Machine not detecting Nvidia card sometimes

[seriousHam]

Hello guys,

im basically out of ideas with this issue.

Basic System Speccs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.40 GHz
MSI Mainboard MS-7358
Chipset Intel P35/G33/G31
BIOS
Phoenix Technologies Version 6.00 PG
Date 7/24/2007
6 GB DDR2 Ram
Nvidia Geforce GTX 470 1280 MBytes
Windows 7 Home 64Bit
PSU Corsair 650 Watt
(please tell me if you need more information on that)


Now the problem:

On booting the Computer my monitor pretty much randomly told me that he will go into DVI-D Sleep Mode and thus the screen remains black although Windows is booting and starting normally (Windows login sounds, everything fine)
I singled out the Monitor as the issue, testing it with a different Monitor to no avail.
Upon plugging the monitor into the mainboard directly i saw in windows that the Nvidia device is not found and that the computer is running on the mainboard chipset.

The only thing that works (randomly as well) is unplugging the machine from the powert source, draining all remaining power, waiting a bit and sometimes the GPU gets detected again on loadup.

Apart from that, the card is runing fine, done all different sorts of testing, no errors what so ever.
On a sidenote, also the RAM are working properly, had a long session of RAMtest going on lately.

I read on different sources that maybe a BIOS update would or could work, but for my specific setup i couldnt find a proper update, the MSI page is kinda garbage, or i am, dunno.
Apart from that i never flashed my BIOS before so im looking for alternatives beforehand.

I tried to find someone with a desktop PC to exchange cards and see what happens but so far i couldnt find anyone.

I had the problem now for ages now, but in recent weeks it hardly recognizes my card on first boot. I pretty much always have to unplug, drain power, wait, reboot. Makes me crazy.

Edit:
As soon as the machine detects the card i can reboot as many times as i want, it works fine.

2nd Edit: Two days ago, computer was shut down for about 10 hours over night, turned it on in the morning before work, everything fine. 8 hours later turned it on again, fine as well.
Today after about 20 hours of shutdown it didnt detect the card. Plugged the monitor into the mainboard GPU to type that stuff now.
Fan of the GPU is running though, which i feel is kinda weird but well, it does.

3rd Edit:
Replaced mainboard battery as suggested, but as i was expecting it didnt change anything. Problem persists. I also reseated and cleaned out pretty much anything, but today in the morning after about 15 hours of shutdown, same story.

Anyone got ideas? Thx for every possible help!

 

[rsmith13]

Hello guys,

im basically out of ideas with this issue.

Basic System Speccs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.40 GHz
MSI Mainboard MS-7358
Chipset Intel P35/G33/G31
BIOS
Phoenix Technologies Version 6.00 PG
Date 7/24/2007
6 GB DDR2 Ram
Nvidia Geforce GTX 470 1280 MBytes
Windows 7 Home 64Bit
(please tell me if you need more information on that)


Now the problem:

On booting the Computer my monitor pretty much randomly told me that he will go into DVI-D Sleep Mode and thus the screen remains black although Windows is booting and starting normally (Windows login sounds, everything fine)
I singled out the Monitor as the issue, testing it with a different Monitor to no avail.
Upon plugging the monitor into the mainboard directly i saw in windows that the Nvidia device is not found and that the computer is running on the mainboard chipset.

The only thing that works (randomly as well) is unplugging the machine from the powert source, draining all remaining power, waiting a bit and sometimes the GPU gets detected again on loadup.

Apart from that, the card is runing fine, done all different sorts of testing, no errors what so ever.
On a sidenote, also the RAM are working properly, had a long session of RAMtest going on lately.

I read on different sources that maybe a BIOS update would or could work, but for my specific setup i couldnt find a proper update, the MSI page is kinda garbage, or i am, dunno.
Apart from that i never flashed my BIOS before so im looking for alternatives beforehand.

I tried to find someone with a desktop PC to exchange cards and see what happens but so far i couldnt find anyone.

I had the problem now for ages now, but in recent weeks it hardly recognizes my card on first boot. I pretty much always have to unplug, drain power, wait, reboot. Makes me crazy.

Anyone got ideas? Thx for every possible help!

2007? Sounds like your motherboard battery needs replacing.

 

[seriousHam]

Could that be a cause of that peculiar occurence?
As i said, everything working fine, even if the machine doesnt detect the card, all other stuff is just running perfectly. And if the card is detected it runs fine as well.

