Strange No signal HD7870

[speedyink]

So I got an XFX HD7870 a couple weeks ago, and am finally trying to figure out this strange issue. Since I installed it, I get "no signal" from my monitor until Windows boots. So I don't see the mobo splashscreen, or the windows logo boot screen. I get nothing until Windows tells me "welcome" and is pretty much done booting.

The other strange thing since installing it, is sometimes my computer refuses to boot. Like I said, I can't see anything on the screen until it's booted, so I don't know if it's showing me something or not. I can see my xbox controller flashing all four lights, which it usually only does for the first couple seconds of boot. So it seems like it's getting hung up on something...

Any ideas? Worried that my card is faulty..

 

[tech savvy]

Will it let you in the BIOS, by hitting F2 when PC starts?

 

[speedyink]

I can not for the life of me get into UEFI/BIOS. It just sits there with a black screen (and blinking xbox controller) pretty much everytime I press F2 on startup. I tried some other keys (del, f12, and esc) which for the most part did nothing (booted normally), with the odd time not booting (black screen, blinking controller).

I guess I should also note, when it was working properly there was an HD7670 installed in the same slot. No onboard graphics.

Another thing that might lead to an answer.. In display settings, it always thinks there's two monitors plugged in. The one that the monitor is actually plugged into shows up as "2", the "1" display shows up as generic non pnp monitor with resolution greyed out. It always shows it like this, no matter which dvi slot I plug the monitor into. I haven't tried the mini-dvi slots, as I don't have an adapter.

 

[tech savvy]

I can not for the life of me get into UEFI/BIOS. It just sits there with a black screen (and blinking xbox controller) pretty much everytime I press F2 on startup. I tried some other keys (del, f12, and esc) which for the most part did nothing (booted normally), with the odd time not booting (black screen, blinking controller).

I guess I should also note, when it was working properly there was an HD7670 installed in the same slot. No onboard graphics.

Ok, well this my be a stupid question, but, did you completely uninstall the previous drivers?

Or, did you try a different PCI slot?

Also, have you tried putting back in the 7670 to see if the problem still there?

 

[speedyink]

Ok, well this my be a stupid question, but, did you completely uninstall the previous drivers?

Or, did you try a different PCI slot?

Also, have you tried putting back in the 7670 to see if the problem still there?

I uninstalled the drivers while the old card was still in (it then proceeded to install default windows drivers to bring the display back up afterwords), turned it off, put new card in, let it install default drivers, then installed latest ati drivers.

I only have one pci-e x16 slot

I haven't yet, but I will

Edit:

Another thing that might lead to an answer.. In display settings, it always thinks there's two monitors plugged in. The one that the monitor is actually plugged into shows up as "2", the "1" display shows up as generic non pnp monitor with resolution greyed out. It always shows it like this, no matter which dvi slot I plug the monitor into. I haven't tried the mini-dvi slots, as I don't have an adapter.

two monitors show up under device manager as well, "generic non pnp monitor" and "generic pnp monitor"

 

[tech savvy]

I uninstalled the drivers while the old card was still in (it then proceeded to install default windows drivers to bring the display back up afterwords), turned it off, put new card in, let it install default drivers, then installed latest ati drivers.

I only have one pci-e x16 slot

I haven't yet, but I will

That's the problem most likely. Never let Windows update your Video Drivers. Even though you stopped Windows from updating your display drivers, it probably still downloaded and install parts of the driver, which could be conflicting with the drivers you downloaded from AMD.

Get into Windows, go to "Windows updates" and disable "automatically download and install all updates", and set it to "Only download and install Windows updates only". Go and download the drivers str8 from AMD website, and save to desktop. Uninstall ALL updates/drivers for your GPU, restart. Go to the driver package that you downloaded earlier and install drivers, restart. Let me know what happens.

