Oh lawdy help please (Upgraded ASUS STRIX 970 to nVidia 980 GTX Retail

[Zentropa]

As the subject describes, I upgraded, and upon doing so posting became...difficult. It would get to the ASUS ROG splash where it asks to strike F2 or DEL for setup, and then freezes whatever I do.

Eventually after some cable reseating it posted First thing I did was try the driver disk that came with the 980, and it said it was an older version than the drivers currently installed. Heck, fine.

Next I loaded up GOG to try some Witcher 3 (70% of why I upgraded to begin with) and lo and behold, I click 'play' and nothing happens. Task manager gets some serious activity from GOG processes that continue to appear after ending the tasks, andas adolescent as it sounds things are running exceptionally slow.

Switched back to the 970 and am still having the same problem. This has never happened. The fact everything else works indicates this isn't a blown chipset or anything, but I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

(desktop--machine I am posting about)
AMD FX 9590 Black Unlocked
ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin 2133 MHz (PC3 17000)
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
Lepa AquaChanger 120
Windows 7 64bit Professional
Apevia X-Cruiser3
ASUS DVD Drive etc
Bunch of audio/recording equipment.


(laptop)

 

[anneoneamouse]

Apologies for being Captain obvious, but...

I'd think about what you might have accidentally unplugged / unseated / bumped while you were switching the graphics cards out, in, out, and in again. The first (freezing) symptom sounds as though you might have missed one or more of the "extra" power-cables that go to the edge of the graphics card.

I'd start at one corner of the mobo, and one by one make sure that everything is properly seated. CPU, memory, all the PCIe cards. Make sure all your hard drive power and data cables are seated too. Then start on your peripherals.

Good luck.

 

[Zentropa]

Aye mate, I endeavored to persevere the lego-strategum because there was a bit of hand turbulence in unseating/reseating the beasts. I felt two 4 prongers snap into place that had been somewhat pulled out, and a six pin slightly pulled out of the PSU (1000W btw)

Once rectified, the freezes ceased, but I like your idea of starting at one corner of the mobo, and will do just that tonight.

Any thoughts regarding the possible collision in ASUS'S GPU TWEAK II and other ASUS tweakers causing trouble with the standard retail Nvidia GeForce line of 980? I am tempted to return it and go for an ASUS Matrix for the sake of brand familiarity and seamless transitions between "tweak software" usability.

Thanks for the prompt response, no apologies necessary--Captain obvious is a valuable crew member of all functional ships in my opinion!

 

[Zentropa]

I may have had a memory lapse but I should have definitely included this in my original gripe: When I had taken out the 970 in preparation for the 980 installation, the 6 pin (which had 2 pins 'detachable' off to the side') made a spark/shocking crack noise very briefly, but gave no ozone scent or indication of burning. Plus, the card still remained powered and the fans spun.

I wondered if this 6 pin cable may be a culprit as the unit will (on the 970--the 980 is a loss and I returned it) post to BIOS, but when I try defaults and/or optimized and restart, it makes it to "Starting windows," goes through the silly colors moving together to form a logo, then instantly blue screens and goes black. I have no time to see the blue screen message, it is THAT fast.

It then auto-reboots and puts me at square one. I have a clean/legit copy of Win7 in my arsenal in addition to numerous PSU cables required to get high end GPUs powered, so I am very open to any suggestions. Before I just wanted to enjoy the powers of a 980 on The Witcher 3, but now I just want a dang system that will boot up, load windows, and allow me to use the computer I built by hand with the mindset that I was crafting a masterpiece.

Please help

 

[anneoneamouse]

Were you working with the PC connected to wall power, and turned on?

Does the motherboard have integrated graphics? If so, I'd try removing the 970 completely, and seeing if the machine boots. That at least will narrow the problem down to either the 970 or the PSU.

I'm no PSU expert - you may be able to check that the PSU rails are delivering appropriate voltages in your BIOS.

AoN

 

[Zentropa]

Were you working with the PC connected to wall power, and turned on?

Does the motherboard have integrated graphics? If so, I'd try removing the 970 completely, and seeing if the machine boots. That at least will narrow the problem down to either the 970 or the PSU.

I'm no PSU expert - you may be able to check that the PSU rails are delivering appropriate voltages in your BIOS.

AoN

Very sound advice. I'll be checking my PAY later with a tester I own, and while I've no on board video, I've got a 460GTX I'll try it with.

I feat I've come across another issue indicative of bigger problems... My water coolers exhaust fan had stopped spinning entirely and shuts down from overheating before I even get to where it normally blue screens...

Time to take this thing apart and put it back together again. I believe the first later hag it right in asking if all cables were secure, on more than a fundamental level.

I'll keep you updated, thanks for the advice folks!

 

[Zentropa]

Apologies for being Captain obvious, but...

I'd think about what you might have accidentally unplugged / unseated / bumped while you were switching the graphics cards out, in, out, and in again. The first (freezing) symptom sounds as though you might have missed one or more of the "extra" power-cables that go to the edge of the graphics card.

I'd start at one corner of the mobo, and one by one make sure that everything is properly seated. CPU, memory, all the PCIe cards. Make sure all your hard drive power and data cables are seated too. Then start on your peripherals.

Good luck.

I'm a fool, it was the cabling that had come undone. Emperor obvious wins this one Thanks again.