Gigabyte HD6850 issuses, no display!

[Reston88]

Hi, this has been really frustrating for me so if anyone could help you'd be saving me from pulling my hair out . . .

so i have been working on putting together a new gaming rig,

specs

AMD Phenom II X2 560 Processor, Black Edition
GA-870a usb3 (rev3.1) - mobo
Gigabyte hd 6850 (GV-R6850c-1GD)- gpu
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
 -------

so, i put everything together and it booted up the first time no problems, i installed windows 7 64 bit with out issue and because it was getting late i powered off and went to sleep, the next day i turned the thing on and get a post of 1 long and 2 short beep. There is no display, no bios screen no nothing. i had the speakers still plugged in and after a minute or two with no display i hear windows start. So i looked up common problems associated with that post beep sequince and re-seat the GPU in a different slot, re-seat the RAM and moved them to a new slot also. i pulled the battery out of mobo to reset the bios, nothing helped.

is this a problem with the GPU as the post beeps tell me or is it a compatibility issue?

i tossed in an old GeForce MX 4000 i had laying around and it starts up just fine, no problems what so ever. sence i got the thing working i decided id install drivers for the gigabyte GPU and try to update the bios on mobo, couldn't do the bios because there wasn't a 64 bit bios driver (if anyone can direct me to the right place to get the 64 bit drivers for the motherboard that would be awesome)

im about to just return the card but id rather get it working than go through the hassle of return to newegg. does anyone have any ideas?

[absic]

Hi there,

looking through your system specs the first thing that springs to mind is the lower power of your PSU and this is where I would be looking as a possible cause of your issues. If you check the User's Manual for your motherboard you will see that Gigabyte recommend at least a 500 Watt PSU.

Do you have access to a larger PSU for testing?

[Reston88]

i do have other power supplys but they are less wattage than the one im using.

but if the PSU was the problem, why would it work the first time and not now?

[absic]

It's a PC! 

I have had brand new PSU's that have worked fine the first time then developed faults when rebooting or a few hours/days later. That is why I suggest testing this component first before starting to make changes to the BIOS or other hardware.

By the way, there isn't a 64 bit BIOS file, all BIOS files are the same whatever OS you are running. Having checked your motherboard the latest version for your board is F5d and you can download it from here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3788&dl=1#bios. However, if your BIOS version is currently F1 or F3 you will need to use @BIOS to update because of the different BIOS file size.

If your BIOS version is F4 then I would recommend using QFlash to run the update for F5d. If your not sure about how to use QFlash check here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2441.msg13929.html#msg13929

[Reston88]

the only place in town that sells power supply's is closed today, ill get one tomorrow to test and get back to you. i did read in the manual that 500w was recommended, should have realized it sooner. also thank you for the bios driver information, thats a big help. do you have any recommendations on respectable power supply manufactures?

[absic]

Personally I like Corsair PSU's but am currently also using a Gigabyte Odin. When it comes to getting a PSU you need to look at getting the best you can afford and one that delivers enough power, preferably using a single rail.

I'm not sure what is available on your side of the pond but if you post links to what you are considering then we can give some guidance for you.

[Reston88]

ok so i got a corsair GS 600w psu everything plugged up but now i get continuous long beeps! reseated graphics, and the same beep

[Reston88]

sorry last post of continuous was incorrect, ram seat problem, its back to the 3 beeps again . . new power supply didnt fix it. also noticed that the fans on the graphics card a not spinning, the graphics memory is ddr5, the memory support list only has ddr3 on the list, could this be the cause? dont know if this helps or what.  

[absic]

Silly question but, when you replaced the PSU did you remember to connect all of the power leads properly?

Check that they  are all seated properly as I have faced a similar issue, which was due to the 8PIN ATX lead (the one near the CPU) not making proper contact. Also check that the 6 pin power connector is properly connected to the GPU.

[Dark Mantis]

If I can put in my two penneth here make sure that you have the graphics card in the right slot ( PCIEx16_1) and that you have it listed as the primary graphics adaptor in the BIOS.

It might be worth checking the memory with Memtest86+ as well just to eliminate a memory problem as the root cause.

[Reston88]

The thing is i know every other component is working properly, when i have the other graphics card in, the machine boots normaly, no post beeps, windows starts up no problem, i think that the graphics card is bad. im planning to try it in another computer when i get home from work. all the connectors for the psu are connected the right way, when it didnt work the last time, i disconnected all the leads and reconnected. can i have the old card, which is just PCI in at the same time as the new one, and try and change the primary card in the bios like that?