Loads desktop but not BIOS..?

TheGermanEngie · February 6, 2017

Hello all -

So I did a little bit of experimentation on how well I can push my iGPU on my AMD A10 7870k (oc'd to 4.2ghz). I took my GTX 960 out, and after playing around with the BCLK, I managed to get a stable 2000mhz memory overclock (from 1333mhz) and an overclock to 900mhz on the iGPU. It performed better, but I had to use a D-SUB cable, as there obviously isn't a display port in the back of my motherboard. Quality on my monitor was sub par. But I wanted more frames.

Then I discovered this way to share memory from the system through the GPU and the APU. So I slap my 960 back in, and change some settings in the GFX settings on my Gigabyte motherboard:

Primary video device - from "NB PCI-e Slot Video" to "IGD Video"
Integrated graphics - from "Auto" to "Force"
UMA Frame Buffer Size - from "Auto" to "2G"

Save and exit, and hallelujah - high settings on nearly every game I own. And on the display port, too - no blurry screen! Perfect! After a good couple hours of gaming, I go to power down. After waiting at least 10 mins, it won't shut off. Screen's off, but it won't shut off. I think that there must be something off with the RAM, so I press the restart button on the chassis and spam delete. Nothing. Weird thing is, the fans spin up as if I was in the BIOS, but nothing on the screen. So now I can't do anything with it.. Ah, but what about using that D-SUB cable? Took the 960 out, plugged in the D-SUB cable, and it worked. Reset everything to default settings, save and exit. Everything seems to be stable on the desktop, so I restart, try and overclock again, albeit a bit more lightly.

But the same thing happens - BIOS doesn't show up, and unless I press restart, it stays blank. Weird thing is, it goes to desktop, albeit with some screen flickering, but doesn't show the screen with logos and "press delete to enter bios".

I'm locked out of my BIOS to fix this mess - and my computer doesn't want me to fix anything. Just takes me to desktop, and whenever I want it to go to BIOS, stubbornly shows nothing.

Please help! Any suggestions are welcome!

EDIT: Just did a shut down test, shut down properly. Still doesn't show logos n shiz when booting back up.

kirashi · February 6, 2017

48 minutes ago, TheGermanEngie said:

Hello all -

So I did a little bit of experimentation on how well I can push my iGPU on my AMD A10 7870k (oc'd to 4.2ghz). I took my GTX 960 out, and after playing around with the BCLK, I managed to get a stable 2000mhz memory overclock (from 1333mhz) and an overclock to 900mhz on the iGPU. It performed better, but I had to use a D-SUB cable, as there obviously isn't a display port in the back of my motherboard. Quality on my monitor was sub par. But I wanted more frames.

Then I discovered this way to share memory from the system through the GPU and the APU. So I slap my 960 back in, and change some settings in the GFX settings on my Gigabyte motherboard:

Primary video device - from "NB PCI-e Slot Video" to "IGD Video"

Integrated graphics - from "Auto" to "Force"

UMA Frame Buffer Size - from "Auto" to "2G"

Save and exit, and hallelujah - high settings on nearly every game I own. And on the display port, too - no blurry screen! Perfect! After a good couple hours of gaming, I go to power down. After waiting at least 10 mins, it won't shut off. Screen's off, but it won't shut off. I think that there must be something off with the RAM, so I press the restart button on the chassis and spam delete. Nothing. Weird thing is, the fans spin up as if I was in the BIOS, but nothing on the screen. So now I can't do anything with it.. Ah, but what about using that D-SUB cable? Took the 960 out, plugged in the D-SUB cable, and it worked. Reset everything to default settings, save and exit. Everything seems to be stable on the desktop, so I restart, try and overclock again, albeit a bit more lightly.

But the same thing happens - BIOS doesn't show up, and unless I press restart, it stays blank. Weird thing is, it goes to desktop, albeit with some screen flickering, but doesn't show the screen with logos and "press delete to enter bios".

I'm locked out of my BIOS to fix this mess - and my computer doesn't want me to fix anything. Just takes me to desktop, and whenever I want it to go to BIOS, stubbornly shows nothing.

Please help! Any suggestions are welcome!

EDIT: Just did a shut down test, shut down properly. Still doesn't show logos n shiz when booting back up.

Clear your CMOS using the CLR_CMOS jumper on your motherboard (follow the manual/instructions) and you'll be back into your BIOS. I would advise against using the IGD (Integrated Graphics) if you have a GPU. From my own experience, Windows does not play nicely with this during shutdown/sleep/hibernation operations, because the people who write software drivers for graphics cards don't talk to the people at Microsoft.

I wanted to use my Intel HD Graphics for QuickSync video encoding before I got a CUDA-capable GPU. In order to do this, I'd either have to completely remove my old AMD GPU, or enable IGD on my motherboard. After enabling it, sleep and hibernate no longer functioned correctly, and shutdown would only work about 60% of the time. On top of that, Adobe CS6 programs freaked the hell out upon launch, stating my graphics card could not be found, or that drivers were not loaded.

Um, what? Sorry, if my GPU is missing, how am I reading this error message?

Point is, using both IGD and a GPU may or may not work on certain motherboards running certain Operating Systems. Windows 8 might do it, but I know that Windows 7 and 10 both struggle to even run a single GPU without weird driver glitches every time nVidia releases a new driver update. (I've actually found AMD to be much better on the driver front since releasing their new Crimson driver suite, even on older "discontinued" cards.)

TheGermanEngie · February 7, 2017

1 hour ago, kirashi said:

Clear your CMOS using the CLR_CMOS jumper on your motherboard (follow the manual/instructions) and you'll be back into your BIOS. I would advise against using the IGD (Integrated Graphics) if you have a GPU. From my own experience, Windows does not play nicely with this during shutdown/sleep/hibernation operations, because the people who write software drivers for graphics cards don't talk to the people at Microsoft.

I wanted to use my Intel HD Graphics for QuickSync video encoding before I got a CUDA-capable GPU. In order to do this, I'd either have to completely remove my old AMD GPU, or enable IGD on my motherboard. After enabling it, sleep and hibernate no longer functioned correctly, and shutdown would only work about 60% of the time. On top of that, Adobe CS6 programs freaked the hell out upon launch, stating my graphics card could not be found, or that drivers were not loaded.

Um, what? Sorry, if my GPU is missing, how am I reading this error message?

Point is, using both IGD and a GPU may or may not work on certain motherboards running certain Operating Systems. Windows 8 might do it, but I know that Windows 7 and 10 both struggle to even run a single GPU without weird driver glitches every time nVidia releases a new driver update. (I've actually found AMD to be much better on the driver front since releasing their new Crimson driver suite, even on older "discontinued" cards.)

Wow, ok. Maybe an older GPU would be worth a look. Although, Ryzen is just around the corner.. and I am planning to sell all the other parts and keep this APU & Motherboard, and re-use them as a more practical, word processing machine with some pretty decent graphical and CPU performance. Thanks for the advice!