[SOLVED] Problem with pcie slot not running 2 different cards but works with an older small non-psu card ?

[Quigone]

I’m finding my problem very tricky to determine and can’t find much to help me diagnose it, I really hope someone more knowledgeable can help me

Here’s a spec rundown;



i5 3450 ivy bridge

Gigabyte H61MA-D2V Bios version F7

4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 Ram

256GB SSD enough for my usage

700WATT PSU I cant remember the brand but will update if needed



Other info before I explain my issue

One USB 3.0 port has been blown since the first week I assembled the pc in 2012 and has never caused an issue it just doesn’t work but shorts the pc if I force something in there by accident but the last time I did that was 8 years ago.

I used to have 8GB of ram and one died so I plan to buy another soon, the 1 remaining stick works both slots just fine.



So I’ve had a 560ti since 2012 and it stopped working around 2015, since then I haven’t used the pc a whole much. The 560ti started showing heavy artifacts and stopped working altogether, caused blue screens and the like.



Earlier this year I began to try getting him back in shape, overall reinstalled windows, updated to the latest bios and got an SSD, new thermal paste on the CPU and the pc runs completely fine without the GPU installed.



so then I moved to the 560ti and applied new thermal paste in the hopes it might help, plugged it in and now there’s no sign of it being detected whatsoever. Ive tried all the usual protocols, switched to peg on motherboard but it just goes back to auto when I next reboot, tried uninstalling and reinstalling Intel hd and Nvidia drivers, plugging and replugging it and through the week of troubleshooting probably reinstalled a clean windows around 5/6times.



so in trying to just get closer to what the issue is I pulled an old ATI RADEON HD 3450 256mb card that doesn’t require a PSU connection from an optiplex I had and plugged into the pcie slot (I only have 1 on my mobo)

Eureka! It worked fine and was recognised. I updated drivers and it was there and picked up by the pcie, of course it couldn’t run jack all, the IntelHD alone does better for whatever games I can run, css source and portal 2 tested mainly



At this point I felt good, I determined the old graphics card surely is faulty if the little 256mb worked fine



So I bought a used MSI Twin Frozr ii 6950 2GB, I asked the seller if it works and he replied that it works completely find and he just upgraded

It arrived today, I plugged it in and again NO detection and blank screen using hdmi and dvi



Again I;

Reinstalled windows

Reapplied thermal paste

Tried switching gfx to PEG

Installing drivers, removing intel drivers

Catalyst refuses to continue installing because there’s no gpu it can recognise

Disabled the intel device but had to unplug and replug the cmos battery to enable it again

Sfc /scannow did nothing



At this point I’m in a mess of assumptions and fears,

worst case fear: my previous 560ti died beyond recognition and the twin frozr ii 6950 is also dead beyond any recognition

note that BOTH cards led’s light up, And both power up and spin very healthily, fans sound smooth and lights bright and on

My PSU is providing ample power and voltage is stable at 11.9ish. The twin frozr takes a 6+6 while the previous 560ti takes a 8+6.


Best case fear: that the pci slot is faulty to the extent of not utilising such a powerful card with 2GB GDDR5 ram but is able to run the old ati with 256 DDR2.

The problem with this assumption is that I’m just pulling it out of thin air and hoping it could be possible, I have no idea if a PCIE slot is more or less stressed/utilised with heavier duty hardware or if the slot itself can be faulty enough to be unable to read all the data or be able to fully connect to the better card but can just about manage the small old card

I can’t go anywhere to test any further because of the lockdown in the UK, the direction I’m facing at the moment is buying another motherboard but I really would hate it to have been both GPU’s are actually dead and I end up buying another mobo for no reason

Thanks to anyone who helps in advance and apologies for the long post I’m just in such a position that I can’t find any information about to help me head in the right direction without wasting money



Please refrain from comments like get a new pc, get a new GPU or anything suggesting to scrap the whole thing. Please understand that if I can get it to work it’s more than adequate spec for the games I want to play.

 

[hang-the-9]

You tried another used card that you did not test before trying it, so there is no really good way to know if the card you tested is actually good. You can try that card in another system that does not have any issues and see if it works to make sure the card you tried is good. Did you check for a newer BIOS for your system also?

