Brand new graphics card anomalies, freezing and stopped working

[SohailR]

Hi there, I have bought a Sapphire Radeon R9 270X and went through the installation process. I then ran a game, the game lasted 2 minutes in total, 2D menus and videos worked just fine, but games themselves would not, as a result, the computer automatically shut itself down and restart or more commonly, I would just get "no signal" on my monitor.

After that, it became worse, I began receiving strange coloured lines alongside freezing whilst browsing on the desktop, which would not happen before.

Overtime, it would stop giving me a signal completely. The 16.6 drivers from the AMD website helped slightly and I could run CS:GO successfully for 30 minutes without failure but once I turned the computer off and on the next, I couldn't get any signal through my monitor on startup. Sometimes the graphics card would become really loud even though I was getting no signal.

This isn't the first time this has occurred, I've had this issue on a previous card, my GTX 660 which lasted ~7 months but EVGA refused to RMA it because it had burns on the gold contact pins but my new card does not have any physical damage.

I've resorted to using my motherboards on board graphics and have no freezing issues when using it. The graphics card failed as soon I installed the drivers so all of this occurred within 12 hours.

My question is, what's causing this issue? I'm fairly convinced it could be another component in my computer that might be causing my graphics card to fail (if possible) because this same issue has occurred on two different graphics cards in the exact same manner.

Thanks in advance.


Additional info:

Temperature:
Idle: 27°C
In-game/Furmark: 67°C

Hardware specifications:
CPU: AMD PHENOM X4 965 BE
MOBO:ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 (BIOS 1801)
GRAPHICS CARD: Sapphire Dual-X Radeon R9 270X OC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card with Boost
GRAPHICS CARD DRIVER: Catalyst 16.6 (previous versions also tested)
PSU:Corsair CX600 (600 watt)

 

[herrwizo]

This could very well be the indication of a inadequate or failing PSU. Corsair CX series certainly isn't built for gaming. It is for office use, without powerful CPUs and GPUs and without overclocking in mind. Burned contacts on your previous graphics are a clear indication of this. Replace the PSU as soon as possible, or you'll end with burned mobo / graphics / who knows what else.

Get a power supply from tier A or B on this list:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

 

[SohailR]

This could very well be the indication of a inadequate or failing PSU. Corsair CX series certainly isn't built for gaming. It is for office use, without powerful CPUs and GPUs and without overclocking in mind. Burned contacts on your previous graphics are a clear indication of this. Replace the PSU as soon as possible, or you'll end with burned mobo / graphics / who knows what else.

Get a power supply from tier A or B on this list:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll check out the list. Should I look in the 600W range? Also, is it worth RMA'ing the card since it was pretty much DOA?

 

[herrwizo]

In your case, 600W is plenty. It is not the rated power that gives you issues, but the PSU simply isnt built for high amperage on 12V rails, let alone if you overclock. It is also built with pretty average capacitors and other components in general. You can go with any 600W power supply from Tier A or tier B list, and you are good.

Whether or not it is worth RMAing the card depends on you. You can try, but no guarantees they will approve it since the warranty does not cover hardware destroyed by inadequate PSU.

 

[SohailR]

In your case, 600W is plenty. It is not the rated power that gives you issues, but the PSU simply isnt built for high amperage on 12V rails, let alone if you overclock. It is also built with pretty average capacitors and other components in general. You can go with any 600W power supply from Tier A or tier B list, and you are good.

Whether or not it is worth RMAing the card depends on you. You can try, but no guarantees they will approve it since the warranty does not cover hardware destroyed by inadequate PSU.

Thank you. Expensive lesson learnt 🙁.

 

[herrwizo]

You will be fine, mate. The most expensive lessons are not when the hardware gets damaged, but the important data on hard drives. Glad to help, take care.

 

[SohailR]

You will be fine, mate. The most expensive lessons are not when the hardware gets damaged, but the important data on hard drives. Glad to help, take care.

I forgot to add, is it possible that the port for my graphics card is damaged from the PSU as 2d works fine but not 3d on my graphics card? I really hope this isn't the case 🙁

 

[herrwizo]

2D working fine while 3D not working indicates a damaged card. You will need to check other components once you replace the PSU to make sure nothing else got damaged in the process.

EDIT: A good idea would also be to try the graphics card in another computer to make sure it doesnt work. If it does, replace the PSU in your computer and try again. If it still doesnt work, your motherboard probably got damaged. BTW, there is a slight chance that nothing actually got damaged except the PSU failing to deliver power. Replace PSU first, we will know more from that point.

 

[SohailR]

[UPDATE]
I've bought a new power supply unit and amazon gave me a new graphics card. Sapphire was terrible in their customer service, and were frankly, very rude, I was surprised that so many of my friends recommended their products.

The card and PSU worked perfectly at first but I soon realised that the problem was on the motherboard itself as the PCI-E port only worked *sometimes* and eventually, the whole motherboard stopped working. Now that I look back on it, it was so obvious that the motherboard failed on me and affected my other parts, I will be buying a new motherboard shortly.

EDIT: The power supply I bought was a Corsair RM650, I really recommend it. The graphics card was given free by Amazon as it was defective when I first received it.

 

[herrwizo]

This old power supply you had could have caused the damage on the mobo as well. They don't always do that, but in case of bad capacitors (which CX series is notorious for) this can happen. Luckily, it didn't distroy anything else.

 

[SohailR]

This old power supply you had could have caused the damage on the mobo as well. They don't always do that, but in case of bad capacitors (which CX series is notorious for) this can happen. Luckily, it didn't distroy anything else.

Is there a motherboard that you recommend? My CPU uses the AM3+ socket, I also have a budget of £68 as the repairs have bled me dry.

 

[herrwizo]

This one:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga990fxaud3

 

[SohailR]

This one:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga990fxaud3

That motherboard surpasses my budget, will this do the trick?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/M5A97-EVO-R2-0-Motherboard-eS-ATA/dp/B008RPZ5H8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1404295538&sr=1-1&keywords=asus+m5a97+evo

Edit: A word

 

[herrwizo]

It most certainly will, sir. I was hoping that you could stretch it a little, but if you can't, this is a good board.

 

[SohailR]

It most certainly will, sir. I was hoping that you could stretch it a little, but if you can't, this is a good board.

Do you think my new components are fine, even though my motherboard has failed? GPU fan still spins, power supply turns on. I also do not get any anomalies now

and will this fit in a Midi case?

 

[herrwizo]

Yes, it will fit in a midi case, it is a classic ATX board. From your description, looks like other components are fine. You could have ended much worse, IMHO. Good you bought the quality PSU. Enjoy your computer and take care, mate. If you need anything, just ask.

 

[SohailR]

Yes, it will fit in a midi case, it is a classic ATX board. From your description, looks like other components are fine. You could have ended much worse, IMHO. Good you bought the quality PSU. Enjoy your computer and take care, mate. If you need anything, just ask.

Cheers mate, i'll pick your answer as a solution once this issue has been resolved completely, i'll also update the page for people who may come across the same issue.