Graphics Card/ PCI-E Slot Issue On Boot-up

[Menutra]

Hello,

Today I put my computer to sleep and returned about 30 minutes later to start it back up. My computer's power light and fans came on and tried to start up repeatedly but after the computer tried around five times, it made a long beep followed by two short beeps. I looked up the type of issue those beeps meant for my motherboard and it was a video error. I found that when removing my GeForce 8800 GT from my PCI-E slot and plugging my monitor directly into the integrated graphics card everything works fine. It booted up and had to reinstall the new drivers for the GeForce 1650 (Integrated), but everything worked fine. I figured that meant my graphics card or RAM was broken, so I took it to my closest computer repair store. They tested the power supply to see if it was supplying enough power to the card and it passed. They also tested the RAM and the graphics card to see if they were broken, but they both passed. They told me to either leave it with them for a week or just use the integrated graphics (which of course stubborn me chose to take it home for now). I am willing to leave it at the store if necessary and I also have a compatible motherboard in mind that I could buy if that will solve the issue, but before I make any actions I figured I would take advantage of these forums and hold out on using the different card for a week or so.

The type of computer I have is a Gateway GT5662 and it is less than two years old. I upgraded the graphics card with the GeForce 8800 GT, the sound card, and the power supply to a 500 watt. If anyone has had a problem like this or knows how I can diagnose my issue please help! It is much appreciated! I miss being able to have my computer screen on my monitor AND my TV

 

[NoN]

Hello,

Today I put my computer to sleep and returned about 30 minutes later to start it back up. My computer's power light and fans came on and tried to start up repeatedly but after the computer tried around five times, it made a long beep followed by two short beeps. I looked up the type of issue those beeps meant for my motherboard and it was a video error. I found that when removing my GeForce 8800 GT from my PCI-E slot and plugging my monitor directly into the integrated graphics card everything works fine. It booted up and had to reinstall the new drivers for the GeForce 1650 (Integrated), but everything worked fine. I figured that meant my graphics card or RAM was broken, so I took it to my closest computer repair store. They tested the power supply to see if it was supplying enough power to the card and it passed. They also tested the RAM and the graphics card to see if they were broken, but they both passed. They told me to either leave it with them for a week or just use the integrated graphics (which of course stubborn me chose to take it home for now). I am willing to leave it at the store if necessary and I also have a compatible motherboard in mind that I could buy if that will solve the issue, but before I make any actions I figured I would take advantage of these forums and hold out on using the different card for a week or so.

The type of computer I have is a Gateway GT5662 and it is less than two years old. I upgraded the graphics card with the GeForce 8800 GT, the sound card, and the power supply to a 500 watt. If anyone has had a problem like this or knows how I can diagnose my issue please help! It is much appreciated! I miss being able to have my computer screen on my monitor AND my TV

Could you have a look if in the Power Plan Management, the PCI-E slots are not set to lower powering?

 

[Menutra]

Under advanced power settings>PCI-Express>Link State Power Management> it is set to Moderate power savings.

 

[Menutra]

Would flashing the BIOS do anything to help? I'm not exactly sure how to properly do it though so I would need guidance. Either that or reinstalling the driver for the motherboard? I looked on Gateway's website and they have 1 driver for the MB, but I bought the computer as windows Vista 32-bit and since then have installed Windows 7 64-bit and I'm unsure if the driver will still be the same..:huh:

 

[Brink]

Hello Menutra,


Here are some items to check:

• Double check to make sure that you have your BIOS set to use the PCI-E slot and not the integrated video.
• Check to make sure that you have the correct PCI-E slot selected in BIOS if you have this option.
• Did you uninstall and delete your previous video driver before installing the new graphics card and it's driver?
• Try another PCI-E slot if available.
• Try another video port on the graphics card.
• Did you do a clean install to Windows 7, or did a inplace upgrade from Vista? You might consider a clean install to see if it was a upgrade issue.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Menutra]

Hey Shawn thanks for the help,

On the motherboard I am using I only have one PCI-E slot, and yes I checked the BIOS to make sure that the PCI-E is the first thing the computer tries to use. The upgrade from windows vista to windows 7 was a clean install and I am willing to just wipe the HD and reinstall windows 7 if that would work, I just am unsure if that will fix anything. The computer refuses to boot as long as the graphics card is in the PCI-E slot and only will boot with the integrated monitor if it is removed.. I tried uninstalling the drivers for the integrated card and then installing the software for the 8800 GT after wards, but again it wont boot.

Is it even possible to have a PCI-E slot randomly just stop working? I tried changing the power settings to the PCI-E slot also in the power management and still no boot..

I'm determined to figure this out I'm just slowly running out of things to try XD

Menutra

 

[Brink]

Do you have a friend that you can test your graphics card in their computer, and try their graphics card in your computer?

This way you can see if you may just have a bad graphics card if it doesn't work in his/her system either, or possiblly a bad PCI-E slot if his/her graphics card will not work in yours with your graphics card working in his/her system.

 

[Menutra]

I did try that and my graphics card is working fine along with theirs not working in my PCI-E slot.. So I'm not sure if the issue is simply software or if it is the actual PCI-E slot that is broken. Is there a way to know the difference?

