GA-55SLI-S4 v1 sapphire Radeon HD5550 GPU install, wont boot

[kenrop]

tried installing a Sapphire Radeon HD 5550  1Gb DDR2 PCI-e card. Having great difficulty getting this graphics card to work!  prior to installing,upgraded CPU to AMD athlon 64 x2 5600+ brisbane,  upgraded power supply to 650w, updated bios to latest version (f11j, then back down to f10) followed all instructions, deleted old video card drivers, no on board graphics. Once installed system powers up, but will not boot, will not even go to POST, no keyboard lights, no beep errors. This is the second card as i returned the first one believeing it was DOA after multiple attempts to make it work. 
current card is a Nvidia GEforce6200 Turbocache PCI-E 512mb,   it works fine in both the original config and with all the other new upgrades (power supply, bios, CPU etc)
Also, tried the HD5550 card in both PCI-E slots on the motherboard, still nothing.
Board S/n 6R639600198
RAM= PNY 2x 1gb DDR2, in dimm slots 1 and 2

can anyone recommend a better GPU to try? this is my sons gaming computer and the upgrades were a B-day present, so no joy in mudville so far!!

Any ideas gang??!!

[Tiger]

AMD Athlon 64 x2 5600+ Brisbane is an unsupported processor for the GA-55SLI-S4 v1 motherboard. Please refer to the motherboard CPU support list.

[absic]

Hi there,

one broken PC and one unhappy son, been there myself so I know how you feel.

I couldn't actually find your Mobo with the number that you posted. Is it actually the GA-M55SLI-S4 Rev 1.0? If it is this Mobo then Tiger is wrong and your chosen CPU is supported.

I know it is going to seem a silly question but when you upgraded your Graphics Card, did you remember to plug in the extra Molex plug that your Mobo needs to power the PCIE slots?



If you forgot this plug it ain't going to work!

[Tiger]

I too omitted the M from the model number in GA-M55SLI-S4 Rev 1.0, however the OP writes he updated BIOS to latest version F11J which is for the GA-M55SLI-S4 Rev 1.0.

There are several compatible Brisbane CPU's listed, but Athlon 64 X2 5600+ isn't one of them. The Athlon 64 X2 5600+ "Windsor" is listed as compatible with BIOS Version F8 or higher.

[absic]

. The Athlon 64 X2 5600+ "Windsor" is listed as compatible with BIOS Version F8 or higher.

Which means the CPU is supported, especially as the OP has already flashed to F10.

[kenrop]

The gigabyte support page for this MOBO only shows support for the Windsor version of 5600+, so i am a little confused, especially since the Brisbane version that I have is working with the old GPU.
the only difference according to the AMD support site is that the "Windsor" version has a 2x1MB 16-way associative cache and the "brisbane" has 2 x 512 Kb.  the Windsor is also a .09 Micron process chip and the Brisbane is a .065 micron chip. 
all of that being said, not sure if either of those differences are that significant as far at the support architecture on the motherboard?
I had upgraded the Bios up to the latest F11J, but realizing that this was a "beta" bios, as soon as i had problems i stepped it back down to F10. no change there.
SOOooooom, my choices are either change the chip, which i may do just to move up the 3.2 Ghz athlon 6400+, which IS listed as supported, unless you guys now if the Phenom 4x chips are supported?
Or, try a different GPU, maybe an Nvidia card, as this Saphhire Radeon is just not working. 
any Thoughts???

BTW thanks for the help so far folks!

[absic]

Hi there,

One of the big problems with these subtle changes to the CPU is the confusion when it comes to motherboard support. As you say, the differences are slight but there are differences so, does the motherboard support the CPU or not.

I have faced a similar problem, only recently, with an AMD Phenom ii X4 965 C2 which, in theory is not supported on the GA770TA-UD3 until BIOS version F3. However, I ran the board with F1 BIOS and this "unsupported" CPU for quite a while before I realised that I was technically using the wrong BIOS. In fact, I did some quite heavy testing over several days with the "wrong" BIOS and the system was solid.

I do not think that the differences in CPU's is the cause of your issues because the system is, in your own words, working fine without the ATI Card. As you have said, you are really faced with two options here, change the Graphics Card or change the CPU. None of the AM3 CPU's are supported on this board so you would only be able to change to the Athlon 6400+ or another chip that is "officially" supported.

I guess the only questions are really: What's your budget? and Which is the option that will give you the best result? It's a tricky one to call but I guess I would have to say go for the supported CPU. At least you will have a faster chip that is officially compatible with the motherboard. Of course, there is no guarantee that changing the CPU will bring the desired result with the ATI Card but you're really in a no win situation here, sorry.

PS I must apologise to both you and Tiger as I had misread the original post and thought you had the Windsor Version of the CPU. Sorry about that and it will teach me to be more careful when I read things. 

[Dark Mantis]

Hey, no problem, just double the coffee intake and you will be fine absic.

[Q840av]

I have the same issue, but GA-M55SLI-S4 Rev. 2 board and HD5850.

Also found someone with a similar issue (Rev. 2 board and HD5750) @ http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035655832

The answer is supposed to be an unreleased BIOS update you get from Gigabyte. I'm still waiting for an answer.