Boots up fine but no display (needs restart)

Hi,

The PC boots up fine - I know it's going through POST properly and everything works, there's just no display. What I've tried:

1. Replaced DVI cable.

2. Upgraded graphics card (not specifically to fix this). Re-seated card.

3. Checked BIOS graphics configuration. This was set to 'Auto' instead of PCIE, which I changed. However, after re-starting it always reverts to Auto. I don't know if this is related to the problem but why would it reset itself in the BIOS?

4. Updated the BIOS from 3402 to 3603.

When I do get in and start gaming the card works fine; it's just a pain having to do five resets every time I want to fire it up.

My BIOS graphics config (Advanced -> System Agent Config) is:
Initiate graphic adapter = PCIe (but keeps reverting to 'Auto')
iGPU memory = 64M (I've tried this on all settings)
Render standby = Enabled/Disabled (tried both)
iGPU multi-monitor = Disabled

Thanks

I would swap out your CMOS battery on your motherboard, is probably dead, CR-2032 model #, $3ish part.

Should be saving BIOS settings as long as you did a SAVE there before exiting it.

Yes, F10 (save & exit). Wouldn't there be other problems though if the CMOS battery were dead? The mobo is only 18 months old.

How else can you explain it reverting to AUTO in the BIOS when you changed it and saved?

Problems? Maybe, that would be very dependent on the situation.

Non-optimized performance most likely and other defaults would be the same every boot so impossible to change anything permanently.

Motherboard might be 18 months, but how long was it idle before sold/used? Defective battery? [They are Lithium, not rechargeable, used a crummy brand perhaps to cut corners] Battery is common though at least, should be easy to find, Walmart has them.

I've made plenty of other changes to the BIOS, especially in the graphics settings, and they save every time. It's just this one parameter that keeps reverting.