Gateway DX4870 + GeForce GTX 650 = startup anamoly. Can anyone help?

[Roland]

So while me and my g/f were playing ff14: ARR, she was having slowdowns and such. So I decide to upgrade my vid card from the geforce gt 640 to the GTX 650 and give her the 640.
The GT 640 is working fine for her, but I am having troubles with the 650.

At first it just hung at my Gateway BIOS screen for a few minutes. I hear post beeps, singular and very spaced out. (maybe 30 seconds between, maybe more) Eventually the vid card post info appears. What happens next has varied.
First time it just sat at a black screen. So naturally I restart and tried to go into bios settings.
This is where I learned I can't do anything in the bios with the vid card in. Mashing the delete key it will say entering setup, but then eventually goes to the vid card post and back to the black screen.

So I pull the card out, hook up the onbaord video, and after some googling via my tablet, I went into the bios seeking the "secure boot" option and the "launch cfm" option. I found neither in my bios. So I think "maybe disabling quiet boot will also disable secure boot"

This is saved and then I get the good ol' American Megatrends BIOS screen. it displays info and all looks good, so I kill the power before it actually starts starting up and pop the 650 back in. On the next startup attempt I get the American Megatrends logo, but this is all I get. No info, no prompts, nothing. After it does the very spaced out 3 post beeps, I get the Vid card post screen for a few secs and then it starts Windows.

Some quick additional info I should probably mention:
During the bios screens, with the 650 hooked up it only displays on my TV, once it gets to the vid card post it only displays on my monitor. (until windows starts then it adjusts for my multimonitor setup)
Also, when the bios appears to be hanging with the 650 in I cannot enter setup or select boot devices.

My roommate suggested that perhaps the motherboard doesn't support PCIe 3.0 at first, but I am using it as I type this, I would think if the mobo didn't support PCIe 3.0 it wouldn't work at all.

I tried looking up the mobo specs but I can't find any info on what the PCIe slot is. (this is what I get for being lazy and buying a manufactured one this time, rather than building one)

I'm asking here, really because I don't know where else to ask. I'm not normally the guy who needs help, so much as I normally give the help. But we all need help sometimes I guess...

So if anyone has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or help would be GREATLY appreciated.

I gotta decide if this is fixable or if I should return the card and just buy my g/f the same card I already had.

UPDATE:
I just timed the start up. From the moment I press the power button to the moment I see the "Starting Windows" screen 1 minute and 50 seconds passes.
I also timed the time between post beeps, which was 30 seconds apart.

UPDATE 2:
Adding BIOS settings:


Advanced> Miscellaneous
AHCI port 0-5
Bootup num lock [on]
USB beep message [disabled]

Advanced> Advanced Chipset Configuration
Intel EIST [Disabled] (This seem to make no difference on or off)
Intel XD Bit [Disabled] (again no apparent difference)
Intel VT [Enabled]
Video Memory Size [128 MB]
DVMT Mode [DVMT] (This appears to be unchangeable)

Advanced> Integrated Peripherals
Onboard SATA Controller [Enabled]
Onboard SATA Mode [AHCI]
Onboard USB Controller [Enabled]
Legacy USB Support [Enabled]
USB Storage Emulation [Auto]
Onboard Audio Controller [Enabled]
Onboard LAN Controller [Enabled]
Onboard LAN Option ROM [Disabled]

Advanced> PC Health Status
Smat Fan [Enabled]

Power>
ACPI Suspend Mode [S3(STR)] (unchangeable)
Deep Power Off Mode [Enabled]
Power On by RTC Alarm [Disabled]
Power on by PCIE Devices [Disabled]
Power On by Onboard LAN [Disabled]
Wake up by PS/2 KB/Mouse [Enabled]
Wake up by USB KB/Mouse [Enabled]
Restore on AC Power Loss [OFF]

Security>
Change Supervisor Password

Boot Options>
Boot Priority order device 1-5
EFI Device Priority
Hard Disk Drive Priority
Optical Disk Drive Priority
Removable Device Priority
Network Device Priority

Quiet Boot [Disabled]
Halt On [All, but Keyboard] (Changing this to All Errors, or No Errors, seems to make no difference)

[Roland]

Originally posted by UberFiend:

There's a setting in BIOS where you can set AGP or PCI-e as your primary slot, is that set to PCI-e?

