[UPDATED] Hi, I'm stuck with a problem. I just added a HD 7790 to my media pc. Previously used onboard gfx. When I booted up, it stuck on "initializing usb controllers". The only usb device plugged in was the receiver for the wireless keyboard/mouse, so I removed that. Machine then booted, but Windows 8 reported an error (page fault in nonpage area), it would then restart, report another error (system thread exception), restart again and do an automatic repair, after which it loads a screen requesting keyboard information. Which of course I can't do as the keyboard is unplugged. These two errors apparently usually relate to faulty hardware and/or gfx drivers. If I unplug the pci e 6 power cable to the 7790 and go back to onboard gfx the problem goes. Update: tried removing 1 stick of ram, and it booted ok! BUT now my network card and the 7790 didn't appear in device manager! Swapped the ram sticks, and same problem. Put both back in, unplugged 7790 power cable and it still didnt detect network card. Had to actually remove 7790 from pci slot before it detected network card again. Update 2: switched out the PSU for another one, same problem. So its not RAM and its not PSU and BIOS is up to date. Could it be anything but mobo? System: Athlon 4850e; 4gb RAM; 1 HD, 1 SSD; 1 wifi network card. mobo is an Asus M3A78-VM btw. OSU is Corsair HX450w. From what I've read 450w should be enough for this build. BIOS is up to date.
yes you can use the win 7 version, relating to the power supply it should be enough, but it might be worth trying a higher rated one if you have access to one.
Thanks for info. Updated BIOS but no joy. Noticed that when I unplug after trying the card, I have to then restart twice before the problem rights itself - first time the problem repeats itself. Which is also weird. It has to be the PSU right? Or the motherboard?
After starting the machine with the keyboard usb unplugged, it restarts twice, with two errors. 'page fault' and a system thread exception. That can be caused by bad gfx drivers apparently. If it is then I dont understand what is causing the problem though - is it the onboard gfx driver, try to run the 7790??
Checked drivers - no joy: tried disabling the onboard driver in Windows and reinstalling the card, didnt change anything. Also tried disabling the onboard in BIOS, but that didnt seem to do anything. Is disabling gfx in BIOS the same as disabling it in device manager? Still no clue whats causing this!
Just to make sure, have you modified your page file in any way ? like removed it or made it very small? Did you install the drivers at any time, and if so which ones ? Can you boot into safe mode without problems with everything attached ? What you should do is boot your computer like you always did, if you still can, and perhaps use something like CCleaner to check to obsolete drivers and/or registry settings. Make sure your page file is either system managed or at least 1GB. Install the drivers for your card and then add it to the system. Make sure you are not overclocking when adding new parts. Check BIOS settings for gfx options and set them to boot on the new card. Report back if it works or not EDIT: Oh and have you scanned your system recently for malware with a decent scanner? EDIT2: Did you not google your crash messages ? A tip for the future, pay attention to ALL crash messages, specially BSOD, and google is your best tech friend.
Done nothing to my page file, didnt even know what it did before this! Drivers - you mean for gfx? Not installed 7790 drivers as havent managed a successful boot with. So only drivers are the 3200 onboard ones, which are newest (though pretty old, amd stopped doing updates for it ages ago). The time I removed RAM and got into Windows with the 7790 installed, the only graphics adaptor showing was Microsoft Basic Display - the card should be recognised even without a driver installed shouldnt it? Can't get into safe mode with card in - hangs before that. Can't access BIOS either. I did google crash messages - basically say it could be driver or RAM or OS, so not that helpful. Fact that I'm getting both one after another seems strange. Will try CCleaner & check page file & scan for malware & check drivers up to date. Question: re drivers - are you saying I should install the 7790 drivers before i put the card in?
Yeah... but if you can't even go past POST with everything connected its a moot point... There is something going on at hardware level. Any chance you could get your hands on another PCI-E card? Preferrably something similar but anything really should do. Might be your card is bad... and if you can test with something with similar power draw you could see if its mobo or card.
I don't think it can be the card as problems persist even after its removed. Like the disappearing network card (which never been a problem before btw) - that was invisible even after I removed the 7790. Had to do 2 restarts before it reappeared. And how could a card issue result in the boot sticking at initialising usb controller?
Ok... I think the culprit is pretty clear. The missing network card thing was continuing, even without the graphics card. I'd move it to a previously unused slot so the gfx could fit. It seems this slot is faulty (though at the start of the problems I'm pretty sure it was working in this slot...!). If I remove the gfx card and place the network card back in its old slot its fine again. ALSO, played around with the RAM a bit more. 2 2gb sticks, not a matched pair but same specs (bear in mind they work fine without 7790 in). With the gfx card installed, the following happens: * If both are in their respective slot, I get the usb controller hang. * If I only have one stick in the first slot, it loads ok with the gfx card but the network card pci slot still faulty (though in device manager the 7790 doesnt appear, just microsoft basic driver - not sure if this should be the case even without 7790 driver installed?) * If I only have one stick in the second slot, it gets through boot ok, but then when the windows logo should appear the screen just stays black. This happens regardless of which stick in which slot, so its not the RAM itself. SO, it seems at this point I have one faulty PCI slot, and one faulty RAM slot. The RAM fault only emerges when the pci e slot is in use. I think it has to be the mobo, maybe a fault in the connection between the north and southbridges?
