I am in urgent need of some advice / assistance.
First, my current system config:
Zotac H67ITX WiFI motherboard
i3 2100
2 x 4GB Patriot DDR3 - 1600 RAM modules
1 x Seagate 1TB - OS Drive
1 x Seagate 2TB - Data Drive
Corsair TX750 PSU
Asus R9 290 DirectCU II graphics card
Custom built HTPC chassis.
I uninstalled my GTX 580 recently as I wanted to upgrade. After uninstalling it I noticed that my windows didn't want to boot up using the IGP, as it got to the Windows 7 logo (the one with the spinning orbs) and immediately crashed.
I put this down to the drivers not being installed for the Intel graphics and let it be.
Today I got my new graphics card, a 9 290 DCuII, installed it and found that it still didn't want to boot up.
I tried numerous hard drives, all with different windows installs, none of them booted up.
After hours and hours of rebuilding, configs, reseating everything and trying to isolate the poblem I finally have a configration that allows me to boot into Windows:
HDMI cable from IGP to TV.
9290 plugged into PCI-Ex slot and both its power connectors plugged in.
PCI-Ex slot disabled in BIOS.
In this configuration the PC works 100%. Everything functions, the device manager shows everything is installed and running normally, hunky dory.
The rest of my hardware layout has remained unchanged from its fully functioning state when I had my GTX 580 installed, i.e. all of the hard drives, peripherals etc. is plugged in and working 100%.
Now, as soon as I enable the PCI-Ex slot in the BIOS, even with the BIOS set to only initialize and use the IGP, with the HDMI cable still plugged into the IGP, I get the monitor displaying "No Signal" and I get a boot failure. When I plug the HDMI cable into the graphics card with this configuration I again get "No Signal" and a boot failure. The only way to then get to windows again is to remove the graphics card, boot up, disable the PCI-Ex slot, plug the graphics card back in and boot up, upon which everything still works 100%.
What baffles me though is that when I remove the graphics card the PC doesn't want to boot up (similarly to when I removed my GTX 580), independent of whether the PCI-Ex slot is activated or not.
I also tried another configuration:
HDMI cable from IGP to TV.
9290 plugged into PCI-Ex slot but its power connectors not attached.
PCI-Ex slot enabled in BIOS, but BIOS set to only use IGP, not graphics card.
When I did this I could get into the BIOS, even with the PCI-Ex slot enabled, but as soon as I quit the BIOS and the boot process continued it crashed, even before the Windows loading screen.
So, what to deduce from this?
Heaven only knows...
I then thought that it may be a shorting issue, i.e. the motherboard shorting itself out against something in my chassis with the removal of components having moved something. I thus disassembled the whole rig and breadboarded it on my wooden desk and repeated the configs that worked and didn't work, with exactly the same results. So shorting was ruled out as a culprit.
I then tried to change the expansion card to something else. I had a pci-ex wifi card lying around so i proceeded to replace the graphics card with it and repeated the tests. Strangely I got the same result as when the power wasn't plugged into the 9290, where it would crash directly after the POST/BIOS.
I'm truly stumped. If anyone has any suggestions of what to try next I'd appreciate it. My next guess would be to plug the GPU into another motherboard, or plug another GPU into my motherboard and see whether these two configurations work. Unfortunately though i don't have immediate access to a spare motherboard and RAM so that will have to wait.
I am out of ideas at this stage. It is either that the GPU is bad, but that wouldn't explain why the IGP won't work if there's no GPU installed, or it's the motherboard that's bad, but that wouldn't explain why the GPU needs to be installed in the first configuration mentioned here for Windows to boot up.
Please, any advice / help / assistance would be greatly appreciated.
First, my current system config:
Zotac H67ITX WiFI motherboard
i3 2100
2 x 4GB Patriot DDR3 - 1600 RAM modules
1 x Seagate 1TB - OS Drive
1 x Seagate 2TB - Data Drive
Corsair TX750 PSU
Asus R9 290 DirectCU II graphics card
Custom built HTPC chassis.
I uninstalled my GTX 580 recently as I wanted to upgrade. After uninstalling it I noticed that my windows didn't want to boot up using the IGP, as it got to the Windows 7 logo (the one with the spinning orbs) and immediately crashed.
I put this down to the drivers not being installed for the Intel graphics and let it be.
Today I got my new graphics card, a 9 290 DCuII, installed it and found that it still didn't want to boot up.
I tried numerous hard drives, all with different windows installs, none of them booted up.
After hours and hours of rebuilding, configs, reseating everything and trying to isolate the poblem I finally have a configration that allows me to boot into Windows:
HDMI cable from IGP to TV.
9290 plugged into PCI-Ex slot and both its power connectors plugged in.
PCI-Ex slot disabled in BIOS.
In this configuration the PC works 100%. Everything functions, the device manager shows everything is installed and running normally, hunky dory.
The rest of my hardware layout has remained unchanged from its fully functioning state when I had my GTX 580 installed, i.e. all of the hard drives, peripherals etc. is plugged in and working 100%.
Now, as soon as I enable the PCI-Ex slot in the BIOS, even with the BIOS set to only initialize and use the IGP, with the HDMI cable still plugged into the IGP, I get the monitor displaying "No Signal" and I get a boot failure. When I plug the HDMI cable into the graphics card with this configuration I again get "No Signal" and a boot failure. The only way to then get to windows again is to remove the graphics card, boot up, disable the PCI-Ex slot, plug the graphics card back in and boot up, upon which everything still works 100%.
What baffles me though is that when I remove the graphics card the PC doesn't want to boot up (similarly to when I removed my GTX 580), independent of whether the PCI-Ex slot is activated or not.
I also tried another configuration:
HDMI cable from IGP to TV.
9290 plugged into PCI-Ex slot but its power connectors not attached.
PCI-Ex slot enabled in BIOS, but BIOS set to only use IGP, not graphics card.
When I did this I could get into the BIOS, even with the PCI-Ex slot enabled, but as soon as I quit the BIOS and the boot process continued it crashed, even before the Windows loading screen.
So, what to deduce from this?
Heaven only knows...
I then thought that it may be a shorting issue, i.e. the motherboard shorting itself out against something in my chassis with the removal of components having moved something. I thus disassembled the whole rig and breadboarded it on my wooden desk and repeated the configs that worked and didn't work, with exactly the same results. So shorting was ruled out as a culprit.
I then tried to change the expansion card to something else. I had a pci-ex wifi card lying around so i proceeded to replace the graphics card with it and repeated the tests. Strangely I got the same result as when the power wasn't plugged into the 9290, where it would crash directly after the POST/BIOS.
I'm truly stumped. If anyone has any suggestions of what to try next I'd appreciate it. My next guess would be to plug the GPU into another motherboard, or plug another GPU into my motherboard and see whether these two configurations work. Unfortunately though i don't have immediate access to a spare motherboard and RAM so that will have to wait.
I am out of ideas at this stage. It is either that the GPU is bad, but that wouldn't explain why the IGP won't work if there's no GPU installed, or it's the motherboard that's bad, but that wouldn't explain why the GPU needs to be installed in the first configuration mentioned here for Windows to boot up.
Please, any advice / help / assistance would be greatly appreciated.
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