Card dead after installing 15.5 drivers?

[machinebummer]

Hello I hope someone can help.
First specs


Win 7 64bit
i7-2600
16gb ram
HD7950
700w PSU

I'm wondering if my card has died after updating to AMDs recent 15.5 Beta drivers.

It seems my PC now cant detect my 7950 at all.

I installed the drivers, restarted and got a black screen. No Bios screen or anything else no option to get into safe mode. I could still hear some Windows sounds so connected to my VGA restarted and it worked.

But even after wiping all the drivers and reconnecting my 7950 I still get just a black screen with my monitors lights flashing. Ive tried lots of fixes for the 'black screen bug' but none have worked.

The 7950 now just cant seem to be detected by my PC. Device manager only shows the VGA adapter available.

I tried out my old 5770 and that works fine but I don't have a spare machine to test out the 7950 in.

I have a feeling its something really stupid and simple and I don't think my cards totally fried as I can still hear the Windows sounds and the fans spinning?
I was hoping to get a 390 when ever that is released but this has me thinking of going to the green side after a good few years with AMD


Is it fixable or should I start looking at a new card
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated guys!


Thanks

 

[DrBombcrater]

No BIOS display and not showing up in device manager means the card is dead. That it died after updating the drivers is just coincidence.

 

[McShave]

I know this sounds really stupid, but I have a few monitors. One of them seems to reset to VGA mode after a driver install. I have to physical press the on button (even then it still has a black screen), then press the mode button (which switches between vga/hdmi/dvi).

Sometimes you have to change the monitor settings, sounds dumb but it's worth a shot.

 

[chaosophy]

Does your 7950 have dual bios, with a switch on the side? Might be worth a try, if it does.

Remove the card and reset mobo bios?

Force the card as primary in BIOS, disable on-board. You should still be able to put the 5770 back in if you get locked out of the bios, or do another bios reset/cmos clear.

With the 7950 removed and when in Windows, try..

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/315539

At a command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
start devmgmt.msc
Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Manager before you can see devices that are not connected to the computer.

To remove the old/greeyed out entries under Display adapaters.

Though to be honest you need to get the card to at least show bios starting and the windows splash screen before worrying about device manager.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

well that's what you get for using non WHQL drivers. but that's the story with amd they are just useless at driver support.

 

[Mtom]

well that's what you get for using non WHQL drivers. but that's the story with amd they are just useless at driver support.

This is nothing to do with the driver, no driver can kill a card by just installing it.

 

[bemaniac]

DO NOT WORRY!

My 295X2 was dead after the install - no bios - nothing! I put it in another pc and booted it fine then put it back in mine and all was well.

Something fishy in these drivers but it's running them fine now - I really did think it was dead as a dodo after reseating it and rebooting many times but it really is something the drivers do to the state of the card that requires either it to be put in another machine to wake it up or another card to be put in your machine to reset the weirdness.

ps. Don't listen to anyone that tells you drivers cannot do this! A couple of leaked drivers this last 12 months have done this! Just do as I did and you should be back to gaming - Don't RMA it!

 

[Armageus]

well that's what you get for using non WHQL drivers. but that's the story with amd they are just useless at driver support.

Non whql is nothing to do with it, neither is amd's driver support- which works fine for plenty of people.

Purely coincidental that the card has died, no need to Start posting flamebait crap.

 

[gareth170]

remove the card then put it back in, it may just need a resit...

 

[Ayahuasca]

This is nothing to do with the driver, no driver can kill a card by just installing it.

Did you forget about those nVidia drivers that killed 4 series cards?

 

[fs123]

Things to try -

- check 6-8pin power connectors
- bios switch
- boot with onboard gpu and flash new bios
- put card in another pcie slot
- different hdmi cable or slot
- try another monitor
- try in another pc
- psu

 

[bemaniac]

Here come the naysayers. Just do what I said - any other card will do. Trust me the drivers are shonky.

 

[bemaniac]

Did you forget about those nVidia drivers that killed 4 series cards?

That was heat related. The 590s were killed by VRM temps too I think.

 

[Ayahuasca]

That was heat related. The 590s were killed by VRM temps too I think.

Yeah heat related caused by the drivers messing with the fan. There's also been drivers that have raised the voltage on cards.

Not saying this is the case with OP as it seems very unlikely or there would be more reports but it can happen.

 

[chaosophy]

Fellow forumite asks for help and within 5 posts it turns into another AMD Vs nVidia point scoring contest. Are there not enough threads to do that in already ?

This place really does suck sometimes.

 

[Final8y]

Did you forget about those nVidia drivers that killed 4 series cards?

And they were WHQL drivers, some users put far to much importance on WHQL.

 

[toon_mad]

No problems here installing latest beta drivers on my Sapphire R9 280X Toxic

 

[Kaapstad]

Yeah heat related caused by the drivers messing with the fan. There's also been drivers that have raised the voltage on cards.

Not saying this is the case with OP as it seems very unlikely or there would be more reports but it can happen.

The problem with the 590s was the first drivers allowed reviewers to raise the volts when overclocking which was unfortunate to say the least.

Unlike SweClockers I have still got my GTX 590s (and the free fire extinguisher that came with them ).

 

[Gerard]

Yeah heat related caused by the drivers messing with the fan. There's also been drivers that have raised the voltage on cards.

Not saying this is the case with OP as it seems very unlikely or there would be more reports but it can happen.

Those were WHQL drivers as well, so cyber mavs assertion that its because they were beta is laughable at best.

 

[machinebummer]

Thanks for the help everyone really appreciate it.

Going to try some of these now and will report back.

I've tried a few things already like taking it out and resitting, flicking the bios switch on the card ( not sure what that does though)
I've still not tried disabling the VGA but will do that now Following the steps Chaosophy posted cheers.
A friends just dropped his old machine off so going to try placing it in that to. Hopefully that may work as it did for bemaniac who also seemed to suffer from a similar problem.

Sorry for this turning into another ATI/Nvidia thing. I'm not convinced personally its a coincidence though. I've never overclocked it, never overheats. Was running perfectly fine, no artifacts in game or anything. I'd only updated to 14.12 a few weeks ago and that went fine.

I have had black screen problems when restarting after driver updates in the past but after a few mins and restarts it would work.

I'm still probably going to get a 3 series at the end of the month or when ever they finally get released so I still haven't switched teams yet (although this has tempted me!).

Thanks again everyone.