Having huge issues upgrading my PC - Can't get into BIOS when NVME

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Okay so my PC is from 2017...I have a gigabyte GA-AB350-GAMING 3 ATX AM4 with a ryzen 1600/1060 6GB connected to a 500gb Samsung SSD.

I bought a 5080, 5700x3d with 32gb RAM.

I also replaced my power supply last night from 600W to 1200W.

I'm going to say what I have done and the issues I have ran into and hopefully someone can say what I'm doing wrong and what I should do next.

So I started off taking out all my old PSU cables and replacing with the new ones and installed the new PSU. I took out the 2TB NVME that I had in my PS5 and installed it into the port that is under my GPU. I started getting a error which was a black screen saying something like "Pick Bootable drive in BIOS or insert Bootable drive and press any key".

However it would not let me get into the BIOS at all. At first I thought it could be something wrong with my Keyboard as it was a old wired one I found in my garage. So I went to Argos and bought a new one and it still wouldn't work. I tried all the buttons it mentions on the load up screen. I then removed the NVME and let the motherboard only be connected to the 500gb old SSD. It booted up into Windows like normal. I put the NVME back in and started getting the same error. I also learned afterwards that the SATA port I was using gets disabled when a NVME is installed. I tried it in the correct SATA and still error

Repeating this so many times has led to me killing my 1060 6GB which now starts with one fan spinning for a couple of seconds then nothing

So I have ordered a cheap GPU for £40 and I'm going to try and sort this out in this next couple of days or just give up altogether!!

My planned next steps are

1. Install the temporary GPU and use only the 500gb SSD.
2. Update BIOS to correct version
3. Install NVME and create a bootable USB drive to install fresh Windows on it
4. Install 5700x3D
5. Install 5080

Sorry for the long post I just needed to vent I feel so frustrated and demoralised right now!! Kinda wish I had just done a clean new build on AM5 instead of all this messing around

Edit - Well I managed to get my graphics card working. PC is working like it did before
 
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Rob_B said:
Killing a GPU by switching out drives would be difficult. You potentially have other issues. Put everything back to stock and clear your CMOS, does it all work?
If so, update your BIOS. Have you tried the NVMe back in the PS5 to see if its working? If it is then try again.

The GA-AB350-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.x) does support NVMe - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AB350-Gaming-3-rev-1x#kf
Click to expand...
Okay my Graphics Card is working again. My PC is working normally like it was before I started doing anything to it. That is without clearing CMOS just to be clear about what I have done.

I'm going to update the BIOS but I'm having trouble getting into it. It's like my keyboard only starts working after the BIOS boot thing has moved onto Windows. I've tried two keyboards in all the USB slots...I'm going to try another old keyboard I have somewhere in that old PS/2 slot tomorrow.

Edit - Another thing I've noticed. So after restarting a few times and getting into that Windows recovery bit. My keyboard doesn't seem to work. Like it says press F1-F12 or a number key but nothing works. It says press Enter to boot into Windows and even that does nothing.

Dont understand what is up with my keyboards
 
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Rob_B said:
Killing a GPU by switching out drives would be difficult. You potentially have other issues. Put everything back to stock and clear your CMOS, does it all work?
If so, update your BIOS. Have you tried the NVMe back in the PS5 to see if its working? If it is then try again.

The GA-AB350-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.x) does support NVMe - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AB350-Gaming-3-rev-1x#kf
Click to expand...

Quartz said:
That board claims to support NVME drives but on the specification page I read this:





This is a good plan.



Is it connected via a hub?
Click to expand...

Tejstar said:
If it supports NVMe then a BIOS update should do the trick (if you can get into it!)
Click to expand...

Tetras said:
Unless I'm being a dummy here and misreading what you're saying, isn't that normal?

The drive is not formatted for Windows (since you took it from your PS5). You just need to boot from the Windows installation USB drive and you should be able to format the drive and use it again.

The keyboard trouble you're having appears to be the issue.
Click to expand...

Sin_Chase said:
With the PC working can you get into the BIOS at all?
Click to expand...
Update - Clearing CMOS sorted out by keyboard issues and I can now get into the BIOS
pastymuncher said:
I think you need to go back to your original setup so re-install the 1600 and your original hard drive along with your original memory then make sure it works. Then you need to update the bios which is whaat you should have done in the first place, however, it needs to be done in stages by the looks of it depending on which version the board is on. You also need to update to the latest chipset driver before updating the bios so your procedure should be as follows:-

1. Update to the latest chipset driver.
2. Update the bios to F31 (if you are on a older version). Do not use Live Update for any of this. Download the bios and put it on a fat32 formatted usb stick and use Q-Flash in the bios to flash.
3. Download and run the EC FW Update Tool which can be found in the Utility section of the downloads for your board.
4. Update bios to F40 (if you are on a older version). Again use Q-Flash.
5. Update to the latest bios which is F54d for your board. Q-Flash. Once done clear cmos.

