Windows can't find Radeon RX5500 XT

Rodrigo1

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Feb 4, 2021
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Hello, this is my first post here.

A few weeks ago, I bought an ASRock Radeon RX5500XT to replace an aging HD 7770 for a Windows 7 PC. Here are some system specs:
Unfortunately, Windows repeatedly fails to recognize the new graphics card. The 5500 isn't showing up in Device Manager and, even though the video cable was plugged into the card's HDMI port (DVI-D at the monitor end), all I could get was standard VGA output. It was as if the 5500 didn't exist.

Here are some of the steps I took during troubleshooting;
  • Removed and re-seated the GPU in the PCIe x16 slot until it clicked into place
  • Verified that all 8 required pins (6+2) were fully inserted
  • Verified that the GPU was operating by feeling the fan's air current on my hand (even accidentally touching the slow-moving fan at one point) while the PC was running
Removing the 5500 and reinstalling the 7770 put everything back the way it was earlier that day, so I know that the PCIe slot is working properly.

There was no question of installing new AMD drivers since Windows would not acknowledge the card's presence; several attempts at manual installation of the downloaded driver failed.

According to the information I saw online and then on the product package, this card should work on Windows 7.

So my question is, what factors have I missed that led to Windows's inability to see this card?

Thanks in advance for any insights or suggestions.
 
Saw thread title, thought to myself "NO ONE can find the Radeon RX 5500XT right now..." :)

Jokes aside, do you have a different PC you can check the card in?
 
make sure bios is up to date then check the bios is set to use the pcie instead of onboard. if that doesnt work, yank the power and cmos battery then hit the power button a couple times. let it sit for a few minutes and then put it back together and see if you can get output to it.
 
Saw thread title, thought to myself "NO ONE can find the Radeon RX 5500XT right now..." :)

Jokes aside, do you have a different PC you can check the card in?
LOL, I see what you mean -- they're sold out at Newegg!

I don't think I have any other PC that could run this card. I have a more recent computer but it's a SFF and this card is too long to fit in the case.
 
LOL, I see what you mean -- they're sold out at Newegg!

I don't think I have any other PC that could run this card. I have a more recent computer but it's a SFF and this card is too long to fit in the case.
tear it apart and bench test with it, get [H]ard ;)
welcome to [H] btw!
 
make sure bios is up to date then check the bios is set to use the pcie instead of onboard. if that doesnt work, yank the power and cmos battery then hit the power button a couple times. let it sit for a few minutes and then put it back together and see if you can get output to it.
Thanks, I'll give this a shot tomorrow.

I'm thinking that the bios must already be set to use PCIe since the computer does see and use the HD 7770, but I'll check. A bios update that fixes the problem may be available. If not, then I'll move on to your next steps.
 
Rodrigo1

I'm assuming the specs of your system match what info is available on the HP link you provided - Intel Z75 chipset in the motherboard and a 3rd-generation Intel Core processor of some sort. Also, It looks like the last BIOS update for that system was in 2015. If you haven't checked, it would be worth making sure that you have that final BIOS version installed on your system.

With the RX series some older systems couldn't recognize the cards. It usually involved older motherboards that were either set to boot in a fully legacy BIOS mode, or boot in a UEFI mode but had support for older "legacy" settings still enabled. It was bizarre and inconsistent from vendor to vendor, but it's possible this is what you've run across.

It isn't really clear from the docs or user posts on HP's website what modes the motherboard in your system supports. Go into the BIOS/UEFI settings (HP's manual says you can get there by pressing F10 at boot) and look for settings that mention "support legacy option ROMs" or "UEFI boot with legacy support" - something like that. Also look to see what your system's "boot mode" is set at, if that option is available.

I'm assuming it is set to some kind of UEFI mode, probably with legacy support enabled (very common configuration at the time), since you're running Win7 x64. If you can find those settings, try to select an option for "UEFI only" or just disable the legacy support.

If the boot mode mentions MBR, not GPT, and if legacy support is enabled, changing these settings may prevent your system from booting. If this happens, obviously, change it back and cross your fingers.

