Question Computer not starting with GTX 750 Ti installed ?

[hukkus]

Hello,

I have a mother board Gigabyte z77x d3h. The graphics card was Gigabyte gv-n580ud-15i. Both around 10 years old, always worked well. Today when the graphics card was working suddenly the computer restarted. First time this happened. Since then the images are very blurry, with huge icons. I have restarted the computer many times, safe mode, normal mode, and I have restored system to a previous date. At some point, after removing the graphics card, putting it back, and restarting the system, I managed to see good graphics again. But windows asked for a restart, and after restarting the problems was back.

The mother board comes with integrated graphics but quality is really bad.

I guess the graphics card has suffered some damage?

I tried using another graphics card I have: Asus GTX750TI. But for some reason windows doesn't initiate. When it is in the mother board I get a black screen

I found this:

Will a geforce gtx 750ti work on a ga-z77-d3h motherboard

I was looking at a geforce gtx 750ti video card, and I was wondering if it will work on my ga-z77-d3h motherboard? By the way I have a power supply PSU of 500W

forums.tomshardware.com

with this comment:

"Check to see if the GTX750Ti card you purchased uses a UEFI bios. I discovered this caused a conflict at boot with the Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H UEFI bios and an EVGA 750Ti card. If this is the case, you may have to try flashing your motherboard bios to a newer version. You might also check to see if your onboard video was enabled. If that was the case, you case use it to enter bios and change to PCIE card and then reboot and hook your monitor to the new card. "

How can I check if "my onboard video is enabled" (what is my onboard video?).

Do you think I will have to update the bios? Never did it before, do I have to click "Q-Flash" in the bios?

 

[helpstar]

update the BIOS of the motherboard and try again
use Q-Flash in BIOS with the extracted BIOS on an USB flash drive in root
should be similar to this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM8-vMoblAE

 

[hukkus]

Well, last update available (excluding beta versions) is from October 2012 (F16). Current one I have is from May 2012 (F9). Details here:

https://www.gigabyte.com/es/Motherboard/GA-Z77X-D3H-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios

Do you think it is worth updating bios?

Or maybe there is anything else that I could try?

 

[BFG-9000]

GTX 580 was a monster of a card at 244 watts, so are you sure the PCIe slot isn't damaged? Or if it's your PSU getting flaky?

Early implementations of UEFI were not entirely compliant so the MSI 750Ti with the physical BIOS switch was really handy (you could select legacy BIOS or UEFI with it so could toggle it to BIOS and use legacy CSM mode to boot the card in UEFI)

 

[hukkus]

Yes, gtx580 made so much noise! But tried the GTX750Ti in the other PCIe (the motherboard has two possible positions for the GTX750Ti), and system doesn't boot when the GTX750Ti is inserted in any of them. Both the one where the GTX 580 was and the other one. Black screen in both. The dvi cable is in the integrated graphics dvi slot.

"Early implementations of UEFI were not entirely compliant so the MSI 750Ti with the physical BIOS switch was really handy (you could select legacy BIOS or UEFI with it so could toggle it to BIOS and use legacy CSM mode to boot the card in UEFI) " Sorry, didn't understand this!! Can you explain again what I could do, please?

 

[BFG-9000]

Only the MSI 750Ti had the BIOS switch and your ASUS does not, so your only option if it's a compatibility issue is to find a Legacy-BIOS only vBIOS for the card and flash that.

However do you have a spare high-wattage PSU you could try? It may yet resurrect your GTX 580

 

[hukkus]

"However do you have a spare high-wattage PSU you could try? It may yet resurrect your GTX 580."

Sadly not, the one in the pc is 730W and don't have anything higher than that. But do you mean that if I take it to some repair store , they might be able to resurrect it by using it with a higher PSU?

"Only the MSI 750Ti had the BIOS switch and your ASUS does not, so your only option if it's a compatibility issue is to find a Legacy-BIOS only vBIOS for the card and flash that. "

Sorry, still not sure if I understand: should I insert the 750Ti in another pc, then install a vBios for the card there? Afterwards try again in my z77x d3h motherboard?

