Sapphire R9 290 Sudden Death/early failure in an entirely new build

[Stonework]

Hello Dear Tom´s Hardware community,


I got a rather massive problem with my Graphics Card, It is a Radeon R9 290 Tri-X Card. I was doing Desktop Work when suddenly the screen went black and the "no signal" message from my monitor appeared.

First up my specs, it is (as mentioned in the title) a brandnew system and actually a pretty good one as well:

Spoiler

CPU:
Intel Core i5 4670k

GPU:
R9 290 Tri-X

Mainboard:
Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5

RAM:
G.Skill RibjawsX DDR3-1600 CL7 8GB

PSU:
Be Quiet Straight Power E9 CM 680 Watts

Storage:
Samsung 840 Evo

CPU cooler:
Noctua NH-D14

what I checked and found out so far:

Spoiler

I checked and there is no problem with the PSU, it´s got plenty of power -- as everything worked perfectly before even with EVERYTHING at 100% load, it is a rather good PSU and I am using both PCIe rails.

It is not related to driver issues or the OS -- as again -- everything worked perfectly and there´s also no signal even before the OS starts.

It´s not a mainboard problem, as it detects the expansion card.

It didn´t overheat as I stressed everything to 100% and the card never exceedet ~70 degrees Celsius.

There is no broken capacitor or power phase as I would´ve heard that and I would be able to see it.

The DVI cable works perfectly with the Onboard graphics

The monitor -- BenQ XL2720Z -- is also not the problem as it´s only 9 days old and I´m looking at it right now.

It also didn´t short out with the heatsink or the fan clips as I ensured that there is no contact and sufficient space between them.

A total power loss is also not the case as the GPU´s fans are running.

Now as you can see there is nothing that would typically lead to such things like Software issues, user stupidity, ripple or not enough power.

It seems like the GPU is detected by the motherboard as the PCIe connect LED lights up but the OS doesn´t find it, Sapphire TriXX doesn´t find it, my monitor dfoesn´t find it.

There´s also no problem of "too much usage strain" or overloading as it´s only two days old and it didn´t do anything except some minutes furmark and 2 3DMark tests.

I really dodn´t know what else to try. It pretty much seems to be an early failure which requires RMA but nonetheless I am posting this here just to make sure I didn´t overlook anything or if anyone knows a solution.
I am not able to test the card inside another computer as there is none.


P.S. I won´t try things like removing the heatsink or so as the card is brandnew and it would be smarter to send it back instead.

i´d really appreciate some answers of other people

P.P.S. I am sorry for possibly broken language or grammar errors as it´s veeery late over here right now

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

Have you updated the video drivers? If the graphics card is indeed bad, then you could either RMA it or return it for a refund and get a different one. I would recommend a GTX 780 if you decide to change to a different graphics card.

 

[Stonework]

Hi and thanks for such a quick answer but,

It isn´t a driver issue as the card is actually doing nothing at all right now except spinning its fans. If I connect it to my screen and start the computer there is nothing happening, no BIOS screen, nothing. If I switch to the onboard solution everything works. The event log doesn´t sho any errors or warnings either so I could safely say it´s not related to the OS. The current driver is the lates stable release Catalyst 14.4.

The longer this problem exists the more I think that I´ll really need to RMA it for a replacement.

A 780 would be a bit difficult as they are all way more eyxpensive at my retailer with the cheapest one still being over 100 Euros more expensive.

 

[Stonework]

A little status update

There was the possibility that my PCIe Slots (CPU and chipset ones) are broken.
Today I borrowed a Graphics card from someone to test this. The results are that ALL slots work fine.

So it is indeed the graphics card that is faulty, that´s why I sent it back yesterday to receive a new one.

Since this topic is done and since there was only one other user responding I´m just gonna choose Joseph DeGarmo´s answer as solution.