No signal, no picture....scared....

[Jared O]

I’m going to start this with what might have happened - had my new psu connected by someone else, and the way it was set up from before, there was no choice but to use just one of the old cables, but it was just for the case lights.

 

If that’s not the problem, I don’t know what’s going on, because I’m not getting any picture whatsoever, but the system itself turns on completely and the fans/lights are running and everything.

 

I’ve tried reconnecting the DisplayPort cable, turning the monitor off and back on, etc - my PC was working just fine the past couple weeks.

 

Is that a bad sign? I’m convinced some $$ needs to go to a repair again.....

[Jared O]

Upon further inspection, it appears that my gpu is malfunctioning for some reason, because that’s the one thing in my system that isn’t working or lighting up, as far as I can tell

 

I really hope it isn’t fried somehow.....

[-rascal-]

What PSU did you have BEFORE, and what is the NEW PSU?

Usually, mixing modular PSU cables is a BAD idea, as the pin-outs vary from brand to brand, or EVEN one model to the other.

 

Double check to make sure the GPU is properly seated into the PCI-E X16 slot, and make sure all the PCI-E 6 / 8 pin power cables are connected.

Those PCI-E cables are required, NOT optional.

Some GPUs won't even work, or system wont POST, if the cables are not connected.

[Jared O]

2 hours ago, -rascal- said:

What PSU did you have BEFORE, and what is the NEW PSU?

Usually, mixing modular PSU cables is a BAD idea, as the pin-outs vary from brand to brand, or EVEN one model to the other.

 

Double check to make sure the GPU is properly seated into the PCI-E X16 slot, and make sure all the PCI-E 6 / 8 pin power cables are connected.

Those PCI-E cables are required, NOT optional.

Some GPUs won't even work, or system wont POST, if the cables are not connected.

I’m now at work so I will check the connections when I get back home - the weird thing is though....the gpu booted for a split second and then shut off again after making this topic, so I seriously hope that means there’s just a loose connection somewhere but I doubt it....because everything was working fine for like 2 weeks before this randomly happened. Also, I know it’s a bad idea to use old cables, but I even gave the technician all of my new cables and he confirmed that for some reason, it just didn’t come with the right replacement cable for the old one that’s still in there. I had no choice but to go with one singular old one, which appears to be the cord that just simply powers the case lights. I wouldn’t think that would be the issue anyways since it’s not a gpu cable, right?

 

My old PSU was a Thermaltake 1200W RGB, and now I have a 1050W Gamemax RGB Gold

[Jared O]

I hope my 2080 Ti isn’t dead. x.x

[-rascal-]

3 minutes ago, Jared O said:

My old PSU was a Thermaltake 1200W RGB, and now I have a 1050W Gamemax RGB Gold

 

Ahhh...that is not good...

 

Just now, Jared O said:

Oh no....I think I know what the problem is......I don’t think the PCIE cables were replaced all the way up to the GPU......I might have killed my 2080 ti.....

 

Well pry the OCP or built-in protections in the PSU kicked in.

 

The pin-outs on the components side conform to ATX standards.

However, on the PSU side, it can vary from one brand / manufacturer to the other.

Say...Thermaltake can have Pin #3 on the PCI-E connector as +12v, while Pin #3 can be GND on the Gamemax.

Shorting Power to Ground...is not good. 

[Jared O]

1 hour ago, -rascal- said:

 

Ahhh...that is not good...

 

 

Well pry the OCP or built-in protections in the PSU kicked in.

 

The pin-outs on the components side conform to ATX standards.

However, on the PSU side, it can vary from one brand / manufacturer to the other.

Say...Thermaltake can have Pin #3 on the PCI-E connector as +12v, while Pin #3 can be GND on the Gamemax.

Shorting Power to Ground...is not good. 

I edited my previous post because I remembered that the cords going directly into the gpu are generic white-colored ones that should be able to connect to anything, given the fact that they came with an rgb accessory that were also separate from my previous PSU. And they worked fine on that one.

 

Do you still think that the other single old psu cable that I’m using is somehow the culprit even though that one has nothing to do with and is not plugged into the gpu whatsoever?

[-rascal-]

2 hours ago, Jared O said:

I edited my previous post because I remembered that the cords going directly into the gpu are generic white-colored ones that should be able to connect to anything, given the fact that they came with an rgb accessory that were also separate from my previous PSU. And they worked fine on that one.

 

Do you still think that the other single old psu cable that I’m using is somehow the culprit even though that one has nothing to do with and is not plugged into the gpu whatsoever?

 

I saw your updated post.

 

If you reused the cables that goes from the PSU to the GPU, then that is a problem.

I am referring to the modular cables (if applicable) that came included with the PSU.

Those cannot / should not be re-used.

 

The "white-coloured" cables you are referring to should be the cable EXTENSIONS the connects to the end of the PSU cables.

Those are fine, as they are ATX compliant.

 

Do you have the system in your possession right now?

Can you take a few pictures of how it is all set-up right now?

A picture is worth a million words  

[Jared O]

1 hour ago, -rascal- said:

 

I saw your updated post.

 

If you reused the cables that goes from the PSU to the GPU, then that is a problem.

I am referring to the modular cables (if applicable) that came included with the PSU.

Those cannot / should not be re-used.

 

The "white-coloured" cables you are referring to should be the cable EXTENSIONS the connects to the end of the PSU cables.

Those are fine, as they are ATX compliant.

 

Do you have the system in your possession right now?

Can you take a few pictures of how it is all set-up right now?

A picture is worth a million words  

I’m still at work but I’ll be home in an hour ish, and yeah, I’m talking about the extensions, so I should be fine since I did not reuse any cable besides the one that I have confirmed is only for the case lights. Everything else (CPU, GPU, etc) is replaced with the cord that came with the new PSU

[Mark Kaine]

And this is why modular PSUs are a bad idea... of course the other problem is PSU cables are usually way too long, it wouldn't be possible to fit a fully none modular PSU in my case for example - unless you put half of the cables in the from part of the case lol ... (but this is only an issue because PSU manufacturers refuse to make PSUs with shorter cables) 

 

Anyway, this is confusing, are you 100% sure the GPU power cables are the new ones now, I suppose you still have the old ones too? Just asking because often cables are very different between PSUs (sleeved, flat, etc...) so it can be relatively easily determined. 

 

And yes, I do remember your old thread about the same issue... man, what happened...? it almost sounds like something might have fried eventually... I just hope the GPU cables were really the *new* ones then there might be a chance the GPU survived hopefully. 

 

 

 

 

[Jared O]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

And this is why modular PSUs are a bad idea... of course the other problem is PSU cables are usually way too long, it wouldn't be possible to fit a fully none modular PSU in my case for example - unless you put half of the cables in the from part of the case lol ... (but this is only an issue because PSU manufacturers refuse to make PSUs with shorter cables) 

 

Anyway, this is confusing, are you 100% sure the GPU power cables are the new ones now, I suppose you still have the old ones too? Just asking because often cables are very different between PSUs (sleeved, flat, etc...) so it can be relatively easily determined. 

 

And yes, I do remember your old thread about the same issue... man, what happened...? it almost sounds like something might have fried eventually... I just hope the GPU cables were really the *new* ones then there might be a chance the GPU survived hopefully. 

 

 

 

 

Yep - 100% the new ones because I myself was the one to replace everything. I left that part out, my bad. The only reason I had someone else finish it was because I got stuck and confused on what to do with that final cable (which came directly after the first topic you’re remembering - after being directed to replace the cables even when I got everything running fine with the old ones) that not even the technician could replace with what I was given out of what cables came with the new PSU. So that’s the whole story that played out pretty much.

 

Other than that though, I had every other cable completely replaced myself

 

Everything came back fine from the technician - it worked for about 2 weeks until this happened. 

[Mark Kaine]

26 minutes ago, Jared O said:

Yep - 100% the new ones because I myself was the one to replace everything. I left that part out, my bad. The only reason I had someone else finish it was because I got stuck and confused on what to do with that final cable (which was what brought on the first topic you’re remembering) that not even the technician could replace with what I was given out of what cables came with the new PSU.

 

Other than that though, I had every other cable completely replaced myself

 

Everything came back fine from the technician - it worked for about 2 weeks until this happened. 

Hmm, alright then we probably should concentrate on that cable for now... it's for the "case lighting" aka led strips I suppose? 

 

where did the cable originally come from, your old PSU or the led strips (or whatever else would be possible)? 

 

And yeah, post a picture of that cable anyway, and where it was attached to, if you can? 

[Jared O]

24 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Hmm, alright then we probably should concentrate on that cable for now... it's for the "case lighting" aka led strips I suppose? 

 

where did the cable originally come from, your old PSU or the led strips (or whatever else would be possible)? 

 

And yeah, post a picture of that cable anyway, and where it was attached to, if you can? 

