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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: waynee on October 20, 2010, 12:16:27 am

Title: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 20, 2010, 12:16:27 am
GA-MA78LMT-S2 (rev. 1.3) http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3377#ov
Athlon II x3 440
2gb ddr3 kingston valueram

i built this system yesterday after getting the ram, everything was working fine with the onboard graphics enabled and all the drivers installed from the gigabyte disc but then i fitted my hd4890 in and the fan started spinning fast and i think the card was heating up. i looked in device manager and 'display adaptors' wasnt even there, also i ran gpu-z and it didnt recognise it. the card is fine its in my old pc now and playing games as usual so its not damaged. i thought it may be some kind of conflict between the built in ati gpu and my card? ive read through the manual and it says to disable the onboard in bios, well i did that and it still was behaving the same way. maybe there is some kind of order i should install card, disable onboard, install driver? really desperate to get this working as my brother will be having my old core2duo/mobo/ram once i get this sorted so any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: absic on October 20, 2010, 08:57:00 am
Hi there,
I'm not aware of any issues with the 4890 on this board.

Here are a few things to check out:
What PSU do you have? A lot of Graphic Card problems are due to the power supply not being strong enough.
Have you plugged in the extra power cables (if needed) for your Graphics card? This is an easy thing to miss.
What BIOS version are you running on your motherboard? The latest is F13 and if you are not running this version it might help to update it.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 20, 2010, 10:52:30 am
i have a ocz stealthxstream 2 500w psu, ive now installed my hd4850 in it and got it working after i installed the driver the system recognised the card in device manager. the idle temperature of the 4850 is like 70-75C and autofan is 51% on my pc the 4850 is like 41% speed on idle. it seems to work but i would appreciate it if you could tell me which drivers i should install from the cd. should i install southbridge driver? i went to install southbridge driver but i saw an ati logo on the stup and i assumed its a driver for the onboard graphics and thought it might conflict with the card. also on cpu-z it says the chipset is a 780g on the motherbaord and not a 760g, oh and the bios is the f13 i updated yesterday with @bios utility
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: absic on October 20, 2010, 10:59:11 am
You don't say which operating system your using so I can direct you to the correct downloads for you but if you follow this link: http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3377#dl You can get the latest drivers that you need.

You do need to install the AMD Southbridge driver and don't worry, it doesn't conflict with the graphics drivers.

Another problem could be your PSU which is a little on the light side when it comes to power.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: Dark Mantis on October 20, 2010, 01:04:45 pm
Quote
bios is the f13 i updated yesterday with @bios utility

I would certainly warn you against using this program which runs through the OS and so is much more likely to have problems and brick your board. It is much safer to use the QFlash utility which is part of the BIOS.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 21, 2010, 11:59:39 am
i put my 4890 in it and installed a fresh xp pro on it again it didnt recognise the card but after installing the card driver and a couple reboots its finally recognised it and began to work. i was installing automatic updates from windows (80 odd updates). it installed all of the updates and said updates are finished please restart. so i clicked restart and it just shut down. i tried pressing power but nothing happened, i assumed it was power supply but the power supply is working now in mine, so then i thought it was the card but thankfully it wasnt the card is still ok in my brothers pc. it looks like the board has died on me. i knew from the begining it was poor design by the way the fan speed kept going really fast in the begining then would slow down and go fast again when the os had loaded. i wouldnt care if i was rich but im not now ive spent 60pound on cpu 40pound on board 30pound on ram and its all broken. ive never had a problem with asrock boards which all of my family has used but i chose gigabyte because its supposed to be the best of mobo maker.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: Dark Mantis on October 21, 2010, 12:14:59 pm
I think it's abit early to say the motherboard is dead. It would bwe far more likely that your PSU is far too small to power the motherboard and associated devices. The fact that it will run in another computer means absolutely nothing.

Also how old is the power supply?

