BIOS Updates forum

I have the follwoing behavior on all tested graphic boards:
When I power on the computer nothing will be shown on my screen. When I reset power off and on the video appears on the screen.
This doesn't work always. Sometimes I have to do this several times. Another way is to turn on the computer and wait for the
graphic board to switch from VGA to the mode used in windows. This works quite seldom.
I also observed that it works more less when the computer has been tuned off for a while.
Everything works fine when I use a PCI card!
I have tested several displays (CRT, TFT, attached using D-SUB and DVI, different cables).

machine info:
MS 6117 Bios 3.2 (patched to support 128MB)
Pentium II 233

Tested boards:
Matrox G550 AGP (32MB)
Maxi Gamer Phoenix AGP(16MB)

Matrox Millienium II PCI (4MB)


Thanks a lot!

AFAIK the MS-6117 was one of the early AGP mainboards with an older power spec having less Amperages available to power AGP cards - maybe this is a problem here .
Maybe it's only some kind of loose contacts .

Denniss wrote:AFAIK the MS-6117 was one of the early AGP mainboards with an older power spec having less Amperages available to power AGP cards - maybe this is a problem here .
Maybe it's only some kind of loose contacts .

Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately this sounds quite reasonable.

I have one particular ATI AGP card which works fine but the connector pins are shorter than what they should be, meaning the board easily looses connection with the card, unless the card is seated very firmly with a fair amount of pressure and there is not much movement to cause possible shifting of internal components.

So just check your AGP cards - the pins should be about the same length as what they are on a PCI card

The problem I had was no POST.

Also make sure that the seating of the board allows for correct and full seating of cards.

2Ritchie
Thank your for the hints. I will check it.
I have contacted MSI and they told me there is no known limitation. The cards should work ok.
They gave me some additional hints:
1) Check the mainboard battery. It should be between 2,8V and 3.2V (checked it's ~3.05)
2)Remove mainboard out of the tower (will test this soon)
3)Clean your AGP port (will test this soon)