UPDATE: rewrote post for clarity and new details.
Hi all,
Lately I've been having issues with hot-swapping HDMI sources on my PC. I frequently hook it up to a projector for gaming and Hulu, and for ages had no problems. But then all of a sudden I started finding that switching HDMI cables caused the PC to reboot. Strange indeed, but I've had weird issues with GPU drivers before, so I chocked it up to NVIDIA screwing up and waited for the next driver update. Well, that came and went and the problem persisted, and like an idiot I ignored it. Well, last night the problem decided it would be ignored no longer. When I swapped HDMI cables, the video output completely shut off and the PC kept running but a strong electrical burning smell filled the room almost immediately. Well that scared me good, so I force shut down the PC and gave it a break. When I came back later there was no video output at all, not to my monitor, not to my projector, not over HDMI, not over DVI. Furthermore, the BIOS would beep one long, two short each time I tried to turn the thing back on again. Otherwise the PC would still boot, I just couldn't see anything. Pretty much all I could do was use keyboard commands to shut it back off nicely.
A little Googling told me that the beep sequence on my mobo (GIGABYTE 890XA) indicated a video problem, and at first I suspected my GPU was to blame. So I swapped out the GTX 770 (which is less than a year old) with my old GTX 460. Same issue, no display whatsoever, 1-2 beep sequence. I was just about to try removing the battery on my mobo when I remembered that I've got a second PCI slot. Gave that a go with the 460, and boom, PC booted up. Tried with the 770, and same old thing.
In the process I managed to force shut down the PC a number of times, which has given my hard drives a few fixable errors, and as it stands I now have a GTX 770 that won't work in either PCI slot on my motherboard and a GTX 460 that does work but only in the lower PCI slot.
So now we get down to the questions:
1) Which killed what, the GTX 770 or the mobo? May not even matter--at this point it looks like they're both in trouble.
2) Can the GTX 770 really be concluded dead if it doesn't work in either PCI slot BUT it does power on with fans and all?
3) Is it safe to keep using my current motherboard with my GTX 460, or should I replace it immediately? Am I at risk of it frying all my other parts, or did I only lose a PCI slot over the GPU going bad?
For all the bad smell, I have thoroughly checked every component of the PC and found absolutely nothing that looks burnt. The HDMI port on my GTX 770 looks different than the HDMI port on my laptop (I can see pins sticking through the plastic on the end of the 770's port whereas on my laptop it's solid plastic) but I don't know if that is serious enough to cause this kind of problem.
I will also say that both cards have to sit slightly crooked in my motherboard in order to fit with my case's mount (Fractal Define R4) but it's not extreme.
I have a feeling something is going to need to be replaced here, but before I go out spending money and submitting RMAs I'd like to make sure I'm doing the right thing. My assessment would be the GPU fried the mobo PCI slot and killed them both in the process, meaning I'll have to replace both to have a fully working system again. I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.
Hi all,
Lately I've been having issues with hot-swapping HDMI sources on my PC. I frequently hook it up to a projector for gaming and Hulu, and for ages had no problems. But then all of a sudden I started finding that switching HDMI cables caused the PC to reboot. Strange indeed, but I've had weird issues with GPU drivers before, so I chocked it up to NVIDIA screwing up and waited for the next driver update. Well, that came and went and the problem persisted, and like an idiot I ignored it. Well, last night the problem decided it would be ignored no longer. When I swapped HDMI cables, the video output completely shut off and the PC kept running but a strong electrical burning smell filled the room almost immediately. Well that scared me good, so I force shut down the PC and gave it a break. When I came back later there was no video output at all, not to my monitor, not to my projector, not over HDMI, not over DVI. Furthermore, the BIOS would beep one long, two short each time I tried to turn the thing back on again. Otherwise the PC would still boot, I just couldn't see anything. Pretty much all I could do was use keyboard commands to shut it back off nicely.
A little Googling told me that the beep sequence on my mobo (GIGABYTE 890XA) indicated a video problem, and at first I suspected my GPU was to blame. So I swapped out the GTX 770 (which is less than a year old) with my old GTX 460. Same issue, no display whatsoever, 1-2 beep sequence. I was just about to try removing the battery on my mobo when I remembered that I've got a second PCI slot. Gave that a go with the 460, and boom, PC booted up. Tried with the 770, and same old thing.
In the process I managed to force shut down the PC a number of times, which has given my hard drives a few fixable errors, and as it stands I now have a GTX 770 that won't work in either PCI slot on my motherboard and a GTX 460 that does work but only in the lower PCI slot.
So now we get down to the questions:
1) Which killed what, the GTX 770 or the mobo? May not even matter--at this point it looks like they're both in trouble.
2) Can the GTX 770 really be concluded dead if it doesn't work in either PCI slot BUT it does power on with fans and all?
3) Is it safe to keep using my current motherboard with my GTX 460, or should I replace it immediately? Am I at risk of it frying all my other parts, or did I only lose a PCI slot over the GPU going bad?
For all the bad smell, I have thoroughly checked every component of the PC and found absolutely nothing that looks burnt. The HDMI port on my GTX 770 looks different than the HDMI port on my laptop (I can see pins sticking through the plastic on the end of the 770's port whereas on my laptop it's solid plastic) but I don't know if that is serious enough to cause this kind of problem.
I will also say that both cards have to sit slightly crooked in my motherboard in order to fit with my case's mount (Fractal Define R4) but it's not extreme.
I have a feeling something is going to need to be replaced here, but before I go out spending money and submitting RMAs I'd like to make sure I'm doing the right thing. My assessment would be the GPU fried the mobo PCI slot and killed them both in the process, meaning I'll have to replace both to have a fully working system again. I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram