GPU no video output - First Build - Going crazy

BigEric420 · Dec 2, 2013

Okay so.. i have been scouring the internet and tom's forums for an answer to my problem, and i cant seem to find it. Basically, this is my first full blown, all out, from scratch in the kitchen, build. I have taken college classes for A+ and built a couple PC's in class, and ive done massive amounts of research but i have hit a wall and im about to go crazy.

Anyways.. I purchased all of my components through various sources and everything seems to work properly until i hook up the fancy new Sapphire 7970 OC w/ boost that i got used on Amazon (for a killer deal) that was supposedly "Used - Like New" and it doesent output any video from any of the ports (DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI) i dont have a Display Port cable though. I verified everything else works properly by using my old dell's Radeon HD 2400XT and everything works properly. I also used the free motherboard i got when i bought my CPU from microcenter and the onboard graphics work on that mobo, aswell as the 2400xt, but the 7970 does not output video yet again. Also on the new (like.. i picked it up on black friday) new Asus mobo has led lights durring POST and when the 7970 is connected it illuminates a red led and wont boot. The fans spin on everything and even on the 7970, but the hard drive stops and HDD LED on the case stops and it doesent boot. Also when i only have 1 out of the 2 8pin power connectors on the GPU connected, it seems to boot passed POST, but there's still no video output and the fans spin up on the gpu too (the mobo led is still lit too). I also connected both of my gpu's and when both 8pin power connectors are plugged into the 7970 it doesent fully boot, like i said before(also the vga led is lit again), and also like i said before if i remove one of the 8pin connectors it does boot and falls back onto the 2400xt s-video for output(the mobo vga led finally turns off). When this happens it does not show the 7970 in the device manager, only the 2400xt.

When i get home from class later today I am going to try and see if the 7970 will fit in my HP case and possibly run with my FM1 socket A6-3600 APU but i doubt the card will fit in that case (and my wife will hit me if i start ripping apart the only fully working desktop lol)

Lastly, i have already contacted the seller through Amazon that i bought the card, and have not heard back from him yet. But Amazon will handle everything if he does not respond to me by tomorrow 12/3/13 EOB technically. I just want to make sure i cover EVERY single troubleshooting thing possible before i ship this back, mainly because i am impatient and want to play my brand new copy of BF4 and SC-HOTS i bought on black friday.

Any help or advice is appreciated greatly. I am open to any suggestions and questions about everything.

Also, as a side note, i do have a fresh copy of Win8.1 64bit that i installed 2 days before i picked up the Asus mobo when i tested the Gigabyte mobo, psu, cpu w/ stock cooler. I dont think this makes a difference as it doesent move passed POST when the 7970 is connected though. The new Win8.1 boots fine with the 2400xt on the Asus mobo, and boots fine with onboard hd3000 and HD2400xt on the Gigabyte mobo too.

CPU - FX-6300
cooler- CM Hyper 212 Evo
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC W/ boost (newer version w/ 2 8pin power)
backup GPU - Radeon HD 2400XT (used for testing only, and currently only working gpu)
Mobo - Asus m5a99fx pro r2.0
backup Mobo - Gigabyte GA 78LMT-USB3 (used for testing only, giving to friend for his new build)
PSU - Corsair CX600M
RAM - Generic Korean HP 1333 2x4gb DDR3 (from old pc, will replace after newyear)
Case - Zalman Z9 pro w/ 4 zalman 120mm 2 CM sickleflow 120mm & 1 CM 212 evo fan

inzone · Dec 2, 2013

I see that you have been going crazy trying to figure this thing out and if by chance you have forgot to mention something that you have already tested then I can give a few ideas.
Your PSU has two 6+2 Pci-e cables and there is a chance that one may be defective ? Do both cables do the same thing when connected one at a time ?
Take the card out and reseat it making sure that the computer is unplugged at the time.

The card being used may not be in working condition and could be the reason that the seller is not responding.

BigEric420 · Dec 2, 2013

inzone :

I am not sure if i actually used each of the 6+2 pin connectors one at a time on each port or just flipped them in general. the way the cords are, since their only a week old or so, are very stiff so its hard to get them both plugged in and i think when i finally got them formed in the right position i just didn't think about that lol. I will definatlly try that after class this afternoon. I did for a fact reseat the card in all 4 pcie lanes and to no avail. Probably have put it in the main slot about 6 times in the passed couple days while testing different things and switching from card to card. As of right now, the 7970 is in the first main pcie slot nearest the cpu and blocks the 2nd, and the 2400xt is in the 3rd, so from that i know that the first and third pcie slot on the mobo work for sure because those have had the 2400xt working with video output =)

inzone · Dec 2, 2013

If the clock is ticking down to the end of the second day and in reality it's been four days then it's not looking too good for the seller.

cst1992 · Dec 2, 2013

I personally think he sold you a faulty card for a cheap price -- but it's just my opinion and you should test the card fully before sending it back.

