Graphics Card Dead!

Last night i patched MWO, only to find it was hanging immediately after pressing play in launcher. After some research on the Forums turns out Avast was to blame. Uninstalled and worked fine.

Next time i booted up however i noticed some blurriness on my screen in a vertical line about 1cm wide. Then pc refused to boot or display anything. After reverting to onboard graphics the card did not even show in device manger. I have tried reinstalling drivers (Catalyst) and even Windows!!!! Nothing works, i don't want to accept it but is it dead??? Fan on the card still powers up. Have tried removing and reinstalling card also, after one time it showed but said card could not find enough resources to work?????

System Amd X4 640, hd 5750, Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate.

Any suggestions welcome from a sad and withdrawl suffering MWO-er

 

That sucks, what kind of psu do you have? Some have some degradation as they get older, and might not be enough to power the card anymore. Just a thought.

 

Its a bit of a frankenstein, its an old dell 750watt from a BTX case. Its got 4 separate +12v rails. I had to modify the proprietary second connector to power the atx +12v. Its got plenty of juice, even tried a different 6 pin connector as it has two. Could still be psu i suppose. I need to get the card into a friends machine to rule that out. Just won't be able to do that for a while.

 

i could offer you an old radeon 4870 from sapphire i still got if money is an issue.
10 bucks + delivery and its yours

 

I would replace your power suppler as well mate, 10/9 its always the PSU that killed the card. Val's offer is a good one.

 

Dell is notorious for crappy PSU. We're constantly getting them replaced here at the college. That being said. I would ensure that it's not simply the power supply that's busted.

 

that very kind, i still have to see what the problem is, but i might take you up on that

 

Ok, i thought i would turn my machine on hoping against all odds that it had fixed itself and lo and behold the graphics card now works!!

Then tried to install latest drivers and it kept hanging:suspicion:

Then tried reinstalling windows, but after i deleted partition it won't let me format it!:disturbed:

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHGH give me a break!!!!!!

 

So this is weird. After downloading Seatools and running the tests the drive passes with flying colours?!

Then i am able to install Windows and finally display driver and MWO.
So i can play again!!!!!

Weirdest thing though, i have never experienced anything like it before. Somehow drive partition or mbr table corrupted originally??

Anyways I'm back in the game

 

Glad to have you back, mate.

 

Well it happened again!!

Left it overnight in disgust, turned it on this morning and now working.

Heat related?? Mobo or Graphics?

I just need to start saving obviously!!

 

Seems it could very well be heat related. When was the last time it's been dusted out?

 

It's clean as a whistle, got lots of fans. One of those big Delta's i run it on 5v cause on 12v it sounds like it's gonna take off. Might not have a choice now though!

 

Sounds like a "soft" fault in the video card. When cool it works fine, but when hot the fault in the circuit opens and you're dead. It could be the MB tho. Like maybe a fault in the PCI-E bus. You could check the circuit board on the card and MB and look for any obvious damage like melted connectors or dark spots. You'd probably have to pull the MB out of the case to check it thoroughly tho. If there's no obvious damage, the only way to narrow it down would be to put the card in a different comp and see if it has the same issue. Is your graphics card pretty new or could it use an update anyway? If its an older card, you haven't really lost anything if you replace it and the problem is with the MB.

Edit: Also, swap rails that you're powering the video card from and see if that helps. You could have a rail going bad in the PSU that's chopping power to the video.

 

Those Delta fans are crazy! I've heard that they can drain a lot of power to run, in rare occasions blowing MB circuits. If possible, see if you can recreate the problem with the fan disconnected. Preferably on a cool night. Also, Guppy, has good advice.

 

The PC was second hand when i got it (For Free ) , although the guys said it was non working? I managed to get it to boot up after reseting the bios. Had no probs till now. Graphic card is a second hand item off Ebay. It looks in good nick and was dust free when i got it. I already tried swapping the rail for the Graphics card. Haven't taken Mobo out to look at the back of it. I'll prob just run it into the groung until i have saved for a new machine. It lets me play for 4 hours at a time so suits me for now!

Thanks Guppy and Ike for your suggestions.