 

[seriousHam]

Some more testing: As soon as i get my PC to recognize the GPU i can shut down and reboot as many times as i want, it will keep recognizing it.
But as soon as i shut it down for a longer period of time (thats at least my guess) there is a high chance of the computer not detecting it.

 

[zdbc13]

I recommend that you open up your PC, blow it out with canned compressed air, and re-seat your card. Sometimes the contacts get corrosion that prevents proper electrical conduction. And dust never helps anything. Good luck.

 

[seriousHam]

Thanks for the advice, but i already cleaned it out and reseated everything various times.

 

[seriousHam]

Bumping it with some more testing.

So yesterday no problem at all, computer was shut down for only like 10 hours, detected grpahics card in the morning without a problem. Shut down again and turned it on again after work (8 hours later more or less) still fine.

Today shut down for about 20 hours, didnt detect graphics card, so switched the monitor over to the on board card to type that now.

So as it seems, there might be a relation between the time the computer is not powered up and the issue.
Which kinda sounds like a power issue, though as i was told the mainboard battery hardly could be the reason for it, or am i mistaken?

Someone else told me he had a similar problem, he finally figured that lowe temperatures in the room made the machine go crazy and dont recognize various bits and parts at times.

But this issue did occure in the summer time as well as far as i remember.

Updating main post as well.
Still thankful for every hint.

 

[rsmith13]

Your battery is not holding a charge. When you turn your computer on, the battery gets charged. When you turn your computer off, the battery loses it's charge. Put a new one in and see. They usually only last 2-3 years.

 

[seriousHam]

Your battery is not holding a charge. When you turn your computer on, the battery gets charged. When you turn your computer off, the battery loses it's charge. Put a new one in and see. They usually only last 2-3 years.

Thanks for the answer.
What i will try for now is to change some minor BIOS settings and as soon as the problem occures again ill check if the settings got reset. I just never heard that a low mainboard battery could be responsible for computer parts not getting detected.

 

[seriousHam]

Update:

Replaced mainboard battery as suggested, but as i was expecting it didnt change anything. Problem persists. I also reseated and cleaned out pretty much anything, but today in the morning after about 15 hours of shutdown, same story.

 

[seriousHam]

Probably last update:

Dont know what else to test to get rid of this problem. I can now confirm that i appears only after a certain time (about 10 hours or so) of shutdown.
After about 10-20 minutes i can reboot the computer and it will detect the GPU.

Thats pretty much all i have

 

[seriousHam]

One more update:
Tried alot of different driver versions for the GPU out of desperation, didnt change a thing.

Im now at the point where im thinking about changing the GPU, but im somehow quite sure that the GPU isnt the cause of all this. Or lets say, the mainboard or the PSU (although brand new) might as well be responsible for the problem.

 

[Guest]

Hi seriousHam

I have the same problem with a Point of View NVIDIA 9500GT
Sometimes detects it and sometimes not.
I have tested it in another computer and the problem happends everytime with the coputer with this graphic card.
I have changed the graphic card with a NVIDIA 603 and everything Works nice.

so the problem was the Graphic card, for sure.

I don't know how a hardware can fail sometimes and then work again... very strage...

 

[eclee]

I have the same issue and I'm using two Nvidia GPX cards. Neither of the cards are recognized. Has anyone figured out how to solve this issue? Also this issue happens to me when my computer just goes to sleep, not necessarily when I shut down.

Hi seriousHam

I have the same problem with a Point of View NVIDIA 9500GT
Sometimes detects it and sometimes not.
I have tested it in another computer and the problem happends everytime with the coputer with this graphic card.
I have changed the graphic card with a NVIDIA 603 and everything Works nice.

so the problem was the Graphic card, for sure.

I don't know how a hardware can fail sometimes and then work again... very strage...

 

[SavageGhost]

One more update:
Tried alot of different driver versions for the GPU out of desperation, didnt change a thing.

Im now at the point where im thinking about changing the GPU, but im somehow quite sure that the GPU isnt the cause of all this. Or lets say, the mainboard or the PSU (although brand new) might as well be responsible for the problem.

Did you mange to sort the issue out and find out the cause of this?

I have the same problem with mu GTX 260 in my Q6660 machine. I have the same issue and by unplugging everything it works fine but after about 2hours off the GPU does not work!

Someone is lending me a spare GPU and I'll see if that sorts the problem out.
Regards
Sav