Slow BIOS text rendering

[Mizzle]

Hey guys,


This is an unusual one, I think. When I boot up my laptop, and it displays some text on the screen during the bootup, i.e. something like the menu to choose the OS to boot, the text is rendered horribly slowly, and I haven't got a clue as to what is causing it.

I've looked in the BIOS settings, and didn't see anything unusual. Have updated the BIOS version twice now, as I thought something had happened during the first update, but that didn't fix it either.

Any ideas?

PS. Mods, this should probably have been posted in a software section. Can someone please move it? Thanks

 

[Aprox]

I'm gonna go ahead and leave this here, since this section is kind of a 'general' PC troubleshooting area and your problem could be hardware of software at this point.


When you say rendered horribly slowly, is it showing the text line by line, character by character? Or does it just take a moment for it all to display?

 

[Mizzle]

I'm not totally sure, but it's either word by word or line by line.

 

[Aprox]

Hmm, that is quite odd. Did it just start doing it, or has it been like that since you received it? If so, we will have to ask EP if it was doing it while he was playing with it.

 

[Mizzle]

Oh, it's not the HDX Haven't received that one yet.

It's my current laptop, and it just started doing it suddenly.

 

[Aprox]

Oh, sorry. haha

If it just started suddenly, it could be a video card issue. I'm assuming that you can still get into windows (or whatever OS you use) correct? If so, have you noticed any odd video issues, such as artifacts weird colors or reduced performance?

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Most laptops dont have cards as such they have onboard chips, I have seen towers act very strangly when the hard drives have problems, remove the hard drive and see if the bios reacts the same way.

 

[LeeJend]

1) Does the normal start up screen - memory check etc display normally?
If yes, then the CPU, RAM, MB are ok. If not sure, interrupt the boot to enter setup and see if that responds normally.

2) If you get past Bios Boot section tests ok then the problem is when accessing the hard disk like Shamus said. Disable the Boot from HD in Bios and boot from the Optical drive (use the windows CD or a linux live CD) or a bootable USB thumb drive and see if screen writing speed is normal. If it is the HD either got damaged or has loose connections (most likely damaged). Open the HD compartment and check the cables are seated in the connectors fully. If they are seated fully then the HD may have gotten bounced around and is having read issues. Not much you can do but replace the HD.

 

[Aprox]

Most laptops dont have cards as such they have onboard chips, I have seen towers act very strangly when the hard drives have problems, remove the hard drive and see if the bios reacts the same way.

A lot more laptops have actual cards than you would think. Mostly budget and lower end laptops have integrated video chipsets.

Try removing the HD as Shamus said, also you can try removing all but one stick of RAM to see if it helps. Try alternating between different sticks as well if the problem persists.

 

[Mizzle]

Well, everything is working fine, only the text rendering in the startup phase is awfully slow. Just tried removing the HDD, and that wasn't it. Still renders slowly. Haven't tried swapping any RAM yet, but I did upgrade the RAM on it, although that was quite some time before this problem arose.

 

[Aprox]

I would check out the memory then. How about the video stuff I asked about?

 

[gonaads]

Check the RAM to see if it didn't come loose. If you "jarred" the laptop by thumping it on a surface or banging it against something it could have caused a hardware connection to come loose or not make a solid connection. Also, did you do any BIOS tweaking? If yes to the BIOS question set the BIOS to it's "default" settings and boot it up again. Did you change anything at all in the BIOS when you installed the memory?

 

[Mizzle]

It's an onboard graphics card, haven't experienced any problems with it, apart from the fact that it can't render the water texture in Oblivion properly, but apparently that's a known bug for that game.

RAM is tightly placed where it's supposed to be, and I've got all of it available on my PC, so that can't be it either, I suppose. No BIOS tweaking, have only checked if the values were correct.

 

[Aprox]

Try downloading and running memtest. To me that seems like the most likely suspect still, and at this point easiest to diagnose.

http://www.memtest86.com/ <--- Just go to the free download section and burn the iso yourself.

 

[Mizzle]

I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. I mean, it's not a really serious matter, I was simply wondering I hardly ever shut down the PC, so it won't be that annoying, and I hope I haven't got long left to wait for the new laptop, so it should be fine

Thanks for your help and advices!

 

[Mastershakes]

Do you have anything plugged into it? My PC will not post if I have an IPOD plugged into the USB ports. The POST stops dead. I pull it out and everything starts moving again...

 

[Mizzle]

I've got an USB mouse, but it's the same without it. I usually always plug in the mouse after the PC has booted, anyhow.

 

[gonaads]

OK Mizzle, try this. Boot your laptop and time the process up to the Windows splash screen. Now pull the memory module(s) that you installed and re-boot and time it again. Unless you had upgraded all the memory, then you would have to reinstall the old memory (if you still have it that is). Now if all these things are in place (switching out the memory and such) and it loads/renders faster then you found your problem. Otherwise, I have no clue.

 

[Mizzle]

There's no real substantial difference. Was a second or two slower without the RAM block. Looks like it's one of those mysteries that can't be solved.

 

[Aprox]

I would just keep an eye on things, if you start getting other odd issues you might have a more serious issue than you think.