Really need some help with this issue

[low_psi]

I sold my 3 month old system to a guy last week. I have run this PC with iRacing for the three months with no issues @ 1080p resolution. Before I shipped it out I loaded Windows 7 64bit Pro on a new 2TB Hard Drive as I did not sell the machine with my SSD. I have loaded Windows a thousand times (I have been in IT for 15 years). I loaded all drivers, Windows updates, Adobe products, and the Norton Antivirus trial that came with the Motherboard Disc. Everything appeared fine. However, the guy has had nothing but issues with the PC since he received it. Randomly the Desktop will fill up with black dots. Often shortly after that he will receive a message stating the Video Drivers have stopped responding and have recovered. Occasionally, after that it reboots and he gets Bios message stating the overclock failed (I read up on that and I guess it can be displayed after a hard crash. Its not overclocked and the BIOS has been reset to defaults). I included a couple of pics and a video below. I remoted into the PC, removed the Catalyst Software and removed the video drivers. I then reinstalled the CCC software and rebooted. When running Furmark, we begin to see the black dots again and some other goofy things, however Furmark continues (no crash) and the results FurMark gives is about what is expected for the video card (no drop in fps, no excessive heat, etc). I had him remove and reseat the video card, had him switch to the back up BIOS on the Video Card. Had him reseat the RAM, made sure the processor heat sync was still attached (diagnostics show good cpu heat). He did install iRacing and that installs DirectX 10. I have read that a bad install of Direct X can cause issues, We have since uninstalled Direct X. However I am not sure if the uninstall pulls DirectX off. And if it does, how clean is the uninstall. At this point I am about to have him reload windows, but I am not certain that will do any good. This was a perfectly running machine before I shipped it. There was no evidence of it being handled roughly or dropped. Any Suggestions?? PC Specs are Below

AMD FX-6300 Black Edition running at stock speed 3.5Ghz
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Running 2 fans Push/Pull
Asus M5A97 Evo Motherboard
8 GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333 Ram (have tried with just 4GB in as well)
Sapphire R9-280 Dual-X OC running stock speed no overclock
Cool Master 600w power supply
Thermaltake H22 Case (not that the case has anything to do with the issue)

[video="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEtzPMEeA8c&feature=youtu.be"][/video]

 

[p_nut_uk]

If it's only a few months old get a new card under warranty, if it's not overclocked you shouldn't be getting artifacts like that.

 

[ShakedG]

This seems like it could be an issue with the monitor. Could you try running it with a spare monitor just to be sure? I'm sorry I can't be of much help but that's what comes right off the top of my head. Either that, or something went wrong with the video card, and then I would try to contact AMD.

 

[low_psi]

I see the artifacts when remoted in... However, I had him unplug his monitor from the HDMi port and then I ran Furmark 4 times in a row and saw no artifacts on my screen (remote connection). While I find it hard to believe that his monitor could be effecting what I see remotely, I guess at this point I won't rule anything out. He is going to bring a PC monitor from work and hook it up via dvi and see if the problem continues. He had previously been using an Insignia 720p monitor. Keeping my fingers crossed, but not holding my breather either.... Just frustrates the hell out of me, it worked fine when I shipped it.

 

[ShakedG]

An HDMI cable is also a data cable. As such it transfers data not only from the machine to the monitor but also vice versa. The problem seems to be with the monitor, and it seems to affect the graphics card. As you said, this should be considered an option and not be ruled out, but at the same time I may be wrong so don't hold your breath. Keep me updated and I hope I can help.

 

[low_psi]

An HDMI cable is also a data cable. As such it transfers data not only from the machine to the monitor but also vice versa. The problem seems to be with the monitor, and it seems to affect the graphics card. As you said, this should be considered an option and not be ruled out, but at the same time I may be wrong so don't hold your breath. Keep me updated and I hope I can help.

So somehow, someway... In shipping the video card wiggled around a bit and managed to loosen up the PCIe slot. To the point that the guy who bought it would slightly touch the video card while the PC was on and the artifacts would appear. Talked him thru switching to the second PCIe slot (fortunately both slots are 16x on this board). After booting back up, ran Furmark a handful of times, even while trying to wiggle the card (but now the card is solid in the slot so it doesn't move) and it no longer exhibits these behaviors. I guess the next PC I ship, I will remove the video card and have the customer install it once delivered.. (I have a new PC I built shipping Monday). Unless anyone has any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening again. I have never purchased a PC with a large video card and had it shipped. Do gaming PCs normally ship with the video card installed, if so do they have foam blocks or something in the case to stop the video card from moving around during shipping/handeling???? I am just worried something like this would happen to my customer. The motherboard I used for his budget build only has one PCIe slot and an R9-280x mounted in it (so it's pretty heavy). I can't afford for that to happen again......

 

[p_nut_uk]

Well done for figuring it out, not very elegant but you could try zip ties which the customer could cut on arrival, also doing this to the cpu might be an idea. Also if one is damaged don't forget to claim against the shipping company

 

[low_psi]

Well the problems have somewhat resurfaced... Now the PC seems to be crashing in iRacing only. He has run Furmark numerous times without any issues. I have instructed him to run the Valley Benchmark test as that seems to put the GPU under a much better load. I am thinking the problems may be with the graphic settings in iRacing, since the location of the card has changed since iRacing was installed. I am about to just eat the cost of shipping and have him send it back to me. It seems it wasn't meant to be. I know this PC was 100% operational when it left my hands, I am certainly not blaming the guy who bought it. It just seems like this is just going to continue to get uglier..... The guy who bought it has virtually no PC knowledge, so I may be better off getting it back, reloading the OS, fully testing it it and selling it to someone else (of course, only after I am 110% confident it is stable and there are 0 issues)...

 

[low_psi]

I basically tried everything under the sun, including talking the buyer thru reinstalling Windows. Issue resurfaced within 30 seconds while running Valley Benchmark. Had him send me the Sapphire R9-280 video card. Put it in my newly built rig, and crashed on the first attempt running Valley Benchmark. Mi visually inspected the card, and I don't see any physical damage. So I opened up a ticket with Sapphire technical service. It's only 3-4 months old, so it's covered under warranty. I just hope their warranty dept is fairly quick. I hate the fact I sold this guy my old machine and he is having these problems, and now has to wait for the card to be warrantied......