If you can find these settings and change them, it's possible the card will be recognized in Windows. Although, if changing the settings prevents the system from booting, you wouldn't know for sure if it works without reinstalling Windows. So I guess it also depends on how much time you want to spend troubleshooting it and how comfortable you are with doing a windows install if necessary.

Either way, backup anything you consider important before trying anything.
 
you're not running some exotic DVI dual-link 1440p monitor, are you? You can only get single-link compatibility mode using an HDMII to DVI cabl.
 
my sig system is in legacy mode and works fine but it could be his card is uefi only. if he has the option he could switch but i wouldnt delete it just yet.
 
Rodrigo1

I'm assuming the specs of your system match what info is available on the HP link you provided - Intel Z75 chipset in the motherboard and a 3rd-generation Intel Core processor of some sort. Also, It looks like the last BIOS update for that system was in 2015. If you haven't checked, it would be worth making sure that you have that final BIOS version installed on your system.

With the RX series some older systems couldn't recognize the cards. It usually involved older motherboards that were either set to boot in a fully legacy BIOS mode, or boot in a UEFI mode but had support for older "legacy" settings still enabled. It was bizarre and inconsistent from vendor to vendor, but it's possible this is what you've run across.

It isn't really clear from the docs or user posts on HP's website what modes the motherboard in your system supports. Go into the BIOS/UEFI settings (HP's manual says you can get there by pressing F10 at boot) and look for settings that mention "support legacy option ROMs" or "UEFI boot with legacy support" - something like that. Also look to see what your system's "boot mode" is set at, if that option is available.

I'm assuming it is set to some kind of UEFI mode, probably with legacy support enabled (very common configuration at the time), since you're running Win7 x64. If you can find those settings, try to select an option for "UEFI only" or just disable the legacy support.

If the boot mode mentions MBR, not GPT, and if legacy support is enabled, changing these settings may prevent your system from booting. If this happens, obviously, change it back and cross your fingers.

If you can find these settings and change them, it's possible the card will be recognized in Windows. Although, if changing the settings prevents the system from booting, you wouldn't know for sure if it works without reinstalling Windows. So I guess it also depends on how much time you want to spend troubleshooting it and how comfortable you are with doing a windows install if necessary.

Either way, backup anything you consider important before trying anything.

Thanks for all the info. Yep, the system I linked to is the same one with the problem.

First thing I've done is to go into the BIOS and look for the features you said. Somehwere on this post is a shot of the closest thing that came to what you described.

IMG_20210205_154800 - Copy.jpg


(The highlighted item in the gray menu behind this one is labeled "Boot Order." Th eonly other reference to booting in the BIOS is to "Network Boot" under the Security tab.)

Doesn't look too hopeful, huh? Just in case, I'll try putting the 5500 in there and booting with a Linux live CD, to see if we have any better luck that way. But first, I'll get that BIOS update installed
 
you're not running some exotic DVI dual-link 1440p monitor, are you? You can only get single-link compatibility mode using an HDMII to DVI cabl.
Here's the page for the monitor. The DVI-D connector is the 24+1 type.

The 7770 is currently hooked up to the monitor via DVI-D to DVI-D and everything works well. But the 7770 does have an HDMI port, too. Before switching out the graphics cards again, maybe I'll try connecting the 7770 with the HDMI-to-DVI-D cable that I bought for the 5500, and reboot to see what happens.

Update: FWIW, the PC booted up fine with the 7770 connected to the monitor via the HDMI-to-DVID-D cable.

Will try updating the BIOS next.
 
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Just finished updating the BIOS. It seems to have gone well. The main difference from the original BIOS is that there is now a "Secure Boot Configuration" at the bottom of the Security tab. Selecting that item makes a big red box pop up, warning that:

The options on this Setup page are only for Windows 8 and other Operating Systems that support Secure Boot.
Changing the default setting of any of the Setup options on this page for Operating Systems that do not support Secure Boot may prevent the system from booting successfully.
Are you sure that you want to continue?

If I hit F10 to Accept, a new screen appears that does offer options to enable/disable Legacy Support, as well as to enable/disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot. I wouldn't do anything with these last two, but I'm wondering if I should chance disabling Legacy Support as deruberhanyok suggested.

There was no mention anywhere of selecting a boot mode, or of MBR vs. GPT.
 
