GV-N65TOC-1GI + ASUS M3A-H/HDMI MoBo boot problem

[Mark123123]

Hello everyone!

I've got a problem running my shiny new Geforce 650Ti OC series (Gigabyte GV-N65TOC-1GI) on my old M3A-H/HDMI (AMD 780G) board. I can't boot the computer with this card set as a primary video adapter. It freezes (actually the display freeze) during the POST, in about 8 secs after pressing the power button. I can tell, looking at the HDD Led, that the POST process continues, but the OS doesn't get loaded. In fact, when the display is frozen, I can even enter the BIOS (I have password installed, so I can hear the beeps) but I can't see anything.

Couple of things worth mentioning:
1. The card works like a charm in my newer board - M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 (AMD 880G).
2. When I use 650Ti as a secondary adapter and integrated Radeon HD 3200 as a primary one ("First init onboard display" setting in BIOS), computer boots normally and after installing the drivers I can use 650Ti without any problems (in games too).
3. I've tried changing a couple BIOS settings (force PCI-E link speed, PnP OS On/Off, ACPI On/Off, Assign IRQ for VGA, disabling onboard SATA, IDE, Audio, Network, USB controllers) - no luck.
4. Display freezing time is rather deterministic - it always occurs in about 8 secs since Power On/Reset. Eg., when I disable QuickBoot setting in BIOS so the POST takes longer, the display freezes during memory check (I've got 2GB - full check lasts about 10s) but when QuickBoot is enabled, it freezes during SATA device detection.
5. Got newest MoBo BIOS, tried downgrade - no luck.
6. My previous GC (GF 9600GT) works fine.
7. I don't have access to any other contemporary graphics card (Radeon or Geforce).

Full setup of my machine:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ (2800 MHz per core)
MB: Asus M3A-H/HDMI
Memory: Kingston HyperX 2x1 GB DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 @ 2V
PSU: Chieftec CFT-600-14CS - 600 W (real manufacturer - CWT)

Any suggestions? I suppose that this could be a buggy MoBo BIOS problem (I asked on ASUS forums too - http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20130109051018254 ) but I'm not 100% sure. What do You thik?

TIA,
Mark

[angelotrinidad]

Hi Mark

I've been searching for over an hour now about how to users did a replace/ upgrade on their video card. Sorry about your trouble, looks like were in the same boat.

had a meager GT430 installed on the PCI-E slot 1 of my 990FXA UD5, which I then replaced with a HD6670. Upon power up, letters and numbers (ala Matrix) started floating on the screen which Im certain means trouble.

So Im probably doing this wrong... or.. it might be a board bios issue. How do you perform an upgrade on a video card anyway? I suspect, I should NOT have removed the GT430 and instead added the 2nd card (HD6670) in other PCI-E slot and then allowed the BIOS to recognize it. Is that correct?