VGA bios hang due to vga splitter?

[Leozack]

Here's an oddball. See the following mobo/bios information for some Centerprise PCs

Mainboard Vendor Intel Corporation 
Mainboard Model D845PT 
BIOS Vendor Intel Corp. 
BIOS Version PT84510A.86A.0030.P08.0301300054 
BIOS Date 01/30/2003

They run through a video spltter to output to both projector and monitor. Difference video splitters are used on the same PC with the same issue.
The issue is this - intermitently (often) when you poweron, the only thing you see onscreen is "power magic rage128 pro bios v1.02 -pal" aka the video bios message. The only way to stop this from happening is to unplug the video splitter, turn on, wait til you hear the bios beep (so you know you're past the vga bios bit) and then plug the splitter back in. I've updated the bios to the latest one (2003) and tried different video splitters, but the problem still remains, on ALL of these PCs.
I have some other Centerprise PCs that I don't think exhibit the problem, with these details

Mainboard Vendor Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 
Mainboard Model 6VTXE 
BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc. 
BIOS Version 6.27.10 
BIOS Date 08/22/2001

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Leozack

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[Leozack]

Aw does noone have any clues? I've got absolutely nothing to work on here other than the info I've posted. This has been an ongoing issue and although people know how to work around it, it's really irritating still. I'd appreciate even shot in the dark ideas!

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Leozack

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[Freestone]

Try a different video card?

 

[Leozack]

This is in a whole batch of PCs that use the splitters and I can't replace all the video cards in them since I don't have enough alternatives :/

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Leozack

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[TheLad]

Have you looked at the BIOS versions and upgraded? I would try it on one of the affected PCs to see if there is any difference. It would seem that the affected PCs are running a newer BIOS version? Maybe upgrading to the latest may resolve?

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[Leozack]

I grabbed the latest BIOS for the affected pcs and updated one of them hopefully. Unfortunately it still performed the same after the update so I've not bothered updating the others :\ I'm not sure if the BIOS details for the affected ones I gave above is the latest one or not, as it says 2003 it may well be the updated one.

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Leozack

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[se2000]

Make sure video caching and vga irq are off

 

[Leozack]

Where would that be, in the BIOS? And would that be likely ot cause the hanging at the VGA BIOS *only* when a video splitter is connected to the output?

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Leozack

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[se2000]

Those are both in bios. Since your machine is hanging pre OS, you only have bios and hardware to change.

 

[Leozack]

Thanks I'll try when I'm there next monday

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Leozack

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[Leozack]

Ok well typically the machines I'm wanting to try it on are working fine and not experiencing the problem. But I went into the bios anyway to take a look for those settings, and sadly it seems one of the more basic bios interfaces, and I can't find those settings anywhere, I don't think they're available.

The one I've updated to the latest bios (PT84510A.86A.0030.P08) as opposed to the original (PT84510A.86A.0024.P05) seems no different. They use the intel d845bg board it seems.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d845BG

It doesn't have a built in vga to revert to and I don't have enough other video cards to replace them all

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Leozack

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[se2000]

I never seen a mb that did not have a cache for video or irq 9 for vga that I can remember. They are on different pages so look around. Compare those setting against the working one, match if they are different, disable anyways just to try if they are the same. Lastly, unistall the video card and reboot and reinstall.

 

[Leozack]

I just took a look in the online manual
ftp://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/D845PT/PTBG_English.pdf
if you look there under "using the setup program" you'll see the only information that I think is relative to what you're saying is in the extendend maintenance options screen setting the video to UC, am I right? And it seems I have to jump the mobo board to get it to boot up with the maintenance screen avarilable. Great <_< Just what I want on a bunch of old PCs and when they keep working half the time when I test them anyway! Why didn't I take up gardening?

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Leozack

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[se2000]

I read the manual and you found the cache part but under vga, you can select agp or pci, make sure it is on the correct one and not auto.
You may want to try swapping power supplies. The intel may not not boot due to the power drain of the splitter so a higher power supply might resolve your issue

 

[Leozack]

But the splitter is powered by a plug, and it's when the splitter is unplugged and not working that it boots. Interesting idea but since it's powered seperately I don't think it could be causing it? And they were on agp, I haven't taken the side off yet but the manual talks about agp cards so I think that's correct.

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Leozack

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