A10 7870k No Video on F2A88XN-WIFI

[EXCellR8]

CPU/APU: A10-7870k
Board: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI
Memory: 4GB Corsair DDR3 1600mhz
PSU: SeaSonic 300w

Those are the specs of the machine I am trying to get working. With the 7870k installed I get no video out of any of the ports on the motherboard. Swap it out for a $35 A6-5400k and everything works fine.

Board is using the latest BIOS (F6) and support for both APU models is confirmed by Gigabyte. Not sure what's wrong... checked the pins on the 7870k a few times, all look perfect. Should I RMA the chip or buy something else?

 

[nerp]

If you had another board to test the chip you could confirm that it is the CPU. Sure does seem like the CPU at this point but I'm not sure how you can totally confirm it's not a compatibility issue.

 

[monstercameron]

CPU/APU: A10-7870k
Board: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI
Memory: 4GB Corsair DDR3 1600mhz
PSU: SeaSonic 300w

Those are the specs of the machine I am trying to get working. With the 7870k installed I get no video out of any of the ports on the motherboard. Swap it out for a $35 A6-5400k and everything works fine.

Board is using the latest BIOS (F6) and support for both APU models is confirmed by Gigabyte. Not sure what's wrong... checked the pins on the 7870k a few times, all look perfect. Should I RMA the chip or buy something else?

the 7870k is slightly newer, maybe it isnt supported. try looking if there is a bios update, that may solve the issue.

 

[scannall]

Bios needs flashing most likely.

It's found here.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4745#bios

 

[LTC8K6]

Note: To support FM2+ APUs, be sure to use an FM2 APU to update the BIOS to the latest version with the EFI Flash tool included in the zip file. (For a future BIOS upgrade, you can use either the Q-Flash or the EFI Flash tool. )

???

 

[The Stilt]

If the bios version is >= F5 and the board works with other APU, then the 7870K is just dead. Happens rarely, but nothing unheard of. I have few AMD CPUs / APUs which either died for no obvious reason or very simply DOA.

 

[EXCellR8]

BIOS is F6 as specified in my first post, which is the latest. It was actually already on the board when it arrived so I never flashed it. 7870k should just work.

That EFI rule is kind of interesting though, I wonder if the dual bios has something to do with why the A10 isn't working...

 

[Abwx]

BIOS is F6 as specified in my first post, which is the latest. It was actually already on the board when it arrived so I never flashed it. 7870k should just work.

That EFI rule is kind of interesting though, I wonder if the dual bios has something to do with why the A10 isn't working...

More probably is that you got an APU that was already RMAed as occurrence like these are almost impossible since the GPU is factory tested..

 

[PingSpike]

I assume you have cleared the CMOS.

Test with a separate video card?

 

[EXCellR8]

Actually I did test the board with a PCIe graphics card installed and that didn't work either. Not sure what would happen if I ran it with the A6 though, so I can try that. I may just end up returning everything and starting over.

 

[nenforcer]

Are you sure you have revision 3.0 FM2+ (Kaveri / Godaveri) version of that motherboard? It looks like you may only have revision 2 which only supports Trinity and Richland FM2 APU's - which explains why the A6-5400K does work. I don't think a BIOS update is enough for FM2 chips to work in FM2+ boards.

 

[Abwx]

You can try downgrading to a A10-7850 Kaveri which might have a better chance. I wouldn't try upgrading to a A10-7890 Godaveri although its on the supported list.

A 7860K would make more sense since it s a Godavari as well, and has a better cooler than some 7850Ks.

 

[EXCellR8]

Hate to bump this months-old thread but I did end up getting this to work, if anyone finds it helpful...

I was using the A6-5400k dual core APU temporarily which worked fine, until I had time to fiddle with the 7870 again. Last night I decided to swap processors out again, just to amuse myself I guess. The only thing I changed before doing so was the setting in the BIOS that "forces" the system to use the discrete graphics from the APU. Figuring it wouldn't make a difference, I saved and shut it down.

After pulling the 5400 I dug out the A10 and cleaned it off--since it still had TM from months ago, along with the cooler. I had a close look over it and noted that the pins were pretty much perfect. Popped the chip in with new thermal and installed the fairly generic cooler it came with. After a few little adjustments I powered up and I got video straight away.

A10 runs a little warm, about 52c, but I'm not worried about it too much. I did notice the copper base of the cooler was not perfectly smooth, and actually had very fine grooves in it, albeit not deep. I installed it anyway figuring the system was a bust.

So yea, maybe the BIOS setting fixed it or possibly something else, but at least it's working now; very snappy too.

 

[burninatortech4]

I have a 7870k and a A88X-WIFI as well. The default vcore is ridiculously high 1.45v + and it does run very warm (even at idle) at that setting. I've been able to get 4.4ghz at 1.435v and could probably do a lot better if I spent more time at it. I bet you could get vcore down below 1.35v at stock if you played with it enough. Try undervolting.

Also.. are you running single channel RAM? Dual channel at 2133mhz/2400mhz is a better match with this processor.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Not surprising. I have had similar problems with my A88x-Pro, though only with one or more dGPUs installed. Basically the default setting in the UEFI is to use PCIe graphics first or the iGPU if no PCIe graphics are available. I keep forgetting to force iGPU when resetting the UEFI to defaults which gives me no monitor signal.

Even worse is the DVI/HDMI setting, you have to force DVI if you want the DVI port to work.

But yeah, always remember to force iGPU if you intend to use it for display purposes.

 

[EXCellR8]

Hmm, the default was 1.48v on the APU! I didn't even notice that when I set it up... no wonder it was warm. I brought it down to 1.35v and the temps plummeted below 30c.

I think the memory is dual channel but I'll have to check; I just threw in what I had lying around.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Yes, 7870k default vcore is very high. It'll run cooler at that vcore than a 7850k, but it's still excessive.

 

[EXCellR8]

Something is still a bit off, and I think it may be driver or OS related--because nothing I change in BIOS has any affect it seems. I keep having to manually restart the machine because it freezes up and I get some artifacts on the screen; even at completely stock settings. Power supply is 300w and only storage is a single SSD. I am running Ubuntu on this particular computer so maybe I'll just install something else or try a dual boot and see what happens.

Also, the system is barely doing anything when it freezes, so it's not very obvious what's going on.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Have you tried locking it to a static clockspeed? Lockups at idle are often related to problems when changing power/turbo states.

 

[EXCellR8]

Good point. I disabled the boost and disabled APM too. If that doesn't fix it I'm not sure what else to look at... the BIOS on this little board isn't that feature rich.

 

[EXCellR8]

Just wanted to add another update to this thread.

It has been awhile since I've had any issues with the processor/OS combo. I think my issue with the freeze-ups was due to the somewhat buggy version of chromium browser I had installed and was using. Since I installed Firefox and updated a few other apps the system has been fine. May end up putting Windows 10 on the computer as well, but I'd consider this solved.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Good to hear it, then. No comment about Chrome but I stayed on Firefox (actually jumped on the Waterfox bandwagon) when a lot of people were abandoning it, and I have no regrets.