I'd presume so. I mean I'm using the machine right now and the vid card is working fine, so I'd assume that it is set to PCI-E. ( I can't verify the bios settings without disassembiling the machine, which I cannot do at this moment. Can't access the bios with the vid card in. )

[Roland]

Originally posted by UberFiend:

It will work either way but it will attempt to find a component in whichever is selected first & then try to get a signal from the other & hence cause delay if PCI-e is secondary.

Try uninstalling ALL graphic drivers, use ccleaner to make sure th registry is swept clean of loose ends also.

Have the 650 in with the case open, shutdown & pull the power cord, then switch on & switch off (drains any residual capacitance), and remove the battery from the motherboard.

Wait a moment then reinsert battery, reconnect power cord & boot up. If windows auto-detect tries to install a driver cancel it & install the latest nVidia driver.

Reboot, see how it goes.

Already did all of that except the drivers part. Seeing as how the issue occurs before the hard disk is ever initialized, I don't think cleaning out the drivers would do any good.
Now that my girlfriend is awake though I can now disassemble and check the bios settings. I'll report back shortly.

[Roland]

Ok I checked my BIOS settings and an option between AGP & PCI-E does not exist. To avoid having to repeatedly take this thing apart just to check the BIOS for options, I have typed up every BIOS setting and it's current settings:


Advanced> Miscellaneous
AHCI port 0-5
Bootup num lock [on]
USB beep message [disabled]

Advanced> Advanced Chipset Configuration
Intel EIST [Disabled] (This seem to make no difference on or off)
Intel XD Bit [Disabled] (again no apparent difference)
Intel VT [Enabled]
Video Memory Size [128 MB]
DVMT Mode [DVMT] (This appears to be unchangeable)

Advanced> Integrated Peripherals
Onboard SATA Controller [Enabled]
Onboard SATA Mode [AHCI]
Onboard USB Controller [Enabled]
Legacy USB Support [Enabled]
USB Storage Emulation [Auto]
Onboard Audio Controller [Enabled]
Onboard LAN Controller [Enabled]
Onboard LAN Option ROM [Disabled]

Advanced> PC Health Status
Smat Fan [Enabled]

Power>
ACPI Suspend Mode [S3(STR)] (unchangeable)
Deep Power Off Mode [Enabled]
Power On by RTC Alarm [Disabled]
Power on by PCIE Devices [Disabled]
Power On by Onboard LAN [Disabled]
Wake up by PS/2 KB/Mouse [Enabled]
Wake up by USB KB/Mouse [Enabled]
Restore on AC Power Loss [OFF]

Security>
Change Supervisor Password

Boot Options>
Boot Priority order device 1-5
EFI Device Priority
Hard Disk Drive Priority
Optical Disk Drive Priority
Removable Device Priority
Network Device Priority

Quiet Boot [Disabled]
Halt On [All, but Keyboard] (Changing this to All Errors, or No Errors, seems to make no difference)

[Roland]

Originally posted by UberFiend:

Originally posted by Roland:

Try uninstalling ALL graphic drivers, use ccleaner to make sure the registry is swept clean of loose ends also.

Already did all of that except the drivers part. I don't think cleaning out the drivers would do any good.

Shame.

Gateway also likely has featureless mobo & restricted BIOS.

Speaking of which have you checked Gateway's site for a newer BIOS?

I can't see anything that stands out in your settings list. Still musing on it.
(apart from maybe AHCI should be IDE)

Uncertain what VT or DVMT is.

Video Memory size can be at the smallest setting, or Off if available. (shares RAM for mobo display which is unnecessary with card with own vram. [/quote]
DVMT I have no clue on. VT is the virtualization tech. (incase I decide I need a VM or something)
And I can confirm the vid memory size makes no difference if I am using a card rather than the onboard. It does not appear to take any of my RAM away. (also it has no off, i get 128 or 64)

[✪๖ۣۜnotNoxx✪]

Hi, I know this post may be old but I have the same computer and motherboard and tried everything I could find on the internet on how to get this card to stop hanging at the bios. Not sure if anyone will find this useful still but I wish I would have known..after turning off quiet boot and swapping the hard disk and efi thing on the boot priority...it finally worked. Wish it would have just plug and played.