Distorted display even in BIOS.

[harkuchgaara]

Hello

I am facing issues with my display. It started with random crashes during games with error saying "display driver stopped working..... ". But now it immidiately crashes as soon as I boot a game with display getting distorted. Tried clean re install of the drivers, TDR fix, OS reinstall but still the issue persists.

Even the BIOS screen has pixels distortion.

Built:

FX6300
Crosair Vengence 8gb ddr3
Sapphire Amd R9 270x 2GB OC
Crosair CS 650 M PSU
Dell S2240L Monitor


Unfortunately at the moment my windows is not booting, so there are no screenshots.

I would be thankful if someone could point me to what should be addressed whether a gpu error or a memory issue.

Thanks in advance
Newbie

 

[Robert Cook]

the fact that the image is bad even in the bios implies the card is bad. Sapphire support was pretty good last I dealt with them, so first see if the seller will not replace it, then if not, contact sapphire.

 

[Shaun o]

It`s most commonly as the prior poster says, the sign of a bad video card.

But it may not be as bad as you think.
It depends on how long the R9 270x card has been fitted to your system.

If longer than six months or more, then you should remove the pci-e based card and inspect it for any dust build up.
Have a good look for any dust that may be sat just under the cards fans if a dual fan card.
And use a clean small paint brush if there is a lot of dust and clean it out of the aluminium cooling fins of the cars cooler below the two fans.

Flip the card over, where you will see the four screws in a square formation and with a screw driver give each screw a check to see if it is tight.
Or nip them up tighter if there is give in them.

Then place the card back in the system, connecting any power back to the card if required.

See if the coloured pixels os screen distortion has gone.

As said the cause can be simply due to heat, and a lack of air from the fans reaching the cooling solution on the card due to lot`s of dust trapped in the aluminium cooling fins.

Or a slightly loose contact between the cards cooler and the gpu chip on the card it`s self.

The only other things that could damage the card is if you have over clocked the card at any point.
Or the bad screen output you see on the monitor is simply down to a bad video cable with a bad wire in it, or that one of the end connectors on the cable to either the cards ports or the monitors are loose, or ill fitted.

Check all of the point made though.

 

[Robert Cook]

I do not agree with the idea of touching the heat sink screws, for one the warranty sticker is always on one, so you cannot tighten all 4. as for dust while that could cause overheating, the card doing so in the BIOS makes little sense, while dusting the card certianly cannot hurt, it does not appear to be the culprit. loosening the heatsink is also a bad idea, as that will result in overheating, and once again involves breaking those silly warranty stickers.

 

[harkuchgaara]

The card is in factory settings, no oveclocks done. Bought it in june 2013. Its been almost 3 years, I am not sure if its covered under warranty still. Also I had dusted the card last month and had no problems until yesterday. I will try replacing my Hdmi cable. Can a bad wire or a faulty graphics card lead to BSODs and system crashes too?

 

[Robert Cook]

a bad GPU will cause BSODs and crashes, a shorted/messed up HDMI cable could as well, and would also explain distortion, I agree, check the cable first.

 

[harkuchgaara]

Okay, i will update once i test with a new wire. Thanks a lot.

 

[harkuchgaara]

the fact that the image is bad even in the bios implies the card is bad. Sapphire support was pretty good last I dealt with them, so first see if the seller will not replace it, then if not, contact sapphire.

I tried replacing the cables even tried switching to vga but still the bios is distorted in display.
Unfortunately my motherboard Gigabyte 970A-ds3p foes not have a built in display card so i can trst without the graphics. Should I narrow the problem down to the graphic card?

 

[Robert Cook]

if you have an older card to test with yes try to narrow it down, it is always good to know for certain, as RMAs are never fast. also if you RMA a good card you could get a worse one back.

 

[harkuchgaara]

Apparently it was the display chip on my mobo that was not working. The guy replaced it and also flashed my bios. It worls fine now. Thanks a load both of you for your inputs.