[SOLVED] Blank screen during boot with new Motherboard Chipset and dual monitors - Multiple boards tried

Jan 18, 2023
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I've recently upgraded my rig with a whole new Motherboard and CPU. Mainly a Ryzen 7 7700X to stop bottlenecking my RTX 3080. I've spent the entire last week trying to make it all work.

I started with an ASRock B650E PG Riptide Wifi. First boot, perfect. It started GRUB and loaded up Linux just fine. Second boot: Screen stayed blank. No signal to the monitor at all. My computer was fully booting, but no signal was ever sent to my monitors. If I boot Windows instead, once it starts loading properly the screens work perfectly. But until then, I still have no Splash screen or anything. If I spam the BIOS hotkey, it enters BIOS (evidenced by my fans changing speed and the power button instantly shutting down my system), but the screen still remains blank and I can't do anything.
Through trial and error, I managed to find that it would work properly if I disconnected my second monitor. I just put it down to a broken board so I initiated a return and bought a different one.

Now I have an MSI MAG Tomahawk B650. I swapped it in, and was greeted by the exact same issue once again. Skipping the half day I spent troubleshooting, I found that if I enabled CSM in the BIOS it'd finally all fully work again! All displays working correctly, splash screen showed and Linux would boot properly, with both monitors plugged in from the start. The MSI board had a long 55 second boot time though, so I opened up my case again and replaced it once again with the ASRock board. Enabled CSM just the same, rebooted: No effect this time. Once again, I'm back to square one. I even updated my BIOS just on the off chance that that may help, and now that's utterly nuked what was originally a 15 second boot time to even longer than the MSI board!

I'm just at my wit's end at this point, I've wasted two entire days swapping boards in and out again, I can't find any BIOS settings that seem like they have an effect, and now I've actively made my system run worse in my attempts to fix it all. The fact that I'm on a time limit to get this sorted before my return period expires doesn't help either.
Is there any advice at all, as to what I could try next? What could even be causing all this? Everything has worked perfectly for years on my original board. Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

Full parts list
 
Solution
Spoke to ASRock support, they pointed me in the direction of NVidia instead. Did some searching, and finally found other people suffering from the same issue. This is an issue with my GPU after all, not my motherboard.

Apparently after the 3080 recieved its Resizable BAR firmware update, this issue started to crop up. Nvidia have released a firmware update recently for 40 series cards as they were suffering from the same, but still haven't acknowledged 30 series at all. There is unfortunately nothing I can do to solve this issue until Nvidia finally put in the effort and solve this issue themselves.

Thank you for the suggestions, fellas. It's a shame that I can't fix this myself, but at least now that I know, I can stop wasting...
Jan 19, 2023
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It sounds like you've been experiencing some frustrating issues with your new motherboard and CPU. It's possible that the problem is related to the way that the new hardware is interacting with your existing components, or with the settings in your BIOS.

Here are a few things that you can try to troubleshoot and potentially resolve the issue:

  1. Make sure that your GPU is properly seated in the PCIe slot and that the power cables are securely connected. This can sometimes cause issues with display output.
  2. Check that your monitor(s) are connected to the correct port(s) on the GPU and that the cables are firmly plugged in.
  3. Try booting the system with only one monitor connected to see if that resolves the issue. If it does, it could be a problem with the way that the system is handling multiple displays.
  4. Check that your system is running the latest version of the BIOS. This can sometimes resolve compatibility issues with new hardware.
  5. Try resetting the BIOS to its default settings. This can sometimes resolve issues caused by incorrect settings.
  6. Check the Power supply unit, it should be able to handle the power consumption of the RTX 3080 and the Ryzen 7 7700X.
  7. The problem could be with the GPU driver, try updating the driver and see if it helps.

If none of these solutions work, it's possible that there is a hardware issue with one of your components. In this case, you may need to consider returning or replacing the affected component(s)

It's important to note that the problem could be a combination of multiple issues, and it might take some trial and error to identify and resolve it. It would be helpful to have the full parts list as it would enable me to provide more specific information.
 
Jan 18, 2023
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Cheers for the help:

1 - I've checked all connections and the GPU is properly slotted and powered. Once Windows begins to boot, everything is fine past that point with no issues.

2 - Cables are in properly.

3 - That is the case. If I leave only one monitor in, the entire boot process displays. POST, Splash screen, BIOS menu. It's definitely caused by having multiple monitors plugged in at once. It's something brought on by the B650 chipset, because I've used these exact monitors and GPU for years on my previous motherboard.

4 - Updated BIOS to the very latest version, no changes.

5 - Cleared CMOS, no changes.

6 - PSU does seem to supply power correctly and all components function as expected once I'm fully into Windows.

7 - I am running the latest drivers, but I've heard mentions about a card's VBIOS firmware: Could that be an avenue to investigate?

My full parts list is linked at the end of the main post.
 
Last edited:

Zerk2012

Titan
Ambassador
Cheers for the help:

1 - I've checked all connections and the GPU is properly slotted and powered. Once Windows begins to boot, everything is fine past that point with no issues.

2 - Cables are in properly.

3 - That is the case. If I leave only one monitor in, the entire boot process displays. POST, Splash screen, BIOS menu. It's definitely caused by having multiple monitors plugged in at once. It's something brought on by the B650 chipset, because I've used these exact monitors and GPU for years on my previous motherboard.

4 - Updated BIOS to the very latest version, no changes.

5 - Cleared CMOS, no changes.

6 - PSU does seem to supply power correctly and all components function as expected once I'm fully into Windows.

7 - I am running the latest drivers, but I've heard mentions about a card's VBIOS firmware: Could that be an avenue to investigate?
Did you do a fresh install of windows.
 
Jan 18, 2023
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Did you do a fresh install of windows.
Windows is fine. It's my POST and BIOS that are failing to display.

How are you connecting your monitors?
To motherboard? to graphics card? one to motherboard/other to graphics card?

Note - your CPU has integrated GPU.
Primary video output may go to motherboard connected video output.
Both cables go direct to GPU.
I did try plugging one into the motherboard directly to see if it was using my iGPU, but the BIOS still showed on the remaining monitor that was still connected to the GPU directly, so it is favouring the main GPU over the iGPU. That's how I figured out the problem only occurs when both monitors are connected.
 
Jan 18, 2023
5
0
20
Spoke to ASRock support, they pointed me in the direction of NVidia instead. Did some searching, and finally found other people suffering from the same issue. This is an issue with my GPU after all, not my motherboard.

Apparently after the 3080 recieved its Resizable BAR firmware update, this issue started to crop up. Nvidia have released a firmware update recently for 40 series cards as they were suffering from the same, but still haven't acknowledged 30 series at all. There is unfortunately nothing I can do to solve this issue until Nvidia finally put in the effort and solve this issue themselves.

Thank you for the suggestions, fellas. It's a shame that I can't fix this myself, but at least now that I know, I can stop wasting my time and effort trying to do so.
 
Solution