Another HD3870 X2 Problem!

[orionbg]

Hello

I was given an AMD Radeon HD3870x2 to play with it for a while. At work on a really cheap nForce 520 mobo the card works fine! Slow but works without problems! On a AMD 780 Mobo everything is fine but on my PC it woun't boot!!!!
On an ASUS P5N32E-SLI nForce 680i mobo the card don't want to boot at all! The system beeps as everything is ok but no Picture on the screen! The monitor stays in stand-by mode. I updated the BIOS to the newest one (and lost all overclocking capabilities :( but this is normal for this mobo) but no change. My 8800GTS 320MB works fine with the system but the 3870X2 don't! 700W Fortron Epsilon is powering the system and I have had no problems till now.

Any Ideas?

[erocker]

Do you have both power plugs in the card, and all your chipset and video drivers up to par? Btw, the 680i can and should run it.

[orionbg]

Yes both power conectors are in there places! the PC woun't even boot! No bios no nothing!

[Azazel]

have you tryed it another pci-e slot...

[orionbg]

I'm using the first one! the second is only 8x and southbridge cooling is preventing me from using it for this 27cm long beast! the third tne is 16x but the HDDs wount allow the card to fit! I have tried qtleast five VGA Cards on this mobo and all of them work fine! Only this ....thing... doesn't!

Excuse my English!

[spootity]

well i wouldnt say its your power supply, seems you have a fairly good one from what i read about it. you should list everything you have down to the t tho, it helps to determine what could be wrong. did you try it in another computer after using it in yours, it could be broken.

[spootity]

have you tried Allowing the bios to reset to default, thats usualy what you try in a case like that first thing.

[orionbg]

My Config is in the left under "system specs" and yes the card is working normally in another machine with nForce 520 chipset!

Yes I have reset the BIOS several times!

[Namslas90]

My Config is in the left under "system specs" and yes the card is working normally in another machine with nForce 520 chipset!

Yes I have reset the BIOS several times!

Open the case and watch the onboard power indicator led's while booting, if the lights filcker or go out then it may be a PSU issue(not enough power on 12v rail for card). Can you boot to BIOS, if so check the Primary Display Adapter settings to ensure they are set to PCI-E(the default is PCI so when you reset the BIOS it should have went back to the wrong setting).

[spootity]

well how am i supposed to guess what else you might have !!! not telepathic here :-p. try it in another computer

[Scrizz]

Open the case and watch the onboard power indicator led's while booting, if the lights filcker or go out then it may be a PSU issue(not enough power on 12v rail for card). Can you boot to BIOS, if so check the Primary Display Adapter settings to ensure they are set to PCI-E(the default is PCI so when you reset the BIOS it should have went back to the wrong setting).

took the words right out of my mouth.
does the board have onboard GFX?

[spootity]

the board doesnt have onboard gfx

[spootity]

and just from my experience the function it provides is to tell it what to "try" and use first
as in it defaults to pci express if pci gfx is not available.

[spootity]

bring your computer to austin texas i will fix it/steal it from you for a nominal fee.

[spootity]

it does sound like a psu problem though, but to be honest, i think the x2 has power management that prevents it from using insane amounts of juice when not in a game or something else that requires alot of juice for your gpu so it should be able to boot atleast up till you play a game.

[fitseries3]

no need for the quadruple post man. there's an edit button.

does the fan on the X2 spin at full speed or drop to 10% after a few seconds?

[spootity]

i think i can post 4 times if i want to :-p but yeah it was excessive, im tired tho so i get slack ?

[orionbg]

Let me answear all the questions!
The leds lights up for a second and after the mobo initialise itself and power is online to everything they go out then the mobo beeps as it normaly should beep at boot up but no picture, then no OS boot ( I mean no HDD activity or anything)! Tried bouth DVI Connectors!

Yes the Fan goes to 100% for 2 sec and then it lowers the rpm significantly.

The PSU is powering the 8800GTS with no problems! The same PSU powered 2x 2900TX a while ago!

<<< Click the "system Specs" to see my configuration!!!

[fitseries3]

well it sounds like the board is trying to boot. when the fan speed of the x2 drops, that tells you that the video cards bios was successfully loaded into ram.

clear you cmos so the bios is set to defaults, if you haven't already tried it. unplug everything but the board, video card and cpu power. unplug the sata/ide cables from the board as well. make sure nothing is in any pci/pci-e slots other than the x2. also, use 1 stick of ram and try it in each slot until it boots.

if that doesn't work..... you must have a dodgy MB or x2.

