Scrambled Boot-Up Screen

[stephawey]

The boot-up screen is the very 1st screen when the PC was turned on with the words "press F1 to system setup". My boot-up screen for some reasons became about 6 inch tall and flickered as if the screen resolution and refresh rate were wrongly set! However, the DOS mode was normal. Initially, Windows 98 SE was normal, but later it also became 6-in tall and scambled. I had to run my recovery disk to get my Windows 98 SE back but the boot-up screen remains scrambled. Now I realized when I tried to install a game (Tiberian Sun), the same scrambled screen problem showed up! Luckily my Windows is still OK. After I recovered my C drive, I updated my video driver, which was the same version as before all this happened. I think the game runs in a different mode than Windows and DOS, somehow the problem with the boot-up screen and the game were related. How can I fix the problem?

[stephawey]

OK, after I read some of the solutions in the other video topics, I tried one more thing, which scared the hell out of me! I removed the video adaptor from Device Manager, then reboot....now my Windows is also 6-in tall! I couldn't see too much, but luckily the Windows resumed normal size after I managed to re-install the video driver. However, the boot-up screen and the game setups are still small and scrambled. So I still have a problem...I wonder if there is an initiation file for the monitor use before I turn on the computer?

[tjaymadison]

Is the game an older DOS version? If so, it may have made some changes to your autoexec.bat file. Try Start > Find > Files or Folders. Type autoex*.* in the Named box, and click Find. If the search returns files like autoexec.old, autoexec.001 or something similar, and the dates are pretty recent, I'd guess the game install did it. You could open the autoexec.bat file in Notepad, look for a line that starts with the word mode followed by some numbers, insert rem and one space in front of the word "mode", save the file and reboot.

[stephawey]

Thank you.
The game was a Win98 game. I did go over 7 variations of autoex*.* but none of them have a line started with "mode".
I just installed another game called Age of Empires 2, no problem with the game except the startup intro video of the game was played, same 6-in tall scrambled screen came up. But after that, the game seems to work normal!
I am puzzled! Please help.

[stephawey]

Just another thing. If I load the Windows in safe mode, I also get that 6-in tall scrambled screen, so, I cannot do anything in safe mode at all! Wow, I have a mcuh bigger problem than I thought! Is there somewhere the computer state the resolution of VGA? I guess the only reason normal mode windows 98 has normal screen is the video driver override the wrong VGA mode? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

[Paleo Pete]

Try scanreg. Boot to a command prompt using the [F8] key or hold down [Ctrl] while booting. Choose Command Prompt Only. At the C:\> prompt type scanreg_/restore. Use a space in place of the underscore ( _ ) used here. Choose a registry backup made before you installed the game, if one exists. None of the programs installed since then will work, to use them they'll have to be reinstalled. Check the website for the game before you try it again, maybe they'll have a patch or fix posted.

The registry is backed up every time you successfully boot the computer, but if you've rebooted more than 4 times since then, you might not have one. Try it, see what happens and let us know.

------------------
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[stephawey]

I tried everything, nothing worked. The only solution is to use the recovery CD and wipe out the C-drive. The problem persists but at least I have Win 98 SE working. The boot-up screen and Safe mode remains scrambled. I contacted IBM about this, the guy said this can be the Video BIOS corruption. I cannot find the new BIOS flash from ATI, so I am still stuck and don't know what to do. I even bought a new 2D/3D card from ATI but the screen in Win 98 SE was so scrambled that I cannot even install the driver for the new video card.
My question is whether it is really the video BIOS problem, I wrote an email to ATI but they are off on the weekend. In the mean time, I am still completely stuck with a 6-in scrambled screen...help!

[stephawey]

Pete, if you follow the http-link below, another person had kind of a similar problem, you did participate in the discussion. I don't know how to check whether the VESA driver is loaded, please help...
http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000169.html

[Paleo Pete]

IF you can get into your display properties, check and see what monitor it's set to. Reset it to Standard VGA. IT's in the Settings tab, Advanced button, Monitor tab. Top option should be Standard Display types, try Standard VGA 640x480 or Standard SVGA 640x 480, depending on the monitor maybe the 800x600 settings will work.

Also try a different monitor, see how it works. Make sure you're set for Standard Monitor first.

The topic you linked to was a bad monitor. This might be a bad monitor, but I don't think so.

To check what driver you're using it's the same place, but the Adapter tab. That should list your video card and the driver it's using. I think this is most likely the monitor settings.

------------------
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[stephawey]

I think I have isolated the problem to the monitor. It occurs at setting 640 X 480 in 16 colors (not 16 bits) which is what SAFE mode uses.

The following are the things that I tried which led me to the above conclusion:
1) The problem did not occur in another monitor. I got a normal screen (even with 640 X 480 in 16 colors)if I just unplug my old monitor and use another monitor.
2) In Win98 SE, I tested different screen resolutions and color settings. It appears that I can fix the scrambled screens in almost all combo settings by going to Display properties/Settings/Advance/Adjustment and did a change in vertical sync. This "Adjustment" tab is a propriatary function from my ATI video driver because the ATI sign is on the tab and my Laptop don't have the same tab.
3) Unfortunately, when I set the resolution to 640 X 480 in 16 colors, the "Adjustment" tab dissappeared!! I don't know why. Thus, I am not able to perform a vertical sync in that resolution, which was in fact my only and biggest problem.
4) By doing #3, I even fixed the problem with my games, which runs at 640 X 480 in 256 colors.

Are you aware of another software that allows me to perform a vertical sync in 640 X 480 in 16 colors??
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[stephawey]

I forgot to mention that I also tried another video card from ATI (XPERT 98)to replace my ATI RAGE II, but it functions just the same. I think that rule out video card problem (including BIOS corruption) http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

[stephawey]

Is there a way to set the boot-up screen and safe mode to another screen resolution or color depth? That will solve my problem.

[stephawey]

I tried a number of display tools that came in Jan 2001 issue of MaximumCD, After I installed "SDD", the computer won't boot at all (thank goodness I used GoBack!). With "Hz Tool", my horizontal/vertical sync were shown as +/+, whatever that meant. However, I changed it to +/0, but nothing really changed, so I changed it back. Can you tell me what other possible setting can I try? Is there +/++ etc? There is no instructions in Hz Tool. My feeling is I can only change the vertical sync when I am at that specifc resolution/color. But if I change it to 640X480/16 colors, I would be styaring at a scrambled screen. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

[mjc]

The combinations should be +/+, +/-, -/+, and -/-.

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Does Bill Gates use WindowsME?