System Stops booting at second stage of the POST-Abnormal characters

[MadMax2911]

Hi all, I just wanted to share a recent incident on my UD3LR system(named Sunny). This system was operating normally before a renter (at the house) borrowed it for a few sessions. I recall turning it on the next day and it started normal but then lost the internet and then froze and had other troubles that I listed in another post. Here is a link Light Blue screen/White Screen freezing - MajorGeeks Support Forums

So I posted my troubles about a possible virus infection and was declared clean by Majorgeeks support forums.

I did read some entries in the event manager that led me to think it was a hardware problem-USB or PS-2 mouse port etc. I though well why wait around to do various tests when I can troubleshoot it myself? I realized my install may have been Borked so I reinstalled and at that point I saw the abnormal graphics in the second stage of the POST screen. I was trying to boot to CD to reinstall the system. Prior to this I used a systemrescueCD to format all partitions and resize too.

What I saw was beyond belief, various letters were missing, blank or abnormal looking. There were red diamond shapes (1) at certain components on the secondary boot screen. There was even a Smily face sitting in this screen at one place, yes a smily face. It was not like a type smily it was more of a round circle with black lines for eyes and mouth. I also saw various color blocks all around the screen sometimes more somtimes less.

Tired of writing now will tell how it was solved tomorrow night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Vinster]

Happy you have it solved but I would love to see a picture of that.

Vin

[MadMax2911]

yea when strange things happen I do get a screen shot most times but I was not in windows(camera broke and others misplaced sorry). It sure was a very weird thing to happen maybe I will borrow a camera next time.

[MadMax2911]

Well I am back to put a solution in this thread. I asked myself what happens at booting time and the answer is the BIOS does its thing of checking for installed hardware and the features that are enabled(clock settings drive settings etc). I think the BIOS makes a report and hands it to the OS (XP or win 7)(this is a general idea of functions). The OS then uses the report to configure its settings and devices etc. I was seeing the problems at the second boot screen (post screen). I surmised the problem was in the BIOS and its integrity (corrupted etc). The way to Fix a corrupted BIOS is to re-flash it as far as I know thats what I have learned here. So I got my flash drive (Sandisk Cruiser 4GB USB) and used it to go into the BIOS flash utility (yes I could get into the BIOS). I started the flash utility and reflashed then loaded optimised defaults saved and rebooted. Back in the BIOS I reset all settings that are important to windows booting IDE mode votages for RAM etc. I then could reinstall windows and create a backup image.
UPDATE:I also needed to update the backup BIOS, after some research on this forum. I have found a few sites/threads that explain this procedure in more detail. Here they are:
This one is on gigabyte forum here ..Flashing backup BIOS

There are a few youtube videos located here..How to update your backup bios on GIGABYTE P67 boards - YouTube
and here..How to Update/Backup Bios on Gigabyte Motherboards - YouTube
Hope this help anyone out there :)

[Vinster]

cool, thanks for the update.

Vin

[MadMax2911]

If there are any other people with this similar problem please feel free to post about your problem. I welcome comments from the public.
Thank you for your time. Madmax2911 ( I am really not mad)