Graphics card issue

[AdamScott85]

Hey guys.

So on my son's PC that I built for him a number of years ago, he has been using an old R9 290 with a Gelid cooler that I fit on quite some time ago now. This is an odd one but, this has been working fine for him until about a month ago. The screen went black when installing drivers and I thought it was the driver, but after trying many many of the drivers we have been unable to install a driver onto the card. Weird thing is, I have formatted the pc a number of times and the card is fine up until the point that any driver is installed, always midway through the installation the screen goes black and only a restart gets the pc back up. So it is stuck in an endless loop without the option to install any of the drivers. What I have tried: The card is also picked in device manager as a generic card and not a r9 290, so this makes me think its knackered too.

- A different graphics card to prove that the issue is not the OS.
- A different window install, win7 and win10 versions.
- Using DDU and properly removing drivers to try and install new or older drivers in safemode.
- A differnt cable and a different connection on the back of the card.
- A different monitor.
- Reseating the cooler, changing the paste, reseating all headsinks and replacing the pads.
- Card in a different PC, still not recognised correctly.

So at this point it looks like the card is just a paperweight and it's no longer usable. So I replaced the card last week but I can't help but to feel that the card isn't knackered because without the drivers installed there is no problem, obviously this means it's not usable for gaming. So now I am out of ideas, the card seems to have an issue that is unfixable but the fact that there has been no display crashes I am not sure.

Any ideas guys for things I could try that I haven't tried already? The card is good enough for what my son does and although I have replaced the card, I still would like to get to the bottom of this.

Cheers.

 

[AdamScott85]

Anyone any ideas please?

 

[varkanoid]

I think you can conclude from your extensive testing its faulty. Is this the version that has twin bios ? Does it have the switch on the card to select between the two ? It will be very tiny. I would check just to make sure its not been switched to a BIOS on the card that has somehow got corrupt. Could be that you caught the switch somehow and its pointing at a corrupt BIOS. Hence switching it the other way gets it working again. Maybe if it is twin bios flash the bios ?

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmarks,15.html

 

[Journey]

What you describe is the classic sign of the card failing due to a memory/GPU issue, where over time the hot and cold cycles mean that the solder on the BGA can become fractured and stop the card functioning as expected.

You can try the oven trick to bring it back to life, for either a good long while, or just a few weeks depending on how badly the part is not connecting, and which part it is.

If you don't want to risk it, then my suggestion is sell it to me.

 

[AdamScott85]

With it working without the drivers being installed it is a little odd and shows that it still does have some life, not sure if it has the dual bios because I changed the stock cooler to an aftermarket gelid cooler a long time ago, will have a look tonight when I get home from work.The cooler that was originally on it did look like the one posted in the like, slighty different though.

Thanks guys.

 

[iBSOD]

With it working without the drivers being installed it is a little odd and shows that it still does have some life, not sure if it has the dual bios because I changed the stock cooler to an aftermarket gelid cooler a long time ago, will have a look tonight when I get home from work.The cooler that was originally on it did look like the one posted in the like, slighty different though.

Thanks guys.

Usually when a gpu is borked (IME) it may still output signal without drivers installed since its just acting as a pass-thru

Assuming its out of warranty, I'd give the oven fix a try

 

[AdamScott85]

I tried switching the bios last week without luck, still the same thing when attempting to install drivers. So with the oven, do I need to completely strip the card down and remove all the heatsinks and pads too as well as the chips? Sorry I have never done this.

 

[Journey]

I tried switching the bios last week without luck, still the same thing when attempting to install drivers. So with the oven, do I need to completely strip the card down and remove all the heatsinks and pads too as well as the chips? Sorry I have never done this.

Take off the heatsink fan, and any plastic parts from the card only. Plenty of video online showing you what to do/how to do it. Don't be removing any chips!!!

 

[AdamScott85]

Oh ok that is easy, will try it tonight and let you guys know, thanks