Video card not being recognized

[FireballX301]

EDIT: Apologies for title, but this is a mobo issue

Specs:

AMD Athlon XP 64 3200+
ASUS A8N-E
Former video card: Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT
Test card: Gigabyte GeFroce 7300 GT
New card: XFX GeForce 8600 GT

Right, rather long story to get into.

My computer's been regularly freezing and forcing hard reboots (video buffer stops refreshing, sound loops) for a while. It would work fine every so often. I attributed this to heat.

Two days ago computer froze. Upon a hard reboot the screen was garbled - displayed gibberish on the BIOS boot screen. You could kind of make out the Energy Star logo but all text was garbled with vertical lines streaking the screen.

So I tested this again with the 7300gt I pulled out of another comp. The computer booted up fine. I stuck the 6600 into said other comp and display was garbled. Video card was the issue, I got a new card.

Today I got the new card (8600gt) and put it in. I booted up into PnP VGA and started downloading the new drivers. Right after I finished the download the comp froze. Hard reboot got me into a strange POST error which I found out was this:

AwardBIOS -- The only AwardBIOS beep code indicates that a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information. This beep code consists of a single long beep followed by two short beeps. Any other beeps are probably a RAM (Random Access Memory) problem.

I looked into it and I figure I need a new BIOS to support the new card, right? Well, strange thing happened when I put the 7300gt into my comp to download the tools to flash the BIOS.

I get the same POST with the old card, so I think the BIOS is corrupted.

So I'm looking to automatically flash the BIOS, without a floppy disk drive and with no video. If I recall correctly my BIOS boot order defaults to floppy->cd->HD and I don't have a floppy drive. Are there any utilities that can be burnt to CD that automatically flash the BIOS without any input on my part?

And of course if flashing the BIOS doesn't work I'm in for a motherboard replacement, but I'd like to avoid that.

 

[raybay]

You can replace the BIOS by going to the manufacturers web site and looking up that motherboard, then downloading it to a disc, and installing it in SAFE mode. Then
You must delete or disable the old video drives in Device manager, and install the new ones as well.
If you cannot see the Device Manager in System ->Hardware->Device Manager, then you need the help of a computer bench.

 

[Tedster]

BIOS won't corrupt itself. You have to manually screw it up.

Read the BIOS guide in the guides forum.
Always uninstall old drivers BEFORE installing new cards.
Also ensure your computer has adequate POWER to handle these beefy cards. You may need a more powerful PSU.

 

[FireballX301]

I've read your BIOS guides, and I've just made my boot disk with a new BIOS ready to flash, but I have no display at all - no video card that I've put in has resulted in a successful boot, they've all POSTed 1 long beep followed by 2 short ones.

Does there exist a boot disk that automatically flashes the BIOS with no input from me? I can't quite do anything without a display.

 

[raybay]

After doing a thorough review of that board and manual here in our shop, I am quite certain that you can get this fixed with a BIOS reset, then look at your memory modules, instead of the video card as the source of your problems.
ASUS requires very specific memory modules for that board. You can find the memory types that they require on the www.ASUS.com site. You must have two approved memory module installed as a pair, or four identical modules installed as two pairs.
Then here are the fixes related to that model. It involves resetting the BIOS by the switch method you find in the ASUS manual, or removing the battery and following this list of to-dos.
1: Please confirm whether you added memory. If added, please take it out and boot up again.
2: Please take out the battery, and use the AC adapter to boot up only, then put the battery back in.
3: If there is a reset hole on your notebook, please use a spiculate pin, or long unfolded paperclip, to tip the small reset hole at the bottem of the notebook.
4: If the problem not get solved, please contact your dealer for help or contact the local service center for a detailed check for the laptop. With that beep code, your best bet is to re-set the BIOS.
5. The BIOS reset instructions are in your manual, or if you no longer have your manual, then at the www.ASUS.com site. You will need to know your socket (mine is 939) and specific model.

The lack of a screen can be, and usually is, caused by the memory modules being changed, but can be done by the video card. Regardless, the BIOS must be reset... or updated. Since you cannot update, you must reset.
Or take it to a dealer to have it reset.