HD7950 Dead after forgetting to plug in the PCIe 12v Rail?

[DerekZ06]

Was planning to install Windows 10 today so I started by disconnecting every drive except the one I was going to install Windows 10 on.

I have a modular PSU. The easiest way to disable all drives is to unplug the entire line feeding them from the PSU. I didn't trace the right line and unplugged the GPU's PCIe power line instead. Without knowing this I turned PC back on and tried to boot. (It may have booted I just wasn't getting a video feed) The GPU fan was pegged at 100% and I also heard the drives spin up. I realized my mistake, mumbled "dumbass", and then powered it back off like it was no big deal, I'll just switch the cable.

Well for some reason now the graphics card just sits there spinning its fan at 100%. Has there ever been a case where someone killed their GPU by booting up without plugging in the PCI-e power cable?

If I plug one monitor into the integrated GPU instead, the computer boots and enters windows normally and I'm typing on it now. Except now I only have one working monitor and the HD7950 is just sitting in there whirring its fan at 100% without being detected by windows. I pulled it out and tried reseating the GPU. Also tried plugging the PCIe power line module into other PSU ports.

 

[DerekZ06]

Touched a voltmeter to contacts on the card. It's getting 12.144v.

Also thought maybe it was a bios setting. I have ASRock Z77 Extreme 4. The System Browser shows that PCIe slot the card is in as empty.

 

[Silverforce11]

Normally it should power down and be fine, I've done it a few times due to being forgetful.

Try moving it into a different slot on your MB. If that and re-seating doesn't work, oops.

 

[LTC8K6]

I would reset the BIOS as a first step. Unplug the computer and use the Clear CMOS jumper. Leave it in the clear position for a couple of minutes.

When you re-boot, do so without the video card first.

The only thing I can think of is that the card pulled too much current through the PCI-E slot, and the slot has shut down to protect itself.

 

[DerekZ06]

> When you re-boot, do so without the video card first.

Tried that. After getting into windows I shut it down and plugged it back in. This is when I found out that not even windows could detect it.

> Try moving it into a different slot on your MB. If that and re-seating doesn't work, oops.

I was putting this off because I didn't want to move my other cards and harddrives that stick out too far. But this worked. So then I moved it back to the original slot, and it still works...

This action also caused the motherboard bios to completely reset. So I'm not sure what actually fixed it. I did reset the bios to default earlier when I mentioned that I thought it was a bios setting. But the earlier reset wasn't a complete reset, this time it even reset the date to January 2013 12:00AM. I suppose that earlier I should have pulled the battery as well.

 

[LTC8K6]

I have found that it can actually take a while for the CMOS to actually reset.

Sometimes the reset does not occur unless AC power is connected with the jumper in the RESET position.

I have done the reset procedure quickly, and found that it didn't actually reset. I needed to leave the jumper on there for a full minute or so.