Help with Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen 3 mobo and first boot

[adderall]

I have a build with the Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen 3 and an HD Radeon 7970. The HD Radeon 7970 has a DVI output and I have a monitor that only supports VGA and DVI. I'm trying to do my first boot and haven't installed the OS on the HD or anything yet, but I can't get anything to display on the screen. I assume this is because the motherboard doesn't have the drivers for the HD Radeon 7970 and is trying to use onboard graphics. Am I going to need to buy an HDMI to vGA or DVI cable just to set up the PC or is it likely something else is wrong? When I boot up, the manual mentions hearing diagnostic beeps but I hear nothing. Power is clearly flowing to all components as everything powers on (all fans are running, harddrive platters are spinning, etc).

*I'm guessing that until the bios is set up that the mobo can't instantly recognise the GPU and use it as the video display? The last time I set up a PC, I can't remember if I had this problem but I know the motherboard came with a VGA output so I didn't have to worry over this triviality...

Help?

 

[redduc900]

Videocard drivers aren't required for the PC to POST, nor for an image to appear on the POST screen. What POST code(s) are displayed on the Debug LED, and what sequence of LEDs are displayed on the Q-LED?

 

[adderall]

Would it (the display drivers) be required in order for the GPU to be used for display though? I don't see anything on the LED next to the start and reset button if you're referring to that? What is the debug LED? The only thing lit inside the case when I power the pc on using the external case button is the Start and Reset button inside the case.

 

[EarthDog]

Debug LED is the LED on the motherboard that is showing you the reason why you are not posting.

QLED is a place on your mobo that shows where you are in the boot process/what the boot process is hanging on.

Check out your manual for details.

 

[adderall]

Apparently it's hanging on boot device LED - does that mean I don't have my hard drive wired correctly either to the motherboard or the PSU?

Edit: Yes, this was a problem.. Now it hangs on VGA LED.

When I removed the GPU however, then it hangs on the boot device. I've tried swapping out hard drives to see if that'st he problem but now I just consistently get that there's a problem on the boot device LED and the error message i get isn't even on the debug table.. looks like a backwards y and a 7. so y7 (where the y is backwards)

 

[EarthDog]

Well there is no 'wrong' really. It gets power from a sata power connector and it only goes in one way. the sata connector also can only go in one way. regardless, even without boot devices, you should still be able to access the bios. Which sata port is the boot device plugged in to? Make sure its one of the Intel Sata3 ports (see manual for which is which).

Your monitor doesnt get a signal, meaning, it doesnt come out of standby mode (the color of its led will change from say orange to green or something). Have you tried repeatedly hitting delete immediately after power on to get to the bios? I doubt that will work as it should pop a signal though...

You have the 8 pin CPU power plugged in right? And you have DVI from the card to the DVI on the monitor? Have you tried a DVI to VGA adapter and tried the VGA input?

 

[adderall]

the GPU doesn't have an output for VGA, but I've tried using a DVI to vGA adapter and using the VGA on my monitor and it was not successful. The monitor doesn't come out of standby. I've never hooked a keyboard/mouse up to the build because i was waiting for it to post properly. Could that be a problem?

SATA ports, I thought the Sata 6 ports were the one the boot device should be connected to because of those being labelled as 1 and 2. I'll try it with the Sata 3 ports instead.

I only saw a plug for attaching 4 pin for CPU power. The Manual shows it as 8pin, but it seems like half of the holes are covered up with a plate that I might be able to remove, but I was afraid of assuming and breaking the connector. I will examine this and report back.

orz so sorry, thank you for your patience in helping so far. I will edit my post and report back when I have checked through all of this.

 

[EarthDog]

Rove the plate and plug in the full 8

 

[adderall]

With all 8 cpu pins it goes to P2 or F2 either/or, it isnt consistent. I don't know what P2 is because there's no code for it in the debug table. I get the diagnostic noise for no VGA detected (long beep three short beeps) and the boot device LED lights up. I do not have a SATA DVD drive, I intended to install off of a USB drive for my OS - is there a reason why not having a SATA DVD drive would cause a failure to POST or is it likely now that I just need to find a way to connect the motherboard's display to a monitor to get through at this point?

Does the hard drive for the boot device need to be formatted and blank? I thought I could just use my old SATA drive for this and reformat it during the OS installation.

I have tried to reset the CMOS with reseating the battery for each configuration that I have tried of the above and no dice, I get the no VGA detected error - bad GPU or just needs to be directly connected for mobo to POST?

 

[EarthDog]

You do not need a sata DVD drive plugged in, no.

You can try using the motherboard/CPU video out and see if that helps...

Wait a minute... what CPU is in this board? Is it Ivybridge (3570K/3770K)? This is a Z68 board correct? Those boards need to have a specific bios version to accept that CPU... specifically bios 3203 or newer.

http://www.asus.com/ROG/MAXIMUS_IV_GENEZ/#support_CPU

Do you have a SB chip to drop in to flash the bios?

 

[adderall]

No, but the serial on the board says it is bios 3203

No I do not have a SB chip :-X

 

[EarthDog]

I had no idea the S/N showed what the shipping bios was.... interesting.

 

[adderall]

It's what I was told to check for on another forum -- and it seems a bit too coincidental for the numbers to be the same and not be relevant-- I do not know how true it is or not but those numbers line up!

 

[EarthDog]

Where does it show that? On the bios chip sticker or S/N sticker?

 

[adderall]

Serial number sticker. I was told the last four numbers of the serial number should match what the BIOS is

 

[EarthDog]

Well, assuming that is true, that is the bios you need... So you have used the Intel ports (I think 1/2, confirm via manual)... have you tried the onboard video yet (you will need HDMI to DVI connector I believe).

 

[adderall]

I had to go out and buy one today but I was able to successfully POST with it in and move forward from there. Hooray! I appreciate the assistance. I think in the future, any mobo I buy, Iwill make sure it has more than one type of output :X