Slow boot ATI card

[barend]

Recently bought an HD5450 based gfx card, since then my PC's POST starts after 1 minute delay.
Nothing happens at all until after 30-60 secs the optical drive blinks and moans and the POST screen appears.
And sometimes even this doesn't happen, and a few more reboots are needed.

Motherboard is Asus P5Q3 DeLuxe, o/s Windows 7 32 bits, it has the Intel chipset.
Have the latest BIOS (2105), also tried an older one (1901).
Also tried several Catalyst drivers: 10.5 - 10.8 - 10.9, althoug AFAIK these only "do something" in W7 environment (?).
BIOS startup FD, DVD, HD.
Tried my 4.2 GHz overclock settings and the factory settings, no difference.
Temps are safe enough.
Processor Core2duo C8400.

There's no problem once W7 starts up.

Strange enough when I go back to my old card (HD4550 based) the problem now persists (wasn't there before).

[Major_A]

Same here, boot to POST times and the HD5450. Doesn't do this with the onboard graphics enabled. Just chalked it up to the card. It's aggravating but I haven't been able to fix it.

[barend]

I wonder if other boards like the HD5770 may also show this behavior?
I am also thinking of exchanging it for a nvidia.
I know this is the ati thread, but can anyone give me a hint on a not-too-expensive Nvidia card, "medium fast" and reasonably quiet?

[Major_A]

What do you want the card for? Gaming? At what resolution? It doesn't have DirectX 11 but I saw Newgg had a 9800GT a few weeks back for $75.

[barend]

Thanks!
No gaming, just a good pic and fast enough video to do video editing (hobby, not professional).
Yes, I had my eyes on a 9800 card, but I like my PC to stay reasonably quiet, some solution like IceQ would be nice (but these come only in ati), or even passive...
In fact, the 5450 is fast enough, were it not that...

[barend]

No replies...

Anyway, how big is the risk of encountering the same issue when I replace for an HD5750 or 5770 card?

[Major_A]

No idea. If you aren't gaming and the HD5450 is doing you right just keep it. I can handle a little longer boot times if the other performance doesn't suffer.

[skier]

No replies...

Anyway, how big is the risk of encountering the same issue when I replace for an HD5750 or 5770 card?

i've never experienced the problem with a 5670,5750,5770 or GTX 460, though my GT200 cards (GT 240 GTS 250 GTX 260) have their own boot sequence before POST which adds a few seconds

[Major_A]

i've never experienced the problem with a 5670,5750,5770 or GTX 460, though my GT200 cards (GT 240 GTS 250 GTX 260) have their own boot sequence before POST which adds a few seconds

I'll find my digital camera and shoot a small video of what he's talking about. I'll have to upload it to my Hotfile account since I don't have a Youtube account.

[Poore]

I had the exact issue with 2 ATI cards but with the Nvidia card the PC posted as expected. I was able to resolve the issue by flashing the BIOS to the current version.

Here is what I found on the Asus site:
P5N32-E SLI BIOS 1903
Fix it takes long time to screen show with certain AMD graphic card when booting up the system.

I'm sure other manufacturers have the same issue. Worth investigating.

[Major_A]

Thanks for the reply. I know I have the latest firmware for my PC, I can't speak for barend though.