Well, to be more specific, the fan light rings around my fans, but okay, I’ll take a pic

 

I’m sure the cable does more than just that though actually, because both that and the picture that shows on the monitor itself seems to be affected by this cable somehow, as I wasn’t getting any picture output either by not having this specific cable hooked up right

 

...So maybe I am screwed

[Mark Kaine]

4 minutes ago, Jared O said:

Well, to be more specific, the fan light rings around my fans, but okay, I’ll take a pic

Alright, yeah, we really need a pic, and also where it was / is attached on both ends (ie psu and motherboard I suppose) 

 

4 minutes ago, Jared O said:

..So maybe I am screwed

well, let's hope not... I'm not sure but this cable shouldn't be able to fry the GPU I think... but maybe (and only maybe) something on the motherboard, who knows - we first need to determine what cable exactly it is etc.

[Jared O]

11 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Alright, yeah, we really need a pic, and also where it was / is attached on both ends (ie psu and motherboard I suppose) 

 

well, let's hope not... I'm not sure but this cable shouldn't be able to fry the GPU I think... but maybe (and only maybe) something on the motherboard, who knows - we first need to determine what cable exactly it is etc.

 

[Jared O]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

Alright, yeah, we really need a pic, and also where it was / is attached on both ends (ie psu and motherboard I suppose) 

 

well, let's hope not... I'm not sure but this cable shouldn't be able to fry the GPU I think... but maybe (and only maybe) something on the motherboard, who knows - we first need to determine what cable exactly it is etc.

After using some compressed air and reseating my gpu, I now get zero power at all. Nothing. Like what happened that led to this entire nightmare, when my PSU died in a power surge. (Maybe that’s what happened again and this good new surge protector that I bought didn’t work.....? -_-)

I spent nearly $600 in the quest to get this thing working again only to maybe have to spend that again?! ...or more if my gpu is gone now too.

 

if that’s not what happened, how tf did I do so much damage to where I don’t even get any power to anything now, when I was even /gently/ pulling out that one cord for the photo? I didn’t unplug anything in the slightest besides my gpu.

 

Back to the shop, I guess.....

[Mark Kaine]

57 minutes ago, Jared O said:

 

 

6 minutes ago, Jared O said:

After using some compressed air and reseating my gpu, I now get zero power at all. Nothing. Like what happened that led to this entire nightmare, when my PSU died in a power surge. (Maybe that’s what happened again and this good new surge protector that I bought didn’t work.....? -_-)

I spent nearly $600 in the quest to get this thing working again only to maybe have to spend that again?! ...or more if my gpu is gone now too.

 

if that’s not what happened, how tf did I do so much damage to where I don’t even get any power to anything now, when I was even /gently/ pulling out that one cord for the photo? I didn’t unplug anything in the slightest besides my gpu.

 

Back to the shop, I guess.....

Hmm, that's really weird, but I wouldn't panic, maybe someone has an idea - imo this cable shouldn't be the cause for all this, but I'm frankly not sure... it wasn't attached *directly* to the PSU, right? I don't think it would even fit... so if it's attached to a cable coming *from* the PSU that should be ok, I think... 

 

hopefully @-rascal-could confirm this, or not, since you've posted a pic now. 

[-rascal-]

30 minutes ago, Jared O said:

After using some compressed air and reseating my gpu, I now get zero power at all. Nothing. Like what happened that led to this entire nightmare, when my PSU died in a power surge. (Maybe that’s what happened again and this good new surge protector that I bought didn’t work.....? -_-)

I spent nearly $600 in the quest to get this thing working again only to maybe have to spend that again?! ...or more if my gpu is gone now too.

 

if that’s not what happened, how tf did I do so much damage to where I don’t even get any power to anything now, when I was even /gently/ pulling out that one cord for the photo? I didn’t unplug anything in the slightest besides my gpu.

 

Back to the shop, I guess.....

 

It might have been good if you told us the damage to the first PSU was caused by a power surge.

That stuff is tricky; if the PSU dies, then it always has the change to kill / damage something else attached to it -- hence we recommend a quality PSU.

 

The cable you are holding onto appears to be a standard 4-pin Molex cable.

I am not sure about the picture, but am I looking at... 6 molex connections daisy-chained together?

 

Can you share a picture of:

•  PCI-E power cable connected to the GPU
• Picture(s) of the GPU itself, in the PCI-E X16 slot
• Area around the PCI-E X16 slot or motherboard shot (getting the entire motherboard in the shot)

If things don't work, we'll have to start from the basics.

 

On another note...WTF, you send the system to a PC repair shop, and with the extra parts they have on-hand, they are NOT able to identify / troubleshoot the issue?

 

By the way, might have a huge time zone difference... as of writing this, it's about ~2:15 AM here.

