Haswell system won't boot with gfx card plugged in

growse · 5 Aug 2014 at 23:29

I've got an odd problem. I received a Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H and 4790 today and was going to re-use my 8GB DDR3 and HIS HD7850 from my old Q6600 system (with an Asus P5E-WS Pro).

With just the motherboard powered up and the display plugged into the onboard graphics, it boots into the UEFI without a problem. If I put the HD4870 into the PCIe 16x slot and connect the PCI-E power adapter, it doesn't get a signal and goes into a power up / power down loop. The same happens if I put it in the 8x slot.

I've tried the graphics card back in the old system and checked that it's fine. I've also tried it with both an Antec Neo 550 and Powercool 850 PSU and got the same results.

What's stopping it booting?

stulid · 5 Aug 2014 at 23:30

Try updating the BIOS.

Download the latest BIOS either from Gigabyte or try the latest betaBIOS from Tweaktown and update using Qflash and a USB stick.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

wazza300 · 5 Aug 2014 at 23:31

GA-Z97X-UD3H - F8b http://www.mediafire.com/download/prqkys9uiafu5bs/Z97XUD3H.8b.zip

tried with latest beta bios? gpu might be better supported

growse · 5 Aug 2014 at 23:51

Flashed the latest beta bios successfully, but still the same. It boots fine off the integrated with the card in place but the card power cable disconnected. It's only when the gfx card is powered that it doesn't boot.

David09 · 5 Aug 2014 at 23:53

Did you forget to connect the 6 or 4 pin power connector? :/

I think you might have already said you did.

growse · 5 Aug 2014 at 23:58

David09 said:
Did you forget to connect the 6 or 4 pin power connector? :/

I think you might have already said you did.

Gfx takes the 6 pin, 8 pin on the top of the motherboard, didn't see anything else. I've forgotten to plug the 8 pin ATX one in before, but it spins down pretty quickly if I do that.

stulid · 5 Aug 2014 at 23:59

The fact it works in another system suggest the card is fine, so most likely a BIOS incompatibility due to the age of the card and the the newness of the the Z97 board.

growse · 6 Aug 2014 at 00:06

stulid said:
The fact it works in another system suggest the card is fine, so most likely a BIOS incompatibility due to the age of the card and the the newness of the the Z97 board.

Just realised I epic typo'd the original post. It's a HIS HD7850, not a 4870 (not sure where I got that from).

It's not that old, I only bought it January last year.

wazza300 · 6 Aug 2014 at 00:06

tried setting pci-e as gen 2 in the bios then try powering up the gpu?

another chap has been having issues with boot loops on a gigabyte z97 and his 7950 so probably bios related,setting to pcie gen2 cured it

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18615732

David09 · 6 Aug 2014 at 00:09

Yeah I'm sorry I've reread and understand exactly the predicament his having.

I'm actually stumped at this one.. Surely it can't be a compatibility problem, that would be annoyingly frustrating!

wazza300 · 6 Aug 2014 at 00:10

try with pcie set to gen2 save/exit then try the 7850

growse · 6 Aug 2014 at 00:13

wazza300 said:
try with pcie set to gen2 save/exit then try the 7850

This works! I had it set in 'Auto', set it to 'Gen2' and it worked great. I'm guessing that either 'Auto' was going badly wrong, or it was selecting Gen3 and that was causing issues. Whatever, working is better than not working.

The hive mind wins again. Thanks all.

David09 · 6 Aug 2014 at 00:18

I'm happy for you, nice work Wazza

wazza300 · 6 Aug 2014 at 00:23

you wont lose any performance in gen 2 mode,i think gigabyte need to test more with his cards

seems to be big problem