[Dr. Spankenstein]

I hear this problem more than I care to....

The computer IS booting, you just can;t get the monitor to "wake-up".

If you have access to a DVI>VGA converter it will work, then set the rez to your panel's native rez. It should be fine after that.

Otherwise, try a different cable. (Read: better quality).
This used to happen to me alot, but I found the solution to be in my BIOS. I had an extra choice for Primary Display Adapter: External PCI device. (Don't ask, because I don't know what that could possibly be...)

Anyhoo, I aslo might be helpful to plug your old card back in and check a few settings in the BIOS. Since it seem you were running a NVIDIA card before, so check the Extreme Tweaker section and make sure that NVIDIA GPU Ex is disabled. Check that under Spread Spectrum Control PCIE + MCP PCIE are set to default (Down Spread). Under Advanced: Primary Display Adapter is PCI-E. and potentialy under Power>APM Configuration check the Wake from PCIe device.

That's all I got...

[orionbg]

Yes the system tries to boo but it doesn't! No HDD Activity!! NO OS LOAD At All! It seams az the mobo initialise itself and wait for something to happen.

I'll try to get out everything out of the system and see whats happening!

BTW This 3870X2 is an Engineering Sample directly send to us from AMD. It BIOS is older than th ones in the database of TechPowerUp. Does someone knows hot to flash this thing? Maybe the VGA BIOS is the problem!

EDIT!
I have tried with disconecting everything but the mobo and VGA. No GO. Tried with DVI ot VGA Dongle and No GO. Clered the CMOS again and No GO...??? I just put my 8800GTS in place and everything works fine! Very strange!

[Scrizz]

dead card

[fitseries3]

dead card

+1

RMA time.

[Dr. Spankenstein]

But he said it worked fine on the NVIDIA board at work, slow but working!

Unless some static frizzed it between there and home...

but whay would a dead card keep a system from booting without error beeps.

BTW, how are you verifying that there is no HDD activity. Can you physically feel or hear that they are not spinning up?

Just on a lark, set the Primary Display adapter to PCI and try that...

@ fitseries,

He said it was an ES direct from AMD.

[orionbg]

The HDD Led is not blinking and I don't hear my Drives! You know the sound that an HDD makes when it seeks, reads, writes data to the plates!

The card is working on another mobo!

[fitseries3]

i say you give it to me and i'll make sure it works :p


if it's an ES then maybe something isn't exactly right with the card.

[spootity]

well, a video card wouldnt make a hdd not load, i would say your mobo might be fucked for lack of a beter word.

[orionbg]

But the mobo works! I'm writing this on the same PC but with my 8800GTS in plase!
The PC works perfectly until I put the 3870X2 in and the system ONLY BEEPS once as it is booting normaly and no Picture and no OS Load!
The 3870X2 Works! I tried it on a different MB and no problems!

[jcfougere]

Sounds like PSU - try booting with only one power cable plugged in. Should still work fine just no Overclock utility in CCC.

[jammy86]

I dunno if you've done this but I remember lots of people saying there were issues going from Nvidia to ATi and it was resolved by taking out the CMOS battery and letting the mobo forget everything.

JAmes.

[erocker]

i think i can post 4 times if i want to :-p but yeah it was excessive, im tired tho so i get slack ?

No you cannot. Not in this forum. You do get slack for being tired.:D Any luck with the card yet?


orionbg, ave you tried upping your PCi-E frequency at all?

[intel igent]

sounds like driver issues to me.

arent there known compatibillity issues between the newer Nvidia chipsets and amd/ati cards?

:toast:

[jcfougere]

If you don't get past POST then that alone eliminates:
cpu, gpu, ram, and cmos settings

Its either the PSU is gone or not powerful enough, or your motherboard is gone. All other issues would produce a beep code and some kind of error.:banghead:

[orionbg]

The BEEP I hear every time is the normal beep every MB produces when booting up normaly! One single short BEEP. My PSU is ok but to be sure i also tested with additional PSU derigned especialy for SLI/CrossFire setups! No go! and I have again tested the card on another MB (NF520) and the card works! I'm actually using it right now to write this!

BTW Where can I get the complete BIOS for 3870X2??? There are 11 BIOS Files in the database but all of them can ONLY KILL the card!! Why you ask? Because the HD3870x2 have two BIOSes! One for every chip and Yes they are not the same! I've downloaded the two BIOS files from the card and compared them! completely different! So can someone give me some working BIOS files for the 3870x2? Both files! PLS!

