Is my card dead?

[iamedman]

Hi all,

 

TL;DR: Started to crash system now no signal, fans not spinning

 

Here are my system specs:

Intel 4770k

Asus Sabertooth Z87

16GB RAM

Sapphire HD 7870 OC

Corsair RM 850

Samsung Evo 840 128gb SSD

Seagate 500GB HDD

 

Since I built my system about a year and a half ago, it ran flawlessly without any problems being used everyday. The HD 7870 is from an older build and has been in my possession for about 2 and a half years. I use my system for work (data analysis and database stuff) and gaming.

 

So I went on a trip for about a month and left my computer off (this is the longest it has ever been off). When I got back on the 28th of July, I started using my computer as normal. Everything seemed fine until I tried playing a game, specifically Starcraft II. In the middle of the game, my monitors went black from no signal being present. The music continued to play in the background but nothing else happened if I moved my mouse around. I know I couldn't see it but I couldn't hear it interacting with anything in the game from random clicks and movements. I tried alt-tabbing and Windows key + D and nothing happened ( I have set the game to not play sound in the background). So when it happened, I thought of it as a one time fluke and had to hold the power button down to reset. After that everything seemed normal. The next day, it happened while watching a youtube video, the sound continued to play and I tried to click randomly on the left portion of my screen to pause to video to see if there was any response and nothing happened. Again, I had to hold the power button down to reset. I tried doing some googling and I assumed it to be a video driver issue. So I did uninstalled of the drivers and reinstalled it. 

 

I did not get to test it much because of my windows 10 upgrade. There were no hiccups in the installation process. After everything was finished and I looked at different things in Windows 10 and reinstalled all of my programs and games, I tried to play Starcraft II again, but this time I set the game to be in windowed mode instead of full screen. In the middle of a game, my monitors went black but came on again and I got a notification that the AMD driver crashed but recovered. So I thought it had to be the drivers. Now, I did a clean uninstall using the DDU utility and reinstalled. I now tried a different game, World of Warcraft, and there were no issues at all, full screen or windowed. I thought everything was fine, so I tried to play the finicky Starcraft II once more. This time the same thing happened again. However, after the hard reset, nothing displayed at all on my monitors, I could hear the computer post but nothing was displaying, going to the bios did not work either. So now I panic. I look inside my computer (it's a clear side panel) and I notice the gpu fans are not spinning at all. I did not think to physically look at the card till now, so I have no idea if the fans ever worked since I've been back. Whenever I look at temps (when I reconfigure fans usually) I used AI Suite from Asus. Since I wasn't doing anything else, I didn't bother to check them since I didn't see the need to at the time. I couldn't notice any temperature increase since the case is near where I sit. I took out the card and tried to use the motherboard's video output, everything worked as normal.  I don't have access to another system immediately where I can swap the cards and try to see if the issue is something besides the graphics card, such as the pci-e slots on the motherboard or just the power supply connectors to the gpu. In about a week I would be able to try it out.

 

I was gone again this weekend and when I returned, I tried to use the card once more, hoping the GPU fairy might have sprinkled something on it but it was no use and the card still did not work.

 

Before I left, I made a post a few days ago saying how it my card is dead and asking for recommendations on a new one (I'm deciding between sli 970s or a 980) but I wouldn't be able to make that purchase for another month and if I can do something to allow me to play my games sooner, I would prefer it haha.

 

Any ideas? Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post!

[Aytex]

tl:dr get the 980 ti not the dual 970's

[Guest]

It might be, as its so old.

 

You can go to whatever store and buy the cheapest gpu they have to test the psu connector and pcie slot.

Or you can dismantle the gpu and reapply the thermal paste and clear out and dust stuck inside and see if it will work then.

 

Also that psu aint the best, i would do some tests on it before i would put in a new expensive gpu.

[salecar3]

You need new hardware(gpu) for woin 10 to work flawlessly, also that gpu is deas since it is not alive, get single 390 to replace that gpu

[iamedman]

What do you recommend in order to test out the psu?

[Guest]

What do you recommend in order to test out the psu?

Well

 

I would suggest you do that outside of your main rig as if the psu fails the test it might fry everything...

 

Stick with trying out the simple stuff first

[iamedman]

Well

 

I would suggest you do that outside of your main rig as if the psu fails the test it might fry everything...

 

Stick with trying out the simple stuff first

 

Any methods?

[Guest]

Any methods?

Trying the psu? Well, move it into older and more power hungry system and put an old gtx 480 in their and run some benchmarks.

 

I would suggest you keep the fire extinguisher close to you...

[Guest]

Any methods?

Or even better start with testing everything else and if it still doesnt work just buy a new psu

 

PSU Whitelist: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/404921-strmfrmxmns-psu-whitelist/

[iamedman]

Or even better start with testing everything else and if it still doesnt work just buy a new psu

 

PSU Whitelist: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/404921-strmfrmxmns-psu-whitelist/

Thank you! I'll definitely test things out later this week. I'll post back here to say how things went. That list is very handy btw!

[-rascal-]

1. Check your monitor-to-GPU cable connection. Make sure it is not damaged or loose.

While you are doing step one, check the output port on the GPU for any signs of damage.

Run something like GPU-Z, or HWMonitor to check the GPU's temperature. It may be due time for dust cleaning. GPU-Z should have a temperature reading for GPU, and for the VRMs.

Since you mentioned using Windows 10, do you have the latest Catalyst Drivers for Windows 10? It should be Driver version 15.7.1. I posted a thread with a bit of information regarding to these drivers. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/421168-amd-catalyst-1571-drivers/