Display problem with fairly new build (no display from GPU, fast fan)

[mkristian]

thermaltake v3 case

antec neo eco 520c psu

phenom ii 840 3.2ghz stock x4

1x4gb memory stick Kingston ram

Samsung 500gb hardrive

lite on dvd drive

asus gtx 560 ti 1gb

windows xp 32bit


I had been running this build for months at stock settings with no problems in heat or performance or stability. Then oneday playing skyrim, the GPU fan boots to what sounds like 100%, and within a minute of that happening my pc switches off. After this it took about 2 minutes before my pc could turn on again so i assume my psu encountered a problem and was trying to protect the computer.

The problem atm seems to be that the pc keeps booting using the onboard video on the mobo. The computer posts fine and boots into windows no problems when I connect my onboard GPU. I have removed all drivers on my board in safe mode using driver sweeper, i have reset the CMOS using the batteries and the jumpers, set the settings in bios to pci-express for GPU, tried disabling the onboard video card in windows device manager, tried reinstalling the nvidia drivers but kept being prompted with a 'cannot find nvidia hardware'.

When i try to use my card, the fans boot to what sounds like 100% straight away and no image is ouputted. IT does not matter if my card is in the pc, it will always default to using the onboard GPU. I have no secondary components to test so i cannot determine if its a psu/mobo or gpu problem. I am in a pickle because if i send my video card into warranty, i have to pay for the costs of mail and the costs of examination if indeed the card has nothing wrong with it, and at this point it could be either the psu, mobo or the gpu.

BTW i only have a HD cable/VGA cable so i cannot test the dvi ports on my card but from what i have read, everyone who got the same problem as me could not ouput through any medium on their card.

My GPU says it requires a 550W psu, but a lot of people told me my antec neo eco could easily power a single 560 ti.

 

[abekl]

Sounds as if you video card is toast.

 

[Proximon]

The PSU is more than adequate, you just lost the GPU for some reason. Maybe mount an extra fan or two in that V3 case before you get the card back from RMA

 

[mkristian]

thanks for the replies, yeah i installed windows 7 on my computer from xp and thought that would be enough to truly determine if its a card problem...low and behold the exact same thing happened. I have 3 case fans already, the stock exhaust at the top back, i put one as intake at the bottom front and another intake at the very bottom of the case. I do get good termps, the highest i have seen it at 70 degrees under load, and no higher than 36 during idle. However considering my mobo is microatx, the pci slot is close to the pci-e. I had a small tv tuner card in it which happened to sit some half a centimetre away from the GPU which concerned me but because they were not physically touching and the temps did not reflect any problems so i left it in place despite it covering about 2/3's of one fan.

 

[Proximon]

That sounds OK, but part of your card can overheat without it reflecting in the general GPU temp. Not that it should be a problem, it could easily be the manufacturers fault.

 

[mkristian]

Best answer selected by mkristian.