Drivers Suspicious on Win 10 Install with older Hardware

Ok, so I don't really know where to start with this other than the specs of the machine. Here they are:

CPU: Intel Core 2 duo E6550 2.33 Ghz stock w/ Raijintek TISIS Cooler
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte g41mt-s2pt rev 2.1
RAM: G.Skill Sniper Series F3-17000CL11D-8GBSR 2x4GB 2133MHZ DDR3 (runs 1333MHz on the board)
PSU: ToPower 1000W Gold (completely overkill but it's what I had)
GRAPHICS: On-board Intel VGA and an AMD R7 370 2 GB
HDD: WD 300 GB Velociraptor (BOOT), 1 TB Segate HDD (DATA)

Story of this machine: That processor was my first ever gaming processor (that I remember). I wanted to use it but I had no motherboard for it, so I bought a brand new motherboard for it (holy crap that still existed). I also bought an enclosure that I had been eyeballing for such a build. I go and build all the parts and I get a boot. Great! Somehow I miraculously install Win 10 on the thing and went straight to work trying to do a stability test. Everything checked out, so I went and got the graphics card brand new off the shelf from a best buy so I didn't have to wait for Newegg. And that's where my problems started to occur.

I want to say it is a graphics driver issue. The card boots up with the computer and displays output to the screen without AMD crimson software installed. However, when I plug a USB stick into the computer and try to manually install the latest crimson drivers, It hangs halfway through the install. Black screen. Monitor is "receiving" input from the card as evidenced by the status power light (ASUS 2k monitor). I boot off the Intel graphics and it behaves as it should (although sometimes those drivers "fail and have recovered", usually happens on websites like youtube). I uninstall the graphics drivers and tried again. Same thing, so I'm insane for expecting anything different.

The only thing I haven't tried is installing another graphics card, but its an NVidia 560 SE (perfectly good card) which is weaker than this current one. SURE, the CPU might bottleneck the 370, but I can throw a Q6600 in and see if that improves things.

I had grand ideas of trying to overclock the CPU but now I just want this machine to work. The reviews of the motherboard say that there are RAM issues, but my kit seems to work just fine. I have not run a memtest on them, however. I use OCCT for my stress tests (for the moment) and the cooler keeps the CPU well under Tjmax, and the initial startup did a very good job lasting and overnight stress. I can post some BIOS and CMOS settings later if they are needed, but as of currently I think it might just be that this stuff is just too old for such an installation of Win 10 and I was wondering if others felt the same.

SO, I installed Linux Mint onto the computer, thinking that would help things out. I didn't install the graphics hardware (Intel integrated only) and immediately I started seeing some trouble with displaying letters and the Cinnamon desktop crashing. That's a BAD thing.

The machine is "useable" with the internal graphics. It just doesn't do justice, especially since I've been spoiled with 2 R9 290s

P.S. The amount of money spent on this machine was $400, mostly taken up by the graphics card. I was originally thinking an Athalon X4 870 build but I thought this one would be much more interesting if I could get it to work.

UPDATE: I have run memtest86 overnight and there have been no reported issues with the memory sticks.

My suggestion is to try an older, non crimson driver for now and see if that works.

Also check to see if there is a BIOS update for your GPU on its webpage.

Last, I would seriously consider throwing away that ToPower PSU... its better know for starting fires and killing PCs. Seriously. Grab a cheap Corsair CX430 or EVGA 500B. That will be plenty for the system as listed and a mid-range GPU.

As much as I'd love to throw away the power supply, I'm not going to go buy another one unless if the machine works. I'm not running the topower outside of it range and not nearly long enough to warrant just to throw it out and buy another one.

As far as GPU bios's, which site can I get that from? I don't normally think of the gpu bios as being an issue so I've never done that before.

Again, I'm not ignoring that there is a problem with the quality of the power supply. It may in fact be the issue. My signature rig has had an issue and I thought it was the motherboard, but it in fact was the psu. This topower power supply is currently more reliable than a power supply that was rated much better and that had failed once. I will fix it when I get to that point again. I literally am using it just for having the computer turn on.

I looked for a bios now that I'm on campus. I have currently only found one released on tech report's bios bank. It's an MSI board BIOS. Would it be worth to look at 270/7870 bios? I know they are pretty much the same cards.

ZeypherUndellus said:

As much as I'd love to throw away the power supply, I'm not going to go buy another one unless if the machine works. I'm not running the topower outside of it range and not nearly long enough to warrant just to throw it out and buy another one.

As far as GPU bios's, which site can I get that from? I don't normally think of the gpu bios as being an issue so I've never done that before.

Click to expand...

That's your choice on the PSU... but I would look at getting something sooner rather than later.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/08/30/topower_1000w_gold_power_supply_review/9#.VxEPcfkrK70

As mentioned, you get it from the MFG website.

Here you go http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4084&dl=1&RWD=0#bios About 60 seconds to locate. Ask Google. Google knows All. LOL. Windows 10 has limited support for older hardware. I don't know if that is contributing to your issues , but I would research that possibility if I were you , and with AMD drivers , God only knows.

After looking at the BIOS download , there seems to be only one BIOS for that board , so it may be worth a try but I would prepare to keep looking. IMO.