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Bought two new 970's; ruined computer

K

Krom2040

Junior Member
So I was running an i5-2600k with 2x 570 cards, and that was working pretty well. I needed more frames. So I bought 2x Asus 970's, and after they arrived yesterday, I went to work putting them into my system.

At first things were going to fine, but I noticed when I booted up that one of the cards wasn't showing up in Device Manager. Since it's pretty normal to want both cards to work, I went about trying to figure out where the problem was. I ultimately determined that one card never so much as produced a signal, even when it was the only card in the system and seated in the slot that worked for the other card.

But then... I put the first card back in, and the *real* trouble started. Rather than booting into Windows, all I would see is a sequence of small numbers in the lower right-hand corner of my screen (which happens every time I boot up my system), but rather than continuing into the motherboard splash screen, it just went... gray. Just an empty gray screen.

So I continued to play around with other configurations to see if that would somehow fix anything, re-seat the card, and so on. And now I don't even get a monitor signal. So the situation has only gotten worse.

I tried resetting the CMOS with the jumper and battery removal, with no luck. Tried putting back in one of my old 570's, and now that doesn't work either. The power turns on, fans spin up, the little diagnostic lights on the motherboard light up (claiming that everything is fine), but I get no signal from even my old working card in either slot. So basically it seems like I'm up the creek without a paddle.

Did I accidentally fry my motherboard? I tried to make sure I was grounding myself and not messing with parts while the computer was plugged in.

I don't even know how to approach this problem now. It definitely seems as though this problem has extended beyond just the video cards now.
 
There comes a time when you'll need to spend some money & hire some expertise.

Take the whole mess to a competent computer shop for diagnosis. If you're lucky that it was just pilot error and they are able to reclaim the system, then it's worth the money.

If one of the Asus cards is defective in such a way as to be able to damage the MB, then you will have a report/documentation for a claim against the 970 vendor.

Again, it's worth the money.
 
Very fair point, although I'm not sure how I'd determine whether a computer shop is competent. I do know of a few in town; I'll give one of them a call and bring all the parts in and just ask them to figure out which ones work.

I have another computer that also kind of fizzled on me, where either the motherboard or the video card prevents the monitor from getting any signal. I didn't care enough to troubleshoot that, but I guess it could be time to make that happen as well.
 
Hello Krom2040, did you ever try running a card in just second PCI-Express slot, leaving the top slot empty?

Can you tell us what motherboard you have and what power supply you are using?
 
ketchup79 said:
Hello Krom2040, did you ever try running a card in just second PCI-Express slot, leaving the top slot empty?

Can you tell us what motherboard you have and what power supply you are using?
Click to expand...


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Very good point! Good chance not enough power is going to the video card.

As I am an ASUS owner as well I upgraded to a 850 PSU as I was suffering the same symptoms as the OP.
 
ketchup79 said:
Hello Krom2040, did you ever try running a card in just second PCI-Express slot, leaving the top slot empty?

Can you tell us what motherboard you have and what power supply you are using?
Click to expand...

Good idea, but I think I tried most combinations of each card in each slot. One card worked fairly consistently and the other one didn't, up until I started having problems trying to get it to boot up at all with anything.

I have an Antec 850W; my understanding is that the 970's actually take less power than the 570's, so I was assuming I wouldn't have power issues. But even with just one card plugged in I'm having this issue. In fact, even with no cards plugged in I expected to maybe hear Windows boot up through the Speakers, but... I'm not sure if that's really the case. It could well be working but stuck at a prompt.

But even then, I tried to plug in one of my old 570's which I *know* works because it's working right now in a different machine.

My suspicion is that maybe in the process of forcing too much stuff (cards, cables) into a case that's not really big enough, I may have caused some errant power plugs to scratch the connections on the motherboard. I noticed at least one time where I managed to lodge a PCI-E connector under the end of the card (the 970's are enormous).

Anybody have good recommendations for full tower cases in the $125-$175 range that will comfortably fit big video cards? Preferably with good hand-holds :|
 
Hm, I didn't realize the 2600k even had that capability.

I actually just the system and both 970's it to a computer shop to look through it all. Hopefully they can convincingly demonstrate what's wrong with things.
 
Krom2040 said:
Good idea, but I think I tried most combinations of each card in each slot. One card worked fairly consistently and the other one didn't, up until I started having problems trying to get it to boot up at all with anything.