 

[aakarshan]

You would need to check to the both graphics into other PC to rule out if they are working or not.

There could be a problem with your Power Supply. Old power supply may be not able to supply power to heavy graphics properly.
If the power supply is malfunctioning don't use your graphics card. It can take out other components like cpu,motherboard,graphics card with it.
Don't use another gpu on the PC untill you figure out that it is a PSU related issue.

 

[Quigone]

You tried another used card that you did not test before trying it, so there is no really good way to know if the card you tested is actually good. You can try that card in another system that does not have any issues and see if it works to make sure the card you tried is good. Did you check for a newer BIOS for your system also?

Thanks for your reply. Sadly I’m living out the bad side of the risk I took, it was from eBay so I guess it’s always a case of sellers word and I hope I haven’t been screwed.

What are the odds of both cards my old one and the replacement being completely dead and non detectable whatsoever in the exact same way with the fans fully spinning on both when I turn it on and led’s lit up? Also the fans don’t spin intermittently from my trials it seems they go on full blast as I turn on the pc and the speed doesn’t change nor do they stop. This is On both cards and the led’s are on.

yes I’ve updated my bios to version 7 which seems to be the last one released

 

[Quigone]

You would need to check to the both graphics into other PC to rule out if they are working or not.

There could be a problem with your Power Supply. Old power supply may be not able to supply power to heavy graphics properly.
If the power supply is malfunctioning don't use your graphics card. It can take out other components like cpu,motherboard,graphics card with it.
Don't use another gpu on the PC untill you figure out that it is a PSU related issue.

thanks for your reply, do you think it’s possible that even though in BIOS the voltage is a healthy 11.9-12 that it could still be insufficient or problematic somehow? I should add that I’ve got it running barebones at the moment, only the SSD, the power button, mobo and whichever GPU I try are plugged in, so I assumed that there should be more than enough seeing as it’s rated for 700w and worked fine before.

There doesn’t seem to be any sudden power issues overall, no shutting off or intermittent/unexpected power cuts, if I do plug in the blu ray drive it also works fine but Im not sure if it uses much lower power than the GPU

 

[Quigone]

You would need to check to the both graphics into other PC to rule out if they are working or not.

There could be a problem with your Power Supply. Old power supply may be not able to supply power to heavy graphics properly.
If the power supply is malfunctioning don't use your graphics card. It can take out other components like cpu,motherboard,graphics card with it.
Don't use another gpu on the PC untill you figure out that it is a PSU related issue.

Here’s a pic if it helps

 

[hang-the-9]

Here’s a pic if it helps

That is not a 700 watt PSU, not even close. The way you tell is that any good or even OK quality PSU will have almost the max amount of its rated wattage on the 12v rail, yours has a combined wattage of 500 on it, and I would bet even that rating is exaggerated. Multiply the volts times the Amps and you get the wattage. It could very well be your power supply causing issues since it's poor quality.

 

[Quigone]

That is not a 700 watt PSU, not even close. The way you tell is that any good or even OK quality PSU will have almost the max amount of its rated wattage on the 12v rail, yours has a combined wattage of 500 on it, and I would bet even that rating is exaggerated. Multiply the volts times the Amps and you get the wattage. It could very well be your power supply causing issues since it's poor quality.

Arhh what a mess, thank you I’m starting to understand this clearer now your reply lead me to read the tomshardware powersupply101. It’s one of those dud fake info ones I’m seeing mentioned?

So between the few years that it had worked with the GPU and now that it’s not working anymore had it lost what little capability it had to keep the pcie going with the 560ti?

It’s a funny story, in 2012 I’d originally had bought a 450watt psu by mistake from scan.co.uk, after realising it wasn’t doing the trick I was overexcited and rushed a local store and bought whatever the salesman guaranteed would work given my hardware, I only understood watts and It said 700 So I just went with it

So now from what I’ve gathered my question is, if I buy a more reputable company PSU like the one mentioned in the 101 guide, it’s a Corsair 540 with a single 12v rail at 45a, Would you say that is that a viable option to be on the safe side with enough power for this kit of mine? To at least move on to testing the GPU’s with a certainty that the PSU is capable of powering everything

 

[hang-the-9]

Arhh what a mess, thank you I’m starting to understand this clearer now your reply lead me to read the tomshardware powersupply101. It’s one of those dud fake info ones I’m seeing mentioned?

