MSI 890FXA-GD70 compatibility issue (Video Card, HD 5970) PLEASE HELP!

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jedirobus

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Hey everyone, I'd appreciate any feedback on this issue cause its bugging the heck out of me and people elsewhere sound about as stumped as I am.

Ok, so I've build a new system using the MSI 890fxa-GD70, 1090t Phenom II X6. Now, after I get everything hooked up with my new Radeon HD 5970 it hangs on boot up with the starting windows logo and won't hit the desktop. I naturally assume its a RAM issue since I couldn't install win 7 unless I went down to 1 stick of RAM and when I did I could not properly install the drivers on the video card. This is a fresh system build. The two times I tried after having to reboot I would get the generic error "No ATI device recognized or installed" etc etc. So I was stuck with a 640 by 480 in 16 colors setup. Before I'm labeled with some criticism, yes I -did- check RAM voltages and apply them accordingly. I went from auto 1333 to 1600mhz at 1.65v and went into DCT 0 and also put them at cas 7 8 7 24. Still nothing, I thought well, maybe its the video card then. I plugged my new card into my old dual core system, also an MSI board, and it popped up and accepted the drivers like a charm, Win7 64 bit as well. So I was told maybe it was a bad PSU in my new system so I went from a tier 3 power supply to a Tier 2 Corsair TX850w. Same thing, nothing,

After much frustration, I ended up putting my old Geforce 8800GTS 512mb into my new system (I don't remember why I did, I believe my other older psu from my current system was bugging out or something) Low and behold, my new system boots up with all 8 sticks of RAM like a charm and Win 7 auto installs a driver for the card and it starts working -great-. I thought maybe there was a fluke somewhere and when I moved the Radeon back it started hanging out again, I went back to the Geforce and booted it up just fine again and ran a mem diagnostic, hoping I could more thoroughly check out what was going wrong on the system. It was only a Windows memory diagnostic, not memtest86, but I ran two standard tests and one extended memory test with NO problems. I would like to believe that the windows tester would at least pick up some inclination of a problem even though Im told its not a reliable tester, if one that prevented booting would exist. So, now, here I am wondering if its some kind of compatibility issue with the video card and Mo Bo or what. Which would make little sense since its an AMD chipset made for crossfire X and ATI cards so why have problems with an ATI card? I am using this Radeon HD 5970 right now on my old system to post this message and have run a few games on it with no problems as well...I even put it on a friends system to test it, no problems, So is it a compatibility issue or a bad MoBo or what? Seeing as my old video card and the system itself boots just fine with it together but not with the new one. I cant believe that TWO PSUs back to back are bad in a row, even though the first one didnt seem bad to begin with.

Please, help, Im about to RMA the board but I need to know if its a video card issue or what and if I should return that or something...

MSI 890fxa-GD70
Corsair TX850w
G.Skill Ripjaw DDR 3 1600mhz 8 GB
AMD Phenom II X6 1090t @ 3.2ghz
WD Velciraptor HD 74GB 10k rpm (boot)
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2 GB (old card is EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 512mb)

Old sys
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
MSI K9N4 SLI board
3 GB of G.SKill DDR2
 
Solution



We did Beta 1.6b which final is out now, on there website. You can only post link here for photo using HTML code. Like this

4645565738_aac46f3d90_b.jpg


Power to Furry Raider

Foxler

starfoxacefox

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May 3, 2010
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Contact MSi Tech Support for Beta Bios 1.61, it work with 5970

Foxler
 

dominic5555

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May 24, 2010
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I don't have Skype or YIM, not sure what YIM is; sorry about that; truly appreciate your help. Can I IM you or could you email it to me? How do you install it into the bios, that is one thing I've never done?

Dominic
 

goodymon22

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May 17, 2010
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I myself can not confirm that that the newest beta bios that MSi sent me fixes the problem of the MSi 890FXA-GD70 not working properly with a dual GPU card like the Radeon HD 5970 since I had a different issue crop up but from what jedirobus and starfoxACEFOX it appears to be working just fine now. I don't think MSi has posted this latest beta bios but if you send me your email I can forward you my copy of it from MSi.
 

dominic5555

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That would be great thanx! Is that the new Beta Bios 1.61? My email is Rainbow5555@msn.com. I really appreciat it!

