[Linux] no video bios message before POST

[bob daggit]

that pinkish monitor is now disposed of, though i did inspect its connector=
 with a magnifying glass  a few times. i recall it had some intermittent pr=
oblem earlier with it and i thought it was on the fritz, but this time, no =
amount of wiggling helped. you may be right that it was the connector. i sh=
ould have tested it on another computer. again, i avoided lifting it becaus=
e my back is sore.=20
anyway, since this was a dumpster diving model, i was not too surprised it =
was acting up, and not too bothered to dispose of it.=20

now about the video bios on the card, or the bios on the motherboard, i als=
o am loathe to picking up computers and swapping the card into the other co=
mputers as long as my back is sore. in other words in due time, when i find=
 someone to help hoist another computer, i will swap the card and see if th=
e video bios pre post message appears or not. that could isolate the proble=
m to the video card. another similar video card also seems to not show its =
prebios message on the current computer, suggesting so far that it is the m=
otherboard, not the video card. believe me i am anxious to know, but must s=
eek a way that does not involve lifting a crt monitor or a desktop computer=
.
maybe there are typical command line diagnostic tools that can confirm the =
video bios is what it is supposed to be, or the motherboard bios is what it=
 is supposed to be. or the motherboard or video card have some obvious dama=
ge that a utility program or script can identify. this is a guess on how to=
 avoid flashing the bios or the video bios if the hardware itself is to bla=
me, since reflashing damaged hardware might kill it.=20
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