4890 POST error

[Mostlyharmless42]

Whenever I power on my new system I get a POST error that according to my mobo (Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P) is a video error, and I get no display whatsoever. However when I put my new video card (Sapphire 4890 Vapor-X) in an older system I have it posts fine and gives out flawless display. When I put that old system's video card (Geforce 6800, also tried a 7200, which also worked) in my new system, it posts fine and gives working display. I tried using two different PSUs (Antec EarthWatts 650 and Corsair HX1000 1000 Watt modular) that I know are good to power my new system (with 4890 in it) and still no display. It seems as though the mobo and 4890 are just incompatible, as they work fine independently, but together I get no display. Are there any known solutions to this? I already tried updating the BIOS to latest (F5), but still nothing.

System specs:
MOBO: GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
CPU: Phenom II 955 @ 3.2GHz (stock speed, stock voltage, stock cooling)
GPU: Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X @ 870MHz (Stock speed for Vapor X edition)
RAM: OCZ Platinum 1600MHz DDR3 4GB
HDD: WD Caviar Green 500GB
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 650

Thanks in advance

 

[kmmatney]

It sucks that your ATi-based video card is having trouble working with an AMD-based motherboard - you would expect that to work!

I had that problem several years ago with a 6600GT - it would not work with my nice ASUS motherboard, but worked fine with my son's cheap-o Biostar motheboard. I swapped motherboards for a few days, but in the end just RMAd the card, and got a different one (X800GTO2) which worked fine.

 

[Quiksilver]

Not much of a solution but I think your hands are tied with this issue and will have to choose between the two parts to replace... the motherboard or video card.

(On a side note: why do you have a decent build but use the wd green drive which is a low rpm drive?)

 

[Mostlyharmless42]

So if it turns out that I have to replace the GPU. Should the nVidia equivalent (GTX 285) have any such compatibility issues? Also would my 650 watt PSU power that fine?

 

[TemjinGold]

It might be that the pci-e slot on your motherboard isn't providing enough power to the card. The one thing true about the 6800 and 7200 you tried is that they take much less power to operate. Do you have a card that's about as power-hungry as the 4890 to test in that mobo? If you had to replace one of those two things, I would replace the mobo.

 

[Mostlyharmless42]

Sorry for the double post, but @ Quiksilver: The WD green actually is a 7200 rpm drive; not the best in the world, but it's serviceable. Actually I'm waiting for technology on SSDs or HRDs (Hard Rectangular Drive, google it) to advance (and waaaay down in price) until I buy a performance drive. I'm really only using this build for gaming, and folding; no screaming need for an uber drive yet.

 

[Mostlyharmless42]

Originally posted by: TemjinGold
It might be that the pci-e slot on your motherboard isn't providing enough power to the card. The one thing true about the 6800 and 7200 you tried is that they take much less power to operate. Do you have a card that's about as power-hungry as the 4890 to test in that mobo? If you had to replace one of those two things, I would replace the mobo.

Unfortunately I have no such card. Is there any other way to test the pci-e slots themselves? It seems somewhat improbable to me that it was power, as I had tested this thing hooked up to a 1000 watt psu, and still nothing, but I suppose it is possible...

One of my friends has a GTX 260 that I might be able to borrow later on; is that power hungry enough?

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: Mostlyharmless42
So if it turns out that I have to replace the GPU. Should the nVidia equivalent (GTX 285) have any such compatibility issues? Also would my 650 watt PSU power that fine?

No idea, your the first person I've seen have this issue. I don't see an issue with your PSU either.

Originally posted by: Mostlyharmless42
Sorry for the double post, but @ Quiksilver: The WD green actually is a 7200 rpm drive; not the best in the world, but it's serviceable. Actually I'm waiting for technology on SSDs or HRDs (Hard Rectangular Drive, google it) to advance (and waaaay down in price) until I buy a performance drive. I'm really only using this build for gaming, and folding; no screaming need for an uber drive yet.

