RX 480 won't boot!

Wiseguy2001

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
3,470
Hi, my rx 480 arrived today, but... when I plug it in, no screen(s) turn on and there's no beep codes. The fans spin, but they do not spin right up (which normally happens when I reset the machine).

I've tried re-seating it in a known good slot, with different power cables.

I have a 700w Ocz PSU (with 2 6/8 pin connectors), and I've tried running it with the other GPU (a 270X) removed.

Tested the GPU in another machine and it worked straight away.

Installed the latest bios, with default settings

Removed all but one stick of memory, same goes for drives.

Even striped the machine back the essentials.

I guess it's either the PSU or the motherboard, it's an MSI GD65 (i7 2600k) with the additional 8 pin power connector. I can pick up a new PSU tomorrow, but I really hope this isn't the motherboard.

Wondering if this is because they're sucking too much power from the PCIE slot?
 
I wouldn't jump on the over spec train just yet...
is your bios legacy or uefi? none uefi bios is usually the issue if it works in another system...

edit: non pcie 3 should also not be an issue. you did have a 270x running before, are those uefi? try reseting the bios with the 480 installed and make sure its not defaulting to onboard vid(if you have it).

edit: fixed speeling :)
 
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Hi, my rx 480 arrived today, but... when I plug it in, no screen(s) turn on and there's no beep codes. The fans spin, but they do not spin right up (which normally happens when I reset the machine).

I've tried re-seating it in a known good slot, with different power cables.

I have a 700w Ocz PSU (with 2 6/8 pin connectors), and I've tried running it with the other GPU (a 270X) removed.

Tested the GPU in another machine and it worked straight away.

Installed the latest bios, with default settings

Removed all but one stick of memory, same goes for drives.

Even striped the machine back the essentials.

I guess it's either the PSU or the motherboard, it's an MSI GD65 (i7 2600k) with the additional 8 pin power connector. I can pick up a new PSU tomorrow, but I really hope this isn't the motherboard.

Wondering if this is because they're sucking too much power from the PCIE slot?

Make sure it is not defaulting to onboard graphics or integrated graphics if you have that.
 
Try clearing the cmos? It does sound UEFI related. Does that card have bios switches? Somtimes togleing the switch changes it to Legacy/UEFI modes.....probably something simple like that
 
I forgot to mention, I did also try taking the battery out (while unplugged).

The motherboard is using UEFI, but I don't think this is the issue as those report black screens rather than no display output.

I think it must be the motherboard. :(
 
I forgot to mention, I did also try taking the battery out (while unplugged).

The motherboard is using UEFI, but I don't think this is the issue as those report black screens rather than no display output.

I think it must be the motherboard. :(
you went thru the trouble of taking the battery out but didnt move the cmos jumper? they doing these new boards differently?
 
Clear the CMOS by using the jumper. If you are going through the trouble of removing the battery, go ahead and clear the CMOS.
 
removing the battery and disconnecting power will clear the cmos. the jumper is there so you don't have to remove the battery but I have found that battery out, no power, discharge by hitting the power button and sitting for a while works better than the jumper.

does the system work with another gpu? if so your board is probably fine and you just need to keep TSing.
 
The battery was easier to find without the manual, and the modo also has a CMOS reset switch. I much better way to reset.

Yeah the system works with the 270x (in both x16 slots). I've spent a couple more hours trying to get this to work, but no avail (the front panel connectors were close, so I bent those out of the way). I'll try picking up a new PSU tomorrow, if that doesn't work then it looks like it's time to upgrade the whole system (doesn't really seem with while, the 2600k @4.5ghz wasn't too bad).
 
ok so a 270x work in the system and the 480 works in a different system, right? so the mobo is good and the 480 is good. this has to be a bios issue then. put the 270 back in and check the bios setting for legasy/uefi and also check the card for a bios switch(I don't think they have one). also check for a mobo bios update. maybe try another psu if you can. if you cant get it going, upgrading the whole system does not seem cost effective as you system is still plenty fast. you'd be better off moving to a different gpu.
 
