Faulty card or mobo?

[Glsec507]

CPU: i7 3770k overclocked to 4.5ghz
GPU: AMD HD 7950 3GB (MSI Twin Frozr 3)
RAM: 8GB Kingston Hyper X Extreme Ram 1600mhz
HDD: 120gb Intel 520 SSD  and 500GB Black WD HD 
Motherboard asrock Z75 Pro 3 
Cooler: Coolermaster hyper 212 EVO 
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite mid tower case.
Power Supply: 700 watt modular power supply.
DVD drive: Asus DVD burner

here's the deal, I bought a pc off a guy on eBay.... Didn't seem like such a bad idea until I received it last night.
Plugged her in and it started up fine. While rearranging some cords behind it I tilted the case. Upon returning it to its full upright position the screen got all messed up. I turned it off, reseated the hdmi plug and restarted the pc and it started fine with good picture. Curious as to what happened I gave the top of the case a little smack. Same thing happened again. Tapped again and screen went black. I then plugged the monitor into the mobo slot. Problem did not occur. So I opened her up, removed the video card and put it back in making sure it was firmly in its correct position. Turned it on. Starts fine. With one finger I push downward on the video card and bam, no picture. I remove the card and place it into the second pci slot below the first one. Start her up and push on it. Screen goes out. So as of right now I can only assume the card got damaged during rough handling by FedEx even tho the thing was floating in bubble wrap. Am I safe in assuming it's the video card or is it possible the mobo pci slots just weak or something?

 

[scout_03]

first you dont flip a computer when power is on ,did you check the gpu if the base pins that usualy lock in the pci-e slot is there and not broke and how it is fixed to the case did you have a clip or a screw .

 

[ingtar33]

sounds like something is behind the motherboard or staining the card. in short it sounds like a short. whenever you get a computer sent via mail your first order of business is to break it down completely. clean it, and reassemble it. this makes sure you don't have dirt causing shorts, or physical damage on your machine.

wash all the parts with rubbing alchohol (90%) and qtips. pay particular attention to the back of the gpu and motherboard.

good luck (if this doesn't work you can always take the heatsink off the gpu and cook it in your oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, though i would only do that if you can't get it to work)

 

[Glsec507]

first you dont flip a computer when power is on ,did you check the gpu if the base pins that usualy lock in the pci-e slot is there and not broke and how it is fixed to the case did you have a clip or a screw .

I didn't flip it completely just tilted it a few degrees. The motion of it rocking it back up right cause the failure. The pins appear fine. It screws into the backside of the case and has a little lever that locks it into the mobo. All appear normal. Operate normal also.
Again the card works fine until either pushing it or enough gravity is applied pulling the card downward

 

[Glsec507]

sounds like something is behind the motherboard or staining the card. in short it sounds like a short. whenever you get a computer sent via mail your first order of business is to break it down completely. clean it, and reassemble it. this makes sure you don't have dirt causing shorts, or physical damage on your machine.

wash all the parts with rubbing alchohol (90%) and qtips. pay particular attention to the back of the gpu and motherboard.

good luck (if this doesn't work you can always take the heatsink off the gpu and cook it in your oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, though i would only do that if you can't get it to work)

Well unfortunately I didnt know what proper procedures were/are. The card is under warranty still I guess so I think I'll see if I can get it replaced before I go and cook it lol

 

[ingtar33]

Well unfortunately I didnt know what proper procedures were/are. The card is under warranty still I guess so I think I'll see if I can get it replaced before I go and cook it lol

yeah... if its under warranty i wouldn't cook it lol

try breaking it down and cleaning everything first. if that doesn't fix your problem exercise the warranty.

 

[Glsec507]

That requires 90 percent alcohol, qtips and what else? What exactly am I cleaning? What should I absolutely not touch

 

[ingtar33]

That requires 90 percent alcohol, qtips and what else? What exactly am I cleaning? What should I absolutely not touch

rubbing alcohol (it will say 90% on the bottle, 100% if you can find it works too, though you can get a bottle of 90% for $1 at the dollar store). What you're cleaning is anything you can see but mostly the boards themselves. anything that looks dirty or dusty. use bright light to examine the boards, they should shine if they're clean, if its dull with no shinny finish it's dirty. Its safe to get that rubbing alcohol on anything on the board, so don't worry about braking anything. if you need to clean parts on the boards, heat-sinks and the like, don't hesitate to use it and clean them. it won't hurt anything (even the cpu can be cleaned with it)

Let it dry for 30 minutes once you're done. Put it all back together, and see what happens. if you take the cpu cooler off (and i suggest you do) and clean the heatsink and fan, make sure you clean the chip and contact plate on the cooler and reapply the thermal paste (buy some arctic silver 5 if you don't have any)

 

[Glsec507]

That requires 90 percent alcohol, qtips and what else? What exactly am I cleaning? What should I absolutely not touch

rubbing alcohol (it will say 90% on the bottle, 100% if you can find it works too, though you can get a bottle of 90% for $1 at the dollar store). What you're cleaning is anything you can see but mostly the boards themselves. anything that looks dirty or dusty. use bright light to examine the boards, they should shine if they're clean, if its dull with no shinny finish it's dirty. Its safe to get that rubbing alcohol on anything on the board, so don't worry about braking anything. if you need to clean parts on the boards, heat-sinks and the like, don't hesitate to use it and clean them. it won't hurt anything (even the cpu can be cleaned with it)

Let it dry for 30 minutes once you're done. Put it all back together, and see what happens. if you take the cpu cooler off (and i suggest you do) and clean the heatsink and fan, make sure you clean the chip and contact plate on the cooler and reapply the thermal paste (buy some arctic silver 5 if you don't have any)

Ok thanks for the help. I'm pretty clear on all that except should I just clean what I can see on the video card or take the thing apart somehow? And I'm assuming I can clean all hardware inside the case in this fashion? The whole thing has a small coating of dust. Not thick but enough to tell it's there

 

[ingtar33]

since you have a warranty on the gpu, i wouldn't take it apart, it might invalidate the warranty. just clean what you can reach.

if you can easily see dust it might be a good idea to get a can of compressed air and blow the dust off before you clean it with the qtips and alcohol.

 

[Glsec507]

Thank you