HELP! My graphics card boots in my friend's computer but not in mine.

skessler · Mar 27, 2015

Like the post says, I am having problems with my GPU. when I press the power button, everything in my computer seems to turn on and work fine, except for my graphics card which appears to be trying over and over to start up. Its fans will run for about ten seconds, then stop and start up again. During all of this nothing shows on the monitors. It does this over and over again until I force power off.

Due to the way it was acting, I was almost certain the problem was my graphics card, however, when I plugged the same card into my friend's computer, it booted up just fine.

My computer ran fine since I built it about a month ago, and suddenly the other day it froze in the middle of a game, and when I turned it off and back on, the problems I described began occuring.

I don't have extra RAM cards to test with my computer, and I cannot test my cards in my friend's computer because his motherboard uses old PC2 RAM instead of DDR3. However, I tried booting my computer with each of my 2 4GB cards individually, and my GPU acted the same exact way.

Does anyone know what else the problem could be? Is the only other option that my motherboard is bad? My build is only about a month old and I was extremely careful with all the components so I really don't think I damaged anything. Any help/ideas would be appreciated. Thank you.

EDIT:
Here's my specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-UD3P socket AM3+
CPU: AMD FX-6350 Black Edition 3.9GHz 6-Core socket AM3+
RAM: Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Memory Kit (2x 4GB)
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 6.0Gb/s
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270 Double Dissipation 2GB DDR5 PCIe 3.0x16
Power Supply: Corsair Builder Series CX500

skessler · Mar 27, 2015

Whoops, forgot to post that.

Here's my specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-UD3P socket AM3+
CPU: AMD FX-6350 Black Edition 3.9GHz 6-Core socket AM3+
RAM: Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Memory Kit (2x 4GB)
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 6.0Gb/s
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270 Double Dissipation 2GB DDR5 PCIe 3.0x16
Power Supply: Corsair Builder Series CX500

Karadjgne · Mar 27, 2015

It's not your ram, its your psu or your motherboard, one way or another. Since you haven't listed the size, make, model of either the gpu or psu or mobo, here's a possible list.

1. You bought a cheap psu, that while says certain wattage, doesn't really output that, so the rails got maxed out and basically fried the psu.

2. You bought a decent, or even good psu, and based the size on a websites 'estimated' wattage, which in reality is not near enough to power your particular brand card (yes there can be a large variation in power draw between brands of same card) so the rails got maxed out and either fried the psu or popped the internal fuse.

3. It is, however, entirely possible that it's a motherboard problem with that port, faulty, fried etc.

What you can do is bug your friend some more to borrow parts, namely his psu and gpu. Gpu is easiest, swap yours for his, same port. If you have a motherboard that has more than 1 x16 pcie, try both cards in that port.

Try swapping his psu to power your system. Try both gpus, in both x16 slots.

Something should work somewhere, and what you are trying to do is eliminate possibilities. If your gpu works in second slot, its your motherboard is bad. If it doesn't, work on your psu, but does on your friends, then the psu is bad.

johnnyb105 · Mar 27, 2015

Power supply is bad.

Karadjgne · Mar 27, 2015

It's a corsair CX. Real good bet it's the psu.

skessler · Mar 27, 2015

Karadjgne :

Really? I was under the impression that Corsair was a solid brand for PSUs.

skessler · Mar 27, 2015

Also, I have already tried swapping my GPU to the other PCI slot on my motherboard, and it didn't change anything.

johnnyb105 · Mar 27, 2015

Have you tried a different card in your system? Yes I have used corsair before but you can always get a bad PSU from anyone.
Do you have the power connectors hooked up to your GPU? Also did you plug in the extra power connector on your board to help power the gpu? its located around your cpu..... Its a must for graphic cards... Did you try running your system with one stick of mem as well? If your gpu works with another computer its either your psu or board or something isn't hooked up right.... or not hooked up at all. Hope this helps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4

skessler · Mar 27, 2015

My PSU passed the paper clip test but I expected that it would. Every component and fan in my computer starts up except for my GPU, which seems to struggle to turn on and displays nothing on my monitors. I'm leaning toward motherboard.

tsnor · Mar 27, 2015

Maybe borrow a video card from your friend, or find one of your old ones, especially a low power card with no external connector.

Maybe use the included 6-pin to 4-pin power cable adapters to see if one of the 6-pin leads on your PSU went bad. (PSU has a single rail, so this is not a balance question, just checking if a power lead went bad).

Maybe check the wires from PSU to MB and Video and see if there is something shorting. How did you route your wires in the case. Wires can be caught, insulation rubbed off and short.

Maybe remove the power connectors from everything except MB and Video to see if you get a "no boot drive message" You are checking for another component (cough disk cough) that might have fails and shorted.

Maybe re-seat the PSU to MB wires.

skessler · Mar 27, 2015

I noticed that if I disconnect the 8-pin 12V connector which powers my CPU, the fans on my graphics card run normally. Does that mean anything?

Karadjgne · Mar 27, 2015

Corsair doesn't actually make their psus, they outsource them from other OEMs such as channel well as Seasonic. Consequently, you end up with different series, with different quality. The HX, AX, TXv2, AXi are very good, the CX, VS, CS are mediocre at best.