I'd definitely try a BIOs update.

The whole PCIe power issue shouldn't matter until you load the card.
 
Try using the other power supply in your rig and see if 480 works then. OCZ......grrrrrr
 
Agreed with the Legacy/UEFI mess.. probably the 480X it's legacy only, while your Motherboard (I assume it's an Z77A-GD65) its only UEFI with no support to legacy.
 
Agreed with the Legacy/UEFI mess.. probably the 480X it's legacy only, while your Motherboard (I assume it's an Z77A-GD65) its only UEFI with no support to legacy.
Why would a brand new RX 480 be legacy only when UEFI has been around for several years now?
 
It's probably the motherboard, those boards are from the Legacy BIOS era. And presuming that is a P67 MSI board, downloading the actual latest BIOS may remove the ability to overclock a Sandy Bridge CPU (they patched in Ivy Bridge support and better UEFI at the expense of full Sandy support).

I sold my 2500K and MSI P67A G45 after buying an AMD UEFI card and the system wouldn't boot with the card installed.
 
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Why would a brand new RX 480 be legacy only when UEFI has been around for several years now?

because that's how AMD works to hmm "ensure" maximum compatibility with older systems. in fact. until not so much every single Fury X out there was Legacy Only. so yes it's kinda probably in my opinion a UEFI issue.

New firmware for Fury X and Nano cards could speed up boot times

Owners of top-end Radeons looking for the fastest possible boot times may have been stymied by those cards' firmware. Although the majority of modern motherboards include UEFI firmwares, the R9 Fury X and R9 Nano still use the legacy VGA option BIOS for maximum compatibility. This choice means slower boot times, since UEFI motherboards have to load a "Compatibility Support Module" for legacy firmware.
 
It's probably the motherboard, those boards are from the Legacy BIOS era. And presuming that is a P67 MSI board, downloading the actual latest BIOS may remove the ability to overclock a Sandy Bridge CPU (they patched in Ivy Bridge support and better UEFI at the expense of full Sandy support).

I sold my 2500K and MSI P67A G45 after buying an AMD UEFI card and the system wouldn't boot with the card installed.

I thought the same initially but then re-read the OP found the board it's a GD65 which I assume it's Z77 era. not P67 then everything changed in my mind.
 
I thought the same initially but then re-read the OP found the board it's a GD65 which I assume it's Z77 era. not P67 then everything changed in my mind.

Ah, he/she should still go update the BIOs first though!
 
I didn't list the critical part of the motherboard model it's a MSI p67a gd65 (it's the rev 1 as I wasn't bothered about the 2nd set of sata3 ports having an issue). I have the newest BIOS available.

I believe the motherboard is the culprit (another PSU didn't help), I'll look at getting something z77 based. Such a pain in the arse!
 
I didn't list the critical part of the motherboard model it's a MSI p67a gd65 (it's the rev 1 as I wasn't bothered about the 2nd set of sata3 ports having an issue). I have the newest BIOS available.

I believe the motherboard is the culprit (another PSU didn't help), I'll look at getting something z77 based. Such a pain in the arse!

Quick email to MSi asking them if there is anything they can do ?
 
I searched for the invoice and realized the motherboard is over 5 years old (ordered it Jan 2011!), I'm sure that's the longest I've ever used a PC (aside from the SSD, memory & GPU).

It looks like there is a real issue with the power/ PCIE spec. I'll phone the re-seller on Monday, probably send it back and wait for cards that don't stress the motherboard for so much power. I can't believe I jinxed myself.

It sucks how slowly Intel has progressed the i7's in the last 5 years. :(
 
It looks like there is a real issue with the power/ PCIE spec.
Extremely unlikely.....Heck the cards not drawing any power at idle or prior to booting. Some kind of rare/odd compatibility (UEFI related) with your board if i had to guess.
 
