is no output, then remove the RAM and CPU - if there is still no output you have a duff board. By now it should be beeping like crazy too. If it isnt beeping and the PC speaker is attached, thenyou have a faulty board

The display should be indicating failed RAM test or no CPU
___

Do you get a post beep?
 
if you do get a display, reattach everything one by one, rebooting each time you replace something, starting with the CD drive. There is a scenario, where a duff CD drive can prevent a HDD form being recogninsed, because it takes the controler down

Caveat
try not to remove the heatsink from the CPU, it is usually bonded with thermal past. If you remove this, you wil need to re-paste it
 
yep good point alex - press the menu button on the monitor - it ought to self test
 
Thanks guys,

Monitor is ok, mobo does not have it's own onboard vga port.

No output from vga or dvi via card.

Tried two different monitors.

Everything works/fires up as it should, just no output to the screen.

The question is why would the mobo (MSI) manufacturer bring out an upgrade to the bios that allows it to 'find' the sata drives?
 
You make no sense from a diagnostic point of view

How can you diagnose the PC is not detecting a SATA drive if you have no VGA monitor output?
 
admirable said:
The question is why would the mobo (MSI) manufacturer bring out an upgrade to the bios that allows it to 'find' the sata drives?
Click to expand...
Because products (e.g. sata HDD's evolve and software writers (i.e. BIOS SW engineers) either screwup, or fine tune thier software to remove bugs, or add additional functionality for new HW
 
Richard King said:
You make no sense from a diagnostic point of view

How can you diagnose the PC is not detecting a SATA drive if you have no VGA monitor output?
Click to expand...


I just presumed the drivers for the card were on the hard disk and after googling this mobo most faults were non detect of sata drive.

I have removed the small mobo battery to reset the bios to default but still no vga output.
 
admirable said:
I just presumed the drivers for the card were on the hard disk and after googling this mobo most faults were non detect of sata drive.

I have removed the small mobo battery to reset the bios to default but still no vga output.
Click to expand...

but it doesnt matter if it cant find the HDD, it will boot and then wait around for a hard drive or dvd to boot off. You'd still get output on the screen, since this hasnt happened with two cards you're looking at the motherboard or PSU. (assuming the monitor + vga cable you are using worked before?)

The single beep does mean a successful post, so it is an odd problem, so you just need to double check all the connections and then try different hardware combos.....also try removing anything extra, like hdd's dvd drives and even usb mice, just use a ps/2 keyboard for now.
 
When you turn a PC on, it hasnt loaded any drivers at all, but the VGA should still work, thats why it ususly looks awful n the first few seconds of a PC switching on. As your OS loads, a VGA driver is loaded, which utilises the card more fully

If you remove everything except the VGA card, if it isnt beeping then the issue is with the VGA card or Board. If you remove the VGA card, and it still isnt beeping, the issue is the board. A duff VGA card can prevent POST

The board may not beep if the "PC speaker" is not connected. The board ought to beep to indicate no RAM or VGA is installed

If it is beeping, come back and tell me what beeps you are getting (i.e. short / long) continious burst of 3 beeps etc.
 
Have you plugged the power cable into the graphics card? There should be a small black socket at the opposite end to where the monitor cable plugs in. Not having the power cable plugged in would stop it giving any output.
 
lepster74 said:
Have you plugged the power cable into the graphics card? There should be a small black socket at the opposite end to where the monitor cable plugs in. Not having the power cable plugged in would stop it giving any output.
Click to expand...

There is no power cable for the card. It is a pci-e card and there are two slots, one for an extra card if req.

This is a link to the pc

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews110072.html

Also I cannot hear any beeps at all, so unsure if the one beep I heard was from the onboard speaker or even if the onboard speaker is connected.

This is very good of you guys to spend time on this, really grateful!
 
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