Black screen after update bios b660 tomahawk ddr4 wifi

F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
Hello,

I just updated the bios of my MAG B660 TomaHawk WIFI DDR4 with the latest bios update available on msi website and now I got a black screen.
Everything went smoothly and at the end of the update my computer restarted but since then I’ve got a black screen.
I tried to remove the motherboard battery for like 10 minutes, I also tried the JBAT1 jumper but nothing is working.

Any help?
Thanks
 
citay

citay

Pro
SERGEANT
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,832
This is the common behaviour with the latest BIOS - which pairs pure UEFI mode with Secure Boot - when your graphics card is too old and doesn't have a so-called GOP. A lot of older graphics cards don't have a GOP and properly signed firmware, which causes problems with the BIOS in pure UEFI mode (which is enforced due to Secure Boot being enabled by default now). See my post here and follow the links.

You can have several problems when trying to use an older graphics card with this newest BIOS that has Secure Boot enabled. The most common one being a blank screen when you are trying to enter the BIOS, and/or a blank screen until Windows is loaded, or not even getting a picture at all.

To fix this, you basically have the following options:

1) Only on boards with the Flash BIOS Button: Downgrade to the BIOS version before this one using the Flash BIOS Button method. But your board doesn't have this feature.

2) Update the graphics card's BIOS/firmware with one that has a GOP. This works like so on AMD, quite complicated. With not too old NVIDIA cards, they supply a convenient firmware updater.

3) Borrow/use a graphics card from 2019 or newer, which pretty much guarantees that it plays nice with the new BIOS. Then enter the BIOS, disable Secure Boot, and try again with your old card.
If that fails, then still with that newer card, downgrade the BIOS to the one before this version, and your old card should work again too.

4) Outright buy a new graphics card. Again, a card from 2019 or newer will almost ensure that it won't make any problems with the environment that the newest BIOS creates.
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
citay said:
This is the common behaviour with the latest BIOS - which pairs pure UEFI mode with Secure Boot - when your graphics card is too old and doesn't have a so-called GOP. A lot of older graphics cards don't have a GOP and properly signed firmware, which causes problems with the BIOS in pure UEFI mode (which is enforced due to Secure Boot being enabled by default now). See my post here and follow the links.

You can have several problems when trying to use an older graphics card with this newest BIOS that has Secure Boot enabled. The most common one being a blank screen when you are trying to enter the BIOS, and/or a blank screen until Windows is loaded, or not even getting a picture at all.

To fix this, you basically have the following options:

1) Update the graphics card's BIOS/firmware with one that has a GOP. This works like so on AMD, quite complicated. With not too old NVIDIA cards, they supply a convenient firmware updater.

2) Borrow/use a graphics card from 2019 or newer, which pretty much guarantees that it plays nice with the new BIOS. Then enter the BIOS, disable Secure Boot, and try again with your old card.
If that fails, then still with that newer card, downgrade the BIOS to the one before this version, and your old card should work again too.

3) Outright buy a new graphics card, again, 2019 or newer will almost ensure that it won't make any problems with the environment that the newest BIOS creates.
Click to expand...
F* me lol I got a GTX660 that would explain why it’s not booting.

Long story short I bought an RTX3070 and I got a black screen so I decided to update my bios and then I realised that the VGA led on my motherboard was on so I think my new card is faulty. Now I’m trap with my old GTX660 and can’t even use my pc anymore…

I don’t think I’m booting on windows, I only get a black screen. Anyway thank you for your reply I think you found the issue…
 
citay

citay

Pro
SERGEANT
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,832
You're welcome. Sadly, GTX 660 is too old for the NVIDIA firmware updater. So yes, your 3070 might be faulty in some way, and the old GTX 660 won't help you with this newest BIOS version.

