New build questions / problems

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Shane Oshea

Shane Oshea

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Oct 24, 2014
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This is my first post on this site, so If I make any mistakes, I'm sorry, we all start somewhere, right? Anyway:

I have recently finished building my PC moving over from consoles. Here are my specifications:

CPU: Intel i5-3570K
GPU: Sapphire Tri-X R9 290
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P8Z77-V LX
MEMORY: Corsair 4GB (I know, 4GB is all I could afford at the time, upgrading soon)
HDD: Western Digital 500GB
POWER SUPPLY: Corsair CX 750 bronze
CASE: Sharkoon T9

I first started it without an operating system as I was awaiting it's arrival and decided I'd have a look around at the BIOS. Then I thought I'd try an operating system (A free one, that is); Linux / ubuntu. Didn't like it, So I uninstalled. So far, I have gone through 3 operating systems (I'm sure I deleted them correctly as I still have the original amount of HDD space.

Operating Systems thus far:
- Linux / Ubuntu
- Windows Technical Preview
- Windows 7 professional (64 bit);

Once Windows 7 was installed that was it; no more OS's. So I thought I'd try some games. These are the games I've tried so far:

-Titanfall
-Watchdogs
-Battlefield 4

My issue so far is that it is slow; very unresponsive most of the time (Google Chrome, games); Frame rate issues (drops down to 20 on low sometimes on BF4!); and just generally seems poor performance. The temperatures (highest I've seen on it: 55 degrees) and 80% usage of CPU. Now I'm no expert, but surely, I should be getting better than lows of 9 on battlefield? Could this be a RAM issue or a HDD issue or something else entirely?

Thanks for any help provided - Shane.
 
Solution
Rapajez
It seems like an issue with the way your BIOS communicates with your GPU. Whether the problem lies with your mobo or your GPU, is harder to say. I'd probably recommend a BIOS update on the MOBO, before I went any further.

Are you familiar with the process? I believe that mobo will let you do it over the network, right from the BIOS menu. If not, you can go to the ASUS website and grab the latest utility.

Maybe do it with the iGPU and HDMI port on the mobo to be safe.

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Shane Oshea

Shane Oshea

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Oct 24, 2014
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Yes my friend, when I first booted windows 7 up I downloaded my drivers for the motherboard and Graphics card. Once the graphics card driver was installed I went on to AMD's website to see if I could find an updated version and then downloaded the 14.9 version. -Thanks for replying.
 
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Rapajez

Rapajez

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Jul 17, 2014
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You might want to do the following,

1. Disable Windows Update (temporarily)
2. Uninstall all Graphics Drivers
3. Only Install the latest AMD driver from their website. Select "Clean Install" if prompted.
4. Reboot and re-enable Windows Update.

Sometimes Windows Update can cause issues with the official drivers.

The 4GB of RAM probably isn't helping, but you're correct that your build should be getting much better FPS.

Check temps on BOTH the GPU and CPU while the games are running.
 
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Shane Oshea

Shane Oshea

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Oct 24, 2014
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Before reading your comment I had just restarted my computer to go into my BIOS settings to have a look around; however, upon pressing F2 and actually loading the BIOS my screen was black with only the time showing. I had to move my mouse around the screen for the blackness to change to the picture behind. It's quiet hard to explain, I might try and get a picture in the morning and upload it or something. Not sure if that could help with a process of elimination or not.

Once I saw that I decided to do a system restore and format my HDD; along with doing a disc checker. So far, no errors with that lot. So I re-installed windows, did the updates how you suggested but still not getting anything different. It's still running the same. Still getting unresponsiveness and frame rate stutters. The BIOS is just concerning because I can't do anything on it. Also, half my screen seems to shift during the loading of windows? Once windows has finished loading, it seems to refresh and reconfigure which is a pain because that also stops me from looking around until my system has finished loading.

Once again, thanks for your help.
 
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ko888

ko888

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Feb 18, 2009
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If there is a problem occurring when entering the UEFI BIOS Setup then it has nothing to do with the Operating System, graphics card driver or applications since none of those would have even been loaded.

The graphics card itself can be faulty.
 
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Shane Oshea

Shane Oshea

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Oct 24, 2014
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Well, I went into the bios using the keyboard shortcuts to navigate and I ended up in graphics management. I changed "primary display" to the iGPU option to see what would happen. I then moved the HDMI cable into the HDMI slot located on the motherboard.

Booted the computer up and I had full screen control of the bios. I then changed the "primary display" option to PCI-E changed the HDMI location again and it went back to the way it used to be, black screen only showing parts of the background screen when moving the mouse. Does this sound like I have a faulty GPU? I'm getting the next 4GB of RAM today to see if this helps with anything.
 
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Rapajez

Rapajez

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Jul 17, 2014
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It seems like an issue with the way your BIOS communicates with your GPU. Whether the problem lies with your mobo or your GPU, is harder to say. I'd probably recommend a BIOS update on the MOBO, before I went any further.

Are you familiar with the process? I believe that mobo will let you do it over the network, right from the BIOS menu. If not, you can go to the ASUS website and grab the latest utility.

Maybe do it with the iGPU and HDMI port on the mobo to be safe.

 
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