Replacement Graphics Card > same problem.

[samcol]

So some of you may have seen the issues I've been having lately.

After 3 weeks and one day, PC would make an interference sound (a buzz) and skip a load of frames intermittently, making all tasks bloody hard to do (don't even think of playing a game).

Go to boot it up on Sunday and Windows doesn't display after the initial splash screen (though the BIOS is accessible), just a blank screen with a signal, but no cursor / image.

Diagnostics over the phone and we come to the conclusion the Palit 970 Jetstream GPU is to fault - a stock 970 gets sent out as a replacement.

Upon installing the new replacement GPU, the first boot up worked, so I decided to update the driver. Not being entirely confident in the PC at this point I tried a shutdown and restart and 'Waddayaknow', I have exactly the same issues - After Splash / BIOS screen Windows 8.1 does not seem to display - black screen, but when pressing random keys as everything is powered on and lit up, I get some noise (for example incorrect password sound), and the off chance that it does boot (1/10 restarts) the buzzing / frame skipping returns, even on the simplest tasks such as browsing Chrome and changing the volume via the taskbar. It has even booted up then turned black while I was typing my password. 99% of the time windows doesn't display, but as I said, absolutely every piece of hardware / peripheral is lit up and working, and I can get a sound. It is also worth mentioning i get the single beep from the motherboard upon powering on - which I believe means it is fine, and there are no error reports.

Here is everything I have tried - Did not work means Windows did not boot:

Removed all peripherals and tried without and with again - Did not work
New Graphics Card - Did not work
Complete Un-installed / Re-installed of drivers (LOTS) - Did not work
Swapped Graphics Card from PCI-E 16x slot to PCIEx8 slot - Initially worked, but restarted and did not work
Go to BIOS and start through there - Initially worked, but tried again in same way and did not work
Lots of restarts - 1/10 worked, but then had buzzing / stuttering - Does not work
Removed Graphics Card and used motherboard's Integrated Graphics (Same DVI Cable) - Worked

I haven't been able to re-install windows (no disc-drive) but as I can access it through Integrated Graphics I don't think that's the problem.

This is getting extremely frustrating, especially as the PC has probably been on for less than 24 hours since I received it 4 weeks ago.

Any suggestions on what more I can try, and I will be extremely grateful. I'd like to exhaust all possible options before sending off for an RMA. And I REALLY don't want to refund this because this is my first PC, and I saved for a damn long time. This even came before my Girlfriends 21st, which I might regret :|.

PC Specs are:

Case
Corsair 750D Full Tower
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® MAXIMUS VII RANGER: PCI-e 3.0, SATA 3.0, USB3.0
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 410MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Keyboard & Mouse
Corsair Vengeance K70 Fully Backlit Gaming Mechanical Keyboard
Mouse
Razer® Deathadder Gaming Mouse

Thanks Guys.

 

[Androcles]

Possibly a power issue? I think the 970 needs two power connectors (8 pin and a 6 pin iirc) have you plugged both of them in to the card? Have you tried different power connectors if you have them?

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Is the motherboard making any beebing noises? Or LED's on the board itself?

 

[samcol]

Hi Both,

Thanks for your replies

The 970 has both Power connectors plugged in, and the fans are spinning - as I mentioned, all the Hardware looks perfectly fine, and on. Ill try different power connectors providing PCS included spare in the welcome pack.

I get the one single beep from the motherboard to signal all is OK and that's it - no error reports, the only LED's that light up are the ones that always have, for aesthetic purposes apart from the small motherboard display that reads AO after booting.

 

[Wozza63]

Have you tried perhaps the latest beta driver or just an old driver it seems the problem only occurred when you installed the driver and it may be the driver containing the issue.

 

[Androcles]

Have you tried perhaps the latest beta driver or just an old driver it seems the problem only occurred when you installed the driver and it may be the driver containing the issue.

That's what I thought at first, but according to his description it's losing signal to the monitor shortly after the bios bootup and just before it starts to load windows, now the way I understand it is the machine doesn't run installed graphics drivers until it passes the user log in screen, it uses generic drivers up to that point which should "always" work, so I don't think it's an issue with the NVidia drivers.

 

[Wozza63]

The driver will be loaded at the initial loading of the system as with the rest of the drivers. If drivers weren't loaded up first, how would you use a keyboard without its driver? No point loading the generic driver and then the Nvidia driver, that's inefficient.

 

[samcol]

Update guys:
So I just gave it another try at uninstalling the 970 driver and trying again, just incase any previous uninstalls didn't get rid of everything (though i've done shed loads now). Somehow the PC has booted up through the Graphics Card, though no drivers are installed and it's called "Microsoft Display Adapter" in the Display Driver in Windows. I've restarted to test and it booted up again - any suggestions* on what to do next? Last time i installed the newest NVidia driver the screen went black and need to be restarted so the problem may lie there, though i'm not sure if that explains Windows failing to load AND the glitchy / interference sound & jumps I've had when in use?

