Please help! I hosed my PC!

Capt Quirk

Capt Quirk

Veteran
My video card died yesterday morning, and I put a new one in last night. The new card would work in DOS and safe mode, but as soon as it finished with loading windows the screen would go black, like it had no signal.

This is where it really went bad- I changed some settings in the bios menu. Now it powers on for two seconds, beeps, and shuts off. How can I wipe the bios?
 
What did you change?

It's possible you have a faulty card.

Or, you have the screen resolution set to something it can't display.
 
There should be a jumper that you can take off (or put on) that resets the bios. What motherboard do you have?

And I agree with David, it's probably set to something that can't be displayed. I had the same problem once. But first get the bios back to normal and then fiddle with the videocard settings..
 
I'm not even sure what all I changed now. I should know by now NOT to change stuff when I don't have a clear mind. I believe it was just simple things like fan shutoff, temp alarms, and along that line. It is an Abit KN8 Sli with PCIe.

And thanks for the quick replies! I'm a panicking!!
 
Start from the simple stuff, is the cable fit on correctly?

Another thing is if the refresh rate from the previous card can be handled from the new card.
 
Thanks PK- the jumper got me back in. However, it still goes black after the XP load screen. The old card was a ATI X800, and the new card is an X300. A smaller card, but it should be compatible with the old settings. I didn't have them set too high.

A secondary problem also started with all this, and my raid 5 is broken. It shows one disk and asks if I want to power off, destroy, or continue. Then it shows the other two disks, and asks the same thing. Do I destroy the single disk, and try to join it with the other two?
 
Are you able to get into WinXP with Safe Mode (press F8)? If so you need to uninstall the driver for the old video card. Go into Device Manager and unistall it.

Not sure about the RAID. But I would click Cancel until we figure out the videocard problem.
 
Yes, that bios flush helped me get back into safe mode, and I did clear out all references to the old card, including the software. After enabling vga mode, I was able to get windows in 640x480 or something. We'll see what happens after reinstalling the new card.
 
Welcome home, Captain...

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Ok, just an update- I got the Bios cleared, and the new video card is working fine. Of course, I lost my wireless network which lead to the demise of my Linksys router. After going through many channels of tech support, Sapphire is going to replace the video card. It seems that AMD has bought ATI, and their support has really gone south. You have to register your product before they will even allow you to access to tech support. I really used to be a loyal customer of both companies, because their support was fantastic. Linksys was somewhat easier to deal with, even having lost the receipt and box.

Now... anybody know how to turn off those pop up bubbles on the task bar?
 
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