Extremely unlikely.....Heck the cards not drawing any power at idle or prior to booting. Some kind of rare/odd compatibility (UEFI related) with your board if i had to guess.

all the way around, the card run at FULL power at boot in fact every component of the motherboard run at full speed at boot time until the final step of the post screen, even the highest spikes in power on a system occur during the post state as they aren't still under motherboard regulation.. that's why you see in BIOS typically the CPU running at full speed and full voltage because none of the C states and power regulations are applied until system post, this is quite interesting in those kind of motherboard with very long post times and those that realize pre-post analysis and diagnostic.
 
Might me time to upgrade your board. Every MOBO company is going the way of UEFI now. I had similar issues on an older board when I tried upgrading a few components. There was an issue with the legacy/UEFI configuration. Upgraded the board and didn't need to return any of the other components.
 
all the way around, the card run at FULL power at boot in fact every component of the motherboard run at full speed at boot time until the final step of the post screen, even the highest spikes in power on a system occur during the post state as they aren't still under motherboard regulation.. that's why you see in BIOS typically the CPU running at full speed and full voltage because none of the C states and power regulations are applied until system post, this is quite interesting in those kind of motherboard with very long post times and those that realize pre-post analysis and diagnostic.
this statement can be kinda confusing.....i admit its not entirely idle usage but in my experience its far from 100% usage power draw either. I base this from watching outlet power meters during boot ups...So your right its not full c-states but it shouldn't be trying to pull a heavy load either (like furmark usage)
 
this statement can be kinda confusing.....i admit its not entirely idle usage but in my experience its far from 100% usage power draw either. I base this from watching outlet power meters during boot ups...So your right its not full c-states but it shouldn't be trying to pull a heavy load either (like furmark usage)

Sorry buddy, kinda drunk at that moment let me explain better, is not the same load than stress, you can put enough load in a CPU/GPU enough go reach 100% usage and still doesn't reach stress state because even if the utilization is high it's at the same time light. An example of this is is with the CPUs, you can put at 100% load with a common task and it will not be the same as put 100% FPU load which cause a magnitude different of stress level, same with GPU and other electronic device isn't the same load as stress

during the POST state of a machine which is no more than "Power On Self Test" are executed pre-boot sequences and routines, every motherboard component and slots as every other pc component are analyzed and checked for errors this is actually. Once everything is checked successfully is when the bootstrap command invoked to launch the OS, at that moment is when everything should be at low load state, idle state for loads doesn't exist anymore since the introduction of UEFI as some boot commands are designed to be launched and processed by a GPU with UEFi bios together with CPU and harddrive to improve load times as much as the I/O device allow for it. Motherboards with long post time aren't necessarily bad it's just that those execute additional sequences for error checking and at this moment everything is actually max loaded but without any stress like furmark or prime95.. just look at the GPU-Z render test, it put any GPU load at 100% for checking clocks however the stress level is actually low so you find lower Temps as some games even loading 100% of the GPU cause different stress level than others.. this is exactly what happens during POST. The load is high but at low stress level. In those moments really can occur heavy power spikes that may prevent a system to boot. Haven't you found never that when you are turning on your machine you find the error " failed CPU over clocking press F1" without touch anything before in the bios in days/weeks/months just a typical power up?.. well those are by POST checks some loads can spike badly and cause errors during the commands. That's what I meant. I'm still drunk but less drunk ATM so probably couple of mistake may be present also as im on phone.
 
Extremely unlikely.....Heck the cards not drawing any power at idle or prior to booting. Some kind of rare/odd compatibility (UEFI related) with your board if i had to guess.
The motherboard may have failed its self test during post due to the card allowing excessive current flow on the PCI-E connector.
Its a known issue, some motherboard wont boot.
Some fry.
 
