Strange boot problem with Radeon HD

D

dje

n00b
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Aug 25, 2006
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- Sapphire Radeon HD 5570
- Intel DP55SB (P55 chipset mobo)

The motherboard is capable of PCIe x16 or x8/x8. Due to a strange case layout, I need to run the card in the second (x8) PCIe slot.

In the first (x16) slot the card behaves normally and will FurMark all day long.

In the second (x8) slot, the card works as a standard VGA adapter, but if the Catalyst drivers are installed I get a blank screen when Win 7 64 should present the login screen.

I have tried Catalyst 10.10, 10.10e, and 10.12.

Has anyone seen this before? I am sort of at a loss. I don't blame the mobo because POST and Win 7 boot screens are displayed in all circumstances. The video card is solid. I think this is a driver problem.

TIA
 
Many boards don't support GPUs properly in anything but the first 16x PCIe slot. This isn't unusual at all. Hell, 680i/650i/780i/750i wouldn't even boot in to an OS with a GPU in the secondary slot but no GPU in the primary slot.

Is it a stupid design? Yes. Nothing new though.

Granted, your situation seems to be different here, but I think it could still be a motherboard issue.
 
That's a good point.

The block diagram in Intel's product spec indicates direct interconnection between the x8 slot and the 1156 socket, but it's possible that's not exactly how things were implemented. I also get a PCI-to-PCI bridge entry in device manager when using the x8 slot. That could be normal, I don't know.

What I don't understand is that the boot screens work, but once the driver initializes there is a blank screen.
 
Probably the last 8 are being driven by the P55 chipset itself? It does have 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes, though those are normally used for LAN, audio, etc. Though on the reference board, it's likely using Intel's own GiGe chip (which is honestly superior to anything else out there for consumers) and Intels own audio codec...
 
UPDATE: The 5570 appears fully functional in the x8 slot if the x16 slot is populated by anything -- even an x1 NIC. I will check for stability and any performance impacts later today.
 
my understandiing is the 16x /8x 8x is built into the cpu as i can't handle more the 16x bandwith and the only downside to socket 1156.. even if you get it working the bandwith is half in the second slot (8x) useless there is a work around.
 
Interestingly, this board has an open-end x8 slot with a clip for x16 cards. It is not misleading like a lot of 1156 boards.
 
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