I have an Antec 850W; my understanding is that the 970's actually take less power than the 570's, so I was assuming I wouldn't have power issues. But even with just one card plugged in I'm having this issue. In fact, even with no cards plugged in I expected to maybe hear Windows boot up through the Speakers, but... I'm not sure if that's really the case. It could well be working but stuck at a prompt.

But even then, I tried to plug in one of my old 570's which I *know* works because it's working right now in a different machine.

My suspicion is that maybe in the process of forcing too much stuff (cards, cables) into a case that's not really big enough, I may have caused some errant power plugs to scratch the connections on the motherboard. I noticed at least one time where I managed to lodge a PCI-E connector under the end of the card (the 970's are enormous).

Anybody have good recommendations for full tower cases in the $125-$175 range that will comfortably fit big video cards? Preferably with good hand-holds :|
Click to expand...

I prefer ANTEC 900 but I am sure over the years better stuff has come out.
 
So... I just got it back from the computer shop, and the cards seem to work individually. He said he had to clean out and reseat the RAM, which is an interesting problem to have I suppose, but... I guess that's what happens when you have hollow heatsinks with a lot of cavities in them. I don't know.

But the problem I'm having now is that both cards don't seem to work at the same time. Both have little lights that show up when the power cables are active, and those both light up. Additionally, both fans also turn on. Both only one shows up in Device Manager, and there no SLI options in the drivers, etc. etc.

So the saga continues!
 
Here's a really stupid question- were you still using really ooooold drivers from when the 570 was a decent and new card? You didn't update to the newest version for your 970s? That could be your problem.

If you have indeed updated the driver then maybe try a different PSU. Different SLI bridge.

BTW you're bottlenecking those 970s pretty badly. They're doing 8x/8x PCIE 2.0. That's 4X/4X PCIE 3.0. Considering that higher end cards do best at 16X 3.0 you're really choking those GPUs by giving them 1/4 of the bandwidth they're designed for.

Even if you do get things working, you won't get the full horsepower out of those GPUs with that CPU/Mobo.
 
Krom2040 said:
So... I just got it back from the computer shop, and the cards seem to work individually. He said he had to clean out and reseat the RAM, which is an interesting problem to have I suppose, but... I guess that's what happens when you have hollow heatsinks with a lot of cavities in them. I don't know.

But the problem I'm having now is that both cards don't seem to work at the same time. Both have little lights that show up when the power cables are active, and those both light up. Additionally, both fans also turn on. Both only one shows up in Device Manager, and there no SLI options in the drivers, etc. etc.

So the saga continues!
Click to expand...

1) Bad PCI-E slot or,
2) Funky PSU.
 
mistersprinkles said:
Here's a really stupid question- were you still using really ooooold drivers from when the 570 was a decent and new card? You didn't update to the newest version for your 970s? That could be your problem.

If you have indeed updated the driver then maybe try a different PSU. Different SLI bridge.

BTW you're bottlenecking those 970s pretty badly. They're doing 8x/8x PCIE 2.0. That's 4X/4X PCIE 3.0. Considering that higher end cards do best at 16X 3.0 you're really choking those GPUs by giving them 1/4 of the bandwidth they're designed for.

Even if you do get things working, you won't get the full horsepower out of those GPUs with that CPU/Mobo.
Click to expand...

Ughhh... What?


First, I didn't see him mention anywhere what his mobo model is. Second, I have a 2500k @ 4.4GHz with 2x GTX 760's in SLi and I'm not bottlenecking anything that I know of. This thing flies, and there's not a single game that can put up any sort of a challenge at 1080p. I don't see this changing anytime soon either...

Perhaps maybe I am getting 5-10 frames less than someone with faster PCI-e slots, but this is completely irrelevant with frames in the high 60s and 70s.


As for my 2 cents regarding OPs problem, I also think you should try to take out both cards and just enable your 2600k on-board video in BIOS. If you can get to the BIOS at all!


Definitely update your drivers. and when finished see if you can enable SLi in nVidia control panel options.
 
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Definitely mess with the drivers. I went from a 780 to 970's and it would not boot into windows past the windows splash screen. I had to boot into safe mode, delete all the drivers, reboot into safe mode, reinstall the drivers, and then boot back into windows to get it to work right. It hung at a black screen for about 1 minute doing something and then ended up working fine. Its been fine ever since. I'd double check you have the latest drivers and do a fresh driver install.
 
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