Spinrite no video once booted

[UyouU]

I have a Asus PRIME Z790-P WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard. When I turn off secure boot and enable CSM. Booted from my USB drive, when it tries to load it has a weird scrambled image at the bottom of the screen and then when I push a key it just goes to a blank screen.
I know it loaded correctly because I did the ReadSpeed format of the usb drive and dropped the spinrite exe onto the drive. I know I need to ESC out at first and then type spinrite. I do that (without seeing anything) and after I type spinrite + enter I hear the noise that spinrite makes when going to different screens/options.
Anyone have any idea why no video is being produced of the DOS prompts? I can add a picture of the ‘image’ it shows at the bottom before going blank tomorrow.
I tested the USB on an older Win10 HP Elitebook and it loaded just fine.

 

[PHolder]

Sounds likely that your video BIOS is acting up for some reason. On some of Steve's bootable DOS devices he uses a splash screen that can cause problems. The splash screen in launched from a hidden system file, either CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. Try enabling the ability to see hidden system files, and editing the file to put a REM in front of the splash screen and see how that works for you.

 

[UyouU]

I tried a few things:
First i found 'splash' in AUTOEXEC.BAT and made it 'rem splash'
(in CONFIG.SYS has no entry for splash, just:
SWITCHES=/E /N
LASTDRIVE=Z
BUFFERS=10
FILES=4
SKIPINIT=1)

I don't get the weird image at the bottom of the screen anymore when trying to boot into the USB drive but a blank screen still welcomes me. I am able to hit ESC - type in SPINRITE + enter and i can hear the SPINRITE sounds going through the menus.

Second i am an additional USB Drive using the built in SPINRITE 6.1 r4 'Install SpinRite on USB' (which only shows 2 files on the USB, SPINRITE.EXE and EDIT.COM <Show Hidden Files is/has always been enabled>).
Tried booting into USB using this method and i get the funky 'image/colors' at the bottom of the screen and then blank screen (can still hear the SPINRITE sounds going around the menus).

 

[Tazz]

I don’t know if this is a similar issue as in this thread
https://forums.grc.com/threads/turn...en-i-turn-it-back-on-next-morning.1418/page-2

A new feature in SpinRite- pressing Backspace four times in succession reinitializes SpinRite's video interface.”

Can’t hurt to try it.

 

[DanR]

@UyouU

Something seems wrong with your bootable USB drives. There should be no "splash" line in AUTOEXEC.BAT! That normally must reside in the CONFIG.SYS file. What else is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file? Also: The ")" in the last line of your CONFIG.SYS looks suspicious. A typo?

My bootable SpinRite USB thumb drive, created by running spinrite.exe v6.1 as a Windows app, has just two lines in AUTOEXEC.BAT:
@ECHO OFF
SPINRITE

My CONFIG.SYS contains the following:
SWITCHES=/E /N
LASTDRIVE=Z
NUMLOCK=OFF
IDLEHALT=1
DEVICE=SRSPLASH.SYS

The video subsystem in a few legacy systems cannot handle the graphic mode required to display SpinRite's splash screen graphic. The result is weird distorted video as you are seeing. The normal solution is to REM out the "DEVICE=SRSPLASH.SYS" line in CONFIG.SYS to skip the splash screen and keep the video system in text mode. Then spinrite.exe runs without further ado.

 

[UyouU]

I don’t know if this is a similar issue as in this thread
https://forums.grc.com/threads/turn...en-i-turn-it-back-on-next-morning.1418/page-2

A new feature in SpinRite- pressing Backspace four times in succession reinitializes SpinRite's video interface.”

Can’t hurt to try it.

just tried it with both USB sticks - sadly nothing but blank screen (still hear the SpinRite sounds in the background).

@UyouU

Something seems wrong with your bootable USB drives. There should be no "splash" line in AUTOEXEC.BAT! That normally must reside in the CONFIG.SYS file. What else is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file? Also: The ")" in the last line of your CONFIG.SYS looks suspicious. A typo?

My bootable SpinRite USB thumb drive, created by running spinrite.exe v6.1 as a Windows app, has just two lines in AUTOEXEC.BAT:
@ECHO OFF
SPINRITE

My CONFIG.SYS contains the following:
SWITCHES=/E /N
LASTDRIVE=Z
NUMLOCK=OFF
IDLEHALT=1
DEVICE=SRSPLASH.SYS

The video subsystem in a few legacy systems cannot handle the graphic mode required to display SpinRite's splash screen graphic. The result is weird distorted video as you are seeing. The normal solution is to REM out the "DEVICE=SRSPLASH.SYS" line in CONFIG.SYS to skip the splash screen and keep the video system in text mode. Then spinrite.exe runs without further ado.

