Could the HDMI port on my Graphics card be faulty?

[Jamil_NYC]

This is my first post, so please let me know if additional information is needed.

PC Specs:

• 
  ■ Processor: AMD FX-8350
  ■ AMD Radeon HD 7970
  ■ DDR3 8GB
  ■ OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

Normally, I have my PC connected to my TV (Vizio brand, model E320-B2), and it's been fine for the past year. Recently (and randomly) when I start my PC, my TV won't recognize the input from the PC through the HDMI port. It says "No Signal Detected" and I neither get a picture or hear any audio.

At first I thought it was the Port on the TV, so I switched it to another one, and it still didn't work. I tried my Amazon Fire Stick on all ports on the TV and it worked fine, so the TV is not the problem. I switched the HDMI cable for another one. It didn't help either. So it wasn't the cable that was the problem.

Now I am beginning to think that it could be the Graphics card that is faulty because that is where the HDMI port is coming from on the PC. I've had the PC in my possession for about 9 months now. I bought it from someone off craigslist last year who had owned it at least a year. Overall, I would say the entire system is probably no more than 2 to 3 years old.

Is there anyway to test if it is the graphics card that is the problem, other than buying a new one? Specifically, I want to test the HDMI output is functioning correctly. The problem doesn't happen always and I haven't found a certain way of reproducing it. When the HDMI connection does work, it never cuts out during gameplay unless the display is turned off (PC is put to sleep or shuts down). The graphics card comes with two DVI ports, but I don't have any DVI compatible monitors to test them with. There is no VGA port.

When it wasn't able to connect to the TV, I opened up the case and felt the fans were spinning on the graphics cards, so it was at least operating.

Is any other information needed to describe the problem? Below is a screen shot from GPU-Z.

https://i.imgur.com/v7j3Npa.gif

 

[hang-the-9]

Only way to test it is to connect it to another display and see if it does the same thing there.

 

[Jamil_NYC]

Only way to test it is to connect it to another display and see if it does the same thing there.

Thanks for replying. Well, I've tried on all the ports on my TV and they all work with other devices just fine. If I did connect to another display through HDMI (and it worked), however, I'm not sure that it would definitively indicate the problem is with the display. The problem is intermittent, so it could just be on that occasion it decided to work.

 

[hang-the-9]

Only way to test it is to connect it to another display and see if it does the same thing there.

Thanks for replying. Well, I've tried on all the ports on my TV and they all work with other devices just fine. If I did connect to another display through HDMI (and it worked), however, I'm not sure that it would definitively indicate the problem is with the display. The problem is intermittent, so it could just be on that occasion it decided to work.

There are posts around about TVs that don't detect computers on the HDMI ports at times. Maybe see if the TV has a firmware update.

 

[Chantz]

Do you have integrated graphics from the CPU you can test it from? It could possibly be a RAM issue as well if no video every shows up. Are you able to do a POST to see if everything internal is ok?

 

[Jamil_NYC]

Do you have integrated graphics from the CPU you can test it from? It could possibly be a RAM issue as well if no video every shows up. Are you able to do a POST to see if everything internal is ok?

I don't think I have integrated graphics on the CPU. It's not that no video ever shows up, but intermittently doesn't show up only when I turn the PC on. If the RAM was busted, I would expect it to fail during gameplay when there is heavy memory usage.

How can I do a POST test? Do I have to go through the BIOS?

 

[Jamil_NYC]

There are posts around about TVs that don't detect computers on the HDMI ports at times. Maybe see if the TV has a firmware update.

I chatted with customer service from Vizio, but they unfortunately don't have any firmware updates for the particular model I have.

 

[Jamil_NYC]

I also tried connecting with TeamViewer to the machine when the problem occurs. The image I get back is all garbled up and unreadable.

When the machine is working, the display is perfectly fine. This further reinforces my thought that the Graphics card needs to be replaced.

 

[Jamil_NYC]

Okay I have the solution, I think. I uninstalled the drivers, rebooted and installed the latest drivers from the AMD website. I also went inside to firmly push the card into the slot. I'm not sure if the latter did anything, but it's worth noting. Everything seems to be okay now with the display.

 

[Tayvl]

I had a similar problem using my Sanyo tv as a monitor. The vid cards couldn't see that it had HDMI even though it was connected via HDMI. The solution turned out to be disconnecting the tv's power cord for 10 seconds or so, then plugging it back in. Something in the tv resets when that's done.