GT5678 Desktop PC Core 2 Quad Q6600 won't recognize Radeon HD 6870

[chewtoy247]

Hello Everyone,

I hope you're all having a great holiday season!

I have a GT5678 Desktop PC Core 2 Q6600 that I bought in 2008 that has been running great. With the overhaul of some gaming engines the ATI Radeon HD 2400XT wasn't cutting it anymore, but I was informed by some friends that the rest of the machine was still sufficient for running the current games I'm trying to run (WoW predominently, Skyrim, etc.).

I bought a XFX Radeon HD 6870 off of newegg on 11/15. The first card was dead, so I RMA it. The 2nd card booted once and would not boot again, RMA. The third card is quite a problem, but makes me think the 2nd card might have worked.

When I installed it, it isn't recognized in the system (does not come up as a display adapter option). So, the system reverts to onboard graphics. The two 6 pin cords are in right, the card boots up as the fans turn on. It's seated correctly. It shouldn't be the PCI-E slot as the old 2400XT works in it, as did Best Buy's stock cards. I took it to Best Buy Geek Squad and they were able to get it to work in the back after messing with bios settings. However, when they shut it down and brought it out front the card again was gone from the system. After some more playing with the system they were able to get it to recognize again, and install the drivers. I took it home, and again the card was gone.

At that point I took it back, but they claimed it was a BIOS compatibility issue and that the Gateway site had a BIOS but the link was broken and I was on my own.

I had BIOS A7399NG2.105 and upgraded it to A7399NG2.108 to no avail. Apparently there may be a .109 out there, as well as .202, and .203...but I'm not sure what issues would come from upgrading it to .203.

I'm at a loss as it's been over a month now and I'm not sure what to do to make this card work in my system, or if I should just throw in the towel and buy a new computer at this point and just send the card back or try to use it in the new system.

Any help would be fantastic!

Kevin

 

[bigshootr8]

Okay I'm trying to digest this all what power supply do you current have installed on this system. If it was the one that was pre installed when you received the system there is a good chance it would not have amble enough power to power the card.

I also wouldn't believe a thing that best buy would suggest you in doing. At least geek squad they overprice there services and its just not worth the time and effort especially if you were smart enough to end up here on the forums.

 

[chewtoy247]

When I bought the XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card, I also bought a CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance power supply to replace the origional that came with the system.

Short story is: the card doesn't come up recognized by the system as a display adapter and I have to use onboard graphics. Best Buy was able to mess with it to get it to work, but everytime it's shut down it reverts back and doesn't recognize the card. Although, I haven't been able to recreate it at home. They claimed it was a BIOS issue. I just figured more information was better so I wrote out the full story above.

 

[popatim]

You're going to need to figure out which motherboard you have in that. Apparently there were a few used, but here are your bios'es.
https://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?ref=std&st=browse&platform=10021&model=11812&os=&type=10079&mfg=&bios=

 

[bigshootr8]

I'm a little confused in what you are saying were you able to change your display adapter connections?

 

[chewtoy247]

Hmmm, it doesn't seem to list the motherboard I have with what you linked. My motherboard is MSI NVIDIA MCP73PV Motherboard. I updated from the 105 version BIOS to the 108 version using: http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=21992&dscr=MSI%20NVIDIA%20MCP73PV%20Motherboard%20BIOS%20UpdateVersion%20A7399NG2.108&uid=364571620.

The card isn't recognized as a display adapter option. It doesn't come up in the system at all. The install cd says I have no XFX hardware running. When I start up only the onboard is an option, and when you go into device manager that is all that comes up, the card isn't even recognized.

I read about attempting to disable onboard in the BIOS but the only option I found was palette snooping was disabled so I enabled that and nothing worked. They did something at the store to get it to recognize the card, but everytime it is shut down it disappears again.

They had it running in the store, so it's connected correctly, the system just won't recognize it consistently.

Does that help clarify, or did you mean something else by display adapter connection?

 

[bigshootr8]

No the card wont show up but you can change settings from onboard to pci to pci-e it has to be set to pci-e.

 

[chewtoy247]

I haven't been able to find that setting anywhere in my BIOS. Where would it be? Would that make it register that the card is there?

 

[bigshootr8]

looks something like this

 

[chewtoy247]

I can't seem to find any screen that looks like that.

Here's what I'm working with:

Main Screen:
http://imageshack.us/a/img824/8485/dsc5500v.jpg

Advanced Chipset Features:
http://imageshack.us/a/img4/5751/dsc5499j.jpg

PCI/PNP Configuration:
http://imageshack.us/a/img163/3351/dsc5498l.jpg

 

[chewtoy247]

I tried disabling it through device manager and it still started up requiring onboard even though it says it's disabled. No display through the card

 

[chewtoy247]

One thing I noticed is that it seems like the graphics cards fans never slow down, they just seem to be on 100% the full time as the computer is significantly louder than usual.