Attached images of the ReadSpeed formatted USB and the SpinRite formatted USB
AUTOEXEC.BAT:

@echo off
SET PATH=\;\FREEDOS
SET DIRCMD=/OGN /Y
SET COPYCMD=/-Y
SET RUNBENCH=0

rem splash

if errorlevel 1 set RUNBENCH=1

fdapm apmdos
alias reboot=fdapm warmboot
alias shutdown=fdapm poweroff
alias edc=edit \config.sys
alias eda=edit \autoexec.sys

if %RUNBENCH%==0 goto nobench

rs
echo The command "reboot" does what you'd think.
echo You may use the command "menu" for more....
vecho
goto end

:nobench
menu

:end

CONFIG.SYS:

SWITCHES=/E /N
LASTDRIVE=Z
BUFFERS=10
FILES=4
SKIPINIT=1

 

[Tazz]

I know it loaded correctly because I did the ReadSpeed format of the usb drive and dropped the spinrite exe onto the drive.

I'm almost sure that Spinrite NEEDS to be booted from a USB drive that has been made by Spinrite. Something about freedos, spinrite, kernel, something ... Memory's a bit fuzzy from that far back.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: Thinking a little more about it I believe that Spinrite just wouldn't boot if tried from a non spinrite made USB. Again, memory fuzzy

 

[UyouU]

I'm almost sure that Spinrite NEEDS to be booted from a USB drive that has been made by Spinrite. Something about freedos, spinrite, kernel, something ... Memory's a bit fuzzy from that far back.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Understood - I did test this USB on a WIN10 HP EliteBook and it worked just fine. (Figures new stuff breaks things)
It boots into ReadSpeed > ESC out to command prompt > type 'spinrite' > it loads SpinRite

 

[DanR]

@UyouU

Ah ... ReadSpeed. I normally run SpinRite (3 versions) from my ReadSpeed bootable drive. No problem. It should work flawlessly. Sorry @Tazz !
ReadSpeed does have a SPLASH line in Autoexec.bat for displaying the green RS splash screen.

Tazz is right in that SpinRite 6.1 does create a bootable USB with the latest kernel.sys (GRC FreeDOS) and config.sys for optimum running of SpinRite. Neither is mandatory to run SpinRite.

I note UyouU that your ASUS mobo is normally UEFI booting. Have you explicitly disabled UEFI in the BIOS? It may be mutually exclusive with CSM, i.e. enabling either one auto disables the other.

 

[UyouU]

@UyouU

Ah ... ReadSpeed. I normally run SpinRite (3 versions) from my ReadSpeed bootable drive. No problem. It should work flawlessly. Sorry @Tazz !
ReadSpeed does have a SPLASH line in Autoexec.bat for displaying the green RS splash screen.

Tazz is right in that SpinRite 6.1 does create a bootable USB with the latest kernel.sys (GRC FreeDOS) and config.sys for optimum running of SpinRite. Neither is mandatory to run SpinRite.

I note UyouU that your ASUS mobo is normally UEFI booting. Have you explicitly disabled UEFI in the BIOS? It may be mutually exclusive with CSM, i.e. enabling either one auto disables the other.

Yeah, i am pretty sure i disabled it where it needed to be disabled. Attached a few shots from within the BIOS. Also a note that i have been able to run this in the past i don't remember when (maybe it was SpinRite 6.1 r2 or r3) but i have probably done 1 or 2 BIOs updates since then because of the Intel 13th gen fiesta. Do you know if there is a way to get SpinRite r2 or r3? when i go to the download page all i see is r4

 

[DanR]

Hmmm . . . It looks like you should have the bases covered.

Sorry, SpinRite 6.1 r2, r3 are no longer available.

 

[UyouU]

I was just trying some random things and i just tried RUFUS formatting and installing FREEDOS and blank screen. So this isn't a SpinRite issue but seems like a FreeDOS + Motherboard issue.

Thankfully SpinRite isn't 'needed' just wanted to run it to refresh my drives.
Frustrating to say the least