Can you list everything that is running off the PSU and we might be able to give you a rough idea of the size you really need. ;)
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 21, 2010, 12:37:36 pm
ok i just put my cheap grey 450w psu in there to test it (i reset cmos first by touching the two pins) and it posted so its not messed up yet maybe it was some bios error. the psu i was using yesterday is brand new 1 week old and as far as im aware it is supposed to be a brilliant psu made by fsp on a wbsite i was told its a grade A psu, and tbh it does run silently and cool. you said @bios mess up the pc if thats the case why do they put it in the disc? this board has a dual bios maybe i can load the original bios from the spare? in the case is 1 sata harddrive, 1 sata dvd drive and 1 graphic card thats all. by the way when i just got a post from it there was no graphcis card in it.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: Dark Mantis on October 21, 2010, 12:45:43 pm
Well I have a slightly heavier (power wise) motherboard and processor than you but apart from that I have the same graphics card and drives and my system wouldn't run on a Zalman 750W PSU! Now it isn't just about the power it is also about how the power is transferred. Does your PSU have multiple 12V rails or a single one?
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 21, 2010, 01:04:07 pm
here is a pic
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: Dark Mantis on October 21, 2010, 01:27:21 pm
It is quite a good one but it is split output into 2 x 12V rails. A single rail is better. Anyway bare in mind that it could be a factor in your problem.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: absic on October 21, 2010, 01:32:32 pm
As I mentioned before I feel that your PSU is underpowered.
The User's Manual says:
Quote
• To meet expansion requirements, it is recommended that a power supply that can withstand high power consumption be used (500W or greater). If a power supply is used that does not provide the required power, the result can lead to an unstable or unbootable system.

That's really a minimum and I would suggest you try something of at least 600Watt with a Single Rail, as DM has also stated.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 21, 2010, 03:12:45 pm
im on the new computer now but with my hd4850 inside and the harddrive which i installed it on. everything seems fine graphcis driver installed and all windows updates. also the grey psu is in there and its running cool. im gonna try crysis warhead on it to test it but i still need to put the 4890 in it. on the 4850 there is only 1x 6pin connector but on the 4890 there is 2. ive got a 6pin to 4pin converter which goes from 6pin into 2 4pins, im just wondering if i can plug those 2 4pins into any of the psu ones or does it matter?
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 21, 2010, 03:21:39 pm
i just installed speedfan and noticed something is hotter than anything else..
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: bytheway_r on October 21, 2010, 05:06:28 pm
Wait, you tried to run 4890 with only 1x6pin connected? Or am I missing something? It requires 2x6pin to run.

That 82 degrees reading is a non-existent sensor, a common problem. Basically, don't worry about it. 
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: Dark Mantis on October 21, 2010, 05:17:21 pm
Yes definitely requires both connectors to run. ;)
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: waynee on October 21, 2010, 05:29:52 pm
no i always connect both its just the way it splits into 2 4pins. i thought if i connect them both to the same string of adaptors from the psu isnt that pointless in a way? why not just make it 6pin into 1 4pin?
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: bytheway_r on October 21, 2010, 06:09:28 pm
Ok, I've taken apart my case to check this myself. I have both 4 pins connected and they're in the same bundle of cables. More so, they actually turn into a single 4 pin later. However, you have to connect both 4 pin connectors as each supplies half of the 6pin connecting to the GPU.

Why it's a 6pin into 2x4pin? I'm not too good in this but I think it's better to use 2x3 out of 2x4 cables instead of somehow changing 4 cables into 6? Remember that with a 6pin to 1x4pin you'd be missing 2 cables ( or whatever's the name for this ).

Btw. I'm running OCZ StealthXStream 500W, too. It's working fine with a 4870 that, according to reviews, is one of the more power hungry versions. There's also an overclocked and unlocked Phenom II x3 720BE and 4GB of oc'ed DDR3. From what I know, this particular processor of mine is also rather needy in terms of power.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: Dark Mantis on October 21, 2010, 06:20:17 pm
Actually the 4890 uses a 6 and an 8 pin connector which is why waynee has a six and two four pin connectors.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: bytheway_r on October 21, 2010, 06:25:39 pm
Errr, you sure? I mean, here's a review of one:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4890-review-test/5

In the photo there're 2x6pin connectors and "Connect the two 6-pin PCIe power cables (it is required to connect them both). "

From what I know the 4890 isn't all that much different from the 4870? In my case, there's clearly 3 cables going out of each 4pin connector to the 6pin connected to the GPU.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: absic on October 21, 2010, 06:43:08 pm
It depends which maker has produced it.
My Sapphire 4850X2 uses an 8 pin and a 6 pin and, I would assume as DM's GPU is also made by Sapphire they have followed the same format.

One of my friends has a generic ATI 4890 that only uses 2X6 pin.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: bytheway_r on October 21, 2010, 06:52:20 pm
Well, alright, there are many different versions of GPU's out there so I'm not that surprised. The thing is, the OP has a 2x6pin card.
Title: Re: GA-MA78LMT-S2 HD4890 compatability problem
Post by: Dark Mantis on October 21, 2010, 09:51:36 pm
As you say it's irrellevant what my card uses (but I did check and it's a 6 & 8) and there are many different makes with their own take on what is best.