R9 280x Setup

[MasonV]

Before I go on, let me make this clear; yes I am a noob at this, which is why I ask the following question as I'd rather now destroy the parts I am already falling in love with..anyways, onto my conundrum.

 

So I got an Gigabyte Windforce R9 280x and a Thermaltake Toughpower 650 W PSU which finally arrived in the mail today. So I immediately went about taking apart my computer and plugging everything in with the new components. Its a tight fit but everything was going fine following the manual until I got the graphics card. At this point I realized both new components came with different 8 & 6 pin PCI-E connectors, the PSU came with simple straight forward (nice, black & flat might I add) 6 & 8 pin connectors, meanwhile the GPU came with an 8 & 6 pin connector with 2 molex connectors on the end of each cable. (Why the blazes would I be powering it through molex?)

 

I guess my main question is, am I fine to use the cables that came with the PSU as apposed to the GPU? I'm going to go ahead with the PSU cables and will check back when I'm done. Hopefully someone can confirm what I suspect and then I can simply power this baby up for a test drive.

[Clyne]

It would be okay to use the cables from the psu, using the molex one isn't a great idea.

Edit: @dragoon20005 said a reason why the molex one isn't a great idea. 

[Cokeman]

Yes use they PSU cables. They GPU came with those so you can use a older PSU that does not have PCI-E connectors

[dragoon20005]

it is best practice to use the power plug from the PSU

 

the molex to 6 pin should not be used on a high powered GPU

 

 

the molex part are known to melt and cause a fire

[MasonV]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance, I had gone ahead and turned it on. Fans turned on, but nobody was home when it came to signal output. However, this had happened the last two times I unplugged/plugged in my other graphics card into the same motherboard, so I have a feeling its a loose connector on the motherboard so I'll have to take another crack at it tomorrow and double check to see all the plugs are nice and tight.

 

It would be okay to use the cables from the psu, using the molex one isn't a great idea.

Edit: @dragoon20005 said a reason why the molex one isn't a great idea. 

 

 

Yes use they PSU cables. They GPU came with those so you can use a older PSU that does not have PCI-E connectors

 

 

Yes that is fine. Some PSU's don't have enough, or the right type of PCIe connectors, and those adapters allow people with wonky power supplies to  use the 280x or any other GPU that needs those PCIe power connectors.

 

 

it is best practice to use the power plug from the PSU

 

the molex to 6 pin should not be used on a high powered GPU

 

 

the molex part are known to melt and cause a fire

[MasonV]

If the fans are spinning at full speed, its gone into "dummy mode" which means its not getting enough power. Try different signal outputs or the onboard video if your motherboard has the ability. If you have a different video card try that tomorrow as well.

Tried onboard graphics just now and it booted up fine, and my previous grahpics card was working fine (the card itself is on its way out but it still functioned).

 

I have the power hooked up as follows;

• 8 pin pci-e (all 8 pins with connections) to the 8 pin connector on the GPU
• 8 pin pci-e (with only 6 pins with connection) to the 6 pin connector on the GPU

Considering the 2 extra pins are for extra voltage regulation I'm not sure I could discount either connection as being faulty at the moment. I guess I couldn't also eliminate the possibility of the PSU itself having faulty connections. So at this point it could be any and all of the cables, PSU or GPU (hope not). Any advice on how to proceed? I don't have another PSU that is powerful enough to test it with, or another graphics card which is hungry enough to take the extra power. 

 

Edit: Each PCI-E cable has 2 connectors, I used the 1st one on each as for the 8 pin one the 2 sense pins were then routed to ground. I also tried to do hdmi to my TV from the GPU and that didn't work. As you suggested it looks to be in dummy mode.

[MasonV]

If the fans are spinning at full speed, its gone into "dummy mode" which means its not getting enough power. Try different signal outputs or the onboard video if your motherboard has the ability. If you have a different video card try that tomorrow as well.

Guessing installing the drivers would probably be a useful step in the right direction. If that is seriously my issue I'm going to beat myself over the head for my stupidity. 

[MasonV]

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.

Yeah, when I get home I'm going to load it with integrated graphics, load the drives and get back to you. By your statement I'm guessing that is what is happening, in which case my motto of "you learn a lot quicker by screwing up" will sure ring true. Ohwell, guess I'll be happy as long as it turns out its not DOA

[MasonV]

Eh, you don't learn if you don't fail at some things. Another thing you should try is updating your motherboard's BIOS to the latest version. I had to do that to get my motherboard to work with my GTX 760 when I was still using it.

Valid, it is 3 years old so could do something. I'll check back in a couple hours.

[MasonV]

Eh, you don't learn if you don't fail at some things. Another thing you should try is updating your motherboard's BIOS to the latest version. I had to do that to get my motherboard to work with my GTX 760 when I was still using it.

So this is an update.

 

Updated the motherboard bios and it didn't do anything. I then attempted to load the drivers, but it failed to load to detect the graphics card because quite obviously it wasn't attached as I couldn't boot with it powered on. Anyways, this is where I'm at now.

 

I've taken the entire setup and put it on my desk out in the open so its easier to test things as my case is too cramped for my liking (damn linus and his actual good advice about using a test bench), and I'm going to force the drivers to be installed. 

 

Now, I did discover something, there is actual a dual bios switch on the graphics card and its currently set to #2...which doens't really make sense so I'm gonna check that out and push comes to shove gonna switch it over to #1 and see what happens.

[MasonV]

What's the graphics card you're installing, and don't force the drivers to be installed, it might break your iGPU drivers..

Gigabyte Windforce R9 280x, and I have to say, so far its been a pain in the ass. Almost wish I had waited until I could just buy a complete new system, but the temporary upgrade was so appealing.

[MasonV]

These are the drivers you need to download:

 

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

Yeah those were the drivers I was going to install as the cd hadn't worked as expected  

 

And got the same warning as before  (which I can't bloody view because I don't have adobe). Tried switch the bios switch from #2 to #1 as well to no avail :\

[MasonV]

So you can't boot with the GPU installed in your system? as in, Boot the PC with th 280X installed, even with your monitor plugged into the iGPU?

Correct. Without the 280x plugged in the integrated works fine, but as soon as I reboot with the 280x plugged in it will no longer have any signal output from the iGPU or the 280x. 

[MasonV]

Ok. Boot without the 280X installed, go into the BOIS, look for an option along the lines of Default graphics adapter, and change that to "integrated" or "onboard". It should work after that, and you'll be able to get the drivers installed.

I tried to find that but the bios I have is extremely limited as it is a prebuilt machine. I guess I'm going to have to try and put the card into someone else's machine to test it, hopefully its simply a lack of compatibility with my motherboard or something.

[MasonV]

Hm. Ok. Well good luck! What system is it?

Motherboard is from a dell inspiron 620

[dragoon20005]

yea prebuild mobo have some BIOS that will white list aftermarket GPUs and only certain hardware which are certified by Dell will only work on the desktops

 

 

i bought a Wifi card for my HP laptop and it refuse to boot up when it detected a different Wifi card

[MasonV]

yea prebuild mobo have some BIOS that will white list aftermarket GPUs and only certain hardware which are certified by Dell will only work on the desktops

 

 

i bought a Wifi card for my HP laptop and it refuse to boot up when it detected a different Wifi card

That sucks majorly. Maybe I'll phone them up and give them hell.