BIOS screen resolution too big for monitor.

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DumboDog

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Jan 23, 2012
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Need advice. I built a system based in part on the Jan 2012 Tom's article for best price/performance. Link for the article here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/332702-31-2012-price-performance-build

However, I'm running into a big problem which is really ruining my week. I have a 19 inch VGA plug-n-play monitor that was good enough for my old system. I'd like to keep it. I can't see the point in buying a new monitor when I'm so happy with my old one.

However, it seems the BIOS for the MSI H67A-G43 (B3) motherboard doesn't want to play nice with my plugs, and it seems to be a problem at the BIOS level. The pitifully inadequate manual didn't name the BIOS manufacturer, but I'm guessing from the support page that it's some type of AMI BIOS. And based on my problems, the AMI BIOS may be too nifty to be usable.

The problem is, when I start the system (with no disk drive), the MSI logo comes up but it's in the bottom right of the screen and clipped off, as if the monitor is in 800x600 and the VGA port is outputting in 1200xwhatever. Now, my monitor (an old Pixie from Fry's) worked fine in 1200 or 1024 or 1920 in my old system with a Radeon 9600.

I tried using the onboard VGA output from the MSI motherboard, and I tried using the output from the new HIS Radeon 6870 card. Both of them give the problem described above.

I'm starting to think the problem isn't fixable with this motherboard and this bios. Am I being too hasty? If so, can you recommend a different ATX motherboard with a BIOS that's not too cool for my monitor? I want at least 4 DIMM slots, at least one PCIEx16 2.0 (better, two), and at least one or more SATA 6.0.

 

OldRon

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Feb 11, 2012
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Well, I don't think the monitor is the problem because I tested the monitor just in the last two days, plugging it into two laptop VGA ports. The first, an ACER 3680 (about three years old), the second a Dell z15, (six months old). And it worked fine on both systems, mirroring the image on the laptop screen almost immediately. Furthermore, I have used the same monitor with several different graphics cards over the years. Always worked fine with all of them. So the monitor itself is in decent shape and was ready to play and be happy with everything else in the computer world... until this week!

Yes, it does have a built-in VGA cable, that goes directly to the housing. That can't be changed.

Anyway, we're dealing here at home with arguments over my stubbornness and curiosity versus time and money. I have had it recommended over at tech-guy that ASUS motherboards have a different BIOS, so I'm going to take one more stab at this by unscrewing everything, ordering an ASUS board, rebuilding, testing again with the monitor, and RMA-ing this MSI board after the fact if the ASUS works.

Board I've ordered now:

ASUS P8H67-V (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131783

I've shown this thread to some friends, and they are laughing their asses off at it, in particular because of my post about how this all OFFENDS me. Well, yes! Let me explain that. My MS is in Computer Sci, but more in the math and AI end than the hardware PC board end. Still, I have an engineer's sense of the rightness and wrongness of design flaws, and that is an aesthetic and moral sentiment that can run rather deeply at times.

If a piece of hardware (or software or anything else in this world) works fine, and then a new piece of improved hardware (or software or anything else) comes along that is newer and has more capabilities, then the issue of backwards compatibility with the older hardware should be related to the difficulty of retaining that compatibility. If the new capabilities make it impossible or even difficult, for instance, different protocols, etc., then backwards compatibility is a burden worth sacrificing. But if it's NOT difficult, if it's just something you stop doing because "it's old stuff and you should buy new stuff..." that's not GOOD DESIGN. That's just offensive.

I've been hoping that somebody would tell me why new systems can't speak to my old monitor by telling me that some new protocol has made it impossible. That would make sense to me. Perhaps such a new protocol or capability would have a name, something to be boasted about in the tech sheets. But that's not what happened here. My perhaps petty suspicion is that somebody at AMI just decided, "f*** 'em all, let'em buy new stuff. Let's rip out this thing over here that already works because nobody will miss it." That's retail-mentality lazy thinking. It offends me as an engineer.

Yup. Comical. I know. I'm amused with myself. I feel like Alex in Clockwork Orange with his eyes pried open yelling, "This is wrong! Beethoven never harmed anybody!"

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

  1. Seeking help with illogical problems always makes the person seeking help come across as being a weirdo.
  2. It's a common practice for respondents that don't have an answer to tell a person to replace their components.
  3. Telling the community about your diagnostics is futile because it seldom fits THEIR narrative.
  4. Google is your friend..... if you are willing to overlook their desire to own you.