[SOLVED] Did my graphics card just dare to die right in my face?

Kurochi

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Graphics Card: GTX 980
GPU: i7 4790K
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H

A bit of backstory:

After a couple years of usage my GPU performance gets severely hindered, I always fix this by reinstalling windows, my guess is background processes and "entropy" over time.
It had been a while my PC was not showing anything during the boot process, only when windows loaded in then would I get a display signal again.

What happened:
Cyberpunk 2077 was running at 10fps on low, Monster Hunter: World was lagging even during loading screens. Graphics driver was already updated for Cyberpunk 2077, by the way.

I decided to reinstall windows, but the display issues while booting were preventing me from successfully choosing a boot drive. After a few attempts of blindly choosing it with the keyboard only, I started messing with the HDMI cables and switching them from integrated to dedicated graphics card several times to see if anything would give me a signal. I decide to also remove the motherboard battery to force a settings reset, to see if I had disabled my integrated gpu. In the process of doing that the coin cell ended up getting lost inside the case, and I had to tilt the case in various directions until I could find it, and it ended up behind the motherboard. So I open the backpanel, and manage to make the cell end up in the little window that allows me to see the back of the socket.

(Case was unplugged and discharged the whole time)

I put the cell back in, test it, and it turns out that the reset helped; I was now getting a consistent display output even while booting, and on the graphics card too.

The disaster:
So I reinstall Windows, update the graphics driver to the latest one again, I test out the game and it's doing something like 50FPS on high settings; Success!
I close the game, install work software, and go back to plugging in all other non-essential peripherals. While doing so I accidentally pull out the HDMI cable. Right, no issues there, I'll just plug it back in; no display output.

I reboot my computer; no display output. I plug the cable into the motherboard and I get a display. My graphics card is not being detected anymore, fans are spinning to the max all the time, reinstalling the graphics driver cannot be done as it says I don't have an NVidia card. I am now losing my mind, I reseat the GPU several times, I try changing PCIe slot but turns out that for clearance issues I can't. (The other 16x one is blocked by another slot right below it which touches the body of the graphics card.)

I've put everything back together, and it's still not working, what else can I do?

EDIT: I am only getting display from the integrated graphics card now, which I'm using to write this post.

EDIT 2:
I tested it on my dad's computer.
My card wouldn't output anything, and my dad's card would output correctly. However, his PC only has a 300W PSU, obviously it wouldn't make any gaming happen on my 980, but I doubt it draws 300W while booting. So I'm sure even without enough power it would have at least shown an image, or am I wrong?
 
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Solution
Solution:

I learned motherboard repair (it was literally easier than waiting for cards to be at a reasonable price :rolleyes:)
I identified a short on the 3V3 PCIe rail, removed fuses to isolate the side of the short. Pinpointed it to a shorted UP0105P and L1117LG current regulators, replaced them with the provided parts from Aliexpress and it started working again :giggle:

Kurochi

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Dec 16, 2015
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Try repeating the removing of all external devices, and try rebooting to see if you get a video signal. If not then I would try your gpu in a friends computer, or use an old gpu that you may have laying around to make sure the pcie slot is ok.
Already removed them when I was reseating the GPU. The rest of the testing was done with just keyboard and mouse plugged in, as well as obviously an HDMI and power cable.

I will try another GPU today as I should have a GT610 in my dad's computer, though I can't use my GTX980 in his computer as it's one of those small crappy HP PCs.
Also, I can't currently ask a friend for help due to where I live being in lockdown.
 

Kurochi

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Dec 16, 2015
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Okay so when you accidentally pulled out the HDMI cable, was it pulled from the GPU or the monitor side?
Graphics card side.

Also, I tested it on my dad's computer as I said, however: The case was too small so I had to completely disassemble it and test it on some cardboard.

My card wouldn't output anything, and my dad's card would output correctly. However, his PC only has a 300W PSU, obviously it wouldn't make any gaming happen on my 980, but I doubt it draws 300W while booting. So I'm sure even without enough power it would have at least shown an image, or am I wrong?
 

Kurochi

Distinguished
Dec 16, 2015
14
0
18,520
Solution:

I learned motherboard repair (it was literally easier than waiting for cards to be at a reasonable price :rolleyes:)
I identified a short on the 3V3 PCIe rail, removed fuses to isolate the side of the short. Pinpointed it to a shorted UP0105P and L1117LG current regulators, replaced them with the provided parts from Aliexpress and it started working again :giggle:
 
Solution