[SOLVED] With new graphics card, PC does not boot

[voidf.0xb3]

I recently bought a new graphics card (Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 570 GAMING 8G), but I couldn’t get it to work. After I start the computer, the card’s fans spin, but the monitor does not see any signal from the graphics card (it just says “Cable not connected”).

So I reconfigured my firmware to use integrated graphics even if there is a graphics card and made sure that it works with the old card: it can send a signal through the motherboard even if the old card is installed. But if I install the new card, there is still no signal—not through the motherboard and not through the graphics card. I suspect that this means that the firmware itself doesn’t even start the normal boot process for some reason.

Graphics card: Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 570 GAMING 8G
PSU: AeroCool 500W
Motherboard: Intel DZ68DB

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[popatim]

Which PSU do you have?
Did you connect the 8 pin peg/pci connector to your new GPU and is the GPU is in the Blue slot on the motherboard?

 

[voidf.0xb3]

The label on the PSU states model number EN53075, although I couldn’t find any kind of product page by googling it.

Yes, I did connect the 8-pin extra power cable. And the PCIe slot where the card is installed is, indeed, blue. It’s the same slot where the previous card (AMD Radeon HD 6790) worked, and still works, just fine.

 

[Phaaze88]

I suspect that you need to update the bios in order for the new gpu to be recognized.
But there's a problem: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29275/Intel-Desktop-Boards
"Device drivers for Intel Desktop Board are no longer available on Intel Download Center after September 13, 2019. BIOS updates are no longer available after November 22, 2019."

At the very least, you can't get it from Intel anymore. So if that's not doable, the newest cards you will be able to put in there are:
Nvidia: GTX 700 series
AMD: Radeon R9 series

 

[voidf.0xb3]

Well, a quick search found this: https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-Desktop-Boards/Looking-for-BIOS-Update-for-DZ68DB/td-p/661628
Although I would still need to figure out how to install such an update.

What is it about the BIOS that could cause the graphics card to not work? In other words, how does one determine what the newest cards I can put in there are?

 

[Phaaze88]

https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-Desktop-Boards/Looking-for-BIOS-Update-for-DZ68DB/td-p/661628

I see links to release notes, with the actual bios file zipped.

Although I would still need to figure out how to install such an update.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...000005547/boards-and-kits/desktop-boards.html

What is it about the BIOS that could cause the graphics card to not work? In other words, how does one determine what the newest cards I can put in there are?

The first one is mostly over my head, but certain ID codes aren't present in the current version that would let it ID the newer hardware.
Understand that board is OLD; a company is only going to support it for so long...

As for the 2nd part: tis' something I picked up on from older threads. You are far from the first.
This is a common issue on older OEM boards.

 

[voidf.0xb3]

How likely is it that the problem is with the motherboard’s firmware and that it’ll be fixed by updating the firmware? I’m somewhat cautious about doing something that might brick my motherboard.

Searching for potential compatibility issues between firmware and graphics cards only produced one possibility: as I understand, there are some new graphics cards that require UEFI boot, which won’t work with older motherboards that only support legacy BIOS boot. Indeed, here’s a post where you yourself list the same GPUs as being the most recent ones that support legacy BIOS.

Now, my motherboard’s firmware may be old, but it does support UEFI. Indeed, a couple of years ago I specifically made an effort, when reinstalling my operating systems, to configure UEFI booting. So if it’s UEFI support that’s needed here (as opposed to, say, some specific version of UEFI, or some specific feature of UEFI, or something else), then this may not be my problem, after all.

 

[voidf.0xb3]

Sorry for the necrobump, but I finally solved the problem and I figured I should describe the solution here in case anyone else looks for it.

The solution was, in fact, to update BIOS. Here is a thread on the Intel forum where I discuss the specifics of doing so.

As for why that helped, I suspect that it has to do with the following line from the BIOS 0040 release notes:

Fixed issue where system hangs at POST code ‘0d’ when using PCIe GEN3 VGA card.

In other words, it appears that there was a bug in the old BIOS versions of this specific motherboard that prevented the graphics card from working, rather than some issue applicable to graphics cards or motherboards in general.