Re-Format PC no longer detects Sound+Video cards

[TRUEFRUiT]

Hey just the other day I formatted my harddrive and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and all seemed fine, but then it started playing up and then it wouldn't start up. So I formatted the entire harddrive again and installed Windows again.

This time everything is fine except Windows will not detect my HD 4890 or my Xtreme Music cards. Some how the I can see the monitor with the DVI cable still plugged into the graphics card, the PC just doesn't know there's a graphics card plugged into a PCI-E slot. It also doesn't pick up the Sound card that's in a PCI slot.

I made sure both were plugged in nice and firm, I tried another format and install of Windows and still have this exact same problem. I tried updating the drivers for the Motherboard, I googled this and tried numerous ways to fix this and can not seem to find a way.

Any ideas?

[Scarface.au]

I know you said you downloaded the Motherboard drivers, but are there other chipset drivers that you need?

[TRUEFRUiT]

I went to the Gigabyte website, looked up my Motherboard, went to the drivers page and downloaded 3 sets of drivers for my Motherboard, the only other thing I could download was a Ethernet Diagnostic Utility.

[SaNE]

This time everything is fine except Windows will not detect my HD 4890 or my Xtreme Music cards.

Windows should have generic drivers for most things, your 4890 and sound card should work fine after you've installed the drivers for both and restarted the machine (they don't need prerequisite drivers to work).

What motherboard are you using?

[TRUEFRUiT]

Windows never detects the hardware so it never installs drivers for the 2 cards. They worked perfectly fine for years and literally 2 days ago before I re-formatted which created this problem. When I try to install the drivers for both cards the installer doesn't install them because Windows isn't even showing them as being connected to the computer. However they must be working how they are because the only way I can see what's on the monitor is because I have the DVI cable from the monitor plugged into my HD4890 still. There's no plug on the motherboard for a DVI plug.

Mobo is GA-EX58-UD4P
i7 CPU
6GB RAM
Radeon HD4890
Sound Blaster Xtreme Music

[Werewolph]

Just sounds like a pre-existing IRQ conflict. Turn off the computer, then at the back of the power supply flick the switch to "OFF" (or if no switch, just pull out the plug). Then hold the Power button on the computer in for 10 secs. Turn power back on (or plug in) and turn on the computer again. Doing this drains the PSU of all remaining power, thus forcing the motherboard to clear it's CMOS. When the power comes back, it gets all new IRQ information from the BIOS and should result in a working computer.

Not guaranteed to work, but it's the best thing I can think of at this time (6am)

[Auld]

Just sounds like a pre-existing IRQ conflict. Turn off the computer, then at the back of the power supply flick the switch to "OFF" (or if no switch, just pull out the plug). Then hold the Power button on the computer in for 10 secs. Turn power back on (or plug in) and turn on the computer again. Doing this drains the PSU of all remaining power, thus forcing the motherboard to clear it's CMOS. When the power comes back, it gets all new IRQ information from the BIOS and should result in a working computer.

Not guaranteed to work, but it's the best thing I can think of at this time (6am)

Pretty sure thats what the little battery on the mobo prevents, in fact pretty damn sure this is the case. Just boot into the BIOS and restore defaults.

Alternative is to follow the above steps but also press the CMOS reset button on the motherboard(newer ones have this) once the power is unplugged OR remove the battery on the mobo with the power unplugged.

[steve_rogers42]

Got any yellow triangles in device manager?

[Nekosan]

Your mobo doesnt need some weird nvidia chipset drivers or something does it? I know one of mine needs something weird like that and it confused the **** out of me because I dont have an Nvidia card

[Werewolph]

Just sounds like a pre-existing IRQ conflict. Turn off the computer, then at the back of the power supply flick the switch to "OFF" (or if no switch, just pull out the plug). Then hold the Power button on the computer in for 10 secs. Turn power back on (or plug in) and turn on the computer again. Doing this drains the PSU of all remaining power, thus forcing the motherboard to clear it's CMOS. When the power comes back, it gets all new IRQ information from the BIOS and should result in a working computer.

Not guaranteed to work, but it's the best thing I can think of at this time (6am)

Pretty sure thats what the little battery on the mobo prevents, in fact pretty damn sure this is the case. Just boot into the BIOS and restore defaults.

Alternative is to follow the above steps but also press the CMOS reset button on the motherboard(newer ones have this) once the power is unplugged OR remove the battery on the mobo with the power unplugged.

True, but I have discovered some motherboards which still haven't reset their IRQ profiles even after removing the battery or shorting the CMOS jumpers. Strange things, electronic components...

[TRUEFRUiT]

I tried turning the computer, disconnecting the PSU power and holding in the power button as well as pressing the Clear CMOS button and it didn't help. I've never had to install weird drivers for it, just the ones supplied by Gigabyte. Oh and no yellow triangles in Device Manager, the video card and sound card don't show up in Device Manager or Dxdiag at all.

[Auld]

I tried turning the computer, disconnecting the PSU power and holding in the power button as well as pressing the Clear CMOS button and it didn't help. I've never had to install weird drivers for it, just the ones supplied by Gigabyte. Oh and no yellow triangles in Device Manager, the video card and sound card don't show up in Device Manager or Dxdiag at all.

Try a BIOS update.

Also you might need to disable the onboard sound card in BIOS before Windows will use your other sound card.

[TRUEFRUiT]

I tried turning the computer, disconnecting the PSU power and holding in the power button as well as pressing the Clear CMOS button and it didn't help. I've never had to install weird drivers for it, just the ones supplied by Gigabyte. Oh and no yellow triangles in Device Manager, the video card and sound card don't show up in Device Manager or Dxdiag at all.

Try a BIOS update.

Also you might need to disable the onboard sound card in BIOS before Windows will use your other sound card.

I Q-Flash'd the BIOS with the latest version, restored optimized default values to the BIOS and disabled the onboard sound, still no luck.
I even disconnected the video and sound cards, booted windows then shutdown, put the cards back in and booted up and that didn't help either.

[TRUEFRUiT]

Do you think now that I have the BIOS up to the latest version another re-format could help? Or is this something I'll have to sort out in Windows? I'm dying to play some BF3 and atm all I can do is browse the internet. Could I have caused a hardware failure when I did the format?

[iNSOMNiS]

Hey just the other day I formatted my harddrive and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and all seemed fine, but then it started playing up and then it wouldn't start up. So I formatted the entire harddrive again and installed Windows again.

This time everything is fine except Windows will not detect my HD 4890 or my Xtreme Music cards. Some how the I can see the monitor with the DVI cable still plugged into the graphics card, the PC just doesn't know there's a graphics card plugged into a PCI-E slot. It also doesn't pick up the Sound card that's in a PCI slot.

I made sure both were plugged in nice and firm, I tried another format and install of Windows and still have this exact same problem. I tried updating the drivers for the Motherboard, I googled this and tried numerous ways to fix this and can not seem to find a way.

Any ideas?

Hey mate, I have the same sort of problem as you! My motherboard or Windows will not detect my Video card and will only run off on-board even though I have the monitor still plugged into my Video card. No one seems to be able to help us, I'm trying over on the Seven forums, should I try somewhere else?