 

[Brink]

You would have to have your motherboard tested by a shop to see if the PCI-E slot is functional or not.

If you uninstalled your video drivers and installed the correct drivers for their card, and it still did not work, then it sounds like it may be bad.

Set your BIOS to factory defaults, change BIOS settings to use only the PCI-E slot and to disable the integrated videos, then try the graphics card one more time to make sure that there wasn't some other BIOS setting that may have been set incorrectly by mistake.

 

[Menutra]

Okay then after work today I will do that and if it doesn't work I'll leave it at the shop. Would you recommend flashing the BIOS? or just resetting it to factory defaults? When I boot up I hit f2 to go into the BIOS options and I've tried setting it to "Fail-safe" settings but I can't seem to find how to reset it to factory defaults.. or IS that setting it to the defaults I want?

 

[Brink]

Yeah, sometimes some manufacturers may call it "Fail-safe" instead, but it would be the same as default.

I wouldn't think that flashing your BIOS would make any difference for the PCI-E slot.

 

[Menutra]

I'm not convinced that I'm resetting the BIOS settings correctly, but I've tried all my options in the BIOS options. I tried recovering my system to an earlier date also and that didn't work. I would like to try flashing my BIOS before I bring it into the shop next week, could you help me with choosing the correct software to do it? My motherboard is an MCP61PM-GM and I'm not 100% sure the manufacturer or anything. I've read a lot on how to flash the BIOS once I have the correct software, so once I get the right stuff I should be able to do it.

Thanks in advance,
James

 

[pebbly]

hi Menutra , here is a link to the bios driver » ECS MCP61PM-GM Motherboard Driver Drivers BIOS Download only update the bios if you know what you are doing , a bad flash may leave your mobo unusable

 

[Menutra]

Okay I'll just run the update then.. Is the update on that website?

And I can't quite figure out where precisely the download IS on that site.. either I'm blind or its just plain confusing. I click the title where it says to download the driver and it brings me to an almost exactly similar webpage. Then I don't know where to go to actually start the download..

I feel stupid.

 

[pebbly]

hi mentura, dont feel stupid there must be something wrong on the website i find it is now looping also here is a new link for you for the update to the integrated graphics Gateway Support Drivers & Downloads i will try to find a new bios link

 

[stormy13]

If you haven't run the bios update from ECS yet, please DON'T (sorry pebbly). You may have an ECS motherboard, but the bios on it is purely from Gateway. Very seldom (more like never) do bios updates from the actual motherboard work on the OEM versions of the motherboard (OEM as in what is in your gateway, or Dell/HP/etc); as there are features, or even bits of hardware that are missing or different from the reference motherboard.

If you do try and install it one of three things can happen,

1. It refuses to install.

2. It actually dies install (really doubt it though)

3. It installs and corrupts itself for whatever reason, resulting in a dead motherboard.

Number 1 and 2 would result in no harm, no foul; unfortunately number 3 makes it very risky at best.

 

[pebbly]

If you haven't run the bios update from ECS yet, please DON'T (sorry pebbly). You may have an ECS motherboard, but the bios on it is purely from Gateway. Very seldom (more like never) do bios updates from the actual motherboard work on the OEM versions of the motherboard (OEM as in what is in your gateway, or Dell/HP/etc); as there are features, or even bits of hardware that are missing or different from the reference motherboard.

If you do try and install it one of three things can happen,

1. It refuses to install.

2. It actually dies install (really doubt it though)

3. It installs and corrupts itself for whatever reason, resulting in a dead motherboard.

Number 1 and 2 would result in no harm, no foul; unfortunately number 3 makes it very risky at best.

you are quite correct there stormy , i was looking for the gateway bios but im afraid its like the proverbial rocking horse ****

 

[stormy13]

Yep, OTS computers are like that. They would rather sell you a new one than a possible easy fix/update on the old.

Menutra you mentioned upgrading the PSU to a 500W one. Is it a good quality PSU or a cheap one? Make and model of it would help.

 

[Aphelion]

Okay I'll just run the update then.. Is the update on that website?

And I can't quite figure out where precisely the download IS on that site.. either I'm blind or its just plain confusing. I click the title where it says to download the driver and it brings me to an almost exactly similar webpage. Then I don't know where to go to actually start the download..

I feel stupid.

To me it sounds like a hardware conflict between the graphics card and possibly the new audio card or some other hardware device, what other cards are in the machine? Can you move the audio card to a different slot?

Ap

 

[Menutra]

Sorry for not responding in so long, I've been away for memorial day weekend. I didn't run any of the updates yet so no worries there.. and Yes I have an earth watts 500W power supply. I don't have the make/model right now because I'm at work but I can post it later today.

As for the other cards in the computer, I also have a sound card installed into the bottom PCI slot. I could switch the sound card to the more "middle" PCI slot and try it, but with the sound card in that slot I wont be able to put the 8800 GTS into the PCI-E slot (thanks gateway for giving me no room to work with). But to answer your question, yes there was the 8800 in the PCI-E and a sound card in one of the PCI slots.

If you want to see what my MB looks like you can go here and look right on the first page..