MSI B350m Bazooka + ASUS GTX 970 strix no display

Oct 9, 2018
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Hi guys, I'm having a problem getting my new build to display anything.

System specs:
Mobo: MSI b350m Bazooka
RAM: 8GB DDR4 3200Mhz
GPU: ASUS GTX 970 strix
CPU: Ryzen 5 1400
PSU: Corsair 520W

When I power up the system, everything turns on no problem, but the monitor says there's no input.
I'm currently in the bread boarding stage. I have used a system of a buddy of mine to troubleshoot.
First I put my GPU into his system, and it worked.
Next I used his 750w PSU to power my system, and I got no display.
Next I put his GTX 1080 in my system and used his PSU and I got a display. I then updated my Mobo BIOS to the latest version and restarted it, and everything worked fine, still using the GTX 1080.
Next I replaced my GTX 970 and once again got no display.

I'm assuming there's a compatibility problem somewhere, but I'm pretty much out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Oct 9, 2018
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So, after scouring even more forums threads and changing my search keywords a hundred times, I found the solution.

It seems that the motherboard's Pci-e lane can run in two different modes, depending on what type of card you're running. And the gtx 970 seems to not be able to run in pci-e 3.0 x16 mode, even though the motherboard thinks it can, so it doesnt change that setting automatically. I had to install a different GPU so that I'd have a display (this wouldn't be necessary if my CPU had onboard graphics) then while running that I went into BIOS>Advanced settings>pci settings and changed the mode from x16 to 4x4x4x4

After all that, I plugged in my 970 and it worked perfectly.