[Z68 Extreme4] HD7850 -> RX480 upgrade woes

parsec wrote: About updating the UEFI, just to check, you have the Z68 Extreme4, not the Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 board, correct?

Yes indeed.

Forgot to tell you some mandatory UEFI installation techniques that even Windows 10 will require. In case you aren't aware of this... Whatever Win 10 installation media you use, before the installation starts check the boot order and find the installation media. It should be the only other drive connected to (or powered up) in the PC besides the target OS drive. You should find an entry for the Win 10 installation media that looks something like this: "UEFI: <installation media name>". You need to select the boot order entry with the "UEFI:" prefix, which causes a UEFI booting Windows installation. Not sure if you are using an HDD or an SSD as the Windows 10 drive. I assume the SSD. No idea if any or all HDDs support using the EFI boot loader.

I used an old spare HDD to successfully install win10, but will of course reinstall on SSD if I decide to accept win10 as my OS. But I had a fun old time getting the UEFI-prefixed entry to appear in the boot order. What ended up working was inserting a win7 install disk in my BD-ROM. With the freshly-burned win10 disc in the drive I actually got the 'no monitor signal' problem again, and had to clear CMOS data. With the drive empty, no amount of rebooting would persuade the UEFI prefix to appear. Weird, and glad I could work around it.

If you are fine with using the Legacy ROM setting, then there is no reason to install Windows again, unless you simply want to use Windows 10.

I want this to be the case so very much (as I have no interest in win10 aside from its support for the new card's DirectX 12 ability). But as mentioned in first post, Dr. Debug status code AE ('Legacy boot event') results when I attempt to boot my old win7 install. Am I missing something? I do hope so!

Edit: Are you maybe thinking I could do something like this:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14286.converting-windows-bios-installation-to-uefi.aspx

?


Edited by Fa1lson - 22 Feb 2017 at 10:21pm

Fa1lson wrote: Thanks for your thoughts, Moderator Group members! I seem to have come to the right place parsec wrote: It seems you were using Windows 7 when you inserted the RX 480, correct? Yes, this has been the only OS in play so far (tho' I will try a win10 install in the next few hours as it's probably the easiest OS to use for this exploratory work, given my lack of SP1 win7 install media and the hassle of slipstreaming or what-have-you). You lost me when you said this in your first post: Restore all BIOS settings to their former values with the exception of BIOS -> [Boot] -> [PCI ROM Priority]. This setting (which has two values - the default 'Legacy ROM', and 'EFI Compatible ROM') seems to completely determine whether the monitor lights up or not. The last sentence is correct if you were using Windows 7 and did not have a UEFI booting Windows 7 installation, which I assume you did not. I'm sure you had no monitor signal when you set it to EFI Compatible ROM, correct? Yes, no monitor signal when 'EFI Compatible ROM' = [PCI ROM Priority]. I've also confirmed that I do not have a UEFI booting win7 installation (by running 'bcdedit /enum', which shows in the 'Windows Boot Loader' section that path = ...\winload.exe). Question, why did you try using the PCI ROM Priority, EFI Compatible ROM setting? Were you using that setting with your other video card? I was indeed using it with the other card, and the HD5830 I used before that, IIRC. (However, I've just tried booting the other card with the 'Legacy ROM' setting, and all is well.) Now, exactly why I changed this setting from its default value when I first installed the m/b is something only my 2011 self (who deeply pondered each and every UEFI setting, as you do) can answer... In any case, I initially sought to get the RX480 going by making as few changes as possible to UEFI settings (hence my restoration-to-former-values approach). It was sheer luck that I was able to quickly identify this particular setting as culprit. The [Boot] screen was the last I needed to visit when restoring UEFI settings to their former values. I was confused by what I saw in it, tho', so did a 'save and exit' (in case its content changed as a result of settings I'd already altered) before changing its default values. Following the subsequent reboot, I changed the [Boot] screen settings (including [PCI ROM Priority]) to their former values, 'saved and exited', and stared glumly for a few seconds at the blank screen that resulted. While your new video card may have a VBIOS that supports EFI, your Windows installation must also support EFI booting. If it doesn't, particularly with Windows 7, you cannot use that setting. I can't even get a _monitor_signal_ using that setting, so I'm OK with using 'Legacy ROM' = [PCI ROM Priority] I'm glad that updating the UEFI is not at this point compulsory. I really must get around to overclocking that CPU... I've also learned that some RX480-based cards have a wee hardware switch on them to choose between... legacy or EFI VBIOS, I think? Alas, mine does not seem to. Will report results of win10 install attempt in a few hours all being well...

If you are fine with using the Legacy ROM setting, then there is no reason to install Windows again, unless you simply want to use Windows 10.

Forgot to tell you some mandatory UEFI installation techniques that even Windows 10 will require. In case you aren't aware of this...

Whatever Win 10 installation media you use, before the installation starts check the boot order and find the installation media. It should be the only other drive connected to (or powered up) in the PC besides the target OS drive. You should find an entry for the Win 10 installation media that looks something like this: "UEFI: <installation media name>". You need to select the boot order entry with the "UEFI:" prefix, which causes a UEFI booting Windows installation.

Not sure if you are using an HDD or an SSD as the Windows 10 drive. I assume the SSD. No idea if any or all HDDs support using the EFI boot loader.

EDIT: See Additional Information I added at the bottom of this post, related to the following paragraph.