Is your PSU good/powerful enough for the 3070, what's the model?
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
Be quiet l8 pure power 630w bronze plus. And I got a 3070FE with an Intel i5 12400F so it should be fine even though it’s the minimum
 
citay

citay

Pro
SERGEANT
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,832
That might be part of the problem with the 3070. That Pure Power L8-CM 630W came out in 2011 with three years of warranty. It was a decent model, but if you bought it anywhere around that time, then it might not be adequate anymore by now. The electrolytic capacitors slowly lose their properties with age, which might already cause weird problems. So it might be good to test with a different, either known good and not too old, or new PSU with the 3070. You can read my Guide: How to find a good PSU. Or test the 3070 in a different PC to get a second opinion before returning it.
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
I bought it in 2014 and I don’t have any other computer to try it sadly.
I tried to unplug everything except my GPU and CPU but no luck. Don’t you think it can be a faulty card with the VGA led being on?
 
citay

citay

Pro
SERGEANT
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,832
Yes, it can be a faulty card too. But it could also be that the graphics card doesn't "like" the quality of the power it gets over the 8-pin PCIe, thus it refuses to turn on properly and the board only sees a graphics card which doesn't work for some reason. So the EZ Debug LEDs on the board give valuable hints, but you have to know how to interpret them sometimes.

Not saying the PSU is definitely causing that VGA LED problem, but it's a possibility that i would explore first, before returning the card and perhaps finding out that it wasn't even the problem.

Eight years for a three-year-warranty PSU is definitely getting up there. Not having full confidence in that PSU anymore, also depending on how much hours it clocked, of course.
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
citay said:
Yes, it can be a faulty card too. But it could also be that the graphics card doesn't "like" the quality of the power it gets over the 8-pin PCIe, thus it refuses to turn on properly and the board only sees a graphics card which doesn't work for some reason. So the EZ Debug LEDs on the board give valuable hints, but you have to know how to interpret them sometimes.

Not saying the PSU is definitely causing that VGA LED problem, but it's a possibility that i would explore first, before returning the card and perhaps finding out that it wasn't even the problem.
Click to expand...
Hmm I see, makes sense. I was also wondering if my PSU was too « weak » but since I saw the led I was like ok maybe it’s the card.

Problem is I already called the vendor and they accepted that I return it so I’ll probably send it back (it’s free) and they will have good PSU to try it I guess.
 
citay

citay

Pro
SERGEANT
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,832
You don't have a chance of trying it in a friend's PC or something first? Let's hope they don't put it onto the pile of electronics waste right away then, haha...

Anyway, when you get your second card and still get the VGA LED, you know what you need to do next.
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
Haha I hope the second card will work though!
I’m actually looking at your thread and I might order the be quiet pure power 750w
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
citay said:
You don't have a chance of trying it in a friend's PC or something first? Let's hope they don't put it onto the pile of electronics waste right away then, haha...

Anyway, when you get your second card and still get the VGA LED, you know what you need to do next.
Click to expand...
Little update, I tried to plug my old motherboard which got a cpu with an onboard graphics integrated and I plugged the RTX. In windows my RTX doesn’t appear inside the device manager.
Do you think it’s because it’s faulty or still the PSU can cause that issue?
 
citay

citay

Pro
SERGEANT
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,832
It can still be the PSU. The Pure Power L8-CM 630W has two seperate 12V rails, 12V1 is for the 24-pin ATX plug and 8-pin EPS12V CPU power plug, while 12V2 is for PCIe power and the drives.
It's possible that the voltage on the first rail is high enough (or the voltage ripple is low enough) for the board to work fine, but the graphics card on the second rail is not satisfied with that.
So far it is just speculation, but it wouldn't be the first time that a PSU causes weird problems.

The only way to know for sure is to test the 3070 in a different PC, or to use a different PSU (known good and recent enough, or new) in your PC.
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
Ok thanks for your time and all your help.
I’ll just send back the card and see what happens with the new one.
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
After some research I saw that MSI used to give custom VBIOS to flash old graphic cards in order to add the GOP / UEFI capability.
Apparently now they don’t do that anymore and on a pinned message they said that you have to contact MSI support directly in order to get a new bios. So I contacted the support and they told me that it was very unlikely that the problem was related to GOP. If my card worked before it should work with the new bios and anyway my card is too old to get a new bios.

I don’t know if the support is becoming lazy but I managed to flash my old GTX by myself (it took me literally 5 min to do it) and now my pc is working fine again.
 
F

fgh.jer159b02e2

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2022
Messages
12
Damn you should have shown me this before haha. I spent quite some times to find this but after that it’s pretty simple yes.
 
Top