PC Not Posting after Driver Install?

[Giggidy25]

I recently purchased a new GPU, the RX 6600XT. When I first installed it into my system everything worked perfectly. The issue came about when I decided to reinstall windows. 
 

After a fresh install of Windows 10 I began to download drivers for both my cpu and gpu (ryzen 5 1600, 6600xt) and upon completion of the download and attempted restart my computer hasn't posted since, and the VGA led error light is lit on my motherboard. 

 

Trying all pcie slots with both my old and new gpu, clearing the CMOS, checking power supply connections, disconnecting drives, nothing I have tried has allowed me to get any post from the computer. All the lights in the system come on, all fans will spin including the gpu's, and yet nothing happens. 

 

I am not too familar with troubleshooting no post issues but to me it sems like installing drivers somehow broke something in my computer, is there anything I can try without an IGPU? Starting school soon and being down my main PC would be quite an issue so any help is greatly appreciated!

 

PC Specs: Ryzen 5 1600, MSI Gaming Carbon Pro X370, 2x8gb Corsair Vengance, RX 6600xt (old gpu: R9 390x), Antec Edge 650W Gold, SSD + HDD

[An0maly_76]

AMD Radeon RX have been known for driver issues for awhile. The mobo LED light, however, sounds like a BIOS conflict. Shot in the dark here, but I'll share it anyway.

 

In 2020, I upgraded an MSI B450M Bazooka with 3200 CL 16 Ballistix, a WD M.2, and an Asus GTX1650S. The board refused to recognize the GPU, but would boot on its original GT1030. Eventually it shut down and had to be RMA'd. MSI never did say what happened or how they fixed it, and it was neurotic after that, but it ran.

 

I have since found that the Ballistix SKU I used was not QVL listed for that board. It was also not listed for an Asus Tuf B550-PLUS or an ASRock B450M-HDV I used for a test bed while the Asus was being RMA'd for POST failures (DRAM related, imagine that). Since then, the later set of DIMMs have failed, and the Asus and ASRock boards are humming happily away with QVL-approved RAM. I have also discovered that the previous set of Ballistix from 2020 in the MSI B450M Bazooka are registering at different speeds, an indication of a problem.

 

So I would start with verifying whether your RAM SKU is QVL listed for your board with the processor you're using. Some say it doesn't matter, but my findings are that in at least a handful of cases, it very much does. Hope that helps.

[Giggidy25]

35 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

AMD Radeon RX have been known for driver issues for awhile. The mobo LED light, however, sounds like a BIOS conflict. Shot in the dark here, but I'll share it anyway.

 

In 2020, I upgraded an MSI B450M Bazooka with 3200 CL 16 Ballistix, a WD M.2, and an Asus GTX1650S. The board refused to recognize the GPU, but would boot on its original GT1030. Eventually it shut down and had to be RMA'd. MSI never did say what happened or how they fixed it, and it was neurotic after that, but it ran.

 

I have since found that the Ballistix SKU I used was not QVL listed for that board. It was also not listed for an Asus Tuf B550-PLUS or an ASRock B450M-HDV I used for a test bed while the Asus was being RMA'd for POST failures (DRAM related, imagine that). Since then, the later set of DIMMs have failed, and the Asus and ASRock boards are humming happily away with QVL-approved RAM. I have also discovered that the previous set of Ballistix from 2020 in the MSI B450M Bazooka are registering at different speeds, an indication of a problem.

 

So I would start with verifying whether your RAM SKU is QVL listed for your board with the processor you're using. Some say it doesn't matter, but my findings are that in at least a handful of cases, it very much does. Hope that helps.

I found the MB memory compatability, and unfortunately I cannot find the model number of the RAM I currently have. In your experience swapping out the RAM with sticks listed as compatible on the MB website fixed the no post issues you were having? 

 

Also, do you think this issue coincidentally decided to show itself right when drivers were being installed? 

[PineyCreek]

Have you tried the other connections on your GPU, a la trying HDMI if you're currently using DisplayPort?  Installing drivers shouldn't modify your BIOS I wouldn't think and you should at least be able to see the POST/startup sequence prior to the OS loading, but you said you see nothing on-screen.

[An0maly_76]

5 hours ago, Giggidy25 said:

I found the MB memory compatability, and unfortunately I cannot find the model number of the RAM I currently have. In your experience swapping out the RAM with sticks listed as compatible on the MB website fixed the no post issues you were having? 

 

Also, do you think this issue coincidentally decided to show itself right when drivers were being installed? 

Just reassembled the components in another case after two weeks downtime, but so far, no issues. Based on the pattern of every 8 to 12 restarts, I think I would have seen the issue by now, had it remained. I've even shut down, cold restarted, and hot restarted several times for no reason just to push it a little further along. 

[Giggidy25]

48 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

Have you tried the other connections on your GPU, a la trying HDMI if you're currently using DisplayPort?  Installing drivers shouldn't modify your BIOS I wouldn't think and you should at least be able to see the POST/startup sequence prior to the OS loading, but you said you see nothing on-screen.

I have tried all DP ports and the HDMI and I didn't get anything to post.

[An0maly_76]

@Giggidy25

 

As to the drivers summoning this demon out of nowhere, it could be a difference in how the PCIe is addressed in the new driver, causing a conflict elsewhere. I've seen BIOS updates for older boards that required removal of support for certain PCIe devices to facilitate support for newer processors or other PCIe devices to stay within space constraints of how much data the BIOS chips could hold.

 

Are you absolutely positive the new driver is for the specific card you have? I wonder if this is possibly an incorrect driver hitting a port address that doesn't exist or summoning a function not available on your specific card. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen that.

[Giggidy25]

14 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

@Giggidy25

 

As to the drivers summoning this demon out of nowhere, it could be a difference in how the PCIe is addressed in the new driver, causing a conflict elsewhere. I've seen BIOS updates for older boards that required removal of support for certain PCIe devices to facilitate support for newer processors or other PCIe devices to stay within space constraints of how much data the BIOS chips could hold.

 

Are you absolutely positive the new driver is for the specific card you have? I wonder if this is possibly an incorrect driver hitting a port address that doesn't exist or summoning a function not available on your specific card. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen that.

I'm pretty sure the drivers were the right ones, I used the AMD Software Installer to auto-detect the drivers for both my cpu and gpu. I have had issues with  AMD apps before, not driver related that I can recall, but there is a possibility that it messed something up.