Since you did try both slots and it changed nothing, hooking up a psu you know works and is capable of running the card would be a good next step. If it works, you have a bad psu. If it doesn't, you have either a bad mobo or a bad card. Since you tested the card as good, the mobo becomes suspect. According to reviews on newegg, its possible the mobo can be bad, but my best guess is its the psu.

Karadjgne · Mar 27, 2015

The EPS connector is a supplemental power source for the cpu and sometimes for the pcie slots as well. If the rails ate not putting out rated power, just some power, any relaxation will only increase power elsewhere, in other words, you psu is rated at 34a 12v, if it's only putting out 15a and psu is taking 10, (5 eps, 5 24pin) taking out the eps allows the rest to go back to the psu, so more power goes to the gpu.

skessler · Mar 27, 2015

I replaced the power supply and got no new results. Is the only other option that the motherboard is bad? Is there any possibility it's a CPU problem?

tsnor · Mar 29, 2015

It could be CPU, but.... it's almost never the CPU. Skim a few threads at random.

Did you pull ALL the other connectors and remove memory and video when you tried the new Power supply, MB and CPU ? A bad disk, video card, memory dimm can cause these symptoms. When you are at just MB, PSU and CPU you want to hear the MB beep "no memory" (or on some MBs see the visual indication / post code for no memory).

skessler · Mar 30, 2015

tsnor :

Thank you all for your responses.

I just tried running the system like you said, with only the NEW motherboard, the NEW power supply, and the CPU. The only connections to my motherboard were the power switch, the 24-pin PSU connector, the CPU itself, and the CPU fan. I hear no beep, I see no LED. My PSU fan and CPU fan turn on for about two seconds, and then turn off. What does this mean? I've tested literally every component except for the CPU, and I've had this problem now through two motherboards and two power supplies.

tsnor · Mar 30, 2015

"... The only connections to my motherboard were the power switch, the 24-pin PSU connector, the CPU itself, and the CPU fan. .." and the 8-pin connector ??? Verify the 8-pin connector is on the MB, there are TWO power leads into the MB from the PSU. There is a nice picture here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

Assuming you just typ-o'ed, and you have both leads on then read rest of the note:

Any chance your MB stand-offs are installed wrong and you are shorting the MB against the case?

This is almost always a PSU or MB problem. You replaced both. Some people put the MB on a piece of cardboard to rule out wires with bad insolation or MB shorting against the case.

skessler · Mar 31, 2015

Yes, I had both the 24-pin and the 8-pin connectors connected. I also just tried booting my motherboard outside the case to eliminate the possibility that my case is shorting the motherboard, and it behaved exactly the same way.

tsnor · Apr 3, 2015

Can you verify from the MB manual that the MB comes with a piezoelectric speaker to make the beeping noise, and that you have the leads on the speaker in the correct orientation. Just in case the MB is trying to beep "no memory" but can't. (i'm grasping at straws here)

If the PSU is good and the MB is good then all thats left is the CPU. Time to try that. Bummer/ good luck.

lemontea · Apr 4, 2015

No motherboard speaker? maybe you need to buy it so it will more easier to guess what is the problem. I don't think the PSU or the MB and CPU because it's too good to fail and for RAM you have 2x 4gb so that's weird if both ram fail too

.

BUT IF your PSU is really fail , it may affect your MB and CPU like my computer few years back, in other words you need to replace both you MB and CPU and maybe RAM.

If i were you, i want to try take off all your ram and start your PC and see how your computer response, is it the same as what happen now or different. And your CPU too.

skessler · Apr 4, 2015

Whoops. No my motherboard does not have a speaker. I'll head over to micro center today and buy one. What would it mean if I don't get a "no memory" signal when I run with no ram? Would that point to a CPU problem?

Karadjgne · Apr 4, 2015

If you get a ram code series of beeps, its a ram problem. Either one of your sticks went bad, one of the ram slots went bad or the memory controller on the cpu went bad, any of which can be caused by either static electricity (rare but definitely possible since you were inside the case swapping gpus) or the psu could have either spiked the board or is not supplying enough voltage. Also possible is an incorrect voltage setting due to bios error or human error due to OC resulting in a cooked stick. Try each stick individually in different color slots to see if it boots or fails.

skessler · Apr 4, 2015

Okay but tsnor told me to run just Mobo, PSU and CPU and see if I get a series of beeps indicating no memory. I just did that (with a motherboard speaker connected) and I heard the beep code. So what does that mean? Does that mean my CPU is working fine? Because it's literally the only component that I haven't tested or replaced.

skessler · Apr 4, 2015

Also, I have tested each RAM stick individually, in each slot. I've tried two motherboards and two PSUs, I've tried booting outside my case, and I know my GPU boots in other systems. So literally the only thing left has to be the CPU, right?

Karadjgne · Apr 4, 2015

It's looking that way, which is why we tried every test under the sun, hoping it wasn't. I would definitely check to see if it's still under warranty.

HELP! My graphics card boots in my friend's computer but not in mine.

Reputable

Reputable

Titan

Dignified

Titan

Reputable

Reputable

Dignified

Reputable

Splendid

Reputable

Titan

Titan

Reputable

Splendid

Reputable

Splendid

Reputable

Splendid

Honorable

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Reputable

Titan

Share this page