[Linux] no video bios message before POST

[bob daggit]

thanks for your consideration, aaron. the replacement monitor does not skip=
 the video bios pre-post message for another agp card. in fact i was mistak=
en about that card earlier. i think that one i only tested with the pinkish=
 monitor. since then i met with a fellow flux member, and tested both cards=
 on another  motherboard with agp. turns out that the card that was partial=
ly unseated in the slot certainly doesn't show the video bios pre-post mess=
age. it also will not work with 3d acceleration or reinstallation of 3d acc=
eleration, or even from a livecd that installs 3d acceleration (which rules=
 out a fresh install of the OS). however, the alternate card, did show the =
message, and it turns out that the suspect motherboard also does show the m=
essage even though i was mistaken before that it was also not showing the m=
essage. so my next step is to install the 3d acceleration on the alternate =
card.=20

perhaps, since the first step of booting is showing this video bios pre-pos=
t message, the chips and software that do this were the first ones damaged.=
 =20

nevertheless, i am interested to reflash the video bios to the damaged card=
. as a first step i want a utility that can verify whether the video bios i=
s correct or not. if it is established that the video bios is wrong, but th=
e hardware on the card is not bad, i want to find a way to reset the video =
bios to its factory setting. the card cost me more than $50 new, and is onl=
y about 5 months old. there may be a way to send it to nvidia at least to g=
et it back to factory settings.
_________________________________________________________________
Shed those extra pounds with MSN and The Biggest Loser!
http://biggestloser.msn.com/=