BIOS Updates forum

I just put together a Shuttle AV18E-based system. The screen goes blank during the hardware detection/POST phase of boot-up.

At the start of boot-up, the video card identification displays, then the screen goes blank for a few seconds, and suddenly the System Configuration table pops up. (If I hit DEL during this period, the BIOS Setup comes up fine.)

My video card is a Diamond Stealth 2500. An antique, I know, but it's all I need. Since, as I said, the card does identify itself at the start of boot-up and otherwise the display is fine, I don't see how it can be the problem.

No BIOS setting that I've tried has any effect.

The board came with the most recent version of the BIOS. I don't want to try reinstalling it unless there's a good chance that will do the job.

Anybody have any ideas?

In my case it's the monitor. It seems to take a while to sort out the scan frequency and blanks the screen until then. Pressing the reset button usually allows me to see POST, but quite often I get the same results as you. In my setup the monitor is a Fujitsu e176i and it doesn't matter what mobo/video card I use.

Is there an AGP/PCI Boot Order option the CMOS setup? What is it set to?

I have Init Display set to PCI, although I did try switching it to AGP. I also tried toggling QuickPOST, Show EPA Logo, Video BIOS Shadow, Video RAM Cacheable, and even tried changing the Video mode (but it automatically reverted to EGA/VGA). Nothing made a difference.

In my initial post I mentioned that the video card logo does display at the start of boot-up. It occured to me that perhaps this is generated by the video card itself, without involving the motherboard or BIOS at all, so no inference can be drawn from it. Yes or no?

One of the early phases in POST is to look for a video adapter ROM to allow the display to be initialised. If it's there, control is passed to the video BIOS, which is why it normally displays before all the other garbage.

(If the video card has a BIOS the CMOS should be set to EGA/VGA - the old Mono Graphics Adapter (MGA) didn't have a BIOS.)

Hope that helps.