* Suggestions that do not include a disk drive

 

[Wozza63]

try an old stable driver, maybe from 2-3 months back and if that fails try the latest beta driver for your graphics card.

 

[samcol]

I just tried to update to the driver and at practically 1% into the installation the screen completely loses signal, it's not even just blank. Though I still have sound coming from the speakers so windows is obviously still running. :'(

Edit: Force restarted twice, on the second time went through the bios and just exited and i'm back into windows. Says the driver is up to date and it recognising the GTX 970 but im pretty sure when i restart it again, it will fail like it did before.

Edit 2: Tried lots of good suggestions after trawling the internet all day and can't fix. RMA is it.

 

[samcol]

After a reinstall of windows 8 still the same issues. Can this be a monitor problem and I can't see how it could be based on what's going wrong. Just want to cross that off also.

 

[Wozza63]

Still think it is an issue with the drivers, did you manually download a different driver and use a clean install

Heres the link for Nvidia drivers where you can get hold of older ones or beta ones http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Doubt it would be a monitor issue, but you can always try it with a different monitor or a TV if you don't have another monitor.

 

[samcol]

Yeap, there were only about 4-5 versions for the 970 as it's a new release but I tried most of them. I removed every scrap of any driver and completely wiped my system & re-installed. Yeah I will, although I have had another PC and a PS4 plugged in to this monitor without any problems. Running out of options and it's not great. When i re-installed windows, for the first time it didnt go blank when the Driver updated, though had screen flicking black and Louder & Longer buzzing noise, then eventually didnt start back up.

Think this could be a processor issue? As the problem doesn't seem to be isolated to any part I've thought of so far? I assume the processor deals with the Image / Frames Audio & booting?

 

[Wozza63]

Yeah I'm starting to think it might be a processor or motherboard issue, did you say that it runs ok when the monitor is plugged into the motherboard and not the graphics card?

 

[NilSatis]

Yep, unfortunately this sounds like it is a problem with the pci express port on the motherboard, or potentially a fault with the psu. In this case an rma is definitely your best bet. Looks like you have gone through most things expected of you when checking for problems of this type, so rma it quickly.

 

[Androcles]

The driver will be loaded at the initial loading of the system as with the rest of the drivers. If drivers weren't loaded up first, how would you use a keyboard without its driver? No point loading the generic driver and then the Nvidia driver, that's inefficient.

Yes, but he's not getting to the initial load of the operating system which is when the drivers will be loaded, until that point it's not using drivers, so it can't be a driver issue if he's not even loaded windows yet.

 

[Androcles]

Yep, unfortunately this sounds like it is a problem with the pci express port on the motherboard, or potentially a fault with the psu. In this case an rma is definitely your best bet. Looks like you have gone through most things expected of you when checking for problems of this type, so rma it quickly.

I agree it looks like either a dodgy PCI-E controller or a PSU issue to me.

 

[samcol]

Thanks for all the input guys.

It works when i run through the Motherboards onboard graphics, even when the drivers are installed. Though i have also tried it in both the PCIE 16 and PCIE 8 slots. Think the only parts that i havent / cant test are the Motherboard, PSU and Processor. Will send off for an RMA this evening when i get home, though i am afraid that ill get the "Cant find anything wrong" reply.

 

[sasrob34]

On my old gaming system i would not get a screen but il still hear window start up sound. The graphic card was a old 7800GTX but this did not turn out to be the problem it was the pci-e 2.0. I think it's voltage from the pci-e socket so i tested it with a less demanding graphic card and it has not failed once. This is a very old system of 7 years of great gaming it's only been the last year this problem as i don't use it much now but i like puzzle's. Took me some time to test with different cards and i notice it was the lower end GPU that did not need the 6 pin power connection that work which i still find weird as you would think the 6 pin power would compensate for the less power from socket? . I would recommend a new motherboard.

 

[Androcles]

On my old gaming system i would not get a screen but il still hear window start up sound. The graphic card was a old 7800GTX but this did not turn out to be the problem it was the pci-e 2.0. I think it's voltage from the pci-e socket so i tested it with a less demanding graphic card and it has not failed once. This is a very old system of 7 years of great gaming it's only been the last year this problem as i don't use it much now but i like puzzle's. Took me some time to test with different cards and i notice it was the lower end GPU that did not need the 6 pin power connection that work which i still find weird as you would think the 6 pin power would compensate for the less power from socket? . I would recommend a new motherboard.

If graphics cards that don't need extra power are working and ones that do aren't working then it sounds like one of your PSU's rails is failing to provide enough current to the 6-pin lead to me, your PSU may need replacing.