[SOLVED] Help with telling if my graphics card is not working

[hightowerDV]

Hi,

I have a system with a GTX980 that was working for years. I lost output on my GTX980 last week. Symptoms were (no pops or bangs) and after booting past the BIOS and Windows OS loader I would lose my screen output just before the Windows 10 login screen loaded. I and have been trying to figure out if the graphics card or the mobo is the problem. As I was troubleshooting I restored to a system restore point 3 days before the problem happened and uninstalled NVIDIA drivers (thinking it was the problem) and now the graphics card does not show up in Device Manager. During all this the led and Fans on my Graphics card turn on.

Windows 10
I5-4590
ASROCK B85M-ITX
Corsair GS600 PSU
16GB of Kingston RAM
MSI GTX 980.

I can boot up and use my system because the integrated graphics card works. No software updates were installed that would explain the lost of my GPU. I upgraded my BIOS after I lost the GPU and that didn't fix anything.

My graphics card does not show up in Device Manager under Display adapters or anywhere. After I lost my graphics card I uninstalled the NVIDIA GEFORCE drivers thinking it was a driver update. I can't install new GEFORCE drivers because it can't find any GPU on the system. I also put an old SSD that had a (1 year old ) clone of my OS and was working with the Graphics card into my system to boot and that also didn't recognize my graphics card.

I put a PCIe 1x Ethernet adapter card in by PCIe 16x slot (the graphics card slot) and Windows recognized the ethernet adapter card.

Is that enough to tell that the graphics card is the problem? Is a PCIe 1x card enough to tell that my PCIe x16 port is functional?

The one last thing I can try to do is disassemble 2 systems and cobble together an Ivy bridge I7 and the PSU from my current system (with a H61MV-ITX) MOBO to see if the graphics card will work on that system.

Thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[WTS19937]

Hi,
well, you can see image on screen while using the card ? but pc or drivers doesnt recognize the card ? if thats correct, then it looks like the bios corruption (bios of the card not mobo) - its rare but it does happen

first off it will be nice to have fresh windows installation to rule out the os error....
or try the card in different computer

you can flash bios using nvflash program, theres a bunch of tutorials on google its a commandline kind of interface you will need a usb stick to do it
and a bios of the same card you can google it but its on you to trust the person who is providing it coz flashing wrong bios will brick the card well it might be broken anyway atm. but just so you know.

EDIT:
it can also be a hardware problem - the bios ic chip on the card.. i am not saying this cant be fixed but it does require special soldering skills and equipment to replace it, also i am not saying this is your case its just one of the possible cases.

But i d rather try the card in different computer or reinstall os first if you have the option.

 

[hightowerDV]

Hi,
well, you can see image on screen while using the card ? but pc or drivers doesnt recognize the card ? if thats correct, then it looks like the bios corruption (bios of the card not mobo) - its rare but it does happen

first off it will be nice to have fresh windows installation to rule out the os error....
or try the card in different computer

you can flash bios using nvflash program, theres a bunch of tutorials on google its a commandline kind of interface you will need a usb stick to do it
and a bios of the same card you can google it but its on you to trust the person who is providing it coz flashing wrong bios will brick the card well it might be broken anyway atm. but just so you know.

EDIT:
it can also be a hardware problem - the bios ic chip on the card.. i am not saying this cant be fixed but it does require special soldering skills and equipment to replace it, also i am not saying this is your case its just one of the possible cases.

But i d rather try the card in different computer or reinstall os first if you have the option.

Thanks I didn't know you could flash the GPU bios before. I used to get video output from the card but after uninstalling the drivers I don't get that anymore on bootup.

I'll try installing the GPU on a different system first.

 

[WTS19937]

okay so you dont have video output, then it might also be the gpu chip itself has gone bad.. there is a quick way to verify it and at the same time making it alive again for a while..


if you wanna try then this is how you can do it:

1-Disassemble the card (get the cooler off from the gpu) - anyone with screwdriver can do it
2-Grap a hair dryer - heat gun will be best but in case u dont have one.. hair dryer will do it
3-Heat up GPU IC until its barelly too hot to touch
4-let it cool down
5-Assemble the card
6-If it does work now, buy new one and use this one until new one arrives


it might work for about month or so.. it might also work for one hour, this is not a repair its a way to tell whats going on

if it doesnt work, its a card s mobo that is bad or the bios i was talking about

 

[hightowerDV]

okay so you dont have video output, then it might also be the gpu chip itself has gone bad.. there is a quick way to verify it and at the same time making it alive again for a while..


if you wanna try then this is how you can do it:

1-Disassemble the card (get the cooler off from the gpu) - anyone with screwdriver can do it
2-Grap a hair dryer - heat gun will be best but in case u dont have one.. hair dryer will do it
3-Heat up GPU IC until its barelly too hot to touch
4-let it cool down
5-Assemble the card
6-If it does work now, buy new one and use this one until new one arrives


it might work for about month or so.. it might also work for one hour, this is not a repair its a way to tell whats going on

if it doesnt work, its a card s mobo that is bad or the bios i was talking about

Thanks WTS but you are braver than me to use a hair dryer or heat gun on a GPU 🆒. I think building a different rig and mobo to test out the GPU is my next step. Thank you for your help.