Strange boot up behaviour after Sapphire HD6770 installed

[byngo]

Hi,

I have just upgraded from a Nvidia 8800GT512Mb to a Sapphire radeon HD 6770 Vapour-X GFX card.

The PC has always booted fine, even right before the upgrade so I could unistall the Nvidia drivers.

Since I added the new card I get several seconds of quiet clicking, then the system "POSTS" and all seems fine.
In harmony with the clicking I can hear something "spinning up" -( increasing in speed), then with the click sound, the "spin-up" sound slows down again. The process repeats several times until finally I then get the P.O.S.T Bleep and all is well. No problems once its up and running in Win 7.
I also notice that in sync with the "spin up" and "spin down" sounds, the glowing blue "Sapphie" logo light on the side of the GFX card brightens and dimms.

The PSU is a Corsair HX520, could it be the PSU not powerful enough?
I would be suprised as its a well known powerful PSU and the 6770 is a re-badged 5770 so power consumption is about 108W i think.
I checked connections to SATA HDD's and ROm drives and nothing is fouling fans or anything like that.
I connected the six pin modular connector from the PSU just like it was on the old 8800GT.
Could I have a faulty GFX card or maybe a bios setting to change??

Mobo = Asus P5N-E SLI
RAM = 4GB of Corsair 800Mhz
OS = Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit

 

[speedgamer01]

So, i assume that you can get to windows somehow right?
Once it has started, download DriverSweeper and remove any left over nvidia driver chunks.
Your psu is powerful enough, but check the Pcie socket if it is suiting the gfx card very well (the little flap should close towards the socket as you place the card in).

 

[byngo]

Yes can get to Windows no problem. Pc works fine all day long after post.
I was gonna use driver sweeper but seemed like it was no longer downloadable.
Will try.

 

[speedgamer01]

Good luck
Driver Sweeper 3.0.0 - TechSpot Downloads

 

[bobkn]

It sounds like the problem occurs before the Windows drivers load, so Driver Sweeper probably won't help at all with that.

A random suggestion: make a note of all your BIOS settings. Clear the CMOS. (Use the Clear RTC jumper, as described in your P5N-E SLI manual. It's available for download from support.asus.com , if you've mislaid the paper version.)

 

[byngo]

Ahhh, Yes.

I just thought of the driver thing myself. The problem occurs before the OS is loaded so cannot be a driver issue.
Not sure I want to clear the cmos though. I had to update the bios straight away for this board so that it would recognise my E8400 C2Duo.

Had memory issues too which an update seemed to solve.

 

[BugMeister]

if done correctly, re-setting the CMOS shouldn't cause any damage..

 

[byngo]

Ok. I fixed it.

You promted me to check the Asus site for BIOS updates and guess what.. the latest update (Nov 2009) said "update due to delayed boot with some AMD graphics cards".

I flashed the bios with a floppy disc (god what are they again!) and now all is well and it "POST"s within seconds.

Cheers!

 

[bobkn]

Ok. I fixed it.

You promted me to check the Asus site for BIOS updates and guess what.. the latest update (Nov 2009) said "update due to delayed boot with some AMD graphics cards".

I flashed the bios with a floppy disc (god what are they again!) and now all is well and it "POST"s within seconds.

Cheers!

Thanks for posting that.

 

[RonLane]

I guess I should check my bios. I have never had to do that before. I went from a HD 4850 to a XFX HD 6770 and it does exactly as you describe...delayed boot but works very well once W7 loaded. Is there a quick way to find out bios update? I have a HP Pavilion a6130n. Thanks for any help and thanks again for posting!!!

REL

 

[RonLane]

I checked and there is no update bios for my machine. Hopefully a "slow boot" does not harm computer in long run.

 

[byngo]

I'm not familiar with your HP, but search the HP support site or Google BIOS updates for the model.
It's important to understand the update process if u do find an update. There are different methods the mobo manufacturers employ, one thing seems consistent on the web is not to use a software method than runs via Windows. You should use a method that.does it without the OS running.

 

[Hellrid3r]

After buying an ASUS HD 6770 directcu edition yesterday I am experiencing exactly the same problem, but after checking motherboard website there is no BIOS updates for me either i hear the fans speed up and the clicks mentioned in the OP, and it does it 8 times before it POST's, i googled around and found this post and was wondering if anything else would cause this or would it purely be the mobo bios? As said before once booted it runs perfect.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[byngo]

It must be the BIOS. The problem was specifically stated in the reason for my bios update.
O can only suggest you try posting and searching on the "Asustek" forums.

 

[RonLane]

It is because the bios is incompatible with the card. I have a XFX Radeon 6770 with the same problem. I had an email exchange with one of their tech's and he noted that in most instances the computer will not even boot with the 6770. He did assure me that the card would not harm the computer but would always take time initially to recognize the card. I decided to keep my card because after the boot the computer runs very well. BTW, I don't remember the motherboard but I have a HP Pavilion a6130n computer.

 

[Hellrid3r]

Yeah, there was a beta bios for my mobo, and i was hesitant to update it as it only mentioned in the update notes 1 beta bios 2 Update CPU AGESA code, mentioned nothing about a fix for gfx cards... however i didn't like it taking ages to boot/post so i took the plunge and updated and now it is sorted
Ty for the replies much appreciated.