[Z68 Extreme4] HD7850 -> RX480 upgrade woes

Hello 'rockers. I'm having trouble replacing an AMD HD7850-based graphics card with a RX480-based board (the ASUS ROG Strix model), and am here as a bit of a last resort. My approach:

1. Power down, naively swap one board for another (while moving from 6 to 8 pin Express supplementary power connector), power up. This resulted in Dr. Debug status code 97 ('Console Output devices connect'), with no signal apparently reaching monitor. Original working system state restored.

2. Power down, remove HD7850, clear CMOS data via jumper and in accordance with m/b manual, insert/connect RX480, power up. Success! Temporary, partial success... The monitor came to life and I (naively) got busy restoring BIOS settings to their former values. Funnily enough, the monitor failed to light up after I 'saved and exited' BIOS setup...

3. Clear CMOS data via jumper, power up. 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. Save and exit BIOS setup. This resulted in a) the display of POST messages etc, b) the non-display of anything at all after usual boot drive selected via F11, c) Dr. Debug status code AE ('Legacy boot event'). Sigh.

4. Clear CMOS data via jumper, power up. No BIOS settings adjusted! Same result as above in 3. (I also tried, via F11, booting off a Win7 install DVD. This works, and the boot drive appears in the 'where do you want to install Windows?' screen. It _may_ have been that I tried this above, in 3.)

5. Power down, remove all drives from equation (by detaching each drive's data cable at motherboard-end) save for single boot SSD. Power up. Same result as above in 3. Original working system state restored.

I've seen some suggest that updating BIOS to a more recent version might solve the problem (I'm on P1.50), but am very reluctant to do this thanks to past experience. I have also submitted my issue to ASRock's tech support division.

Advice warmly welcomed - I'm really not too sure what my next step should be...

Oh, they will need to know what CPU it is you have installed.

Sorry man. I'm an AMD person, and there will be specific steps you must follow depending on what CPU. Me = <cough>intel<cough> Just kidding.

<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

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 

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.