Dominic
 

starfoxacefox

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Side note to everyone, known problems with this motherboard

Dual GPU wont allow install of OS and gives code 35 and 12 - Beta Bios 1.61 fixes it

Beta Bios 1.61 will not run 1600 memory at set speed

User report issue using 8Gb of ram with 4 Sticks

Some beta bios will brick the MB

If you have any of these or other problems report them to MSI support at this link

http://us.msi.com/support/OnlineTS.asp
 

jedirobus

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I was able to run my RAM now at 1600 mhz but not set it to the suggested CAS lat 7 it goes black and I have to clear the cmos battery. Which is what you already said...I think. This BIOS revision is also alot pickier with what is allowed on the Overclock abilities I think, I cant seem to reach a stable 4ghz level anymore it seems, but at least it makes the computer workable for now with Dual GPUs but it is just a beta so hopefully they resolve alot of hte other issues I posted the ram problem on the same thread at the MSI forum and I was simply told they'd look into it. Havent heard of the bricking thing but that sounds horrible
 

starfoxacefox

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I can run T1090 at 4ghz with voltage 1.45v, stock voltage of 3.8ghz, most people been running T1090 :p

Foxler
 

SHANEMARINES

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This problem seems to me that the issue of this motherboard is going to take a lot longer to fix, I called the MSI Tech Support as well. Their telling me to convert to a lower series card from ATI to stop this issue with the MSI 890FXA-GD70.

As far as my advice goes I would return the board to newegg as a defective board and choose another that will work with out a doubt on the ATI Radeon 5970.
 

dominic5555

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Hi Foxler & all reading this,

Thanx for everybody's help; especially Foxler! My computer is running great. I have the MSi 890FXA-GD70 with the Radeon 5970 Diamond which has been overclocked. I have the AMD Phenom x6 1090T overclocked at 3.83 GHZ and 2 Raptors hard drives 300 gigs at Raid 0. I did a benchmark test. Here's the stats:

Unigine
Heaven Benchmark v2.1
FPS: 36.6
Scores: 921
Min FPS: 11.0
Max FPS: 74.8

Hardware
Binary: Windows 32bit Visual C++ 1500 Release May 21 2010
Operating system: Windows 7 (build 7600) 64bit
CPU model: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
CPU flags: 3933MHz MMX+ 3DNow!+ SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSE4A HTT
GPU model: ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series 8.710.0.0 CrossFireX 1024Mb

Settings
Render: direct3d11
Mode: 1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
Shaders: high
Textures: high
Filter: trilinear
Anisotropy: 8x
Occlusion: enabled
Refraction: enabled
Volumetric: enabled
Replication: disabled
Tessellation: normal

PS thanx everybody for help on bios update, especially Foxler; he helped me a great deal to get my computer running at its best!

Thanx,
Dominic
 

starfoxacefox

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Your up late today :p Bios 1.6 is out too, just let you know.
 

dominic5555

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Hey how ya doing buddy.

I sent you out something in the mail, please watch for it. I thought we did the bios at 1.6. Which one did we do? Is there anyway to upload pix on here?

Dominic
 

starfoxacefox

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We did Beta 1.6b which final is out now, on there website. You can only post link here for photo using HTML code. Like this

4645565738_aac46f3d90_b.jpg


Power to Furry Raider

Foxler
 
Solution

goodymon22

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FINALLY! SUCCESS! I got my new board today, got her all installed and loaded the newest bios 1.6 from MSi's download site and now Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit installs fast and everything boots up fast and looks great, installed ATi Catalyst 10.5 and Windows see my card and sees it as 2 cards because of the dual GPUs. Currently downloading the free copy of Dirt 2 and am excited to see what it looks like.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Experience Index
Processor 7.4
Memory (RAM) 7.5
Graphics 7.6
Gaming Graphics 7.6
Primary hard disk 5.9

and those are all at stock with no overclocking. I will get 3dMark and post those numbers when i get a chance, and will play around with overclocking to see what I can get to work the best. Sadly stock at the moment is running my DDR3 1600 at 1333.

Its getting late tonight so I will keep posted as I see how far I can tweak stuff.
 

SHANEMARINES

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Sweet man glad you got your hardware up and running!

It feels good!

Now just use the crap out of it, till you gotta buy the next best thing~!~


 

janekg16

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ohh im very happy that its finaly works fine , i have readed all posts (i have got same problem that you guys ;p ) i will let you know if the newster bios 1.6 works with my hardware :D