RX 580 suddenly stopped working after I upgraded my CPU cooler...??!

[peanutismint]

I'm trying to keep a (very!) ageing PC alive that I built in 2012.... Most recent upgrade was a Radeon RX 580 8GB in early 2020 and it's running very nicely. I dual boot Windows and MacOS (Hackintosh) if that makes any difference.

Today I decided to upgrade my crappy stock Intel CPU cooler to a nice Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L. Installation went fine; the cooler is second hand and sounds like an outboard boat engine but hopefully that will go away....!

Anyway, after I got it installed I turned on the machine and I had no video output from my GPU's HDMI port. It was the same port I'd been using just an hour previously. I could tell the system was still booting fine, albeit headless with no video output, so I swapped the HDMI to the on-board graphics of my motherboard (a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H) and managed to get to my BIOS. Everything else looked fine, but now I can't boot into MacOS (because it doesn't play nicely with Intel integrated graphics), and when I boot to Windows 10 my RX580 is nowhere to be found in device manager.....?!

I have no recollection of any static discharge, any bumps or knocks, or any kind of wiring/short circuit issue that might have killed the Radeon. I've re-seated it and it's making good contact with the socket. I've re-seated the power leads and everything looks good. Its fans spin up as normal and even the little 'Sapphire' logo lights up in RGB. I tried disconnecting everything in case my 500W power supply wasn't feeding it enough with the addition of the new cooler but it didn’t work. I also took off the new cooler and returned everything back to how it was before but I still couldn’t get any video out of the card.

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen before? My next steps are to try the other video outputs of the card, but my monitor only has HDMI and I've tried both HDMI slots on the card, as well as two different cables, same result. Onboard video works fine with my HDMI cable so I know it's good.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to troubleshoot the GPU please let me know. I have no idea what might have happened but I really hope my 'new' GPU isn't suddenly dead.....

 

[Grim5]

If Windows doesn't detect the card you're probably out of luck, best thing is try to use the card in other slots and hopefully that works - if not maybe a new gpu is needed

 

[Marak]

Check in the BIOS if its set to use PCIE or onboard graphics. I recently had a similar issue which I traced to the BIOS resetting when a change was made.

Also try a full BIOS reset to defaults.

 

[Captain_Bosh]

Check in the BIOS if its set to use PCIE or onboard graphics. I recently had a similar issue which I traced to the BIOS resetting when a change was made.

Also try a full BIOS reset to defaults.

+1

If you have checked all the cables I'd be doing a full bios reset to see if it resolves it. Also test in another system if you have that as an option.

 

[Grim5]

Check in the BIOS if its set to use PCIE or onboard graphics. I recently had a similar issue which I traced to the BIOS resetting when a change was made.

Also try a full BIOS reset to defaults.

Yep try flashing the bios on mobo and gpu

jsy2cents had this issue while doing rtx3080 overclocking where suddenly the system stopped booting and the card wasn't detected and re- flashing the bios fixed it

 

[peanutismint]

Thanks all; I’ve only just learned about flashing the GPU bios... Would that even be possible if the card isn’t even showing up in device manager?

As for setting the graphics preference in my Gigabyte BIOS, I have it set to prioritise the ‘PEG’ graphics (which I think is Pci Express Graphics...?!) but I don’t wanna disable the integrated GPU because then if my GPU isn’t working I won’t be able to get back into my BIOS or re-enable the iGPU....

 

[mickyflinn]

You cant flash a gpu bios if its not detected you need to try the gpu in another pc to check it works.

Is your new cooler overtight ?

 

[phil-k]

I could also be a faulty power cable to the GPU, especially if you have removed the GPU to put the new cooler on, I had this a few years ago where the connections at one end of the power cable where it goes into the GPU connector didn't have a very good connection, I replaced the cable and all was fine

 

[Destination]

Have you removed and reseated the card and replugged its power at both cpu end and gfx card end, its likely just dislodged a bit when you were fitting, and a reseat will sort it.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Funnily enough, I had a minor scare with my own RX580 in a sort of similar situation a while back after I changed the stock fans on the GPU and also snipped the case fan grilles for modding it for better airflow and noise. Apparently some of the metallic fragments/dust from the grilles when I snipped them flew around and (some, somehow) managed to lodge itself around where the display and hdmi ports were and causing a short (need to move stuff further away next time I guess when I do something like this and contain them better). This caused the GPU to not function when the system was reassembled. Had to take the GPU out, and clean it out and used a straw to blow through around the ports and connections there to make sure nothing remained there that shouldn't be there, and it's back working fine afterwards.

