[SOLVED] Did I kill my GPU by accidently touching the PCIe cable while the PC was turned on?

Oct 17, 2019
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Hi everybody,

I recently took of the side panels of my casing to compare the temps while operating, because my casing is insulated so to check if no insulation would help I took the biggest ones off, which are in the panels. No while running MSI Afterburner I was having a look at the GPUs fans and while doing this I accidently kinda pumped into the PCIe cables and in doing so the display shut off, while the rest of the PC kept running (GPU fans actually started to go fastero_O).
I turned the PC of via the power button and restarted it, which it did with no trouble. Then my incomprehenisble sense of curiosity kicked in and I decied to touch the PCIe cable again (dumb I know) to which the computer responed just like before.
I rebooted again, which worked fine and started a game where I had a solid performance of 144 fps. However in one scene suddenly the framerate went down to about 60 for a few seconds until it returned to 144.

Now I want to know, how hard did I f*ck up here. I know I shoudn´t have touched the cable again but I coudn´t help it. Coud the sudden loss and regain of performance be a result of my stupidety or is is just unreleated (its nota AAA game so it coud just be buggy)? Is there a way to check for damage?
Thanks in advance for any hep!
 
Solution
Well the RM650x apperently IS a fully modular PSU, however I don´t really see a way to get it out of the casing (easily that is)
Usually with a modular PSU....the plugs just plug into the PSU. They should be real easy to plug and unplug.....unless they are inaccessible for some reason.

Another idea....is to just replace the cable or cables....and this would help eliminate the possibility of having a bad cable......but as I said....just touching the cable....shouldn't have resulted in what happened.
In general....touching the power supply cable that goes to the GPU should not have caused what happened.

I would power down....remove the cable at the GPU....if it's removable at the PSU....do that to.

Inspect both plugs and jacks for anything odd....or dirt etc.....and then reseat them well and then try and power up.
 
Oct 17, 2019
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In general....touching the power supply cable that goes to the GPU should not have caused what happened.

I would power down....remove the cable at the GPU....if it's removable at the PSU....do that to.

Inspect both plugs and jacks for anything odd....or dirt etc.....and then reseat them well and then try and power up.
I checked the PCIes leading into the GPU and looked at the openings and there wasn´t anything unusual (as far as I can see atleast). The the metal parts inside the pins seemed a bit off center with the black stuff around it but otherwise it looked alright.
 
I checked the PCIes leading into the GPU and looked at the openings and there wasn´t anything unusual (as far as I can see atleast). The the metal parts inside the pins seemed a bit off center with the black stuff around it but otherwise it looked alright.
As I said....touching it shouldn't cause a problem.

The only thing I can imagine happening when you touched it ....is that it disconnected at one of the ends. Either that....or a faulty cable (faulty "in" the cable....which I doubt...or faulty at the plug(s)....which is a possibility).
 
Oct 17, 2019
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As I said....touching it shouldn't cause a problem.

The only thing I can imagine happening when you touched it ....is that it disconnected at one of the ends. Either that....or a faulty cable (faulty "in" the cable....which I doubt...or faulty at the plug(s)....which is a possibility).
Well I removed and replugged the cables to the GPU so the other one worth checking woud be at the PSU, right?
 
Well the RM650x apperently IS a fully modular PSU, however I don´t really see a way to get it out of the casing (easily that is)
Usually with a modular PSU....the plugs just plug into the PSU. They should be real easy to plug and unplug.....unless they are inaccessible for some reason.

Another idea....is to just replace the cable or cables....and this would help eliminate the possibility of having a bad cable......but as I said....just touching the cable....shouldn't have resulted in what happened.
 
Solution
Oct 17, 2019
10
0
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Usually with a modular PSU....the plugs just plug into the PSU. They should be real easy to plug and unplug.....unless they are inaccessible for some reason.

Another idea....is to just replace the cable or cables....and this would help eliminate the possibility of having a bad cable......but as I said....just touching the cable....shouldn't have resulted in what happened.
Thats kind of the problem, I can´t really access it easily.

Replacing the cables is something I coud look into, but I talked with some people off the forum aswell that told me that PC probably isn´t damaged, because it woudn´t even start or therer woud be display errors and not just a short FPS drop in a game. Im probably just paranoid.
 
Thats kind of the problem, I can´t really access it easily.

Replacing the cables is something I coud look into, but I talked with some people off the forum aswell that told me that PC probably isn´t damaged, because it woudn´t even start or therer woud be display errors. Im probably just paranoid.
If you inspected the plugs and the jacks (where you could) and reseated them....give it a try....maybe the cable wasn't seated well in the GPU.
 
Oct 17, 2019
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If you inspected the plugs and the jacks (where you could) and reseated them....give it a try....maybe the cable wasn't seated well in the GPU.
Alright yes, I guess that coud have been it. Ill be looking at performance and behaviour of the system and check back if there are more stability problems and Ill run a benchmark. Thank you very much for the help so far!