MSI HD 7970 3GB AMD Radeon Graphics Card will not work

[sssimon]

I'm having a lot of trouble with this GPU my buddy let me use. I used to have an old Nvidia GeForce 8800GT that kicked the bucket, so he gave me his MSI HD 7970 gpu along with a really weak backup ATI gpu. I changed my Mobo at the same time, and after re-installing windows I ran off the ATI gpu for a while before I decided to put in the better one.

Upon uninstalling the ATI driver, turning off and unplugging my pc and installing the new GPU and turning on my computer, my screen stays dark but the gpu's fan turns on and still gets warm and such. While trouble shooting, I plugged in a VGA cable into my mobo while the GPU was still plugged in and running, and sure enough my display worked fine on the integrated gpu.

It appears that no matter what I do my mobo doesn't detect my new gpu. When running a hardware monitor it doesn't come up either. I've uninstalled all previous drivers and installed the new ones, and nothing. I've tried both the hdmi and dvi slots, neither are working. I highly doubt that the gpu is sitting improperly, because I've put it in numerous times trying to get it to work and every time I try using the ATI gpu it works again.

mobo: gigabyte g41mt-s2pt (brand new)
gpu: MSI HD 79703GB AMD Radeon (used)
psu: 620W Seasonic (brand new)

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Stuka87]

You need to go into your BIOS and disable the integrated video. Some mobo's are smart enough to do this on their own, some are not.

 

[MTDEW]

Page 29 (section 2-6) of your mobo manual.
LINK

Onboard VGA
Enables or disables the onboard VGA function.
Enable If No Ext PEG - Activates the onboard VGA only if no PCI Express VGA card is installed. (Default)
Always Enable - Always activates the onboard VGA, whether or not a PCI Express card is installed. If you wish to set up
a dual view configuration, set this item to Always Enable

Init Display First
Specifies the first initiation of the monitor display from the installed PCI graphics card, PCI Express
graphics card or the onboard VGA.
PCI - Sets the PCI graphics card as the first display. (Default)
Onboard - Sets the onboard VGA as the first display.
PEG - Sets the PCI Express graphics card as the first display

 

[sssimon]

You need to go into your BIOS and disable the integrated video. Some mobo's are smart enough to do this on their own, some are not.

It's set to use my on board graphics unless it detects external hardware. My backup gpu worked, so that's not the issue :/

 

[Schmide]

I've seen this from a few builds. Sometimes larger fatter cards do not seat well on older motherboards and such. I ended up bending the bracket a bit and most of the time it works.

My nephew scored 2 7950s from me because of this.

 

[Stuka87]

It's set to use my on board graphics unless it detects external hardware. My backup gpu worked, so that's not the issue :/

As I said, not all mobo's properly detect all cards. I have had to set boards to force external graphics for them to work before. It may not be it, but its worth a try.

Also, you do have both power leads plugged in right? Either a 6+8 or 8+8 depending on the version of the card.

 

[djnsmith7]

You need to go into your BIOS and disable the integrated video. Some mobo's are smart enough to do this on their own, some are not.

^This.

^^To Stuka87's suggestion also. Make sure you have 2 power connectors going into the 7970's 6 pin / 8 pin slots. That's a must!

 

[MTDEW]

Since you said the 7970's fans are working and it warms up...
Have you checked device manager to see if you have two display adapters listed?

 

[sssimon]

As I said, not all mobo's properly detect all cards. I have had to set boards to force external graphics for them to work before. It may not be it, but its worth a try.

Also, you do have both power leads plugged in right? Either a 6+8 or 8+8 depending on the version of the card.

Ok, I'll give this a try tomorrow. Yeah both the 6/8 are in.

 

[sssimon]

Since you said the 7970's fans are working and it warms up...
Have you checked device manager to see if you have two display adapters listed?

Yes I checked multiple times. Only one shows up.

 

[iiiankiii]

also, there's a bios switch on top of the 7970. You might have a faulty bios on your gpu. Try switching the bios to the other one. That might help.

 

[sssimon]

I tried all these methods and no dice. I even took it to NCIX to get a reflow and that didn't work either

 

[sheh]

It could be a compatibility issue between the PCIe 1.1 motherboard and the PCIe 3.0 card. See if there are any BIOS updates for the motherboard or card. If nothing works, try asking MSI or Gigabyte about compatibility.

 

[sssimon]

It could be a compatibility issue between the PCIe 1.1 motherboard and the PCIe 3.0 card. See if there are any BIOS updates for the motherboard or card. If nothing works, try asking MSI or Gigabyte about compatibility.

It must be compatible, because I had it working for a few minutes when I first got it before I lost signal completely. I just contacted my buddy and apparently it's still under warranty with MSI, so we're seeing if they'll still take it back.

The guy at NCIX tested it multiple times on different setups, none of which worked.

 

[sheh]

You didn't say this in the original post. If it worked then stopped all of the sudden, and if it's seated well, then it sounds like it's gone bad.

 

[sssimon]

Yeah that was my bad, I didn't think it was important at the time of making this thread. I originally thought that it losing signal was due to me installing it wrong or something along those lines, since it worked for ~3 minutes, which is why I made the thread in the first place.

Hopefully MSI will send me a working replacement.
Thanks for your time and patience :thumbsup:

 

[DownTheSky]

Yeah that was my bad, I didn't think it was important at the time of making this thread.

D:

 

[Atreidin]

I tried all these methods and no dice. I even took it to NCIX to get a reflow and that didn't work either

I don't understand this statement. Reflow what, the solder? If so, that's weird. Is this a thing people try doing? Do they even have the proper equipment?

 

[sheh]

A cooking oven you don't care about.

 

[Black Octagon]

Still not clear whether the OP disabled onboard VGA as advised (and more than once)...

 

[sssimon]

Still not clear whether the OP disabled onboard VGA as advised (and more than once)...

Yes, I disabled onboard VGA.

 

[cen1]

The guy at NCIX tested it multiple times on different setups, none of which worked.

This right here.. if it doesn't work anywhere it's obviously gone bad. Send it for warranty.