[Mark Kaine]

Alright... so you see... more / better pictures are needed... I'm frankly not that great with this cable stuff, I just know the cables my PC needs and I'm not a fan of daisy chaining at all, even though ironically I have 2x2 fans daisy chained with noctua splitter cables each, and I really don't like using molex cables... I did once and that made my fan run at 100%, enough for me to know I neither need or want this lol... 

 

Anyways, I think we can fix this together, or at least find the cause for what's happening... could also be something about the power in your house or something... but... don't panic just yet and don't go to that "technician" for now...  

[Jared O]

12 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Alright... so you see... more / better pictures are needed... I'm frankly not that great with this cable stuff, I just know the cables my PC needs and I'm not a fan of daisy chaining at all, even though ironically I have 2x2 fans daisy chained with noctua splitter cables each, and I really don't like using molex cables... I did once and that made my fan run at 100%, enough for me to know I neither need or want this lol... 

 

Anyways, I think we can fix this together, or at least find the cause for what's happening... could also be something about the power in your house or something... but... don't panic just yet and don't go to that "technician" for now...  

lol okay - I’ll be back with more pictures after work.

 

13 hours ago, -rascal- said:

 

It might have been good if you told us the damage to the first PSU was caused by a power surge.

That stuff is tricky; if the PSU dies, then it always has the change to kill / damage something else attached to it -- hence we recommend a quality PSU.

 

The cable you are holding onto appears to be a standard 4-pin Molex cable.

I am not sure about the picture, but am I looking at... 6 molex connections daisy-chained together?

 

Can you share a picture of:

•  PCI-E power cable connected to the GPU
• Picture(s) of the GPU itself, in the PCI-E X16 slot
• Area around the PCI-E X16 slot or motherboard shot (getting the entire motherboard in the shot)

If things don't work, we'll have to start from the basics.

 

On another note...WTF, you send the system to a PC repair shop, and with the extra parts they have on-hand, they are NOT able to identify / troubleshoot the issue?

 

By the way, might have a huge time zone difference... as of writing this, it's about ~2:15 AM here.

yeah, but he seemed to say that the cable that came with my PSU just wasn’t compatible with how my wires/sockets are set up. Like the new cable wasn’t even a molex cable, or something. Maybe it just would have costed me twice as much to request for him to figure it out anyways, but now I’m not sure I even still have that cord....hopefully I don’t need it. I’ll figure it out eventually with your guys’ help.

[Jared O]

I will also add that the power came back into my system, albeit still with the same gpu issue. I had turned off the surge protector before monkeying with anything inside the computer, so maybe it just took time to get power back into my system for some reason. It’s an 1800 watt surge protector, so that can’t be the issue with all of this

[Jared O]

On 1/26/2021 at 4:16 AM, -rascal- said:

 

It might have been good if you told us the damage to the first PSU was caused by a power surge.

That stuff is tricky; if the PSU dies, then it always has the change to kill / damage something else attached to it -- hence we recommend a quality PSU.

 

The cable you are holding onto appears to be a standard 4-pin Molex cable.

I am not sure about the picture, but am I looking at... 6 molex connections daisy-chained together?

 

Can you share a picture of:

•  PCI-E power cable connected to the GPU
• Picture(s) of the GPU itself, in the PCI-E X16 slot
• Area around the PCI-E X16 slot or motherboard shot (getting the entire motherboard in the shot)

If things don't work, we'll have to start from the basics.

 

On another note...WTF, you send the system to a PC repair shop, and with the extra parts they have on-hand, they are NOT able to identify / troubleshoot the issue?

 

By the way, might have a huge time zone difference... as of writing this, it's about ~2:15 AM here.

 

On 1/26/2021 at 4:28 AM, Mark Kaine said:

Alright... so you see... more / better pictures are needed... I'm frankly not that great with this cable stuff, I just know the cables my PC needs and I'm not a fan of daisy chaining at all, even though ironically I have 2x2 fans daisy chained with noctua splitter cables each, and I really don't like using molex cables... I did once and that made my fan run at 100%, enough for me to know I neither need or want this lol... 

 

Anyways, I think we can fix this together, or at least find the cause for what's happening... could also be something about the power in your house or something... but... don't panic just yet and don't go to that "technician" for now...  

Guys - great news. I ended up deciding to take it to that shop Thursday because I work so many hours during the week to really even be able to focus on something like this, plus had plans throughout the entire weekend and just wanted this figured out already, but he finally called a few hours ago and said that simply cleaning out all of the gunky dust built up in my 2080 Ti got it working again. I would have never thought of that, so I feel like we might have gotten stuck anyways. Either way, I’m so glad that nothing is broken...Yet. xD Knowing my luck, the very first thing that I’m going to do once I pick up my PC from the shop is finding out and writing down the access key to my Windows 10 software. I just started to use this netted fabric to protect my PC from so much debris right before this happened, but apparently it had already gone too far. At least everything should be okay now.