Just finished updating the BIOS. It seems to have gone well. The main difference from the original BIOS is that there is now a "Secure Boot Configuration" at the bottom of the Security tab. Selecting that item makes a big red box pop up, warning that:



If I hit F10 to Accept, a new screen appears that does offer options to enable/disable Legacy Support, as well as to enable/disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot. I wouldn't do anything with these last two, but I'm wondering if I should chance disabling Legacy Support as deruberhanyok suggested.

There was no mention anywhere of selecting a boot mode, or of MBR vs. GPT.
try it. if it doesnt work flip it back.
 
try it. if it doesnt work flip it back.
Uh-oh... disabled Legacy Support, rebooted, and now I'm getting six beeps with the power button flashing orange. No booting and hitting F10 to enter the BIOS doesn't do anything, the beeping starts right away.
 
Uh-oh... disabled Legacy Support, rebooted, and now I'm getting six beeps with the power button flashing orange. No booting and hitting F10 to enter the BIOS doesn't do anything, the beeping starts right away.
thats a post error changing that option wouldnt cause that. make sure cables and card are seated good.
edit: unless its now telling you it doesnt like the card... youd have to look at the system documentation.
edit 2: there isnt a bios switch on it by chance? near the power connector usually. the card could be being picky about the pice 3 too, its 4 x8.
 
thats a post error changing that option wouldnt cause that. make sure cables and card are seated good.
edit: unless its now telling you it doesnt like the card... youd have to look at the system documentation.
edit 2: there isnt a bios switch on it by chance? near the power connector usually. the card could be being picky about the pice 3 too, its 4 x8.
Shoot, literally the only change between the time that it was working and the time it stopped working, was to disable that Legacy Support. No cables were moved and no cards were pulled out.

Update: I found this info:
Six short beeps means that there has been an 8042 Gate A20 test error.

This beep code is usually caused by an expansion card that has failed or a motherboard that is no longer working.

Really, like literally in the seconds after disabling Legacy Boot is when the video card or the motherboard decided to fail? Maybe I should be playing the lottery! :D
 
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Shoot, literally the only change between the time that it was working and the time it stopped working, was to disable that Legacy Support. No cables were moved and no cards were pulled out.
oh is it beeping with the 7770? just clear the bios and it should fire back up.
 
edit: unless its now telling you it doesnt like the card... youd have to look at the system documentation.
edit 2: there isnt a bios switch on it by chance? near the power connector usually. the card could be being picky about the pice 3 too, its 4 x8.
Looks like our edits crossed. :)

No, there's no BIOS switch, unfortunately.

The card that's in there is the original 7770 that's been in place all along (except for the other day when I tried to install the 5500).

I'll disconnect everything from the PC and reseat the 7770, see what happens.
 
Thanks, I'll take the CMOS battery out. Maybe I'll put in a fresh one for good measure.
All right, crisis over (for now, anyway). The CMOS coin battery was dead as a doornail. Put in a new one and it looks like things are back to normal. Could get into the BIOS and it showed that Legacy Support was enabled once again, and then I was able to boot into Windows.

Now for the next step. Should I chance disabling Legacy Support once again, <shudder> or should I try putting in the new 5500 card instead?
 
All right, crisis over (for now, anyway). The CMOS coin battery was dead as a doornail. Put in a new one and it looks like things are back to normal. Could get into the BIOS and it showed that Legacy Support was enabled once again, and then I was able to boot into Windows.

Now for the next step. Should I chance disabling Legacy Support once again, <shudder> or should I try putting in the new 5500 card instead?
both ;)
 
Since I had to take out the 7770 in order to get to the CMOS, I went ahead and put the 5500 back in, then rebooted.

BIOS went back to default values (whew!), but when Windows booted it was back at VGA resolution even though we currently have a 5500 card connected from HDMI to DVI-D.

Looks like I'm out of luck with the 5500 on this PC.

But get this -- booting into a Linux live CD (KDE Neon) did get me the expected sharp video resolution (1600x900) with the 5500 in place. FWIW, KInfocenter tags the video card as an AMD/ATI "Device 7340.."
 