 

[Benass]

If u want to check the gpu, u have two options. Good workin pc were u stick gpu in and see if u have video.

If that fails, u can take a multimeter and mesure power rails. (more complicated but still easy enoght) if u have power rails up and runing , then u can prepare for funeral.

 

[peanutismint]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I have a new PSU coming today so I can rule that out, but one thing I will be checking first is that no dust/anything else foreign got blown into anywhere it shouldn’t have when I blew out the card with compressed air, as I have a feeling it could be something as simple as Meddling Monk’s similar issue..... will report back soon!

 

[peanutismint]

Ok so update - new PSU didn't fix anything, neither did inspecting the ports, checking for dust, trying the DisplayPort or updating my motherboard's BIOS... I'm afraid it might just be 'dead'. And of course, Sapphire's customer support were useless and just said "yeah it probably just went bad". Like, it's a GPU, it's not milk. Take some ownership.....!

Anyone have any further ideas? I've taken it apart to inspect visually but can't see any obvious problems....

Pics here: https://imgur.com/gallery/g9BY9nX

 

[Grim5]

Ok so update - new PSU didn't fix anything, neither did inspecting the ports, checking for dust, trying the DisplayPort or updating my motherboard's BIOS... I'm afraid it might just be 'dead'. And of course, Sapphire's customer support were useless and just said "yeah it probably just went bad". Like, it's a GPU, it's not milk. Take some ownership.....!

Anyone have any further ideas? I've taken it apart to inspect visually but can't see any obvious problems....

Pics here: https://imgur.com/gallery/g9BY9nX

You've tried the card in other pcie slots already? Have you flashed the bios on the card yet?

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

I'd try reseating the CPU, clean the pins under it. If the only thing you've changed is the cooler, and CPU will be responsible for those pcie lanes?

With my old RX480 I had a similar issue once, but I could always see it on device manager.

 

[Robi_uk]

I am sure you have already thought of it, but can try on another PC if you have access to one?

 

[welshrat]

sounds like pretty bad luck, does the card have a bios switch ? I had a weird issue with my sons card the other day rx470, loads of artifacts on screen, I couldnt shift them no matter what and assumed the card was dead, then I switch the bios, booted it and then switched it back and it has been fine for the last 3 weeks.

 

[peanutismint]

You've tried the card in other pcie slots already? Have you flashed the bios on the card yet?

Yep, tried the card in another PCIe slot, and tried another PCIe card in the same slot (it worked). I tried flashing the BIOS but the AMD BIOS tool won't even detect the card, so I'm guessing that's going to be a problem.....

I'd try reseating the CPU, clean the pins under it. If the only thing you've changed is the cooler, and CPU will be responsible for those pcie lanes?

Thanks, that's a good idea, although I have tried another GPU in the same PCIe slot and it worked, so I'm guessing the problem lies in this card

I am sure you have already thought of it, but can try on another PC if you have access to one?

Yeah I will try, if I can find someone else with a computer.

sounds like pretty bad luck, does the card have a bios switch ?

The card does in fact have a BIOS switch, but I've already tried booting with the switch in both positions and had no luck.

 

[Grim5]

Next step would involve using a multimeter to test the various components on the pcb to check if they all work - but this will be going way above the heads of most people here, you'd need to ask someone who's an expert on that or ask someone to test it for you

 

[peanutismint]

Ok thanks, I tried cleaning my GPU board with alcohol to remove some of the old grime, and also re-seated my CPU, but still the same lack of video output.

I also noticed whilst re-seating my CPU that a few of the pins look a little bent (it's slightly more noticeable at certain angles than others).

I'm usually very careful with the CPU but could this be the cause of the issue? To re-iterate, even with these potentially damaged pins, my PC still boots and runs fine on both internal graphics and also using my older Radeon 7850 graphics card...