Question Graphics card SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 390 broken?

[seogus]

Hi, I was having troubles with my pc, it was going to black screen and having to restart it, until just stop displaying anything, I put a different graphic card and it work, windows starts, but the sound card seems to be broken to.

I check the graphics card that stopped working, and the GPU core looks like this




That scratches could mean its dead? What could broke the graphics card and the on board sound?


The pc specs are

Windows 7
Mother ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0
GPU SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 390
CPU AMD fx-8100
Power source Sentey hbp700-sm

 

[fralexandr]

I'm no expert, but my thoughts until someone else chimes in.
the scratches don't appear deep enough to be a problem, I'm guessing that's the Integrated Heat-spreader covering the GPU.

What concerns me is the darker patches on the top right corner thermal pads, over what is probably some of the VRAM/memory. It looks like those chips might have burned.

Are your speakers stand alone or built into the monitor? Were you using HDMI before and now are using DVI or DP? You might just need a 3.5mm cable from the computer to monitor if they're integrated speakers.

If not, and you were already using 3.5mm audio cables, then it sounds like possibly a power surge burnt the sound card and GPU. Is the sound card integrated into the motherboard or a dedicated device? A surge would be odd, since I would expect the power supply to die. Maybe your PSU let the surge through, or is supplying higher voltages than it should be or something else happened...? In which case I would think about replacing it with something better before dropping a lot of money on some new cards. Sentey isn't exactly known for high quality PSUs, though I can't find any information on your specific model.

 

[seogus]

I'm no expert, but my thoughts until someone else chimes in.
the scratches don't appear deep enough to be a problem, I'm guessing that's the Integrated Heat-spreader covering the GPU.

What concerns me is the darker patches on the top right corner thermal pads, over what is probably some of the VRAM/memory. It looks like those chips might have burned.

Are your speakers stand alone or built into the monitor? Were you using HDMI before and now are using DVI or DP? You might just need a 3.5mm cable from the computer to monitor if they're integrated speakers.

If not, and you were already using 3.5mm audio cables, then it sounds like possibly a power surge burnt the sound card and GPU. Is the sound card integrated into the motherboard or a dedicated device? A surge would be odd, since I would expect the power supply to die. Maybe your PSU let the surge through, or is supplying higher voltages than it should be or something else happened...? In which case I would think about replacing it with something better before dropping a lot of money on some new cards. Sentey isn't exactly known for high quality PSUs, though I can't find any information on your specific model.

hi,

Thanks for answering, yea the scratches doesn’t seems to be deeper.

I removed the thermal pads to see down, and I didn’t see nothing visible broken or burned.

I was using DVI. And the mother have onboard sound card. And have a sound tower connected through optical. Now the red light of the optical wire it’s off, and no sound. Tried with 3.5 wires, hdmi, and neither of they worked.Tried reinstalling driver and nothing.

About the power source, i checked in the BIOS and the voltages seem fine.

 

[EXCellR8]

Scratches on the GPU like that wouldn't indicate total failure, but would certainly affect thermal performance if they're deep enough. Ideally, you want two perfectly flat surfaces with only a thin layer of thermal compound in between them. If there's any recesses like a scratch it could create a hot spot. You could fix it with some specialized tools, but I'm not sure I'd recommend that route, as you could easily cause more damage.

My suggestion would be to clean it up the best you can and reinstall the cooler. I have one of these cards too and it doesn't run pretty toasty when under load, so if it doesn't work with an adequate power supply of at least 650-700 watts then I wouldn't dedicate too much time in trying to troubleshoot it. These cards can be had for under $200 now so unless you really want to fix it I would find a replacement.

 

[seogus]

My suggestion would be to clean it up the best you can and reinstall the cooler. I have one of these cards too and it doesn't run pretty toasty when under load, so if it doesn't work with an adequate power supply of at least 650-700 watts then I wouldn't dedicate too much time in trying to troubleshoot it. These cards can be had for under $200 now so unless you really want to fix it I would find a replacement.

hi,

I tried to clean it, and put a new thermal compound. But it shows nothing, and the red vga_led of the mother keeps turned on.

Yes, I'm thinking about buying a new GPU, but I'm worried about there is somthing bad in the mother or the power supply, that burned the GPU. What are the chances that the onboard sound and the gpu broke at the same time, and have nothing in common?

 

[EXCellR8]

What are the chances that the onboard sound and the gpu broke at the same time, and have nothing in common?

While I suppose it's entirely possible, it's not probable unless the entire board was subject to a good power surge or something.

You stated that another card worked but that the onboard sound did not. Did you check for the audio chipset in the Device Manager or check to see if it was enabled in the BIOS? The graphics card has an integrated audio device too so it may have used that by default; when it was removed there was no sound. This would be AMD Audio Output Device or something like that. When you install graphics drivers for the 390, the installer will also load the audio driver and those drivers probably wont work with other cards.

 

[seogus]

While I suppose it's entirely possible, it's not probable unless the entire board was subject to a good power surge or something.

You stated that another card worked but that the onboard sound did not. Did you check for the audio chipset in the Device Manager or check to see if it was enabled in the BIOS? The graphics card has an integrated audio device too so it may have used that by default; when it was removed there was no sound. This would be AMD Audio Output Device or something like that. When you install graphics drivers for the 390, the installer will also load the audio driver and those drivers probably wont work with other cards.

I tried another video card and it works fine, but the on board sound is still not working. I dont have a PCI sound card to try.
Now I connected by Bluetooth to the sound tower, and this way I have sound. I did checked the bios and the on board sound card is enabled. also installed windows 10 on another partition and I don't have sound either. Tried installing the latest drivers too.