 

[speedyink]

That's the problem most likely. Never let Windows update your Video Drivers. Even though you stopped Windows from updating your display drivers, it probably still downloaded and install parts of the driver, which could be conflicting with the drivers you downloaded from AMD.

Get into Windows, go to "Windows updates" and disable "automatically download and install all updates", and set it to "Only download and install Windows updates only". Go and download the drivers str8 from AMD website, and save to desktop. Uninstall ALL updates/drivers for your GPU, restart. Go to the driver package that you downloaded earlier and install drivers, restart. Let me know what happens.

I only let it install them because it was showing up with "no signal" until it installed those drivers. It did the same thing when I first installed the card, nothing from the display for any of the UEFI/BIOS messages or windows boot screen. Nothing until I heard the device plugged in tone, which meant the default drivers installed. I'm scared to uninstall them again with windows update unchecked..if I end up with a blank screen in windows as well, and I can't get into the UEFI or device boot screen...then what?

I'm reading that not all cards are compatible with UEFI motherboards...

 

[speedyink]

Ok, plugged in the old 7670. I was able to get into the UEFI upon first power on, didn't even have to boot into windows. The ASUS screen just showed right up. I guess 'del' is my uefi key, but I tried that with the 7870 and it didn't work.

 

[tech savvy]

I only let it install them because it was showing up with "no signal" until it installed those drivers. It did the same thing when I first installed the card, nothing from the display for any of the UEFI/BIOS messages or windows boot screen. Nothing until I heard the device plugged in tone, which meant the default drivers installed. I'm scared to uninstall them again with windows update unchecked..if I end up with a blank screen in windows as well, and I can't get into the UEFI or device boot screen...then what?

I'm reading that not all cards are compatible with UEFI motherboards...

How did you download/install drivers with no display? Can't see nothing.

You have to at least try. When you uninstall the drivers and restart, it should let you boot into Windows just fine, the only thing that should be weird is the resolution and the size of icons, which can be fixed with the AMD driver update.

Whats the worst that can happen? "No display found"? It's not letting you in the BIOS anyway. You have to try every option, or just let it be. But I really think it's a driver issue.

 

[speedyink]

Ok I think I got it figured out. I now have my boot screen showing up and everything seems to work fine, I can even get into UEFI now with my new card.

Apparently the video card I bought (XFX Core edition 7870) doesn't fully support UEFI. I had to put in my old card that was compatible, go into UEFI, find CSM option (compatibility support module) and select "support for legacy devices" or something along those lines, rather than the full UEFI support option.

How did you download/install drivers with no display? Can't see nothing.

You have to at least try. When you uninstall the drivers and restart, it should let you boot into Windows just fine, the only thing that should be weird is the resolution and the size of icons, which can be fixed with the AMD driver update.

Whats the worst that can happen? "No display found"? It's not letting you in the BIOS anyway. You have to try every option, or just let it be. But I really think it's a driver issue.

That's why I let windows install the default one, because I couldn't see nothing, lol. I found the problem anyway. I appreciate you trying to help and the swift responses, shows what a great community this is

Edit: Nice, this even fixed the two monitor issue. Now I just have my main monitor showing up in display settings, nothing else.

 

[tech savvy]

Ok I think I got it figured out. I now have my boot screen showing up and everything seems to work fine.

Apparently the video card I bought (XFX Core edition 7870) doesn't fully support UEFI. I had to put in my old card that was compatible, go into UEFI, find CSM option (compatibility support module) and select "support for legacy devices" or something along those lines, rather than the full UEFI support option.

Good job! Weird that the 7870 doesn't support UEFI.

 

[speedyink]

Good job! Weird that the 7870 doesn't support UEFI.

Thanks! It is weird, I can't believe such a new card lacks such a feature. Oh well, it plays games really well so I guess I can't complain

I think it has more something to do with XFX than ATI/AMD. Other variants of this card claim to be UEFI compatible. Also, my Asus HD7670 has support for it. Just wasn't something I thought I had to look for when buying a new card =P