BigEric420 · Dec 2, 2013

Well i messaged him with questions before i bought the card and he told me he had 2 of the same card, which he had 2 he sold on amazon, that were both in perfect working order crossfired together.. so... yea......

The CX600m was bought brand new from best buy (on sale and with a $10 coupon)(i like sales lol) so i would hope the psu or even the cable for that matter is not the problem. But you never know. Also do you think that the 600w is enough to power this system?

cst1992 · Dec 2, 2013

should be fine.

BigEric420 · Dec 2, 2013

Thanks for the input so far, my next class is about to start so ill try the power cable thing and reseat and a couple other things in a couple hours when i get home and give you and update later this afternoon.

BigEric420 · Dec 2, 2013

Okay so this first pic just shows that both 8pins are connected and the red vga led is on. there is no video output right now and also the pc has not booted, it stopped after the light came on. you can tell when it actually boots becausethe fans pick up and spin at max rpm untill it gets to the windows login. right now where this pic is the fans start and stay idleing low and quiet.

The next pic is with only 1 8pin connector. You can see the mobo vga led is still illuminated, yet the pc boots fully as the fans get loud and the HDD led on the case flashes untill it gets to the login screen for windows, which again is when the fans slow back down to idle speed again.

This pic shows both the 7970 and the 2400xt connected and the 7970 has both 8pin power connections. It may be hard to tell but the vga led is still lit under the larger card(you can kinda see it through the left fan) and it does not fully boot again. The fans stay quiet and idle low and the HDD led doesent flicker,

So this last pic is what i have running right now while typing this. Both card connected but only 1 8pin connected. The PC boots fully like it did without the 2400xt.and only 1 8pin. I did notice that with both cards it seems to run through all of the post led lights on the mobo twice. after the run through and the vga lights the 2nd time it turns off and the fans ramp up and it boots and puts video through the s-video connected from the 2400xt to my tv. And since it is using the 2400xt as the main card the vga light turns off, but the 7970s fans still spin.and does not show in the device manager.

In conclusion of this troubleshooting, I did call a local repair shop, Altex, and talked to my A+ professor today about the issue, and they all said roughly the same thing. The local shop guy told me "its probably a bad card". The altex guy and my professor both told me that the power supply shouldn't be an issue and that it was also probably a bad card. Also i dont think i mentioned but i did try switching the power connectors around in many different ways and it ended the same way every time.

If anyone else has any other suggestions though, im all ears. But i gave the guy until tomorrow to respond to me so after work tomorrow im gonna file a claim with amazon unless he responds. Hopefully they can get me my money back asap and i can order another card soon.

cst1992 · Dec 3, 2013

Let's see what happens.
Good luck to you.

BigEric420 · Dec 7, 2013

Okay so.. I have to update this and ask more advice as I have come upon more troubleshooting and hit another wall.

So I found out that the card works fine. We found someone to test the card in their system and it works fine with his machine. During this session we put the 7970 in his case and connected the 2 6+2 connections from his corsair tx750. We also put his MSI 7950 in my case and it only uses 2 6pin power. And his card worked in my machine... So after that I ended up taking the cx600m back to best buy and exchanged it for the ONLY other PSU they had, which happened to be a corsair cx750m. When I get home I hook it all up and bam.. Nothing again. It has 2 modular ports instead of the 1 that the 600m has for pcie power. I've tried each of them with the 1 cord that splits to 2 6+2 and I also tried 1 6+2 from each port on the PSU and it still won't boot passed post.

Before work today I did an out of box setup with my other gigabyte board and no video from that either. When I disconnected the power from the 7979 the onboard VGA kicked in on that mobo so... Here I am at work. Frustrated and annoyed with what it might be now.

Also last night I updated the bios on the Asus mobo and that didn't work either. Any help after this would help a ton because I don't wanna have to sendthis card back if iI don't have to. I've filed the claim with amazon but I would like to withdraw it and keep it if possible.

Lastly I don't know if the corsair CX modular PSUs are the problem here. We did not try his tx750 in my machine or my cx600 in his machine while he was over because both of the cables were nice and tidy. And now with this cx750m doing the same thing as the 600. I'm just lost.

cst1992 · Dec 7, 2013

Wait a second.
You say that the 2400xt (or whatever) card that you have as a backup GPU runs fine but the 7970 does not?
So did you try uninstalling the drivers with 2400xt installed and installed drivers afresh with the 7970 installed?
It's clear that nothing is wrong with either card or with your PC.

inzone · Dec 7, 2013

From your trouble shooting efforts it appears that your issue is related to the power supply since his video card works in your machine and your video card works in his machine you've established that the video card and motherboard do work. The only thing that is standing out is the power supply.

