No signal on Monitor

[jmadrid]

I have been using a SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VXL Radeon HD 5770 card for a little over one year with absolutely no issues. Then all of a sudden I am getting a no signal on my monitor. I have tried two different monitors, using both hdmi and dvi. The cooling fan and led on the graphics card are operating and the system seems to be booting fine, based on normal sounds from the hard drives and lights on keyboard and mouse; it even seems that I can log in. I assume that I need to send the video card in as there is a two year warranty on it. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Also, this may be a coincidence, but this card was actually a replacement for an nvidia card that had the same symptoms.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[COLGeek]

Sounds like your HD5770 is having a problem. Could be the PSU or the GPU (video card) itself. Do you have access to another system that you could use to troubleshoot the video card? If so, install in another system to see if it works.

You can also swap another PSU (power supply) into your rig to see if that is the problem.

Good luck!

 

[jmadrid]

I was thinking about picking up another video card and throwing that in the system to see if it works.

Could a bad power supply degrade a video card over time, such that one day it would just stop working, yet still power a new card just fine? My concern is that it seems to be the same issue that happened just a year ago....

Thanks.

 

[COLGeek]

Yes, a flaky PSU can damage a GPU over time (although it usually appears to happen all at once). Your GPU may be okay and the PSU is the problem and replacing a PSU (even a good one) is usually cheaper than replacing a higher-end GPU.

 

[jmadrid]

When I had the original problem, I swapped power supplies and it did not solve the problem, but swapping the graphics card did. If I did have a bad PSU, won't I see other problems as well? Wouldn't I expect to see issues with other components as well, including maybe some unexpected power downs / reboots, etc?

Cheers.

 

[COLGeek]

When I had the original problem, I swapped power supplies and it did not solve the problem, but swapping the graphics card did. If I did have a bad PSU, won't I see other problems as well? Wouldn't I expect to see issues with other components as well, including maybe some unexpected power downs / reboots, etc?

Cheers.

Not necessarily, a PSU can provide ok power to the rest of the system while having a problem with one PCI-E wire/connector, for example.

Given your history, I would strongly consider replacing both the PSU (keep the old one as a back up) and GPU. Just a suggestion.

 

[jmadrid]

Thanks for your suggestions. I will update the post as I work on the system.

 

[jmadrid]

Update: It turns out that the graphics card was ok; however, the primary pci-e slot on my motherboard is bad. A new graphics card was also failing in the primary, so I tried installing my old card in the secondary slot and all was well. I'm backing up data more often now as I no longer fully trust the stability of my system....

Cheers.

 

[COLGeek]

If you aren't already planning for it, you may want to consider replacing the motherboard. A defective primary PCI-E x16 slot could be indicative of other, undiscovered issues.