It gets better..... I flashed the motherboard to the very latest version, 4.3 (I thought 1.19 was the latest according to MSI's updater). This BIOS is needed to run newer GPU's (so it's not PCIe power afterall). But it turns out that this version kills motherboards (non B3 that weren't returned in the recall), there was no mention on the BIOS updates page. MSI's lack of warning (their only real documentation is buried in their forum) has reduced the motherboard to an endless boot-loop, with no easy fix. Plus their Dual BIOS and M-Flash features are literally useless on this board - further MSI cockups! :(

I will be contacting MSI, their errors have turned the old (but still decent) hardware into a paperweight. Isn't there a MSI rep around here?


All the time wasted. This has to be my worst worst enthusiast experience in 20 years. I thought a GPU would be a streightforward upgrade, wow!
 
It gets better..... I flashed the motherboard to the very latest version, 4.3 (I thought 1.19 was the latest according to MSI's updater). This BIOS is needed to run newer GPU's (so it's not PCIe power afterall). But it turns out that this version kills motherboards (non B3 that weren't returned in the recall), there was no mention on the BIOS updates page. MSI's lack of warning (their only real documentation is buried in their forum) has reduced the motherboard to an endless boot-loop, with no easy fix. Plus their Dual BIOS and M-Flash features are literally useless on this board - further MSI cockups! :(

I will be contacting MSI, their errors have turned the old (but still decent) hardware into a paperweight. Isn't there a MSI rep around here?


All the time wasted. This has to be my worst worst enthusiast experience in 20 years. I thought a GPU would be a streightforward upgrade, wow!
Thank you for your honesty is putting the blame where it belongs.....Maybe they can send you a new rom to get it going again? Typically ebay sells roms fairly cheap for most board regardless
 
I wonder if a pair of those would not like my old MSI X58A-GD65. Been wanting to upgrade my SLI GTX660.
 
I wonder if a pair of those would not like my old MSI X58A-GD65. Been wanting to upgrade my SLI GTX660.
All purchases of "Multi gpu" 480's should be put on hold until we know more about the "power issue" ongoing. Expert opinions so far is to wait till the revised 8 pin revised versions wether your getting one or more cards even if they do fix most of the issue via software methods.
 
Thank you for your honesty is putting the blame where it belongs.....Maybe they can send you a new rom to get it going again? Typically ebay sells roms fairly cheap for most board regardless
I don't actually buy computer gear to b**ch about it. I don't dislike AMD (I just wish they would give Intel some competition), it turned out it wasn't their fault. When you read about a manafacturer recommending that it's safer to flash BIOS's in Windows over their dedicated tools that they heavily promote (everyone knows you don't take flashing BIOS's lightly), alarm bells start ringing. They don't really recommend any official tools.. :(

Yeah Intel made mistakes, and worked hard to rectify it (I was never effected). MSI made serveral; What is the point of having dual BIOS's if you can't select the backup (let BIOS select the stable BIOS, a sound plan..). Their engineers did not deliver the promesses from marketing, and not just one mistake either.

MSI's windows utilities were far from polished (or stable). Hard to beleive this is same the company behind Afterburner.

Yeah MSI is welcome to try and rectify it, but I need to get up and running ASAP. I've wasted enough time on this already - I'm done now.

I wonder if a pair of those would not like my old MSI X58A-GD65. Been wanting to upgrade my SLI GTX660.
Try it, but for the love god do not flash the f**king thing!!!
 
I see this is a moot point but I saw somewhere that you need to install the driver first when using certain displays. Especially Korean panels.
 
I'd definitely try a BIOs update.

The whole PCIe power issue shouldn't matter until you load the card.

Yea, I know the OPs issue is resolved but the cards power draw shouldn't prevent it from booting. I haven't heard of the 480 preventing booting.
 
Bah, this sucks. I too know of the legacy/uefi issues with gpus. I have a 5 year old gigabyte amd board that works with a 290 gpu (msi with bios toggle switch) but it is wonky. Fan speeds don't report correctly in legacy mode. In uefi the system would boot and run but only one fan would run.

My 2500k is in an asrock p67 with uefi and the 290 works fine.

Good luck with getting a fix.
 
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