Question R9 280x was working fine but suddenly won't post

spectra9

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May 24, 2004
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Hi,
I have a pretty old build of AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE with a R9 280X GPU and ECS A780GM-A motherboard. It was working fine for months if not years. But now it won't post. I've had this problem before and I think it's because the GPU sags a bit. So I usually just reseat it and add some support for the GPU. However this time this does not work.

I notice that if I connected the PCIE power cable to the GPU and set the BIOS to initialize PCI Express first, it won't post at all, as in the keyboard light isn't even lit. But if I connect the monitor to the motherboard VGA connection and set the BIOS to Onboard video, it works fine.

My question is, is there an easy way to determine if the GPU is dead or the motherboard PCIE slot is going bad, without trying a different GPU or motherboard (because I have none at the moment). Thanks.

Edit: I tried connecting the power back to the GPU but keep the BIOS setting to Onboard so it would boot. In Windows Device Manager, I uninstall AMD R9 200 device and then I do a Scan. It is detected again but the status is " “Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems (Error 43)". Does this prove that the PCIE slot is OK and the GPU is indeed dead?
 
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