So between the few years that it had worked with the GPU and now that it’s not working anymore had it lost what little capability it had to keep the pcie going with the 560ti?

It’s a funny story, in 2012 I’d originally had bought a 450watt psu by mistake from scan.co.uk, after realising it wasn’t doing the trick I was overexcited and rushed a local store and bought whatever the salesman guaranteed would work given my hardware, I only understood watts and It said 700 So I just went with it

So now from what I’ve gathered my question is, if I buy a more reputable company PSU like the one mentioned in the 101 guide, it’s a Corsair 540 with a single 12v rail at 45a, Would you say that is that a viable option to be on the safe side with enough power for this kit of mine? To at least move on to testing the GPU’s with a certainty that the PSU is capable of powering everything

Yes a good quality lower wattage is much better than some cheap one with fake wattage ratings. Just keep in mind that the PSU may not be the issue in your case, but you will at least sleep better knowing your system is running a better PSU, do it's not wasted money at all. Pretty much every experienced computer builder/tech will say to start with the power supply selection and quality first before looking at other things, that is as much of a core of a system as a motherboard and CPU.

If you stick with the recommended wattage for the video card you have that is more than enough to be safe. They tend to over do the recommended power needed to give some headroom to the power supply so if your video card support site states "recommended 500 watt" and you get a 500 watt good quality unit, you are good.

 

[aakarshan]

Here’s a pic if it helps

That power supply is not certainly capable to run a PC. The wattage mentioned on the PSU ia not actually 700 wt. It much lower than that. It is a cheap PSU. It is not at all recommended to run a PC. Try and get a good rated PSU. Try to get a 80+ bronze or Gold rated PSU at least. You don't need a more than 500 wt capacity PSU for your build.

But before coming out on conclusion you are needed to check the both graphics card. It may be possible that your PSU took out the GPU.

 

[Quigone]

That power supply is not certainly capable to run a PC. The wattage mentioned on the PSU ia not actually 700 wt. It much lower than that. It is a cheap PSU. It is not at all recommended to run a PC. Try and get a good rated PSU. Try to get a 80+ bronze or Gold rated PSU at least. You don't need a more than 500 wt capacity PSU for your build.

But before coming out on conclusion you are needed to check the both graphics card. It may be possible that your PSU took out the GPU.

Yes a good quality lower wattage is much better than some cheap one with fake wattage ratings. Just keep in mind that the PSU may not be the issue in your case, but you will at least sleep better knowing your system is running a better PSU, do it's not wasted money at all. Pretty much every experienced computer builder/tech will say to start with the power supply selection and quality first before looking at other things, that is as much of a core of a system as a motherboard and CPU.

If you stick with the recommended wattage for the video card you have that is more than enough to be safe. They tend to over do the recommended power needed to give some headroom to the power supply so if your video card support site states "recommended 500 watt" and you get a 500 watt good quality unit, you are good.

I opened up the old PSU and the guts were a terrifying mess of crusty, burnt and melted red plastic everywhere, I can’t believe it still powered the board and didn’t burn the thing to a crisp

So I ordered a 500W evga psu which arrived yesterday, plugged in my components and hallelujah! The used HD 6950 I bought is working nice and smooth and I spent the evening going ham on Dirt 3

My old 1TB seagate barracuda had stopped functioning completely around 2015 and it was in the drawer, installed windows it now works fine and Chkdsk/hddscan say it’s healthy so I can use the SSD I got for Windows! That trash PSU was just that horrible

I also tried my old 560ti and although it showed no signal again I did notice there was a change of resolution to 1024x768 prompt on my monitor when I powered the pc on, I’m really hoping it’s because I had ati drivers installed that I didn’t uninstall before trying it so I’ll give it a go properly tomorrow and hopefully make some money back from one of the GPU’s

I’m so happy and really can’t be any more grateful for the help, I was on my way to buying a new motherboard and would not have even bothered with the psu after that would have failed to work so you both saved me a lot of disappointment, cash and hardware! Won’t be thrifting out on cheap brands again