5770 wont post. Stuck on on-board VGA. Please help! =D

Hey all, I decided to help a friend out who long story short needed a new graphics card cause his old one died. He's not computer literate, asking me to install it for him so I agreed.

His specs to my knowledge:
MB: MSI 945GCM5 v2
CPU: core 2 duo
RAM: 2 gig 667mhz ddr2
CARD: ASUS 5770 w/ voltage tweak (not OC)
PSU: 350w something crap
HD: 500gig

The problem is when I put the 5770 in the PCI E x1 slot it doesn't get detected, refusing to post or do anything and immediately the on-board graphics kick in, so I need to move the input from the card to the on-board to get picture.

I have tried everything and am pretty much out of ideas.

1. Played with everything possible in the bios, switching from intergrated graphics to PCI E, even to PCI. There seems to be no other setting avalible that will affect this.

2. Upgraded the bios to the newest version.

3. Reset bios defaults through bios and jumper.

4. Tested by using my PSU to power system (corsair 750HX).

5. Disabled intergrated graphics in windows device manager.

6. Tried with motherboard out of case in-case of it being grounded? (I was desperate even though it sounded dumb).

7. Tested my Sapphire 5770 in his machine with the same result. Tested his 5770 in mine and it worked fine. I have no other cards to test with.

For the life of me I cannot think of ANYTHING that could be causing this other than a faulty motherboard. After reading up anything I could find on this old piece of junk it seems other people have got the 5770 working with no issues so it is compatible and even though the card is PCI E x2.1 it is backwards compatible.

My only conclusion is that the board itself or PCI E slot is faulty.

If you have any other ideas that I could try please offer them! I want your help! Otherwise I'm buying a new MB for him in a few days.

sounds like slot is no good... time for a mobo change.

i had read that some older motherboards would not work , or work immediatly with a PCI-E 2.1or2 (or whatever the version differance is)
are there ANY other items in the bios for the link type, speed or connection style via the video card ? like my MB had stuff in the chipset settings for video that didnt work on slower only on auto, weird.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...GCM5+5770&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en

here is one more similar (unless that also is you).

i went to check for 5??? series compatability with that motherboard, there werent any 5870 combos in the search so i tried other combos of that board with a 5???? series. all 5??? series use the new PCI-E version thing??

from what i saw when looking recentally you could possibly go with a highest end GFX card or a 4??? series , as they dont use the new PCI-e SPec. IF that is the problem.

Just Guessing from all the stuff i had to read to see if my Older board would be one that wouldnt be comapatable. i dont even know if that board has the new stuff??

Why would a video card work in a pci-e x1 slot? It wouldn't even properly fit in one.

vixro said:

Why would a video card work in a pci-e x1 slot? It wouldn't even properly fit in one.

Click to expand...

My mistake, meant v1.0 not 1x

Thanks anyways for input ect everyone. This problem still has me stumped / annoyed so I'm going to buy a new MB right now.

I have a choice between either
http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3505#sp
and
http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?P_ID=YraY16Bgg3U1mAW1&templete=2

I'm doing a quick look into each now cause theres a $4 price difference and thats all my 2 local stores provide.

EDIT: Picked the ASUS cause they didn't have gigabyte in stock =[ Wish me luck anyways! Usually the simplest things turn into the biggest headaches with my luck.

Your friend might want to invest in a new PSU. 350 watt is pretty low! Just a thought..

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5770-review-test/11

That card is easily drawing 200 watts on its own. His C2D will be using anywhere up to around 100 watts I believe..

*its drawing a little over 100 watts I guess.. I read that wrong.. But still a 350 watt PSU seems on the low side..

Tokae said:

Your friend might want to invest in a new PSU. 350 watt is pretty low! Just a thought..

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5770-review-test/11

That card is easily drawing 200 watts on its own. His C2D will be using anywhere up to around 100 watts I believe..

*its drawing a little over 100 watts I guess.. I read that wrong.. But still a 350 watt PSU seems on the low side..

Click to expand...

Look at his first post, he used a 750w PSU with the same result.

IT LIVES!

After a few beers it was all together using the ASUS mobo and the card posted first shot. WIN! The old board had been taught a lesson in respect and doing what it's told. It currently resides in 4 pieces.

Only hassle is I now have to re-install win7 as theres quite a few boot issues and some weird OS lock ups but once it's done it's done (hopefully).

rickoles said:

IT LIVES!

After a few beers it was all together using the ASUS mobo and the card posted first shot. WIN! The old board had been taught a lesson in respect and doing what it's told. It currently resides in 4 pieces.

Only hassle is I now have to re-install win7 as theres quite a few boot issues and some weird OS lock ups but once it's done it's done (hopefully).

Click to expand...

Isn't that weird how hardware sucks sometimes? You can try the same thing 5 times, then on time # 6 with some elbow grease and resets, it works fine....!!

Have fun!

That MSI mobo can go suck it! I have loved Asus mobos since my X2 processor