Bad video card or bad mobo? Simple riddle for you forum experts...
Originally had a Radeon HD 6790 in my system. Decided to tinker awhile back, picked up a 6950 and successfully unlocked the shaders. Removed the 6790 and kept the 6950 in to perform stability tests. Today, decided to put the 6970 back in with the intention of re-activating crossfire. After taking it outside to blow off the dust with a can of air, I placed it back in my system and promptly got the BSOD. A few restarts yielded nothing. Removed the card and still got the BSOD. Successfully got into safe mode. Several restarts later, safe mode would not load and would hang at c:\windows\system32\drivers\classpnp.sys classpnp.old. Swap both cards out individually a few more times, and system would not even boot with 6970, giving my only beeps when powering on. My patience finally wore thin, and reformatted my SSD with just 6950 in it. So far, so good.
Soooooo....I suspect the 6970 went bad at some point, and replacing it scrambled my system somehow. Oddly this card was the known good of the two. Also thought perhaps it may have damaged the mobo, but it seems to be working after the format.
Well, what do you folks think?