M52 9210 - BIOS window - strange effect

[fonon]

The bios window, called by F1 key after power on, isn't displayed properly. I'm using monitor display with 1680x1050 resolution and 1:1 scaling (smaller window on screen when the the picture has lower resolution). The monitor reports 640x480 resolution, but the BIOS window is cropped. The right side (almost full help field), and the narrow strip at the bottom are invisible. The bios is upgraded to newest one, but at the old version the effect described was the same.

How can I fix it?

[Mornsgrans]

What do you mean with "cropped" exactly?

Are there black bars unstead of the help window and the lower part of the BIOS screen or is the content of the BIOS screen moved to the right and down?

In the case of "moved" you'll need to adjust the monitor.

[fonon]

---

Mornsgrans wrote:

What do you mean with "cropped" exactly?

Are there black bars unstead of the help window and the lower part of the BIOS screen or is the content of the BIOS screen moved to the right and down?

In the case of "moved" you'll need to adjust the monitor.

---

M52 has an analog VGA output. The bios window is displayed in the text mode with 640x480 resolution. My LCD monitor works with native resolution 1680x1050. The picture with lower resolution is displayed as screen-centered window with symmetric, black horizontal (top and bottom) and vertical (left and right) bars. There is no need to adjust the monitor. At VGA resolution there is a big black zone around window.

In the case of M52, the bios window is displayed approximately in the center of monitor screen but some parts of window are invisible. The monitor still indicates 640x480 resolution, but probably, the visible area of bios window is smaller, with black strips at the bottom and at the right side of window. The upper-left corner of window is displayed properly.

Regards,

f.

[Mornsgrans]

Ok, i understand now. Thank you for your detailed explanation.

Can you test the video output of your ThinkCentre with annother display?

Also - if available - test a AGP/PCI video card with your monitor.

btw:

Please check the capacitors on the system board. If the top side is blown or brown marked (red circle), they are damaged.

[fonon]

---

Mornsgrans wrote:

Ok, i understand now. Thank you for your detailed explanation.

Can you test the video output of your ThinkCentre with annother display?

Also - if available - test a AGP/PCI video card with your monitor.

btw:

Please check the capacitors on the system board. If the top side is blown or brown marked (red circle), they are damaged.

---

Thank You for answer. The LCD monitor was tested with another computer and both - analog and digital video inputs worked fine. The M52 was tested with CRT monitor and the same effect with BIOS window was observed.

At this time I haven't a PCI or PCI-Express x1 graphic card. Unfortunately M52 is not equipped with AGP connector.

There are no signs of capacitors leakage or another kind of damage, but there is a problem with the second memory slot described in the other thread. The computer operate with only one memory module, in the single channel mode. MS Windows XP Professional, installed on the computer, works fine. The System Manager indicates two graphics cards (like a dual head device).
Regards,
f.

[Mornsgrans]

Maybe the issue you described is caused by the missing RAM, because the onboard graphics uses shared memory from RAM 

[fonon]

---

Mornsgrans wrote:

Maybe the issue you described is caused by the missing RAM, because the onboard graphics uses shared memory from RAM 

---

Missing RAM? What do You mean? The RAM isn't missing. Now, it's one module 512 MB installed.The computer should work properly in the single-channel mode. The widnows operating system with GUI needs more RAM than BIOS working in the text mode, I suppose.

f.

[Mornsgrans · Accepted solution]

With "missing RAM" i meant the free RAM socket

But i have no more ideas

[fonon]

After clearing the CMOS, loading default settings, clearing once again etc. - bios window is displayed properly. The second RAM slot not works still.