System turns off during boot after installing new XFX Radeon 7750

[mvdavid7]

This is my machine:

Seasonic SS-600HM PSU
ASUS P5K-e motherboard
Core 2 Duo

My old GeForce 8800 GT died and i bought the Radeon 7750 to replace it. When I put the new card in, my system will post but as it starts to boot into windows, the monitor goes black saying no signal detected. As far as i can tell, the machine never finishes booting since i cannot ping it.

I thought it might be a driver issue until i rebooted, went into the BIOS to make sure everything was fine, and then all of a sudden the monitor went black again, during the middle of the BIOS menu.

So I'm thinking overheating or a power issue. I have a support case with XFX in case it happens to be a faulty card, but I wanted to make sure i wasn't doing anything dumb. Is my power supply not enough for this card? Maybe the motherboard won't support it? I tried clearing the CMOS, but that didn't work either.

 

[Isaiah4110]

Very interesting. A couple questions (please forgive the simplicity) for verification:

How do you know that the old 8800 GT is dead for sure? (fan obviously clogged and stopped spinning, visible physical damage like swollen/popped capacitors, tested in another box, etc.)
Do you have another system in which you can test your new 7750?

You situation definitely sounds like an odd one... If I recall correctly, that card draws all the power it needs from the motherboard PCI slot.

To more specifically address your questions: That power supply should be good enough to handle your equipment and there should not be any compatibility issues between the card and motherboard. Do you have the most current BIOS update (version 1305)?

Disconnect everything from the motherboard except your CPU, RAM and GPU (no HDD, DVD, front panel USB, sound cards, etc.) and try powering on. Go into BIOS and look around like you were doing before and see if the problem returns. If you have a spare monitor available then try hooking that up as well.

 

[mvdavid7]

Thanks for your reply.

I don't have another system to test either of the cards in right now. The reason why I think the GeForce is dead is because whenever i boot up with it, the display (either of my two monitors) is full of lines, overall distorted. With the new card, even if it is for just 30 seconds, the monitors are normal. Aside from that, the GeForce physically looks fine.

I don't have the latest BIOS version, i have 1012.

I tried disconnecting everything except the CPU, RAM and GPU like you said, but the same thing occurs.

 

[Isaiah4110]

Ok, and I'm assuming you also don't have another graphics card with which to test your other components, correct? What happens if you use just one of your monitors? (if the behavior is the same than try only the other monitor, make sure you don't use the same monitor power supply cable when you switch monitors as well.

It sounds like you have two options left then:
1) Try updating your BIOS to the most current version. This may be a bit risky because I'm fairly confident the update will take longer than 30 seconds and we don't know what is happening when the monitors go blank. If the computer is actually losing power then you could "permanently" damage your BIOS.

2) And this is the much safer option, I'm assuming you bought the new card less than 30-90 days ago. If this is the case then, depending on where you live, you should be able to return it to the store where you purchased it (Best Buy?) and exchange it for a brand new model. This is much more beneficial than going through XFX at this point because you will still have the original manufacturer warranty. If you go through the warranty service with XFX then you will likely get a refurbished card with a 90 day warranty. Brand new XFX cards typically come with a lifetime warranty, but most companies only provide you with one replacement. If the second card exhibits the same behavior as the first then it is unlikely that the 8800 GT GPU is your [only] problem right now.

Please let me know how this goes for you as I'm happy to continue offering advice.

 

[mvdavid7]

Best answer selected by mvdavid7.

 

[mvdavid7]

I ended up getting an XFX Radeon HD 6670, and it seems to be running fine. I'm not sure if the 7750 I got was bad, or my motherboard just wouldn't support it, but i found the 6670 for a lot cheaper, and it should be fine for what i need.

Thanks for the help

 

[Isaiah4110]

You're welcome. I'm glad you were able to find a resolution.