 

[bigshootr8]

You would find it in Integrated Peripherals I have a older computer with a non UEFI bios. Only reason I had brought up that was because it would seem odd for it not to show anything display wise but for your fans to be working. During boot up a lot of cards will typically run a little faster.
I have a friend who has a store bought computer and she bought a card but her bios has her locked out of changing her adapter settings so she can use the card so at some point she will need to get a bios that will allow her to do that. Again just another thing to check to be sure of things.

 

[chewtoy247]

Yeah, it sounds like the fans are stuck in boot up mode the entire time the computer is on, as the card doesn't seem to ever boot up properly.

I looked in Integrated Peripherals and couldn't find anything. I'll take some pictures again. I went from BIOS 105, to 108. I believe there may be a 109, and then a 200, 202, and 203 but I'm not sure how upgrading to 203 would impact everything, or if it would even work.

 

[chewtoy247]

Integrated Peripherals:
http://imageshack.us/a/img18/4023/dscn0423bp.jpg

Onboard Device Setup:
http://imageshack.us/a/img40/937/dscn0424dg.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img703/1808/dscn0425qr.jpg

Onboard IO Chip Setup:
http://imageshack.us/a/img855/3076/dscn0426s.jpg

I can't seem to find anything that talks about Display Adapter

 

[bigshootr8]

If you were to reconnect your old card does it work?

 

[chewtoy247]

Yes, the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT works as soon as I put it back in each time.

 

[bigshootr8]

wrig do you think there could be a wonky graphics compatibility with the board?

 

[chewtoy247]

Is it possible my architecture can't handle PCI Express 2.1 interface? I found a similarish topic on the board with:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/369018-33-asus-m3n78-radeon-6870-issues

Nevermind...found this lol >.<

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/304361-33-does-6870-work

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea I wouldn't suspect it being that your motherboard can't handle the bus of the card.

What bothers me is that you have a older card that works however when you try and use the newer card you end up with issues. Your power supply is more then enough for your system so its not that more then likely. Your motherboard can support the bus and when you place the old card in it works cant be that. There are 2 things that it can be from what I know. It could possibly be a software issue with your motherboard it doesn't care for your card or it could also be that your screen has a hard time keeping up with your new card based on the adapter you are using which I would suspect would be DVI which seems to be the less likely of the two being the case.

 

[chewtoy247]

I found this in another topic:


According to this PowerColor AX6870 1GBD5-M2DH Radeon HD 687 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161389 the GPU has 2 X 6 pin connectors so you need to use 2 x 6+2-Pin with the +2-Pin bent over.

What does it mean by being bent over? Right now I just kind of have them hanging in the wind. Also, does it matter which side the 6 pin is plugged into. They were connected as a 12 pin, so I just split them and put one in each slot.

 

[bigshootr8]

If you need to use the 6+2 power connections use both of them for sure. It shouldn't matter which one you plug in and where. You may want to double check that you have your power connections in properly.


What they may mean is that it requires 2 6 pin connections and that they have the extra 2 pin connection hanging to the side of far connection.

As long as everything is plugged in every pin is plugged I don't foresee that being an issue but I would double check.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

its probably your motherboard not compatable with the card. I had this problem a while ago, seemed to affect older motherboards, particularly nvidia ones and running anything newer than amd 5850 or 6850. Nvidia cards didnt seem to have the problem. I had this problem with my 650i board and so did many others. There was a bios update fix for my ASUS motherboard, but some manufacturers did not release a bios update to fix it. And even then, certain cards did not work. I would suggest returning it for a nvidia card, like a gtx560. You might have better luck with it. you will find you will have a cpu bottleneck anyway, so you could save some money and go for a 550ti or a 650.

 

[chewtoy247]

Would the BIOS updates for the board (109, 200, 202, 203) fix it? I wasn't sure about the 200's as it seemed weird that it jumped forward.

I know others have run the card with the q6600 architecture, but I never took into account who put the board together.

Is it better to get a gtx560? Does it need to be a nvidia gtx560, or can it be an asus? A lot of the ones I saw for sale were saying pci-e 3.0, so would that cause more of an issue?

How bad it the cpu bottle neck? Should I just be looking for a new system? Is there a place to build a system that I can leave out a graphics card and a psu now that I have two new ones lol. I guess I can still ask for refund on the card hopefully. If downgrading to a gtx560 won't allow me to run things on ultra settings easily it might be time to upgrade it all.

 

[bigshootr8]

A bios update could fix it. Bios updates often times update compatibility for components. It never hurts to have the most up to date bios.
Hmm over a 6870 a 560ti or 660 hmm well the 660 would beat the 560ti so you may be better off with that if a 660 is in your range.
Well your processor is getting up there in age I wont lie core 2 duo's quad w.e they are are about 4 years old now and going up so it may be time soon to give your system a overhaul.