[SOLVED] need a Legacy/Award Bios compatible GPU

[loveandpower]

Okay so to somewhat summarize... my AMD 7850 after many years finally went bad. I have been pinching pennies and can finally afford to buy one within reason.

I originally went out and purchased a RX 550 4GB card by XFX only to find out that my motherboard isn't UEFI Bios/Boot compatible.

This puts me into a slightly difficult situation as I have zero knowledge as to what that means I can really get.

Below you will find my current computer specs, my budget, and my preferred stores.

Specs:
CPU: AMD FX 8320
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master 212 EVO
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3

Budget: I would prefer $100 or less. I don't do a lot of gaming and when I do it isn't very often and the main thing I play is GTA V with friends. I am not looking for 1080p, or high resolution or anything. Due to a disability I will likely use 800x600 to be totally honest with you.

I would prefer a store like BestBuy, Walmart, Newegg one of those three. I am not very big on Amazon, Ebay, and the alike. I like in the Eastern United states if that helps your search criteria.

Just remember, the card cannot be a UEFI compatible card due to the factor it will just black screen with my motherboard. To describe the event for anybody else who is having a similar issue. The computer boots up and runs but the screen will just be black. This is due to the UEFI part. Very unfortunate as I had high hopes for that card.

To show I have helped already I see on Bestbuy for me under $100 I have an option between

a AMD R7 240 4gb (this would be the ideal one but I have no idea if it will work!)

a gt 710 , rs 220

 

[Darkbreeze]

The RX 550 should have worked with that board as even the latest AMD cards are both legacy and UEFI compatible much as the R7 and R9 series cards were.

Did you verify that your motherboard had the latest BIOS version available before assuming there was no way to get it to work with that graphics card. What BIOS version do you currently have installed?

What is the EXACT model of your power supply and how old is it?

After installing the new card, regardless of the BIOS version, did you try doing a complete HARD RESET of the BIOS, with the card installed, as follows. Because if you did not, then the next time you try to get a card to work I would try both those things.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.


I've seen, recently, people with much older motherboards than yours have no problem with newer AMD cards so there's no reason yours should not.

Plus, that board DOES have a UEFI bios, as seen here taken directly from page 21 of your motherboard user manual.

&& Boot Option Priorities
Specifies the overall boot order from the available devices. For example, you can set hard drive as the
first priority (Boot Option #1) and DVD ROM drive as the second priority (Boot Option #2). The list only
displays the device with the highest priority for a specific type. For example, only hard drive defined as the
first priority on the Hard Drive BBS Priorities submenu will be presented here.
Removable storage devices that support GPT format will be prefixed with "UEFI:" string on the boot device
list. To boot from an operating system that supports GPT partitioning, select the device prefixed with "UEFI:"
string.
Or if you want to install an operating system that supports GPT partitioning such as Windows 7 64-bit, select

GPT partitioned boot devices would not work or be mentioned if they were incompatible because the board had a legacy BIOS.

 

[loveandpower]

Hello [B]@Darkbreeze [/B]

You will have to excuse me if I give inaccurate information as my disability can hinder my understanding at times. I am looking at my provided manual my page 21 doesn't show this at all.

Here is the more exact motherboard details from the manual

Rev 5001
12ME-78LMTUSB3-5001R

my page 21 discusses DRAM configuration.

I want to say the manual is the one right here:

Manual to motherboard

I don't personally see anything about GPT or UEFI in the manual but I could very well be wrong. Please advise if there is. I will attempt the CMOS idea tomorrw when I have more time.

Here is my bios

From looking at the Gigabyte website there is only one BIOS download and it is the same date as the one seen in the picture is it safe to assume it is the same one?

Many thanks for all of your help

 

[loveandpower]

Forgot to send this Gigabyte Motherboard Link? I assume this is the right link? Please advise if not.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, this is taken from the user manual from the page for the board you linked to. Keep in mind, that legacy BIOSes are not capable of supporting booting from drives larger than 2.2TB OR from GPT partitions, so that has to be some form of UEFI BIOS. Keep in mind that even today many manufacturers loosely use the terms UEFI and BIOS interchangeably.

 

[loveandpower]

So... do I have the most recent BIOS? All I should need to do is hard reset the CMOS battery and set the CD/DVD boot to EFI is what you are saying? Sorry I am tech savvy but I don't know quite everything. Thank you for all of your kind help @Darkbreeze

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, since that board never had more than one BIOS release, then I'd say yes, you do. I think the problem might be not that you have a legacy BIOS, but that Gigabyte decided not to ever release any additional BIOS updates for that board so it's likely that at some point GPU architecture may have become incompatible due to the lack of BIOS support rather than due to what kind of BIOS it has.

Still worth trying though. And no, I'm not saying you need to change the boot type. I'm simply saying that if that board was not compatible with UEFI hardware to SOME extent, that paragraph would not be IN the user manual. Legacy BIOS cannot be used with GPT partitions for boot devices SO it MUST not be a legacy BIOS.

If you have the graphics card, then try the hard reset and then install the card and try it. That's all you can do really. Otherwise, you are likely stuck using something from the AMD R9 series like an R9 280, 280x etc. or older, or an Nvidia 700 series card like the GTX 750, 750 TI, 760 etc.