Radeon HD 7950 crashes all the time, CPU's integrated graphics run perfectly fine

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Nodokk

Honorable
Sep 19, 2013
5
0
10,510
So, I'm extremely frustrated at this point. I've spent most of the last 14 hours trying to figure out what is going on with my graphics card that causes it to freak out and crash whenever I try to do almost anything, and sometimes even when I'm doing nothing but browsing tech help sites. I've fully uninstalled and reinstalled my drivers, reseated the graphics card in both of the PCI-E slots available, made sure it wasn't overheating (which it shouldn't since it says the GPU load is at 0% at all times, at least for the dedicated card), checked the various display ports to make sure they're fine (HDMI works, VGA/DVI doesn't for some reason), cleaned the registry files just in case. I've tried virtually everything I can possibly think of to get this card working, but I am at a complete loss right now. Though admittedly I'm not an expert in any way, shape, or form so I could have (probably) missed something disgustingly obvious

One weird thing is both the integrated and the dedicated graphics show up in the Device Manager which I thought might be an issue, but don't know how to deal with. Maybe my graphics card still isn't being detected for some reason though it does show up in every system spec analysis thingamajig I've used.

Well, anyways, I hope someone here can help because I am beyond aggravated. I just wanna play some video games with my dedicated graphics and not the comparatively crappy integrated graphics :(.

I'll leave my specs here just in case anyone sees anything that could cause a hardware conflict (though pcpartpicker.com didn't seem to think anything was awry) and thanks for whatever help y'all can offer.

Specs:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name NODOKK
System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model Z87X-D3H
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. F5, 5/16/2013
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name NODOKK
Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.89 GB
Available Physical Memory 5.93 GB
Total Virtual Memory 15.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory 13.7 GB
Page File Space 7.89 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
 
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Deleted member 217926

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^ This. Power supply make and model?

Is it a new build? It has to be relatively new. Has it ever worked correctly?
 
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Nodokk

Honorable
Sep 19, 2013
5
0
10,510
The PSU is a Corsair CX600 which according to wattage calculators should be more than enough to handle my machine. I think anyway. And yeah, it is about as new as it gets. I just built it on Friday but in my infinite idiocy didn't notice that the graphics card wasn't even being used as the primary display adapter. Oh and I guess it may have but like I said, I was inadvertently using the cpu integrated graphics until about ~16 hours ago.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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Not a big fan of the Corsair CX due to cheap Chinese made capacitors but yeah it should handle a single HD 7950 fine. Do you by chance have access to another computer you can test the card in? It could very well be a defective card.

Since you tried both PCI-E slots that pretty much rules out a bad motherboard.

Do you have a different power supply you can try?

Your copy of Windows is legit?

Might not hurt to run memtest if the other things don't find a fault. At least 8 hours to test 8GB fully.

http://www.memtest.org/
 
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Deleted member 217926

Guest
In BIOS you will want to change the primary display adaptor from onboard to PCI-E but that should not cause crashes.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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Oh yeah and this may sound dumb but you did plug in the 2 x 6pin PCI-E connectors from the power supply to the card correct?
 
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Nodokk

Honorable
Sep 19, 2013
5
0
10,510
The parts I have are pretty much all I have access to atm, and everything is legit and paid for with actual money. I'll do the memtest while I sleep, and I think the primary display adapter is already set to that but I'll make sure to check it out one more time just in case.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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Memory errors are one of the most common problems in new builds and can show up in all kinds of ways. My best guess would be a bad GPU though. It happens even with the best brands. You could always take it to a computer shop and get them to test it for you. I recommend a mom and pop type shop over a best buy geek squad type place. It will be probably be cheaper. If you can't isolate the problem take them the GPU and the power supply. Just call around and find a shop that can test the power supply as well as the card.

 
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Nodokk

Honorable
Sep 19, 2013
5
0
10,510
So, a little update. I ran memtest while I was sleeping and there weren't any errors with the memory. That rules that out, which is something I guess. As far as I can tell, it has to be some kind of an issue with the GPU itself since the only time I have any problems is when I'm actually using the graphics card as my display adapter. I'm going to try a friend's graphics card to make sure that it definitely is my card and not some issue with the PCI-E slot or something, though I don't think it is.

Also, one weird issue is that 90% of the time my computer just won't boot up if I'm connected to the graphics card. It's like it has some kind of issue displaying and/or being used period. Which I guess pretty handily proves that it's borked but I was trying to maintain some level of hope over here. Time to RMA this silly thing I guess.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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You did make sure you plugged in the cards 6pin PCI-E connectors correct? If so then yeah, borrow a card if you can. That will let you be sure it needs returning.

I didn't think it was the RAM but better to be sure.
 
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Nodokk

Honorable
Sep 19, 2013
5
0
10,510
Yeah, I'm gonna test the other card to make sure it isn't a faulty power supply since you can never really tell sometimes.

Anyways, thanks for the help. Sometimes cards just arrive defective, not much you can do about it I suppose.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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Yep. Even the highest quality parts can be DOA. RAM, power supplies, motherboards, hard drives you name it. About the only thing you don't see is a DOA CPU. It can happen but the percentage is very low.

I was doing a pretty much complete upgrade one time and ordered a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and 2 hard drives. I ended up having 1 dead hard drive and 1 dead SATA cable. That was fun to diagnose! Pulled my hair out for about 3 days figuring it out.

This is a bit dated now but still interesting if you want to click through it.

http://www.behardware.com/articles/881-1/components-returns-rates-7.html
 
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