Question Tried to upgrade my GPU, but now my computer won't start ?

[NeedHelpYikes]

Anyone able to help me? I tried to change out my 1060 6gb for a new 4070 card and now my computer won't boot, is giving me a red light for "CPU" (even thought I didn't touch the CPU at all)

Z590 UD AC motherboard with i7-11700k CPU with an 850W powersupply. Previously had a 1060 6GB GPU, but upgraded to a 4070.

I just installed the 4070, but now the computer won't boot and the motherboard has a light for "CPU". It does however spin all the fans (case fans, CPU cooler fan, GPU fans) and the GPU lights up, but the front fan LED lights don't turn on and the monitor doesn't detect anything.

I didn't touch the CPU at all (which is underneath a big fan cooler), so I have no idea what went wrong or how to fix it.

Anybody run across this before? Why would my CPU light come on for a GPU change?

Things I have tried so far (none have helped):

- Putting the old GPU back in.

- Using no GPU at all

- Reseating both RAM sticks (have 16gb x 2)

- Trying one RAM stick at a time.

- Leaving the Motherboard battery out overnight, then putting it back in.

- Checking that all power cables are plugged in

- Unplugging / replugging in the "CPU" power connection on the motherboard (when it's unplugged from the mobo it doesn't change how things work - computer has same red light issue with or without that power line plugged into the mobo when computer is runnning).

- Checking that the power cords are not loose on the PSU end. They are all still in.


Not sure what to do. I obviously want to avoid just buying a new mobo and/or PSU. Everything was working fine before this change, I didn't notice any big spark or anything, and I changed the Videocard with the PSU off and unplugged.

The only thing I haven't done yet is look at the CPU itself, as it's under a big air cooler that is annoying to remove.

Small note: my "CPU" power on the mobo is an 8-pin power connector, with a 4-pin slot beside it. Only the 8pin power connector is plugged in, but given the lack of other wires, I don't think I ever had the extra 4 pin power connector ever plugged in. Does that make sense, or is that something I should look at?

Thanks

 

[Darkbreeze]

Install the "new" graphics card, making SURE it is FULLY seated and that you have connected all the required supplemental power connections, and then do this.

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 about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. 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, A-XMP or D.O.C.P 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 BIOS to fully reset and force recreation of the hardware tables.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

Install the "new" graphics card, making SURE it is FULLY seated and that you have connected all the required supplemental power connections, and then do this.

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 about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. 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, A-XMP or D.O.C.P 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 BIOS to fully reset and force recreation of the hardware tables.

Thanks for your help, however it did not work.

Here's what I did:

- Remove GPU (had old one back in).

- Pull out motherboard battery (round coin shaped thing)

- Wait 5 minutes

- Press computer on/off button for over a minute straight, also randomly pressed it rapidly afterwards.

- Install new GPU (4070).

- Plug back in PSU to computer, attempt to boot up.

The monitor turned its power light on, suggesting it detected a source, but never showed anything on the screen, then said "no input found" and turned off. At no point did the monitor display any actual screen.

I tried going from HDMI to DisplayPort (both are on the old/new GPUs), but the monitor had the same issue - it knows something was plugged in, but didn't display anything and turned off with "no input detected" after 10 seconds.

Note that the red "CPU" light was on the entire time (as usual), and the front LEDs and mouse/keyboard LEDs did not light up (as usual since this problem started). The new GPU had all its LEDs on and its 3 fans were running fine.

--

Are there any other steps I can try? Really hoping to avoid buying a new mobo/CPU.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

Anybody have any other "next steps"? Still stuck 🙁

I guess the obvious next step is going to be to remove the CPU cooler and look at the CPU / mobo seating to see if there are bent pins or if the cooler is somehow not seated correctly.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If the red CPU light is on then I'd double check to make sure that all of the power connectors are completely plugged in especially the 4+4 pin EPS/CPU connector along the top edge of the board, but everything really. If you haven't touched the CPU, removing it or the cooler, and it was working before but now you have a red CPU light, then something had to have changed. That light doesn't come on for no reason although if there is a problem with the card it COULD I suppose report as a CPU issue due to the use of PCIe lanes through the CPU.

First thing you should do is make sure you have the MOST recent stable motherboard BIOS version installed.

 

[ItzJJmk2]

Small note: my "CPU" power on the mobo is an 8-pin power connector, with a 4-pin slot beside it. Only the 8pin power connector is plugged in, but given the lack of other wires, I don't think I ever had the extra 4 pin power connector ever plugged in. Does that make sense, or is that something I should look at?

The 4-pin slot is not a requirement. It's really just used for extreme overclocking.

- Checking that the power cords are not loose on the PSU end. They are all still in.

Try plugging that CPU 8-pin cable into a different slot on the PSU. On most PSU models, the CPU and PCIe ports are interchangeable. Which leads me to ask, what PSU do you have?

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

If the red CPU light is on then I'd double check to make sure that all of the power connectors are completely plugged in especially the 4+4 pin EPS/CPU connector along the top edge of the board, but everything really. If you haven't touched the CPU, removing it or the cooler, and it was working before but now you have a red CPU light, then something had to have changed. That light doesn't come on for no reason although if there is a problem with the card it COULD I suppose report as a CPU issue due to the use of PCIe lanes through the CPU.

First thing you should do is make sure you have the MOST recent stable motherboard BIOS version installed.

Is there a way to update the BIOS without having CPU/mouse/screen working? I don't know how.

edit: I found a way with USB only and QFlash button, but I have to take every single thing off the mobo to make it work.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

The 4-pin slot is not a requirement. It's really just used for extreme overclocking.


Try plugging that CPU 8-pin cable into a different slot on the PSU. On most PSU models, the CPU and PCIe ports are interchangeable. Which leads me to ask, what PSU do you have?

I tried plugging it into the "CPU 2" slot (it has CPU 1 and 2) and it still didn't work. Tried with another CPU cable that came from the PSU and also didn't work.

It's a superflower modular gold leadex 850watt PSU.

 

[kira-faye]

Is there a way to update the BIOS without having CPU/mouse/screen working? I don't know how.

edit: I found a way with USB only and QFlash button, but I have to take every single thing off the mobo to make it work.

You do not have to take everything off the board - follow the procedure to update BIOS and go from there.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

You do not have to take everything off the board - follow the procedure to update BIOS and go from there.

I was using this as my procedures, where he says to take everything off or it won't work (6 minute mark):

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cQLYROKJ_Q


Motherboard user guide has no specific procedures I can find. Do you have an alternate guide?

 

[kira-faye]

Just do what he says but ignore the "take everything off" part - it /should/ work, but if it doesn't it won't hurt anything.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

Update, but not a good one:

I used a different PSU from a different computer (which I know to work), and the problem persists exactly the same. It's not a PSU issue.

 

[beyondlogic]

Update, but not a good one:

I used a different PSU from a different computer (which I know to work), and the problem persists exactly the same. It's not a PSU issue.

if you have a diffrent pc on hand try putting your old card inside it see if it works.

also other things to attempt

do both of these
1. remove gpus boot from the onboard graphics plug hdmi into the actual motherboards hdmi ports see if it detects.
2. remove all hardrives attached to motherboard and try to get into the bios first

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

if you have a diffrent pc on hand try putting your old card inside it see if it works.

also other things to attempt

do both of these
1. remove gpus boot from the onboard graphics plug hdmi into the actual motherboards hdmi ports see if it detects.
2. remove all hardrives attached to motherboard and try to get into the bios first

Problem isn't with the GPU, it's with the lack of booting. I've tried with/without GPU and it's not working (I'm currently just trying to get it to boot without a GPU and monitor plugged into motherboard).

My harddrives are two M.2 drives, should these be removed too? Or did you just mean HDDs?

 

[beyondlogic]

Problem isn't with the GPU, it's with the lack of booting. I've tried with/without GPU and it's not working (I'm currently just trying to get it to boot without a GPU and monitor plugged into motherboard).

My harddrives are two M.2 drives, should these be removed too? Or did you just mean HDDs?

everything anything that has data on it. ive seen m.2 not allowing a pc to boot or post in the past.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

everything anything that has data on it. ive seen m.2 not allowing a pc to boot or post in the past.

I pulled off the two M.2 drives (only storage) and no change.

I then pulled off both RAM sticks (computer has 2x16gb) and no change.

Only thing left on this computer now is the CPU cooler + CPU, and of course the mobo + PSU. As noted above, I tried with a separate PSU (that is known to work fine) and the problem still persisted.

Given that the CPU fan cooler runs fine, I'm assuming it must be one of the following problems:

1) CPU dead.

2) Something to do with CPU mounting or CPU cooler mounting.

3) Motherboard physically damaged.

4) Something went wrong with motherboard software when I plugged in the 4070 without any advance changes to prepare for it.

I'm guessing it's #3 or #4, given that the CPU is under a huge air cooler (Noctua DH-15 I think) and that I don't remember banging it, and of course everything worked perfectly for 2 years until I tried to switch GPUs.

I'm going to try that QFLASH button on the motherboard with USB new bios next. Can anyone confirm that I can do that with the CPU still installed? Another user said I could above, but that's a new user and the youtube video said to remove everything from mobo first.

 

[beyondlogic]

I pulled off the two M.2 drives (only storage) and no change.

I then pulled off both RAM sticks (computer has 2x16gb) and no change.

Only thing left on this computer now is the CPU cooler + CPU, and of course the mobo + PSU. As noted above, I tried with a separate PSU (that is known to work fine) and the problem still persisted.

Given that the CPU fan cooler runs fine, I'm assuming it must be one of the following problems:

1) CPU dead.

2) Something to do with CPU mounting or CPU cooler mounting.

3) Motherboard physically damaged.

4) Something went wrong with motherboard software when I plugged in the 4070 without any advance changes to prepare for it.

I'm guessing it's #3 or #4, given that the CPU is under a huge air cooler (Noctua DH-15 I think) and that I don't remember banging it, and of course everything worked perfectly for 2 years until I tried to switch GPUs.

I'm going to try that QFLASH button on the motherboard with USB new bios next. Can anyone confirm that I can do that with the CPU still installed? Another user said I could above, but that's a new user and the youtube video said to remove everything from mobo first.

still needs to be able to post
did you try posting with just 1 stick of memory in slot 2 ?

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

still needs to be able to post
did you try posting with just 1 stick of memory in slot 2 ?

Are you saying the QFLASH is pointless if it won't post first? (edit: I'm referring to the method in the video posted a few posts back, which uses a USB + physical button on the motherboard to update the BIOS).

Yes I tried with just 1 stick of memory in slot 2.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

Pulled off the CPU cooler and CPU itself and I'm not seeing any bent pins on the mobo at all. Looks perfect.

 

[beyondlogic]

Pulled off the CPU cooler and CPU itself and I'm not seeing any bent pins on the mobo at all. Looks perfect.

i would put it down to a dead motherboard you can try the q flash but i dont think it will do anything it may make things worse.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

I tried QFlash+, it seemed to install the new BIOS fine (went through the procedure with the right lights and turned itself off at end), and then I re-seated the CPU, put the cooler back on, and added one stick of 16gb ram in the second slot from the left. I then reset the CMOS by pulling out the battery and holding the start button down for 30 seconds. After 5 minutes, I put the battery back in, tried to boot up the computer, exact same problem.

I'm going to attempt to RMA the board, as it's still under warranty.

 

[Darkbreeze]

everything anything that has data on it. ive seen m.2 not allowing a pc to boot or post in the past.

Cringe.

 

[boju]

Pior to installing graphics card did you turn the power supply off before working on it? No evidence of lit leds?

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

Pior to installing graphics card did you turn the power supply off before working on it? No evidence of lit leds?

Yes power supply was off and unplugged. Didn't look at any LEDs.

 

[NeedHelpYikes]

*UPDATE*

tl;dr Motherboard RMA solved the issue.

So I ended up getting the motherboard RMA'd as I couldn't see how the CPU could possibly be the problem, it went back to Gigabyte and they sent it back with absolutely zero notes or explanations of what they did. I got the same motherboard back so they must have repaired it. I installed the RMA'd motherboard and everything works fine. Downloaded a utility to remove all nVidia drivers, ran it, then installed my 4070, and everything works perfectly.

So either pulling out my 1060 and replacing it with a 4070 (nvidia to nvidia) caused the motherboard to brick, or something physical happened in the process of removing one GPU and installing another that damaged the motherboard. Again, I didn't notice anything when doing the switch. Either way, the same motherboard is now working, after being to Gigabyte for repairs.