 

[helpstar]

update the latest BIOS to the motherboard, even if beta

 

[hukkus]

I haven't been able to update the BIOS. I get an error message saying:

¡¡¡Warning!!! File size incorrect

In the previous screen it says (apart from mother board model name, BIOS version, BIOS date):

Flash type/size: MXIC 25L6465E/6406E 8MB

But the files in this gigabyte link are 3-4MB...

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z77X-D3H-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios

Any ideas on how to solve this? Should I post it in the motherboards forum section?

Tried to write directly to gigabyte, but it seems the customer service pages are not working. Bad.

 

[helpstar]

check your hardware revision of your motherboard. No need to post a new thread elsewhere.
there are three, 1.0 that you linked to, 1.1 and 1.2 could be the thing.
you can find the rev. number on the motherboard at the bottom left of the motherboard

View: https://i.stack.imgur.com/6SwJw.jpg

 

[hukkus]

Yes, yes, I had done that. It is 1.0.

On the other hand, apart from this (apparently) compatibility issue with the Gigabyte z77x d3h and the GTX750Ti, there might be further problems, as @BFG-9000 was suspecting.

GTX 580 was a monster of a card at 244 watts, so are you sure the PCIe slot isn't damaged? Or if it's your PSU getting flaky?

It was a bit strange that the quality of the image with the integrated graphics was not good. It was like that for a couple of days. And suddenly there is blurriness, there are some strange horizontal lines in the screen, etc.

So maybe it is the motherboard the one which is damaged, and not the graphics card? (or also the motherboard). Maybe the PSU? Do you guys know any way to find out what is not working well?

 

[hukkus]

Also, I think I should make a copy of all the important files in my pc, because it seems things are getting worse. I have a SSD disk, with all the system files, windows, programs, etc. and a HDD disk with info. Do you know if the info is safe in the HDD disk, or should I copy that as well? (unconfortable because it is bigger)

 

[helpstar]

You should always backup important data

How did you try to flash the BIOS?
you have to extract the exe from the download, just execute it and copy the 8MB file to an USB pen drive, reboot, enter BIOS and use Q-flash
the file size of the extracted BIOS is 8MB (Z77XD3H.18i)

 

[hukkus]

Thank you, I hadn't execute the exe file. Although seeing strange things in the screen... both with the graphics card and now with the integrated graphics, should I still try to update bios to check with my other graphics card, or is it enough info to know there is something damaged in the motherboard?

Maybe should start thinking about dismantle the pc and find a new motherboard compatible with everything I have? It is a lot of work, and some money, so it would be very interesting if there was a way to check if the motherboard is really damaged.

 

[helpstar]

Maybe your monitor has a problem or the video cable
Eventually not plugged in correctly/tightly?

1st try udpating the BIOS

picture quality could get better if you install the correct driver for your integrated graphics from Intel and then setting the resolution and refresh rate to a better one depending on which monitor you are using

 

[hukkus]

Maybe your monitor has a problem or the video cable
Eventually not plugged in correctly/tightly?

The monitor is working well with another computer. So both dvi cable and monitor are fine. Also tried with cable hdmi and tv, got the same problems

Finally could contact gigabyte support. They are suggesting it might be a cpu problem and asking me to reinstall it and clear CMOS. Will update bios, as you suggest, and if it doesn't work I will reinstall CPU and clear CMOS as they suggest

-should not be a specific issue with the integrate graphics, because I had had similar issues with graphics card, no?-

 

[hukkus]

Ok, I reinstalled the CPU, I put a new battery, which I understand cleared CMOS. I realized that the old battery was probably almost over, because I had been having issues with time and date for some time.

But everything stayed the same.

Then I updated BIOS. And everything stays the same:

-Very bad graphics with the integrated graphics.
-With the Gigabyte GTX580 (the one I was using when the problem started), things also the same. bad graphics, blurry, huge characters. Resolution is 640x480, no option to change it. Windows says the device stopped because there were problems. (error code 43)
-With the Asus GTX750TI, just black screen when I press start button. In both possible pcie positions. The fan is rotating in both, but black screen both if the dvi cable is connected to the integrated graphics or to the gtx750.

What can be the problem?