Is my graphics card dead? Or is something else causing my problems?

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Raven101

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May 26, 2016
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As i'm not very tech savvy, I hope I can provide the information needed.

I was playing Skyrim and would get random crashes. I thought it to be Skyrims problem but now i'm wondering if it wasn't my graphics card busy dying.

The same thing happened two days ago except this time the entire screen was covered in black and grey stripes and a loud noise (hum?) could be heard through my headphones. I restarted my pc and heard a single, loud and short beep which usually means there's a problem. Besides that, it won't boot past the windows loading screen before going all black and freezing, not even the mouse shows up.

I did everything I could think of: Removed and replaced the ram trying different slots.
Clean the pc using compressed air.
Removed the graphics card and cleaned it thoroughly.
And still nothing.

So I called a friend who studied these things and noticed that when we turned on the pc this time, the single, loud and short beep was gone but it still wouldn't go past the loading screen.

We reinstalled windows and finally we were greeted with a desktop. He updated the BIOS and windows was busy updating when the screen went black and froze again. I'm not exactly sure what he did from then on but he found that when windows installed the last update (which I think has something to do with the graphics card, not sure.) that's when everything would go black. We tested the graphics card in a different pc and it wasn't even recognized by the motherboard.

Since we tested it on two computers, we're pretty sure its the graphics card, but I don't understand how as it isn't even older than two years and I've never pushed it to it's limits

Windows 10 pro
AMD FX 8120
ASUS M5A97 R2.0
Cougar CMX 650W
AMD Radeon R9 270

Forgive the long winded explanation and I hope it's something else and not the almost-brand-new graphics card which bankrupt me....
 
Solution
Shaun o
Bit of a veteran when it comes to this.

The soundest bit of advice is, if the card is only about a year old is to contact either the place where you bought the card from be it a shop or an on line store, providing you have details of the purchase either through a receipt or any kind of transaction with a credit card, or debit card. In most cases they will take the card from you suspected as faulty and give you a replacement card of the same specification, model version and brand if they have it in stock.

Or contact the manufacturer, brand maker of the graphics card, explain the problem and how old the card is.
and as long as you can again provide proof of purchase via a receipt or card transaction.

And the card has a warranty on it...
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Plumboby

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Apr 18, 2016
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nah be psu issue if was driver issue will still boot no beeps its psu as its not getting enough power trust me people overlook psus have run into this issues before a few times changed the psu & away we go again no isuues
 
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Raven101

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May 26, 2016
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I'll give this a try when i get my hands on a different psu as I have had problems with it in the past.
I'll also try the drivers as I have nothing to lose at this point.
Both will require some time though....
 
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Raven101

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May 26, 2016
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That's strange, because on the psu itself, there stands Cougar CMX 650w including on the box....
 
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Krishan Mourya

Krishan Mourya

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Oct 4, 2015
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Sorry , my mistake , your PSU is absolutely fine and its a CMX 650w as you said. And I saw some of the reviews of CMX series PSUs and it really looks fine to me. At least better than a Corsair CX series or CS series PSU.
I really think that your GPU got damaged and it doesn't boots up because Drivers may not be able to work properly with the GPU. Also when you installed your Windows again then drivers were not installed because of which it may not be able to access all the GPU and went fine. But as soon as driver started installing it caused some error and the PC Froze and didn't start again. I think you should try it again with some other computer with adequate power to test if its fine. if not then better send it for RMA. If warranty expired then I think you have to go for some other GPU, preferably a GTX 750ti. :/
 
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Raven101

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May 26, 2016
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Thanks for the advice. As of now i'm just gonna have to wait for a "backup" GPU to test out and then test out my current GPU on a different pc. By then all of this will probably be solved, hopefully.
 
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Krishan Mourya

Krishan Mourya

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Oct 4, 2015
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Are you insane bro? It will void his warranty. He has chances of getting a RMA and doing a Reheat of GPU should be the final step he can take for repairing his GPU.
 
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Mike_163

Reputable
Feb 5, 2016
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before you get ahead of yourself, make sure that you dont have a weird overclock or in some cases under-clock on you GPU's. I had a similar problem and it ended up being afterburner (for whatever reason) set all my frequencies to 200mhz. do a clean driver install in safe mode. MUST BE DONE IN SAFE MODE
 
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Raven101

Commendable
May 26, 2016
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1,510


I thought about this, but i'm going to leave it as a last resort. I'm first going to test out a different GPU before considering this.
 
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Shaun o

Shaun o

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Oct 7, 2007
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Bit of a veteran when it comes to this.

The soundest bit of advice is, if the card is only about a year old is to contact either the place where you bought the card from be it a shop or an on line store, providing you have details of the purchase either through a receipt or any kind of transaction with a credit card, or debit card. In most cases they will take the card from you suspected as faulty and give you a replacement card of the same specification, model version and brand if they have it in stock.

Or contact the manufacturer, brand maker of the graphics card, explain the problem and how old the card is.
and as long as you can again provide proof of purchase via a receipt or card transaction.

And the card has a warranty on it of two or more years after initial purchase you will be given a Rma number and details on where, and what address to mail the card too. and with in two weeks receive a replacement card if found to be faulty in anyway.

If the card was overheating, then it can not only damage the gpu of the card but other components on it also such as capacitors fitted to the card.

If the crashing became more evident and frequent then it is more than likely it was a component on the card becoming faulty Raven.

Sometimes it`s just the way it is, you can have a graphics card for six months or less and it can fail or stop working for you.
Or it can last for years without even developing any kind of fault with it.

So as long as you have proof of purchase in the form of a receipt, or card transaction for the card, and the warranty period the manufacturer of the card provides.

It should cost you very little to send the card back to them and get a completely new replacement card in working order Raven.
Just check what the warranty conditions are on the card, and how many years it covers before RTM for repair or replacement of the product is refused.
 
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Solution
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Raven101

Commendable
May 26, 2016
6
0
1,510
Well, it was 100% the GPU as most of you suggested.
Unfortunately sending it back is out of the question as I lost proof of payment :)pfff:)
I have replaced the GPU with a slightly better model and everything is working again!

Why it happened, I don't know, but at least I can get back to gaming. :D

Thanks for all of the suggestions and help, I highly appreciate it!
 
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