[InnocentCriminal]

I suggest you try a clean install, if possible, grab a spare HDD. See if it boots with nothing on it, if possible install your OS of choice without installing any drivers (as you may need to use your nVIDIA card for that) and reboot. See if that helps, from how things are going, I doubt it.

Obviously, I'd reset to defaults in your BIOS boot without the card in and the empty HDD then try it with the card in. See how that goes..

As for the 3870X2 BIOS(es) can't help y'there I'm afraid.

[orionbg]

The system is not booting from anything!!!
Not just without a picture!
It beeps normaly and waits for something to happen! Never boots from HDD or CD/DVD or flash. It is not Software problem! The Card doesn't lights up even with anything disconnected from the MB! (exept CPU, RAM and PSU)

[InnocentCriminal]

Well you're boned then.

Unlucky!

[jcfougere]

Is your motherboard still under warranty?

When you reset your BIOS, do you do the following?

Shutdown
Unplug
Remove CMOs battery off motherboard
Move CMOS jumpers to reset position for 10 seconds
Replace CMOS jumpers to original setting
Insert CMOS battery
Then boot up?

If not, you need to do that to properly reset BIOS settings.

Does this motherboard boot up normal with a different video card?

[orionbg]

As I mentioned several times already my system works fine with 8800GTS. And I've did all known to men BIOS Reset techniques! The system works with anything else but the 3870X2 which works on another MB without any problems! :banghead:

[InnocentCriminal]

Could be something to do with how your motherboard handles it's PCIe lanes.

[orionbg]

After all it is a normal nForce 680i chipset MB :confused:

[orionbg]

After BIOS Flash of the 3870X2 finaly the card works in my Modo! :roll::roll::roll::):):rockout:
Big thanks to DanishDevil for the lighning fast responce with the 3870x2 BIOS Files!!! :respect:

[DanishDevil]

Hooray! Now what did you do to fuck with the bios in the first place???

And what did we learn from this experience?!?!?

[orionbg]

I didn't do aything with the BIOS! The Card is an engeneering sample from AMD and was with older BIOS! As I found It had some compatibility problems! But now everything is Fine! :toast:

[DanishDevil]

How'd you get a hold of an engineering sample?

[orionbg]

The Company I work for is an AMD Partner and they gave us one 3870X2 and one 3670 for testing and commercial purposes! So some times working in a Company that build PCs is a very good thing! :)

[DanishDevil]

Definitely! Well, enjoy it. I'm returning mine next week for a single HIS 3870.

[orionbg]

Definitely! Well, enjoy it. I'm returning mine next week for a single HIS 3870.

Why?

[3870x2]

Wattage is actually a direct translation to Heat, and power among other things. E=RI where E is voltage, R is ohms, or resistance, and I is the current. The current is always going to be constant. W=EI, where W is wattage, E is voltage, I is current. Current is always constant in a rail. Although Wattage is a constant, it is very hard to measure because it often works in bursts, therefore the PSU Manufacturer will probably release a power supply that might be 600+/-100, or 500-700 watts, with 700 being the maximum burst capacity of the PSU. IOW, you simply might not be getting enough power. Many PSU manufacturers, I've noticed, have different voltage rails, make sure that the ones, labeled on the side of your PSU, are the currect rails in correspondance to your Video Card. Also, although you are connecting power directly to the PSU, it still attains power from the motherboard. It has happened many a time that, especially with highly lighted cases, that too much power is being sucked from the motherboard, and not enough voltage is being supplied to your Video Card. Many video cards, because of the firmware, may need to have updated BIOS, although you should do it carefully, flashing your BIOS might be a good idea, it is also always a good idea to keep your firmware updated as much as you can. Installing the drivers before you actually physically place the card is required for some cards by different manufacturers, as it was with the Sapphire x700, where you had to remove the previous video drivers before placing the card. Let me know, email me at Jacob@Ashleysphotography.biz, I would like to add this to my database, I plan to buy an X2 in the near future if the 9800GX2 doesn't hold up.

[orionbg]

Everything is OK now with the new BIOS for the 3870x2
The problem was that the BIOS of the VGA was old (pre release)! All shipped 3870x2 have a BIOS version that ends on xxxxxx527 and mine was xxxxxx423!

[twicksisted]

how did you flash the bios on the card if you couldnt get past post?

[orionbg]

As I mentioned a couple of times, the VGA Card was working on another MB! It was not working with the P5N32-E SLI. Now it does :D

[twicksisted]

aaah ok... was wondering if there was another way of doing it ;)