Graphics card compatibility with motherboard


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I recently got a new graphics card, an EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SC. My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H. With my old graphics card installed (an MSI GeForce 210), when I'd power on the computer, the BIOS splash screen would appear for about 10 seconds, and then Windows would boot, and the entire boot up process would take about 20-25 seconds until I was logged in.

 

Now with my new graphics card installed, the motherboard hangs on the BIOS splash screen for about a minute and a half before finally booting into Windows. I cannot access any of the motherboard's features (setup boot menu, etc) while the new card is installed, either. It seems to totally hang.

 

If I put the old card back in, the motherboard boots up in a few seconds again. I've tried the new graphics card in both PCI Express slots on the motherboard, and same behavior each time. If I enable the internal graphics on the motherboard with the new card installed, the motherboard hangs on a black screen with a flashing white cursor, whereas it behaves as expected, normal, with the old card in.

 

Once Windows boots up, everything seems fine. All drivers installed, the the device manager is clean. Not sure what the problem could be. I am also not sure if I have the latest version of my BIOS software installed, as Gigabyte's site appears to be severely broken.

 

Any ideas? Thanks.

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Does the graphics card need it's own power supplied directly from the psu?

 

(My EVGA GTX 760 does) 

It might be an RMA but we'll have to do a little more troubleshooting first

Another possibility, and rather obvious, you did connect it to the correct pci slot? (sometimes it's so obvious it gets overlooked <if applicable, I'm having a little trouble with the gigabyte website right now>)

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try clearing your cmos/bios settings and make sure that the new video card is installed in the first pci-e slot on the board.

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Does the graphics card need it's own power supplied directly from the psu?

 

(My EVGA GTX 760 does) 

It might be an RMA but we'll have to do a little more troubleshooting first

Another possibility, and rather obvious, you did connect it to the correct pci slot? (sometimes it's so obvious it gets overlooked <if applicable, I'm having a little trouble with the gigabyte website right now>)

The card does need it's own power supply. I have a modular Antec power supply, with a PCI-E power cord routed directly from the power supply to the card. I've tried the card in both PCI-E slots on the motherboard. Same result.

 

try clearing your cmos/bios settings and make sure that the new video card is installed in the first pci-e slot on the board.

I have tried that. Even tried pulling the motherboard battery and resetting the settings to default. Didn't seem to do anything differently.

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Try BIOS upgrade, if same thing happened, just return the Graphic Card.

I'll look into that, but at the moment, Gigabyte's website is very broken, and I can't seem to find any up-to-date firmware for my motherboard.

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Possibly Antec PCI- 12V rail is bad (its a stretch but)

Can you actually go into the BIOS and make changes with the new card in, or do you just see the POST image ?

If you are getting into BIOS, but it never gets to Windows - then you should reset your BIOS and start fresh.

If you are simply getting the POST image, but its not really "in" BIOS - then you should.... well.... reset your BIOS.


I would think it is a possibility:
BIOS Setting
power issue (bad PCI-Express cable, or bad 12V rail)

In BIOS, what do your voltages say ?

What wattage antec ?

Totally not surprised by Gigabyte's site being down - IMO an absolute crap company w/ less than avg products (i've had nothing but problems with Gigabyte products)


 

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Possibly Antec PCI- 12V rail is bad (its a stretch but)

Tried with a few different rails on the power supply. Same result each time.

 

Can you actually go into the BIOS and make changes with the new card in, or do you just see the POST image ?

I cannot make any changes to the BIOS with the new card installed. It seems to totally hang for about 90-120 seconds with the card installed.

 

If you are getting into BIOS, but it never gets to Windows - then you should reset your BIOS and start fresh.

If you are simply getting the POST image, but its not really "in" BIOS - then you should.... well.... reset your BIOS.

I've already tried totally resetting the BIOS by pulling the battery. After reinserting the battery, I had to put the old graphics card in to confirm the reset, otherwise, with the new card in place, it just hung at a black screen after the reset.

 

I would think it is a possibility:

BIOS Setting

power issue (bad PCI-Express cable, or bad 12V rail)

In BIOS, what do your voltages say ?

I'll have to place the old card back in to check.

 

What wattage antec ?

550W.

 

Totally not surprised by Gigabyte's site being down - IMO an absolute crap company w/ less than avg products (i've had nothing but problems with Gigabyte products)

Never had a problem with them until now, but their website seems to be complete garbage.
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550 might not be powerful enough (I'm not saying this as a definitive)

I should have asked in my first response, my 760 instruction manual recommends a minimum of 400 watts on the psu for the card, and as I'm an amd rig I went with an 800 watt platinum Silverstone unit.

 

There could be any number of reasons for your card not to be operating correctly, and to be honest with you, most of those 'issues' could very well be beyond my assistance capabilities, and I REALLY don't want to recommend a replacement for your psu, but somewhere in my mind, I'm leaning towards the psu just having enough power supply to your components to get them to start up, (or it's a bad card)

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550 might not be powerful enough (I'm not saying this as a definitive)

I should have asked in my first response, my 760 instruction manual recommends a minimum of 400 watts on the psu for the card, and as I'm an amd rig I went with an 800 watt platinum Silverstone unit.

 

There could be any number of reasons for your card not to be operating correctly, and to be honest with you, most of those 'issues' could very well be beyond my assistance capabilities, and I REALLY don't want to recommend a replacement for your psu, but somewhere in my mind, I'm leaning towards the psu just having enough power supply to your components to get them to start up, (or it's a bad card)

From all the research I've done and people that I've talked to, 550 W should be more than enough to power the GTX 960.

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It may be worth using an online psu calculator so you can factor in age of psu and all your components  that you power on the machine, and if that CPU is OCed remember itll be pulling a shedload more W than the norm. you've gone from an old pci-e 2 budget card (drawing minimal watts) to a PCi-e 3 gaming card, it may be drawing more than the PSU can supply cleanly. That's the only thing that has changed. (also bare in mind, at best a psu will be 80-85% efficient at its stated rate for the first year, so a 550W may only push out 467W cleanly at full load (that's 85% efficiency) deduct approx. 5-10% per year for psu age.

 

also check that the AMd chip specifically supports pci-e 3 the motherboard manual and sales blurb all have a * with dependant on CPU & GPU capabilities, I know 2nd gen I series don't support pci-e 3. you may have to set bios to pci-e 2 with odl car, then fit new card.

 

Post draws almost as much power as game mode buddy. All components are on full power until drivers etc load. Your PSU is maybe struggling to cope with all demand at 100% and causing a brownout.

 

what is the Ampere rating on your 12v rails?

 

do you have a friend or relative close by with a machine you could try the new card in also?

 

the bios site is up atm, going by the model you posted these look like the files, just check against the motherboard itself, it will have a rev number on it to be double sure, wouldn't want you to flash the wrong bios, done that myself before years ago...ironically with a Gigabyte board! lol

 

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4315#bios

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Any BIOS version older than F14 is incompatible with almost all graphics card above HD 78xx+ and GTX 9xx series. I have the same motherboard and needed to update BIOS to use my GTX 970, I had the same problem as your.

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