!? I could of swore that they were hybrid 5400/7200 drives that at idle would operate at 5400 rpm and spin up to 7200 during reading/writing. I must be thinking of something else... anyway carry on to problem at hand.

Originally posted by: TemjinGold
It might be that the pci-e slot on your motherboard isn't providing enough power to the card. The one thing true about the 6800 and 7200 you tried is that they take much less power to operate. Do you have a card that's about as power-hungry as the 4890 to test in that mobo? If you had to replace one of those two things, I would replace the mobo.

That wouldn't make sense to me at least... as the source is still the same; the psu. Anyway, I'd agree with replacing the motherboard.

 

[reallyscrued]

I own a Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P and an HIS 4890 1 GB edition (not the turbo clocked one) and they work together for me. Just curious, have you tried it in the other PCI-E slot? Are you using any power adapters to feed the 8 pin and 6 pin plug on the video card? Do you have the latest BIOS and is it set to initialize PCI express graphics cards first? Are all the power headers on the motherboard connected?

 

[TemjinGold]

Originally posted by: Mostlyharmless42

Originally posted by: TemjinGold
It might be that the pci-e slot on your motherboard isn't providing enough power to the card. The one thing true about the 6800 and 7200 you tried is that they take much less power to operate. Do you have a card that's about as power-hungry as the 4890 to test in that mobo? If you had to replace one of those two things, I would replace the mobo.

Unfortunately I have no such card. Is there any other way to test the pci-e slots themselves? It seems somewhat improbable to me that it was power, as I had tested this thing hooked up to a 1000 watt psu, and still nothing, but I suppose it is possible...

One of my friends has a GTX 260 that I might be able to borrow later on; is that power hungry enough?

While I understand you tested it with even a 1000 watt psu, what I mean is the portion of the power that the pci-e slot provides to the card might not be adequate if the slot is messed up. This would not be as much of a problem with the 6800/7200 as they don't need nearly as much so the additional power connectors could take the brunt of their need. The psu is strong enough to provide enough power to the slot and the connectors but if the slot is messed up and cannot pass enough of the power on, it wouldn't matter how much your psu puts out.

Again, that might not be the problem but it's the only thing I can think of in this circumstance.

 

[thilanliyan]

Are all power connectors plugged properly? Using independent PCI-e power cables or adapters?

Try disconnecting all HDDs and other cards you have and plug just one stick of memory in and try the 4890 in the different PCI-e slots and see if that works.

 

[shangshang]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver

(On a side note: why do you have a decent build but use the wd green drive which is a low rpm drive?)

WD Green series drives have variable RPM.

Here's the specs for the Green drives:

http://support.wdc.com/product...sp?groupid=608&lang=en

As you can see, the average seek time is 8.9ms, which is typical for a 7200 RMP drive. But since Green drives have variable RPM, it'll need to ramp up to 7200, which of course may be a tad slower than say a drive that keeps spinning at a fixed 7200 RPM, but once ramped up to 7200 rpm, the Green drives are just as fast as a Black one. Anyway Green drives are not slow drives though. The benefit of Green drives is they run a lot cooler compared to say an equivalent Caviar Black drive. Personally, I have a 10k Velociraptor to install the OS and programs on, and a 2 TB Green for storage.

 

[Binky]

WD green drives run at a very fixed speed, almost always 5400rpm. There may be one or more models out there that run 7200. No WD green model can change its speed. The WD specs are extremely lame, and almost fraudulant.

 

[shangshang]

Originally posted by: Binky
WD green drives run at a very fixed speed, almost always 5400rpm. There may be one or more models out there that run 7200. No WD green model can change its speed. The WD specs are extremely lame, and almost fraudulant.

Fair enough.

I would be curious to see websites that test these Green drives against a typical 7200 rpm drive and see the difference in performance for desktop usage is. I keep hearing some people dogging the Green drives, but my 2 TB Green drive doesn't feel slow at all.

 

[betasub]

StorageReview's take on the WD Green