Motherboard will not post without GPU

[Littlejay85]

I am hoping someone can help.

I am trying to build a new computer (actually three, but that is a long story, but the two with identical boards are my issue), my motherboard seems to be giving me a hard time, I am guessing it is the motherboard or the BIOS in it that is the problem or I have some really bad luck with the APUs I am using.

Main components (of the two giving me the same issue now)

MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge WiFi,

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (APUs) (I have 2 of them)

2 sticks of DDR4 3200 RAM in both (one board has 2 sticks of 8GB Corsair Vengeance RBG, other is 2 sticks of 8GB Silicon Power XPower),

500 Gb m.2 drive (one system has WD black 500GB Gen4, one has WD Black 500GB Gen3)

both boards are using 750 Watt power supply, 2 different power supplies were tried

Both boards have been tried both AMD Ryzen 5 5600G APUs.

Prior to this, the one board did work fine with a Ryzen 5 5600x with a discrete GPU, the other board was used with a Ryzen 3 3100 then it gave me issues when I tried to upgrade the BIOS to use with the Ryzen 5 5600x, and I placed it into the box (I thought I actually killed the board), a while went by and now I am trying to fix it and get it working with it not actually being dead.

Neither board will post with only the APUs and will start with a CPU debug LED and after a few seconds move to show a VGA debug LED and not change from that. When I use a GTX 770 Founders Edition card (which I gained in a switch trying to sell my 3100) in both boards, they post, and will work using the same HDMI cord. I have unplugged the boards, removed the batteries from the boards for long periods of time, I have cleared the CMOS, I have changed the RAM between systems. I have gone into the BIOS and changed the integrated graphics adaptor settings from PEG to IGD. The problem still persists and neither will load using the integrated graphics and only with the dedicated GPU attached. The third system works okay, no issues which is why I am not mentioning it, though for those curious it is a Ryzen 3 3200G along with a MSI B450i. That APU is incompatible with the boards, and that motherboard won't work the Ryzen 5000 series APUs. Does anyone have suggestions of what I can try without having to wait to see if GPUs get cheap enough to purchase. PLEASE HELP.

[FalseControl]

I am curious if the bios might be the problem.

 

If you jump to 7:40 he updates bios but you can't update bios with an APU chip installed. Might be what you're looking for? I know you said you updated the bios but did you get the right version for that particular CPU? Especially having on board graphics

[Littlejay85]

I flashed the bios in at least one motherboard using the Flash BIOS Button with nothing attached to the motherboard minus the thumb drive and the power supply plugged into it, and using the BIOS version 7C91v18 which is the newest non beta BIOS, as the MSI website does not state it isn't compatible, I am guessing it should be compatible with the Ryzen 5 5600G. This was my original issue with the 1st board as my 5600x was not compatible with the BIOS at that time, then my video card died along with that. According to the website it does state 7C91v17 as the result, guessing result means BIOS version, the difference by looking at that one and the one I used is the one I used has Support Windows 11. I will try using the v17 tomorrow after I am done work to see if that helps.

[Littlejay85]

30 minutes ago, FalseControl said:

I am curious if the bios might be the problem.

 

If you jump to 7:40 he updates bios but you can't update bios with an APU chip installed. Might be what you're looking for? I know you said you updated the bios but did you get the right version for that particular CPU? Especially having on board graphics

I meant to quote your message with what I did with my BIOS, and what I will try tomorrow.

[Littlejay85]

21 hours ago, Littlejay85 said:

I meant to quote your message with what I did with my BIOS, and what I will try tomorrow.

I did downgrade the BIOS, and still no video through the Motherboard, the VGA debug light comes on and stays on. A dedicated GPU works with it still. I used the GPU to downgrade my BIOS. Maybe tomorrow if I feel up to it after work, I will tear apart another computer I built as a travel computer for myself. It works and it is a ASUS ROG STRIX B550i motherboard with 32 GB of RAM with a Ryzen 5 5600G (same APU), it is in a InWin Chopin Case, which is why I don't really want to take it apart, it was hard enough to build in. It will allow me to test both other APUs, and allow me to test that APU in the two problematic MSI B550 MPG Gaming Edge WiFi Motherboards.

[Littlejay85]

On 2/26/2022 at 8:16 PM, Littlejay85 said:

I did downgrade the BIOS, and still no video through the Motherboard, the VGA debug light comes on and stays on. A dedicated GPU works with it still. I used the GPU to downgrade my BIOS. Maybe tomorrow if I feel up to it after work, I will tear apart another computer I built as a travel computer for myself. It works and it is a ASUS ROG STRIX B550i motherboard with 32 GB of RAM with a Ryzen 5 5600G (same APU), it is in a InWin Chopin Case, which is why I don't really want to take it apart, it was hard enough to build in. It will allow me to test both other APUs, and allow me to test that APU in the two problematic MSI B550 MPG Gaming Edge WiFi Motherboards.

So I did the dreaded thing by deconstructing that InWin Chopin build. No matter what I used and did there was no video on the MSI boards unless it was through a GPU. Switched everything minus 1 thing, and the Asus ROG Strix build actually brought me to think about it. The one thing I didn't change multiple times was the actual thing I was using as the monitor, a TV with HDMI ports. With the ASUS board it was causing the BIOS to display very off, like it was multi screen reversed on your desk. I did change the HDMI cord a few times. I got a new monitor (yes that hurt), but it worked on BOTH boards. One board still had the BIOS version 7C91v18 and the other had the 7C91v17 BIOS version which was the one on the website for the CPU.

 

So some advice learnt from this, sometimes change what you are using as your monitor. It made everything work.