I’ve also known by some help on this website that the motherboard I currently have in my system (ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming) isn’t even good enough to fully utilize my components. My VRMs, etc, are not even powerful enough to fully power my i9 9900k, nor my graphics card. I don’t even get to fully enjoy the performance that I should be getting, so I also plan on buying this baby down the line - it will probably be about a month or so when I can afford it.

...Can’t wait.

[-rascal-]

3 hours ago, Jared O said:

 

Guys - great news. I ended up deciding to take it to that shop Thursday because I work so many hours during the week to really even be able to focus on something like this, plus had plans throughout the entire weekend and just wanted this figured out already, but he finally called a few hours ago and said that simply cleaning out all of the gunky dust built up in my 2080 Ti got it working again. I would have never thought of that, so I feel like we might have gotten stuck anyways. Either way, I’m so glad that nothing is broken...Yet. xD Knowing my luck, the very first thing that I’m going to do once I pick up my PC from the shop is finding out and writing down the access key to my Windows 10 software. I just started to use this netted fabric to protect my PC from so much debris right before this happened, but apparently it had already gone too far. At least everything should be okay now.

I’ve also known by some help on this website that the motherboard I currently have in my system (ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming) isn’t even good enough to fully utilize my components. My VRMs, etc, are not even powerful enough to fully power my i9 9900k, nor my graphics card. I don’t even get to fully enjoy the performance that I should be getting, so I also plan on buying this baby down the line - it will probably be about a month or so when I can afford it.

...Can’t wait.

 

 

Ohh...didn't know you were running basically an open test bench PC.

Well you don't need the net; just need to clean / dust the PC on a regular basis hahah.

 

Yeah...AsRock didn't do very well on their Z390 and Z490 motherboards.

WHICH Z390 Phantom Gaming are you using?

The only decent ones from AsRock, especially for a i9-9900K , would've been:

• Z390 Phantom Gaming 9
• Z390 Taichi
• Z390 Taichi Ultimate

 

The Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra will definitely have no problems.

I've got the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master myself 

Gigabyte definitely nailed it in the VRM designed with their Aorus boards for Z390 and Z490.

[Jared O]

4 hours ago, -rascal- said:

 

Ohh...didn't know you were running basically an open test bench PC.

Well you don't need the net; just need to clean / dust the PC on a regular basis hahah.

 

Yeah...AsRock didn't do very well on their Z390 and Z490 motherboards.

WHICH Z390 Phantom Gaming are you using?

The only decent ones from AsRock, especially for a i9-9900K , would've been:

• Z390 Phantom Gaming 9
• Z390 Taichi
• Z390 Taichi Ultimate

 

The Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra will definitely have no problems.

I've got the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master myself 

Gigabyte definitely nailed it in the VRM designed with their Aorus boards for Z390 and Z490.

Phantom Gaming sli/ac

 

I’m so glad that you mentioned the Aorus Master because that got me to look into it and I would have been disappointed with going with the Ultra once I found out that I’d be missing out on that fin array for the VRMs.

 

It’s still a $500 board but it’s going to be worth it.

 

Saving up for the Master is now my actual decision - I should easily be able to save up for it anyways because I’m getting a $4/hr raise in a couple weeks or so.

 

And yeah my PC is the Cyber Cube from CyberPowerPC. It looks amazing especially with those clear real glass panels, but they leave a pretty wide gap in between the glass and the inside of the computer as you can see in the photo. I might actually need the netting in my case because there are so many animals in my house, causing it to build up hair so quickly that I’d rather not dust as much as would be needed; someone in Geek Squad was baffled that this computer is barely over a year old because of how dirty it was. He literally said “...I thought you said this was only a year old?” when he looked inside lol. I cleaned literally everything inside and out but the gpu before taking it to the shop though, so everything is spic and span now. I also really like the net aesthetically as well because it dims the super bright lights that are otherwise pretty distracting in my peripheral vision

[Jared O]

My monitor is the Ultrawide 34” 1440p, 120 Hz IPS Acer Predator X34 - I needed that extra like 25% performance by getting a better motherboard for about a year and a half now lol. Crazy how demanding a monitor like this can be, because I couldn’t imagine having anything less trying to run games on ultra on this thing, especially when you add ray tracing.

 

I somehow got it for $850 total on Amazon back in 2019, and it’s listed for $1,199 now almost two years later for some reason. I dodged a bullet there...