If you want a full blown UEFI booting Windows installation, the CSM option must be set to Disabled. That of course requires the video source to support the UEFI GOP protocol, which does not seem to be the case, so you can't set CSM to Disabled. What you can do with CSM enabled, is set the CSM sub-option, Launch Storage OpROM Policy option to UEFI Only. That will cause the OS drive to be GPT formatted, and have four partitions created by the Windows installer, including a legacy MBR partition. Any or all of this is not required, but selecting the "UEFI:" entry for the Windows installation media is required.

Regarding choosing the PCI ROM Priority setting of UEFI ROM with your previous video card, the result of that was nothing. The chances of the HD 7850 supporting UEFI/GOP are very small, so that setting was simply ignored, if not changed to Legacy automatically. That you had the video display failure with the new video card implies that the new card does support UEFI/GOP, but your Windows 7 installation of course did not, resulting in no signal to the monitor. Of course we are going by what you tell us, so it is impossible to know what else might be going on, so this is just guess work.

About updating the UEFI, just to check, you have the Z68 Extreme4, not the Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 board, correct?

Given that, the latest UEFI/BIOS version (a Beta version, L2.21A) is from 2013, so I don't see that version as helping in general with a very current video card. But in checking into that, I noticed something else, which caused me to check your board's manual.

Additional Information

Since the manuals are rarely updated to match the UEFI/BIOS updates, I see nothing about any PCI ROM Priority option, or related options. I'm not saying they are not there, just that I cannot determine exactly what they are doing. Also, after reading the description of the L2.21A Beta UEFI/BIOS version, which adds Windows 8 support, no doubt including Secure Boot, I imagine the UEFI booting related settings were changed. I believe they would be similar to the next generation chipset boards, like the Z77 Extreme4, which I still have. The UEFI booting/CSM settings have not changed since the Z77 boards (no reason to do so), but I now realize your board's UEFI/BIOS version does not have a CSM setting, at least with the 1.50 version, and likely only with the L2.21A Beta version.

Bottom line, none of this is really significant, just use the Legacy ROM setting, it only matters during POST anyway.

Windows 7 definitely does (or did) NOT support UEFI booting installations. That can be fixed, but you must modify the Windows 7 ISO/ESD installation files/folders manually, the EFI boot loader file is in the wrong location, and the Windows 7 installer cannot find it.

I've heard that the latest Win 7 SP1 ISO file has fixed that file's location, but I never tested that myself. Any older Windows 7 disk will have this problem, and must be fixed. I can provide a link to a guide about fixing this if you are interested.

Actually, since Windows 8, MSoft has UEFI booting working right with the Windows 8 (and 8.1 and 10) installation media. MSoft introduced the "Secure Boot" feature in Windows 8, which requires a UEFI booting installation. With a UEFI/BIOS that supports Secure Boot, if you enable Secure Boot, the CSM option (which really controls UEFI booting) is set to Disabled automatically, and the CSM option is removed from the UEFI. At least that is how ASRock does it when Secure Boot is enabled. We can configure CSM without using Secure Boot, which is how I prefer to do it.

It seems you were using Windows 7 when you inserted the RX 480, correct?

You lost me when you said this in your first post:

Restore all BIOS settings to their former values with the exception of BIOS -> [Boot] -> [PCI ROM Priority]. This setting (which has two values - the default 'Legacy ROM', and 'EFI Compatible ROM') seems to completely determine whether the monitor lights up or not.

The last sentence is correct if you were using Windows 7 and did not have a UEFI booting Windows 7 installation, which I assume you did not. I'm sure you had no monitor signal when you set it to EFI Compatible ROM, correct?

Question, why did you try using the PCI ROM Priority, EFI Compatible ROM setting? Were you using that setting with your other video card?

While your new video card may have a VBIOS that supports EFI, your Windows installation must also support EFI booting. If it doesn't, particularly with Windows 7, you cannot use that setting.

Moving on to the UEFI/BIOS update, wardog was rightly concerned about applying the only versions now available, that include the Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge processor compatibility update. Those UEFI/BIOS versions are notorious for causing problems when the user is has a Sandy Bridge CPU, as you do.

The reality of these updates is they must be done perfectly, with a specific but simple procedure. If that procedure is NOT followed perfectly, and some required software is also not installed, that is when the problems occur.

I don't see a UEFI/BIOS update as being the fix that you need, at least at this point, until you answer my questions, please.

The good news is, if we decide to go with the UEFI update, your board has the Instant Flash update version method, which is the best one to use. The only important instructions when doing this update is the USB flash drive that has the UEFI update image in it, MUST BE LEFT IN THE USB PORT UNTIL WINDOWS COMPLETELY BOOTS UP AFTER THE UEFI UPDATE COMPLETES IN THE UEFI/BIOS. You will also need to install the latest version of the Intel IME software to match the IME firmware that was updated in the UEFI/BIOS update. Those are the two things that user fail to do.

Please answer my questions, or explain the situation and we can proceed.

Give win 10 a try and post back. The fact that you can get the install to run is a good sign however, we should be able to get this to work for you 

<edit> took so long typing what follows that xaltar's post appeared before I submitted    Lemme digest this... </edit>

Thanks for your replies/effort, wardog. I made a sig after starting thread, but in retrospect should have done things t'other way around   Anyway, hopefully some relevant info right...

...here vvvvvvvvvvv


Edited by Fa1lson - 21 Feb 2017 at 3:27pm