Since I had to take out the 7770 in order to get to the CMOS, I went ahead and put the 5500 back in, then rebooted.

BIOS went back to default values (whew!), but when Windows booted it was back at VGA resolution even though we currently have a 5500 card connected from HDMI to DVI-D.

Looks like I'm out of luck with the 5500 on this PC.

But get this -- booting into a Linux live CD (KDE Neon) did get me the expected sharp video resolution (1600x900) with the 5500 in place. FWIW, KInfocenter tags the video card as an AMD/ATI "Device 7340.."
update the drivers?
 
update the drivers?
It's a live CD, not sure if the drivers can be updated usefully, especially if a reboot is required.

Am now loading a Kubuntu live CD. I'm more familiar with Kubuntu than KDE Neon, so I may have better luck there.

But the bottom line seems to be that I can't get the 5500 to work properly in Windows 7 on that PC. I may have to move to Windows 10 or else switch to Linux, what do you think?
 
It's a live CD, not sure if the drivers can be updated usefully, especially if a reboot is required.

Am now loading a Kubuntu live CD. I'm more familiar with Kubuntu than KDE Neon, so I may have better luck there.

But the bottom line seems to be that I can't get the 5500 to work properly in Windows 7 on that PC. I may have to move to Windows 10 or else switch to Linux, what do you think?
The 7770 you were using uses legacy drivers from before 5500xt was launched, you'll need to uninstall the old drivers and install new ones if you haven't already for the card to work properly.

Edit: Just to clarify install the new drivers with the 5500xt installed, the old drivers can be uninstalled with either card in.
 
Ahh, the glory of AMD driver bingo.

This is why I willn ever buy another card from them - way too many corner cases that look like bad hardware.
 
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"when Windows booted it was back at VGA resolution even though we currently have a 5500 card connected from HDMI to DVI-D" << this sound like no drivers.
the 5500 is supported but 7, it got the new drivers on the first.
https://www.amd.com/en/support/grap...d-radeon-rx-5500-series/amd-radeon-rx-5500-xt
Thanks for the link. I noticed at the bottom of the Windows 7 section there is an EXE for "Auto-Detect and Install." The full driver file, which I'd downloaded before, didn't work, but maybe this automated detection executable will.

I do wonder if it'll work because, as we saw before, Windows 7 on that PC doesn't acknowledge the 5500's existence. But I'll give this a shot and report back.

Update: Still no dice. Getting the following error when the driver installation file runs:

Radeon OpenGL.png


(Notice the horrible VGA-style graphics.)

The bit about this being "most likely caused by not having the necessary graphics drivers installed" is a beauty. Well duh, the graphics drivers are precisely what I'm trying to install! :rolleyes:
 
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Ahh, the glory of AMD driver bingo.

This is why I willn ever buy another card from them - way too many corner cases that look like bad hardware.
The 7770 is almost a decade old at this point and the 550ti it competed against is also relegated to legacy drivers from 2018 which wouldn't support a newer card.
Thanks for the link. I noticed at the bottom of the Windows 7 section there is an EXE for "Auto-Detect and Install." The full driver file, which I'd downloaded before, didn't work, but maybe this automated detection executable will.

I do wonder if it'll work because, as we saw before, Windows 7 on that PC doesn't acknowledge the 5500's existence. But I'll give this a shot and report back.

Update: Still no dice. Getting the following error when the driver installation file runs:

View attachment 326587

(Notice the horrible VGA-style graphics.)

The bit about this being "most likely caused by not having the necessary graphics drivers installed" is a beauty. Well duh, the graphics drivers are precisely what I'm trying to install! :rolleyes:
If you're still using the old card don't use auto detect, if you're using the new card it should work but you're always better off manually selecting the card and operating system.

If I have it right you are able to boot into windows with the 5500xt after turning legacy mode off but the resolution is low. If that's the case the first thing you should do once you have the correct drivers downloaded is uninstall the old drivers from the control panel(It will walk you through and tell it to get rid of everything if it asks), then install the new drivers. If you still have problems installing the drivers you might to use something like DDU to remove traces of the old drivers but that shouldn't be necessary.

