quick disappearing startup messages

[staynuts]

When my main PC (with Vista 64) starts up, I see just before a few black screens with some text in white

- when you turn the PC on, the system will find the hard disks and so on
- then you get the Clear NVRAM or something line...
- then it clears up and showing a half page of messages in white, but get no time to read it and it jumps to the startup screen of Vista...

I suspect there is an error message between, which results in my horrible graphics on my new system...

is there a way to hold down each progress after the clear NVRAM message so I can read it... or dumping everything into a log file, so I can read it somewhere... don't know how to else find it out and solve my problems with my XFX 9800GFX graphics card...

 

[Dwarf]

Hi staynuts,

Welcome to the Vista Forums.
These messages are POST (Power On Self Test) messages generated by your BIOS. To halt the startup process temporarily whilst you read these screens, press the 'Pause' key on your keyboard (sometimes the key is marked 'Pause/Break'). When you have finished reading the screen, press any key to continue (I usually press the spacebar). To disable these messages altogether, refer to your motherboard manual and enter your BIOS setup routine. Look for the option to enable quick POST and set it to enabled. Also, look for something along the lines of Verbose Post Reporting, and set that as disabled. Save your settings, and these screens should no longer appear during startup. Your boot process should be quicker as well. Finishing with a question, what problems ARE you having with your graphics card? Problems cover many things, and we really need more details in order to assist you.
Dwarf

 

[staynuts]

Thanks for your answer & the welcome. It goes so fast and tryed already a few times to hold it with the pause/break button but each time I am too late. Thinking to put my videocamera in front of the screen and to film the startup proces. Then rewind it and stop it on the right moment, can even play back by image for image... Before I go change anything like to know before what the problem exactly is, how can I else resolve it without even knowing what is...

The problem with my graphics card is during games.. When I use for example Flightsimulator X, after a while the driver will stop, get some flicker and the screen goes on total black. Yesterday I installed a race game to see how my graphics card is responding on that one... it's Test Driver Unlimited.... can startup the game, select everything but after a while, get some colorfull pixel everywhere on my screen and gets then more and more. Is a kind of snow of colorfull pixels everywhere. Can close the application and get even some colorfull pixels on the vista desktop itself. Resetting the computer helps...

system is a Intel E8600 on a Asus P5KR with 8GB RAM and a XFX 9800GFX

 

[Dwarf]

Hi staynuts,

When you next boot up your system, just keep repeatedly pressing the 'Pause/Break' key 2 or 3 times a second. This is usually sufficient to stop the boot process so that you can see what's going on. As regards your graphics problem, this could be due to overheating. Check the airflow in your system. Are the fans the correct way round? Fans at the front of the case should be towards the bottom of the chassis pulling air in to your system, whereas fans mounted at the rear should be higher up and forcing air out. There are arrows on the fan casing to tell you the direction of rotation and also the direction of air flow. More often than not, air flows towards the label. Make sure that these fans work, also check that any vents in your system are clear and unobstructed and that the fan blades themselves are clean..
Dwarf

 

[staynuts]

Hi Dwarf, thanks for your reply.
That 'PAUSE-way' you described, tried many times but it goes too quick. During the startup process it even clears the screen a few times… doubt it has to do with any POST, think more with Vista itself… That’s why I gonna do it later today with my camera to find out what exactly is displayed…

Doubt overheating is the source of my graphic card problems, don’t know or you know the XFX 9800 GFX videocard but that one has a big fan on the card. My system is also mounted in a 19 inch racksystem and has standard already more fans than an average PC case. My system has 2 big fans in front, 2 on the back, one of the PSU and two on the top. The rack itself has a built in cooling system. Has nothing to do with overheating. If overheating should be the problem, then the problem should continue when I reset the system, electronics don’t cool down from just a simple reset.

This is a typical Vista 64 bit or a driver problem as I get the message ‘’ DISPLAY DRIVER STOPPED ‘’…

 

[Dwarf]

Hi staynuts,

Please post back with whatever information you can after you have filmed it. As regards the error message, I presume it is this one 'Display Driver Stopped Responding And Has Recovered' (not sure of the exact words), I provide a link to the main 'Vista Quality Assurance' page at nVidia. Click on the link 'Report a bug with the NVIDIA graphics driver'.
Dwarf

Vista Quality Assurance

 

[eashishkalra]

Hi

I am getting the same problem regarding startup message for vista ultimate 32 bit. It displays few black screens with some text in white. This is not happening when i am using vista Home basic on the same laptop also this is not an issue with POST and BIOS as otherwise it has to happen for Vista Home basic as well.

When I tried to read the message it is something related to ACHI as it is very quick so i am unable to read it completely.

Please help if there is some more information on this.

Regards
Ashish Kalra