[SOLVED] GPU issue - No light, Crash at driver install

[burnt14]

Hi,

Here are my specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core
• GPU: Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Pulse 16Gb
• Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
• Hard drive: Kingston A2000 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
• PSU: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
• Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S

This is a new PC I am trying to build, so all components are new (yes, I was lucky enough to put my hands on a 6800XT... but unlucky enough for the system to not actually work!).

Problems:
When I turn on the computer, everything seems to work great, except the graphics card shows no light. The fans spin and the HDMI display works, but the lights won't turn on. The BIOS, HWMonitor and Windows do not detect my graphics card (I verified with Sapphire, they confirmed the validity of the card with the SN). I thought to myself that it could be due to the driver I had to install. However, everytime I am trying to install the driver, the PC restarts. The computer also started to restart by itself randomly, so I just shut down everything. Then, I tried to remove the card from the PCIe slot (to troubleshoot connection issue), but it got stuck really hard into the PCIe slot (I know I have to push the bracket). After 2 hours, I finally managed to remove the graphics card with no significant force. The clearance is very bad because of the thickness of the card and the enormous 165mm-heigh Noctua CPU cooler just above it, so it was not an easy task (plus I was shaking like crazy). To summarize:

• No light on GPU (fans and display are okay, as every other hardwares seem to be);
• Random self reboots;
• Self reboots everytime I try to install a GPU driver;
• No GPU info in BIOS, HWMonitor or Windows (but Sapphire confirmed the SN);
• GPU got stuck in the PCIe slot.

The graphics card is now outside of the case. I am very scared to put it back. What should I do? Attempt to plug it back to test if the connection was simply bad? When I insert a graphics card, I just do it as-is (bracket not open). Is that okay? The motherboard manual does not describe this.

Or maybe the issue comes from the motherboard or the PSU?

Pictures here for reference (the bracket of the upper PCIe slot I use is shown in open/push position in the last 2 pictures): https://postimg.cc/gallery/qpKd0x9

Thanks.

 

[burnt14]

Hi,
(troubleshoot update)

So I installed an old PowerColor HD7950 in my pc on the same PCIe slot (4.0)! Everything works very well so far (~30min): zero random restart (still no light on the GPU, but that's normal this time!!). I also noticed that the mouse in the BIOS was incredibly smoother. The graphics card was also detected successfully by HWMonitor and Windows. This reinforces the hypothesis of my 6800XT being the culprit and was either badly connected or is defective. I should have posted in Graphics cards forum after all...

What do you think? Should I try to re-connect my 6800XT? The fact that it got stuck in the slot 1) could explain a connection issue, but 2) makes me incredibly scared to try, because I would insert the graphics card the exact same way I did the first time. I really don't want it to be stuck again, because I am scared to physically damage something. What would you do?

 

[burnt14]

(troubleshoot update)
With courage, I re-connected my 6800XT. Same thing: no light and slow mouse in BIOS. Did not go further. I removed the card easily this time now that I found a way to the bracket between the Noctua CPU cooler and the 6800XT (the trick is to break some nonessential bones in your finger).
I also tried my 6800XT on another computer in a PC repair shop. It did the same thing (i.e. no light). It really looks like my graphics card is defective. My PC is at the repair shop right now. A certified technician will confirm. I will put the verdict here just in case someone else would have the issue in the future.

 

[burnt14]

Fixed: long story short, the motherboard was the issue. Replaced it with Asus ROG STRIX X570-E GAMING. I don't know if it the previous one was defective or not compatible, but now it works.