Also one potential cause of booting to a black screen with a newly installed card is that windows can't properly detect some connections unless the monitor is on which means windows might set one of the other outputs as the default causing no signal on the one you do have it connected to.
 
The 7770 is almost a decade old at this point and the 550ti it competed against is also relegated to legacy drivers from 2018 which wouldn't support a newer card.

If you're still using the old card don't use auto detect, if you're using the new card it should work but you're always better off manually selecting the card and operating system.

If I have it right you are able to boot into windows with the 5500xt after turning legacy mode off but the resolution is low. If that's the case the first thing you should do once you have the correct drivers downloaded is uninstall the old drivers from the control panel(It will walk you through and tell it to get rid of everything if it asks), then install the new drivers. If you still have problems installing the drivers you might to use something like DDU to remove traces of the old drivers but that shouldn't be necessary.

Also one potential cause of booting to a black screen with a newly installed card is that windows can't properly detect some connections unless the monitor is on which means windows might set one of the other outputs as the default causing no signal on the one you do have it connected to.
That's the thing, with legacy mode off I can't boot into Windows (or anything else) regardless of which card is in the slot because the PC will then beep 6 times and go no further. I can only boot if legacy mode is on, and then if the 5500 is in place Windows 7 will boot into a low-resolution mode and can't find the 5500; while if the 7770 is in place then Windows 7 boots normally with good resolution.

As I see it, the inability to get Win7 on this PC to see the 5500, or to install drivers for it, means there are three main choices:
  1. Put Windows 10 on this PC
  2. Put some flavor of Linux on this PC
  3. Get a new PC to put the 5500 into
Another approach would be to multi-boot with Linux or Win10 on that same PC and be resigned to VGA graphics if I need to get into Windows 7.
 
That's the thing, with legacy mode off I can't boot into Windows (or anything else) regardless of which card is in the slot because the PC will then beep 6 times and go no further. I can only boot if legacy mode is on, and then if the 5500 is in place Windows 7 will boot into a low-resolution mode and can't find the 5500; while if the 7770 is in place then Windows 7 boots normally with good resolution.

As I see it, the inability to get Win7 on this PC to see the 5500, or to install drivers for it, means there are three main choices:
  1. Put Windows 10 on this PC
  2. Put some flavor of Linux on this PC
  3. Get a new PC to put the 5500 into
Another approach would be to multi-boot with Linux or Win10 on that same PC and be resigned to VGA graphics if I need to get into Windows 7.
download and run DDU then try the new drivers again.
 
Question: Since Windows 10 is effectively a free upgrade from Windows 7 (i.e. your Windows 7 key will activate an equivalent installation of Windows 10, Home to Home and Pro to Pro) and since Windows 7 and Windows 10 have largely the same system requirements and since Windows 7 is now completely out of support from Microsoft...

Why do you want to stick with Windows 7?
 
Is there a uefi switch on the gpu?
If your booting with the 5500 and getting any display at all it still Sounds like driver issues.
 
The 7770 is almost a decade old at this point and the 550ti it competed against is also relegated to legacy drivers from 2018 which wouldn't support a newer card.
I'm referring to playug bingo trying to figure out the driver problems with his new card.
 
Try reinstalling the graphics card's firmware/BIOS. VBIOS.
If you haven't done that, you should.
 
I'm referring to playug bingo trying to figure out the driver problems with his new card.
Not if the issue is that he's running drivers that are too old for the card. If it's needing to clean out some leftover stuff Nvidia is just as bad about that though it's a rare problem for either these days.
 
Is there a uefi switch on the gpu?
If your booting with the 5500 and getting any display at all it still Sounds like driver issues.
No, there's not UEFI switch on the GPU. Not that I could tell, anyway. Didn't even know that was a thing! :)

About its maybe being a driver issue: typically, when we put in a new PCI card, Windows will notice it right away and launch the "Add New Hardware" wizard to search for and install the needed drivers. What's happening in my case is that Windows isn't acknowledging the new card and so the Add New Hardware wizard doesn't start up when the card is put in. If I go into Device Manager, the listing under Display Adapters is given as "Standard VGA Display" or something along those lines even though the 5500 is in place and the video is connected from the HDMI port on the card to the DVI-D port on the monitor.
 
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