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Author Topic: Hiding first bootup BIOS (arcade monitor squealing)  (Read 2679 times)

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Jefferson

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Hiding first bootup BIOS (arcade monitor squealing)
« on: July 14, 2010, 07:28:06 pm »
I'm running XP with an AVGA3000 on an arcade monitor, and I've got a smart strip ready for when I make it all 'one button'

BUT, my monitor sure doesn't like that very first signal comin out of my comp. I'm told its the bios screen. In a few seconds it locks into a nice resolution and launches maximus arcade, but damn, that initial squeal makes my hair stand on end. For the moment I've just waited a few seconds to turn on the monitor, but I'm going for 'one button' arcade authenticity.

Any tips on 'hiding' that bios or changing its resolution to something that doesn't scramble and scream?

8way

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Re: Hiding first bootup BIOS (arcade monitor squealing)
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2010, 11:33:02 pm »
You have two options, first you could buy a J-Pac which will block unsupported resolutions (like the BIOS boot screen). The second option is to use a second video card as a dummy card. So if your primary video card is AGP or PCIE the your dummy card needs to be PCI. Can be any old card, most people will have an old one collecting dust somewhere. Then you need to have your video card priority set in your bios to use the PCI card as the initial display. Basically all its doing is sending the video signal to the PCI card when you first start up your PC, and since you have nothing connected to it nothing will be displayed on your arcade monitor. When windows starts up it auto detects what card actually has a monitor plugged in to it and display on in, which would be your ArcadeVGA. So you would have a black screen for a few seconds till the windows screen loads up. This is the setup i use in my cab, works very well.

Popcorrin

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Re: Hiding first bootup BIOS (arcade monitor squealing)
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2010, 01:59:14 am »
I'm running XP with an AVGA3000 on an arcade monitor, and I've got a smart strip ready for when I make it all 'one button'

BUT, my monitor sure doesn't like that very first signal comin out of my comp. I'm told its the bios screen. In a few seconds it locks into a nice resolution and launches maximus arcade, but damn, that initial squeal makes my hair stand on end. For the moment I've just waited a few seconds to turn on the monitor, but I'm going for 'one button' arcade authenticity.

Any tips on 'hiding' that bios or changing its resolution to something that doesn't scramble and scream?

I thought the arcade vga only output arcade resolutions; even on boot up. 

Jefferson

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Re: Hiding first bootup BIOS (arcade monitor squealing)
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2010, 06:57:17 pm »
Me too Popcorrin... Some games do the squeal too until I go in and change the res manually. I think it sends picture at an arcade monitors refresh rate, though sometimes it sends RESOLUTIONS my monitor doesn't like

A dummy video card?!?!?  Dang. What about the 'video card' that came built into the computer? I'll look around for somethin like that.


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Re: Hiding first bootup BIOS (arcade monitor squealing)
« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2010, 12:59:30 am »
Most built in video cards now days won't work when a real video card is installed (shared agp/pcie/ect).

Also while the dummy video card is indeed an option, multiple video cards on a system eat up system resources.  It wold be ok if the video card is disabled in windows, but if I'm not sure if the boot sequence will pick it up then. 

Also don't forget option 3.  A smart power strip or a homemade power strip connected to a relay could be triggered after windows boots.  You can plug your monitor into it and you are good to go. 

8way

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Re: Hiding first bootup BIOS (arcade monitor squealing)
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2010, 02:16:24 am »
Most built in video cards now days won't work when a real video card is installed (shared agp/pcie/ect).

Also while the dummy video card is indeed an option, multiple video cards on a system eat up system resources.  It wold be ok if the video card is disabled in windows, but if I'm not sure if the boot sequence will pick it up then. 

Also don't forget option 3.  A smart power strip or a homemade power strip connected to a relay could be triggered after windows boots.  You can plug your monitor into it and you are good to go. 

Yes you can have the dummy video card disabled in windows. you don't even need to install drivers for it. As far as i know plug-in cards always takes priority over on-board, and i never seen i bios that has a setting to change that. I personally like the dummy card option because of the $$$, you can probably find someone here that will give you one for the price of shipping. If you really need one, i could give you one for just the cost of shipping.