Project Ignorant Bliss

Zeeflyboy · 26 Jan 2016 at 12:57

While I'm draining anyway... heres a quick pic of my drain point on the underside:

And all drained out... all that hard work getting rid of bubbles for nowt. sigh.

Got my hands on a small PC - unfortunately it's half height so I had to take the motherboard mostly out in order to get stuff to fit. I also had to use the PSU from ignorant bliss since the tiny little thing in this pc didn't have the PCIE power connectors... not ideal since it doesn't rule out the PSU but since it checked out with the PSU tester I doubt that's at fault.

Anyway, neither card worked in this gloriously sexy rig... the only thing I haven't done is go into updating the bios or playing with settings in this machine. Cards display the same on/off/on behaviour though and no image is forthcoming.

So, am I to conclude that I have 2 dead cards?

The next question really if we accept that hypothesis is why! I'm now concerned that something has damaged them in some way... but given that my wiring checks out on the PSU tester it couldn't be that could it? I'm now paranoid that if I RMA the cards and plug them back in, if something is responsible for damaging them then it'll happen again?

psykix · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:15

I'd be more inclined to think it is either a PSU issue, or more specifically the power cables to your GPU's.

Try a different PSU or the original PCie GPU power cables that came with the PSU.

Zeeflyboy · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:32

Funny you should say that....

I just found this thread. He has a very similar setup overall including the exact same PSU and he has the exact same issue I have.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2676060/build-boot-geforce-980.html

And he fixed it by using a new PSU.

Now my problem is that I don't have a spare PSU with PCI-E power connectors so the common link between that test rig and ignorant bliss is the PSU... perhaps under load it isn't supplying the card?

OJ46 · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:38

I wouldn't touch a Corsair PSU with a bargepole as the quality has, IMHO, gone down massively in the last couple of years. I had my last one fail on me after about 12 months and a mate got through 3 of them in just over 18 months... Definitely worth trying with a different PSU!

jbh110tdi · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:41

It could be a possibility. was the PSU bought from OCuk?
you could nip to a high street shop and buy a PSU to test this out but it is starting to point that direction. just a pity the other pc doesnt hae a better PSU in it.

jbh110tdi · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:43

OJ46 said:
I wouldn't touch a Corsair PSU with a bargepole as the quality has, IMHO, gone down massively in the last couple of years. I had my last one fail on me after about 12 months and a mate got through 3 of them in just over 18 months... Definitely worth trying with a different PSU!

Im using a Corsair CX750M at present but Ive recently been looking at other options. but touch wood a year down the line it hasn't given me any problems.

psykix · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:53

I had a Corsair PSU die on me also, and to add insult to injury, the Corsair warranty wanted me to ship it to Holland. That was gonna cost circa £40 so I leaned on the retailer (not OCUK) and they reluctantly refunded it. Not bought a Corsair PSU since!

Zeeflyboy · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:56

Ok well I just ordered an EVGA supernova P2 1000W

(and an Asus Maximus VIII Formula... whoops...)

I'll deal with returning the Corsair at a later date if it proves to be the fault.

Cenedd · 26 Jan 2016 at 13:58

Did the cards come with any molex to PCI-E convertors that you could try? Or does the man-drawer have any?

Trying · 26 Jan 2016 at 14:01

If it does turn out to be the psu...that may account for why the power led also showed up as a problem when going through post stages.

I had thought of one other option to try...but that was before you drained and dismantled your build... maybe next time.... I mean, hopefully there won't be a next time

Zeeflyboy · 26 Jan 2016 at 14:05

psykix said:
I
Try a different PSU or the original PCie GPU power cables that came with the PSU.

Missed that bit, but I have actually been using the original cables for 99% of this testing. Both sets of cables also check out on the PSU tester.

Zeeflyboy · 26 Jan 2016 at 14:06

Trying said:
If it does turn out to be the psu...that may account for why the power led also showed up as a problem when going through post stages.

I had thought of one other option to try...but that was before you drained and dismantled your build... maybe next time.... I mean, hopefully there won't be a next time

haha, hit me with it just in case this isn't the problem?

Cenedd said:
Did the cards come with any molex to PCI-E convertors that you could try? Or does the man-drawer have any?

Nah not got anything like that lying around... The new PSU will arrive tomorrow anyway though.

dawnyworld · 26 Jan 2016 at 14:30

psykix said:
I had a Corsair PSU die on me also, and to add insult to injury, the Corsair warranty wanted me to ship it to Holland. That was gonna cost circa £40 so I leaned on the retailer (not OCUK) and they reluctantly refunded it. Not bought a Corsair PSU since!

Corsair now have a uk office to send returns back to

Trying · 26 Jan 2016 at 14:32

I was going to suggest you instal Win 7 64 bit in another partition, just to be sure it wasn't Win 10 being difficult.
It isn't like it would have to be activated, as it would only be needed for a short trial.

It still wouldn't account as to why the cards won't output video prior to win start though.
That's the bit that puzzles me....given surely two cards can't be doa.

Zeeflyboy · 26 Jan 2016 at 14:43

Yeah but it didn't start even when it was a total blank slate with no OS's installed... I really don't think this can be software related.

Depending on when the PSU arrives tomorrow, we'll either find out then or the next day because I have to go to work (booooo). Just keep your fingers crossed for me that is the problem! It seems like an awfully big co-incidence that someone with the same PSU has seemingly the exact same issue and fixed it by using a different PSU.

dawnyworld - that's good to know in case I have to return this one!

psykix · 26 Jan 2016 at 15:09

dawnyworld said:
Corsair now have a uk office to send returns back to

Ah.. that's good to know

TechMinerUK · 26 Jan 2016 at 17:57

Damn that is bad news about the possibility of a dead GPU, not sure what it could be but I hope you solve it (I know how annoying it is to have down time during PC maintenance)

Hope you figure it out

Zeeflyboy · 27 Jan 2016 at 13:08

sigh... I really though this was going to be the answer.

New PSU (EVGA supernova P2 1000w) and even a new motherboard (Asus Maximus VIII Formula) and yet still no dice.

So, the only thing I haven't tried is a different GPU because unfortunately my friend wasn't able to make it over with his.... but when you've ruled out everything else I guess there's no other conclusion than somehow I have 2 dead GPUs?

So I've tried two different z170 mobos with the same ram and CPU, but each card individually... I've also tried each card in an older mobo with different CPU and ram. I've tried 2 different PSUs.

Anything I've missed here or is it time to suck it up and RMA the cards and just sit around waiting for the replacements?

jbh110tdi · 27 Jan 2016 at 13:26

only other thing I could think of is trying a dvi cable if you have one.

Ive seen a few posts on other forums where folk are not able to get the hdmi port working but it will work with dvi or display port

Cenedd · 27 Jan 2016 at 13:28

These are the items involved:

CPU - tried
RAM - tried
Motherboard - tried
PSU - tried
GFX card
Cable
Monitor

Is it worth trying a different cable and/or different monitor? Possibly even a different type of connection - DVI instead of HDMI? VGA even?

Normally when you have one of those cards installed, the motherboard disables the onboard graphics. I think there's a setting for whether to initialise the PCI-E graphics first or the onboard first. Worth checking that.

Also worth seeing (ruling out) whether it's a legacy/UEFI bios issue. I'm sure I read that some cards don't have UEFI bios. Worth turning Fast Boot and Secure Boot off and try turning legacy boot and option bios options on. It's a stab in the dark....but nothing to lose.