BigEric420 · Dec 7, 2013

Yea I uninstalled the drivers and installed the 7970 drivers but it doesn't really matter since it won't even get passed post with the 7970 installed. And when itfalls back to the 2400 it auto installs the base drivers each time.. But yea. I might just take the cx750m back and go to altex or Fry's.. Or micro center or something. I live in Houston so we have everything lol. I'm sure I can find a better PSU .. Maybe even a non modular one for about 90-100 bux.

Only other thing it could be other than the PSU no comparable is a mobo not comparable. But his MSI 7950 has the exact same PCB and chip. I think they do at least. And it worked on my mobo on first try

inzone · Dec 7, 2013

Yes if the 7950 worked then the 7970 would work. Micro Center will have the better deals and lower prices. make sure you get a quality brand.

BigEric420 · Dec 8, 2013

Okay so i returned the cx750m @ BestBuy and got a OCZ ZT750 @ microcenter for the same price (i was going to get an Antec psu but the only ones in my price range did not have 6+2 pcie power, so i went with a good OCZ instead of another corsair). I am having the same problems still and im just fed up now. Ive been troubleshooting for the passed 3 hours now and i cant seem to catch a break on this thing. I re installed win8.1 fresh and new again and switched my cards around a little. The 7970 will not let my system boot at all when its plugged in by itself, at all! During the POST it will just keep stopping @ the VGA led. Also i failed to mention before but the mobo has a Boot LED aswell, so that has helped me know for sure that the PC just plain doesn't boot /w the 7970.

The only breakthrough tonight was after i tried a few pcie lanes with the 7970, i left it in the third lane and put the 2400 in the first lane. Now this time, even with both 6+2 pcie power connections plugged in, the system finally booted, but only after it fell back and used the 2400 as the primary GPU. After this happened, i went to the device manager and saw that there were 2 "microsoft basic visual graphics" or something similar to that. They were the basic vga drivers from windows since it was on a fresh copy of win8.1, but one of them was not functioning properly(the yellow triangle). I used the windows auto update feature and it downloaded and installed the drivers , which installed the 7900 series and 2400xt drivers. BUT even after that, and restarting, and going to AMD and getting the latest Beta drivers, after all of that the damn thing still wont run properly and put video out the damn DVI port on the 7970. I tried disabling and re enabling the driver and nothing seemed to work, but at this point im just frustrated with it for tonight, and my upstairs neighbors have family with kids over and their running around and driving my madness further lol.

So even though i had a little progress tonight, im calling it for now. Any other suggestions to add on to what i have done so far would again, be greatly appreciated.

Also my wife and i noticed while inspecting the GPU closely that there are a couple of the gold pins that look like they may be chipped? or maybe its supposed to be like that. im not sure but i thought idd throw these pics in and see what you all think.

Mousemonkey · Dec 8, 2013

That's perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.

inzone · Dec 8, 2013

Unfortunetly once the card is in the slot you can't see if the chipped parts are making contact so here's a thing to try to see if by chance they are not. Put the card in the first slot making sure that it is in as far as it can go and the when booting press down with both hands to get even pressure across the card and see if it will boot. Don't press so hard that you damage something but enough pressure to make the card go in a bit more.

BigEric420 · Dec 8, 2013

Okay so i just got back home from running errands with my wife, so i think "maybe i turn it on again and see what happens" and when i open chrome i get this error

Also this is a screen shot of my device manager that shows apparently both of the drivers for the 7900 and 2400xt are not working properly now. Last night i had updated to the latest non beta drivers i believe, Im gonna try the latest beta drivers and see what happens now.

Also in the pic is shows that the monitor is just a generic because its my emerson 32'' lcd tv using the S-Video from the 2400xt (which is also in a very crappy and blurry resolution lol.

BigEric420 · Dec 8, 2013

Also as a side note, do you think since the seller had 2 of these crossfired together that maybe the gpu itself has some compatibility issue with my mobo because of its setup before he shipped it? just a random curious thought.

Another interesting thing i stumbled uppon while seeking out similar problems was this post

https://www.sapphireforum.com/showthread.php?32794-Sapphire-Radeon-HD-7970-Vapor-X-3GB-Ghz-edition-no-screen-on-boot

the thing is how would i know and or fix that problem if thats what it was?

BigEric420 · Dec 9, 2013

So i think im gonna just leave this thing alone and wait for amazon to finalize this claim. This card has given me way too much hassle and stress, and its ruining my concentration on my finals this week lol. Its almost an obsession to get it to work and its overwhelming me now, and my wife is gonna kick me if i spend another night working on it lol.

Im still open to any other logical suggestions that havent been done, though im not sure what else there is to do now =\

GPU no video output - First Build - Going crazy

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