[SOLVED] Can a dead video card damage a motherboard?

[Perene]

I had an old Gigabyte H97M-D3H (MB) that died after years being oxidized, suffice to say the computer case accumulated dust/dirt and wasn't cleaned over the years. Also using the i7 4770 CPU. I was using the PC one day and all of sudden the video became fuzzy and then not even went to BIOS anymore (the MB has onboard video). At the same time I was using the AMD Radeon R7 265 video card.

I already bought a new 1150 motherboard (H81-T), which is using onboard video.

The problem is that the R7 265 at least according to the computer technician is GONE, too, so the two broke at the same time when this happened.

I suspect, however, he didn't check the video card, because if your MB dies then obviously you aren't going to get anything from the rest even if they are all OK.

When I went there to bring the new motherboard he said it was risky to put this dead video card in a new motherboard. The idea was to try for the last time and if this didn't work then the BIOS would just not recognize or use the onboard video anyway.

Why? Because when a hard drive dies (and makes that click of death) Windows/your BIOS both don't recognize it anymore, yet a HDD can't affect the motherboard. It just dies separately.

I will ask another person to evaluate the R7 265 condition and if it can be repaired.

What I want to know is if it's true a dead video card can damage somehow a motherboard.

Because if there's always a risk then I am not even going to bother spending on repairing.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I had an old Gigabyte H97M-D3H (MB) that died after years being oxidized, suffice to say the computer case accumulated dust/dirt and wasn't cleaned over the years. Also using the i7 4770 CPU. I was using the PC one day and all of sudden the video became fuzzy and then not even went to BIOS anymore (the MB has onboard video). At the same time I was using the AMD Radeon R7 265 video card.

I already bought a new 1150 motherboard (H81-T), which is using onboard video.

The problem is that the R7 265 at least according to the computer technician is GONE, too, so the two broke at the same time when this happened.

I suspect, however, he didn't check the video card, because if your MB dies then obviously you aren't going to get anything from the rest even if they are all OK.

When I went there to bring the new motherboard he said it was risky to put this dead video card in a new motherboard. The idea was to try for the last time and if this didn't work then the BIOS would just not recognize or use the onboard video anyway.

Why? Because when a hard drive dies (and makes that click of death) Windows/your BIOS both don't recognize it anymore, yet a HDD can't affect the motherboard. It just dies separately.

I will ask another person to evaluate the R7 265 condition and if it can be repaired.

What I want to know is if it's true a dead video card can damage somehow a motherboard.

Because if there's always a risk then I am not even going to bother spending on repairing.

PCIe cards are fed by motherboard power but it can't exceed something like 75W in total. If the card failed in a way that shorts out power on the PCIe interface and it exceeds 75W it could blow a fuse or fused link on the motherboard effectively damaging it. I have to imagine there are other ways, but a bit less likely. For instance, a device on the card fails in a way that shorts 12V to a PCIe data or signal line to a motherboard component.

 

[Perene]

I brought the R7 265 to another person and under a microscope it has been revealed the PCI-E connectors (not all, some of them) are burned. You can't clearly see this with a naked eye, but it's there. Under a microscope I saw some black areas surrounding them, one of them has even a very tiny hole in it. So in other words this video card was really affected, since I couldn't go to BIOS after the incident (which also took the old MB). I am now waiting for a final answer if it can be salvaged, if it can then if a) isn't going to be damage the new motherboard sooner or later, and b) if it's worth paying for fixing it.

 

[Perene]

The video card is gone. Due to the extension of the damage I was told it's likely it has affected other parts and/or repairing would be too costly/complicated. Not to mention what was said here that it could die again and/or be a threat to the new motherboard.

Converting to USD I spent US$ 100 buying a new motherboard for this old CPU/RAM. I would have to spend US$ 200 getting a similar video card and it would be used, not new. So for the time being I'll stick with the onboard video.

What I can't answer is if the short circuit was caused by a bad PSU or some electrical problem in my bedroom, or the problem originated elsewhere and affected my system with a voltage swell. I highly doubt the PSU or the surge protector affected the old motherboard and VGA in any way.

The best explanation is this: the old motherboard was going to die anyway due to being oxidized for years and not doing proper maintenance to remove dust/dirt from the computer case and when it died the video card was affected as well. I expected that repairing these computer parts would be either costly or not possible, so take care of what you have because it can die without any previous warning.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
What I can't answer is if the short circuit was caused by a bad PSU...
...

Loss of confidence in the PSU is probably the toughest thing about problems like this. It might be a comfort thinking it's a top-tier unit made with only the best of parts (assuming it is one) yet one-off defects do take down the best. And while it can be done it's not easy to bench test a PSU as you really need a load box to do it even half-way proper and most shops don't have one. It's usually cheaper to just replace it.

House wiring problems aren't likely to cause that sort of defect internal to your system. If any the most likely external cause would be a power line surge that blows through protections internal to the PSU (making it suspect and further eroding confidence in it, even if it's not the root cause) and any other surge protection devices you may have for the PC. Power line surges frequently happen when lightening strikes close to a power line feeding your house. Also, surge protectors have a limited number of events they can protect against. So if you live in an area with a lot of lightening (areas of Florida in the US are) it's a possibility.