Athlon 240GE APU = Blank Screen

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   Hi,

New APU shows blank screen only. Previous APU (Bristol Ridge 9500E) no problem.

BIOS version is 5.70. (B350m Pro 4, rev 1)

With AC pwr disconnected cleared BIOS setting using the motherboard jumper on pins 2-3 (6sec). I've this procedure once since initial.

Power-up indications:

- After a few seconds the keybrd Numlock LED lights and remains lit (And responds to Numlock key taps). Hitting the Delete key causes a beep to be heard.

- The HDMI display I am using shows a screen resolution/refresh-rate popup box when changing to another signal source. Oddly, the monitor shows a resolution of 3840x2160@30Hz. IIRC 1280x1024 is normal for this board in BIOS.

- The CPU fan is running.

It seems to me the board is booting normally but the display is blank.

Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

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Micro_zom Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Mar 2019 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote Micro_zom Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Athlon 240GE APU = Blank Screen Posted: 27 Mar 2019 at 1:18am
	Hi, New APU shows blank screen only. Previous APU (Bristol Ridge 9500E) no problem. BIOS version is 5.70. (B350m Pro 4, rev 1) With AC pwr disconnected cleared BIOS setting using the motherboard jumper on pins 2-3 (6sec). I've this procedure once since initial. Power-up indications: - After a few seconds the keybrd Numlock LED lights and remains lit (And responds to Numlock key taps). Hitting the Delete key causes a beep to be heard. - The HDMI display I am using shows a screen resolution/refresh-rate popup box when changing to another signal source. Oddly, the monitor shows a resolution of 3840x2160@30Hz. IIRC 1280x1024 is normal for this board in BIOS. - The CPU fan is running. It seems to me the board is booting normally but the display is blank. Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

xhue Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 17 Aug 2018 Status: Offline Points: 634	Post Options Post Reply Quote xhue Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Mar 2019 at 2:29am
	What was your previous BIOS version? I mean before 5.70?

Micro_zom Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Mar 2019 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote Micro_zom Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Mar 2019 at 3:43am
	xhue, 4.x, 4.50 I think. I have recently read the Topic 'Bristol Ridge and 4.x BIOS'. As it was from 4.x that I updated to 5.70 I was pondering downgrading to 3.40(?) and from there upgrading to 5.70. With B.R. the 'Instant Flash' fails within BIOS Setup but succeeded via 'F6'(Instant Flash) with 4.x. Does this make sense? Thanks.

xhue Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 17 Aug 2018 Status: Offline Points: 634	Post Options Post Reply Quote xhue Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Mar 2019 at 6:28am
	It looks like some nasty bug to me, still. 5.70 is very fresh and ASRock rarely do the job properly on the first attempt. My advice - rebuild the whole PC from scratch. Tear it all down, piece by piece and then reassemble it back again. Pay extra attention to the CPU and the RAM placement. Clear CMOS for 10s and try booting again.

xhue Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 17 Aug 2018 Status: Offline Points: 634	Post Options Post Reply Quote xhue Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Mar 2019 at 6:33am
	P.S. if you still have your old B.R. with you, flash 5.70 again after you clear CMOS, i.e. install B.R. -> clear CMOS -> re-flash 5.70 -> install 240GE -> CMOS again -> boot.

Micro_zom Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Mar 2019 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote Micro_zom Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Mar 2019 at 8:39am
	xhue, I re-flashed but no change. It was worth a shot. FWIW, a couple days ago I ran memtest86 on this board with the BR APU. No problems. So I don't think there's an issue there but the new APU changes the equation. Thanks for the help!

Micro_zom Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Mar 2019 Status: Offline Points: 6	Post Options Post Reply Quote Micro_zom Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 11:17pm
	I have traced this issue to a limitation of my monitor. The problem is that two of the three HDMI ports on this monitor are 4k@30Hz which do not work with the BIOS default resolution of 1280x1024@50Hz. This refers to the BIOS screen not the OS screen. The third HDMI port on this monitor is 4k@60Hz and for giggles I tried it and there I see the BIOS screen. I also had success using a VGA port. I will mark this thread as solved but I think this may be a bug in not correctly detecting this monitor's capabilities.