It's always worth keeping the bios up to date as there are many vulnerability fixes in those updates.

Next go into the bios and wipe that NVME drive. You will probably have to go into windows Disk Manager to initialise the drive afterwards.

Shut down and power off at the wall then switch the cpu and memory. Boot up and go back into the bios and activate XMP for the memory to run it at it's rated speed. Reboot and test before shutting down, powering off at the wall and switching over to your new gpu. Reboot and test again. Hopefully everything should be working now so you can shut down and power off at the wall again, remove the SSD and install windows on the NVME drive (it would be a good idea to download all the latest drivers to a USB stick before switching the drives over).

You are also going to need a proper heatsink for that NVME drive as it's right under the gpu. One of those thin flat pieces of metal over the top isn't going to cut it.
Click to expand...
Currently the only things I have changed are the RAM and the PSU. CPU and GPU same as before. NVME isn't installed right now - using my old style SSD. Should I go back to the old RAM even if it seems like its working fine?

Okay I will update to the latest chipsets. I am looking at the Gigabyte web page for my motherboard and I assume you mean these two?
www.gigabyte.com

GA-AB350-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.x) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...
www.gigabyte.com www.gigabyte.com

AMD APU Driver
Windows 11 64bit,Windows 10 64bit
732.81 MB
Jan 03, 2024

AMD Chipset Driver
Windows 11 64bit,Windows 10 64bit
63.61 MB
Jan 03, 2024

Okay I will do that first.

Currently my BIOS is F7. Is it better to update one at a time (F7>F8>F10...F31) or F7>F31.

Also thanks for the rest of the instructions that's exactly what I needed. Hopefully it all works out.

Also the NVME I am using is

Samsung 980 PRO SSD with Heatsink 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe M.2 Internal Solid State Hard Drive, Heat Control, Max Speed, PS5 Compatible, MZ-V8P2T0CW​

 
tamzzy said:
@Annatar
There is a bios bug with bios F31.
Also, you know that you need to upgrade the bios sequentially for the ab350 (see their bios page for more info)

See my cross-post from another thread previously.
Click to expand...
So the bug with BIOS happens when you have a NVME installed? Okay I don't plan on putting it in until I am completely finished updating BIOS. Good to know thanks
tamzzy said:
F7 - F31 - F40 - f53 - f(whatever is the latest)
Click to expand...
Okay I will follow these steps.

I have another question. I read that the USB has to be FAT32. I only have a 128gb that cant be used in FAT32 unless it is partioned to like under 32gb. I put a bios file on it just to see if it would appear in Q-FLASH. But it didn't.

So I went to Argos right now and bought a 32GB USB (they didn't have anything smaller). Will that be fine for updating BIOS?
 
Okay I've just downloaded the APU and Chipset files. Extracted to desktop and it ran Gigabyte Driver Installers but didn't say if its completed. I'm assuming its done now? I also updated the Audio and LAN drivers

I just updated to F31. I'm actually so stupid...the reason my USB wasn't working was because I didn't unzip the Bios update file
 
tamzzy said:
Excellent news :)
Click to expand...

pastymuncher said:
Good to hear it all worked. Don't forget to wipe the drive using the secure delete tool in your motherboards bios. You will most likely have to initialise the drive in Windows Disk Manager when you boot into Windows. Don't forget to put a heatsink on it.
Click to expand...

So I installed the NVME and it worked fine this time. Managed to do a fresh install of windows on it. Just put in my new CPU and booted up. Seems to be working fine. Running Cinebench currently and max temp has been 62 Degrees.

Feeling so relieved it's all worked out. Felt like a disaster yesterday!

Not sure whether to put the 5080 in right now or just wait til tomorrow as I won't have time to play anything anyway
 
tamzzy said:
That what she said? :P
Click to expand...
Mate I just put it in, connected the power cable and it doesn’t even start.

Can’t believe it

Had to leave so can’t try again til tomorrow morning but don’t understand what’s gone wrong.

Edit - Just thinking of what steps to try tomorrow to fix this. I was devastated when it didn't work straight away as every other PC component I've installed has always at least turned on.

Step 1 - Remove it and put it back in and try again.
Step 2 - Instead of using the new +12VHPWR port on my PSU I will try using the the adapter supplied with the GPU
Step 3 - I only tried one HDMI and one Displayport. I will try all the ports

Any other ideas would be welcome. Could there be setting in the BIOS that need changed? No idea!
 
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