XFX R9 280X Turbo Black fails to boot in my PC, works in a friends

[Nick Fenwick]

My new XFX R9 280X graphics card causes my PC to fail to boot. It's as if the motherboard gets no power - everything powered directly from the PSU powers up (HDD, GPU fans, CPU cooler etc) but no BIOS POST screen, no HDD boot activity, no USB keyboard lights.

My system: Gigabyte z77p-d3 motherboard, V8 CoolerMaster CPU cooler, i7 cpu and 4x8 sticks of ddr3 dual channel RAM, 1 HDD and 1 SSD, powered by a 750W CoolerMaster PSU.

Today I swapped my friend's PC's PSU and GPU out for my own (the R9 280X and 750W CoolerMaster) leaving in his old ASUS P5LD2 SE motherboard with a Core2 duo processor, and his machine boots up fine.

What might be causing this failure to boot in my PC? Should I buy a new motherboard?

I am loathe to change anything because my system was all new 3 years ago and seems pretty good still. The V8 CPU cooler is a bitch to change.

XFX support have not been very promising so far, their recommendation when I asked them was to upgrade my 700W PSU because the minimum requirement of the new R9 280X card is 750W, but from what I've read it would probably run find on an average system and 500W PSU, so I feel they are going to keep ducking the issue.

Thanks!
Nick

 

[Novuake]

Borrow your friends power supply in your machine, will to bet that is your issue.

 

[jaslion]

i think its your psu because a core 2 duo uses less power then an i7 so i suggest changing the psu for a new 750 w one

 

[Nick Fenwick]

i think its your psu because a core 2 duo uses less power then an i7 so i suggest changing the psu for a new 750 w one

Thanks for the reply, but I don't quite follow you. Are you suggesting my 750w PSU has some kind of problem and needs replacing with a new 750w PSU?

I have three reasons for believing the 750w that I have works and is powerful enough for my needs:

■ From what I've read here http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_280x_twinfrozr_gaming_oc_review,8.html it has more than enough power for the R9 280X and other hardware in my PC.
■ It's a brand new 750w PSU that works fine in my friend's PC when transferred there so I doubt very much it has any hardware fault.
■ My own PC works fine with this PSU when I plug my old 570Ti graphics card in instead of the R9 280X. It's only when my new graphics card is installed that the PC fails to boot.

Everything seems to be pointing to an incompatibility between the graphics card and some other component of the PC, and the most obvious culprit seems to be the motherboard.

Nick

 

[jaslion]

i think its your psu because a core 2 duo uses less power then an i7 so i suggest changing the psu for a new 750 w one

Thanks for the reply, but I don't quite follow you. Are you suggesting my 750w PSU has some kind of problem and needs replacing with a new 750w PSU?

I have three reasons for believing the 750w that I have works and is powerful enough for my needs:

■ From what I've read here http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_280x_twinfrozr_gaming_oc_review,8.html it has more than enough power for the R9 280X and other hardware in my PC.
■ It's a brand new 750w PSU that works fine in my friend's PC when transferred there so I doubt very much it has any hardware fault.
■ My own PC works fine with this PSU when I plug my old 570Ti graphics card in instead of the R9 280X. It's only when my new graphics card is installed that the PC fails to boot.

Everything seems to be pointing to an incompatibility between the graphics card and some other component of the PC, and the most obvious culprit seems to be the motherboard.

Nick

How old is the psu and try an bios update

 

[Nick Fenwick]

Borrow your friends power supply in your machine, will to bet that is your issue.

Perhaps I was not clear in my original post. My friend's machine started as a low power Core Duo CPU, 500W PSU and old graphics card. In order to see if my new graphics card works at all, I wanted to install it in his PC, but his PSU was well below the recommended spec, so I swapped my card and PSU into his case, not just my card. It all works fine, which completes my aim of proving that my new graphics card works (as it has never been seen to work in my own PC) and that the PSU is powerful enough for it (which answers the main line of defense posited by the XFX support people).

Borrowing my friends power supply isn't going to help me much, as it's much lower wattage than my own and is below the recommended level for my graphics card. When I first bought the R9 280X I had a 700W PSU, and the XFX support channel refused to answer any questions until I had upgraded to at least 750W because that's the minimum recommended spec for the card (yes, I know, it's silly, but that's their story and they're sticking to it).

Nick

 

[jaslion]

Borrow your friends power supply in your machine, will to bet that is your issue.

Perhaps I was not clear in my original post. My friend's machine started as a low power Core Duo CPU, 500W PSU and old graphics card. In order to see if my new graphics card works at all, I wanted to install it in his PC, but his PSU was well below the recommended spec, so I swapped my card and PSU into his case, not just my card. It all works fine, which completes my aim of proving that my new graphics card works (as it has never been seen to work in my own PC) and that the PSU is powerful enough for it (which answers the main line of defense posited by the XFX support people).

Borrowing my friends power supply isn't going to help me much, as it's much lower wattage than my own and is below the recommended level for my graphics card. When I first bought the R9 280X I had a 700W PSU, and the XFX support channel refused to answer any questions until I had upgraded to at least 750W because that's the minimum recommended spec for the card (yes, I know, it's silly, but that's their story and they're sticking to it).

Nick

Bios update i guess

 

[Nick Fenwick]

How old is the psu and try an bios update

jaslion, I could kiss you! I had not updated my BIOS since buying this kit in 2011, and was on version F2 of the BIOS. I flashed version F8e using the very handy Q-flash utility, got a sexy new BIOS POST screen, installed the new R9 280X card, and it boots. It boots, I tell ya!

I probably didn't need the new 750W PSU I've bought while trying to make it work, but that's all good, I can pass it on second hand with the old graphics card I'm upgrading from to the friend whose PC I've gutted in testing my new card

Nick