Problem with used 7950

Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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I recently purcahsed a used MSI Twin Frozr III HD 7950 which was claimed to be working perfectly. I received it, installed it in my system alongside my Sapphire Dual-x HD 7950, and was able to run crossfire in games perfectly for that day. I then went on vacation for two and a half weeks; upon returning, there was no video signal to my monitor. Over a period of around 4 days, I got crossfire to work perfectly another two times, as well as having countless instances of my PC locking up upon the launch of a game or even just being on the login screen, or no video signal again. However, by testing the two cards individually, it would seem to be a problem with the used card.

My Sapphire card has worked perfectly since its purchase in December of 2012, and still does. The MSI card, however, still has the problem of no video signal upon turning on my computer. Despite this, I am still able to get it to work properly, usually through reseating card. However, reseating does not always work; it did yesterday, but did not today. When it is working, it works perfectly - the exact performance I should be getting, no graphical glitches of any kind, etc. - and it works until I shut down or sleep my computer and leave it for an extended period of time.

When I got it working on its own on Sunday, I rebooted it several times to make sure it would continue working, and even later installed my Sapphire card and crossfire worked, again through numerous reboots. The one time I used sleep, I was away for ~1 hour, and there was no video signal when I tried to wake it up. However, reseating the card did work in this situation.

Aside from reseating the cards repeatedly, I've also tried a few different drivers, although not extensively - two 14.6 betas, as well as 14.4. I've been running exclusively 14.4 for the past few days. However, I have not tried reinstalling Windows. Also, I've been used the DVI port on my PC aside from Sunday; Sunday, I used HDMI with my TV and it worked on the first try, however I had the same problem the following morning where there was no video signal.

PC specs (everything at stock):
i5 3570k w/ Hyper 212 evo
Asrock Z77 Extreme3
2x4GB G.Skill 1600 Mhz DDR3
Sapphire Dual-x HD 7950 & MSI Twin Frozr III HD 7950
Corsair MX100 256GB & WD Caviar Green 1.5 TB
Corsair TX650 650w power supply (single +12v rail @ 53A)
Corsair Carbide 400r w/ various case fans
Windows 8.1

Thanks for any help.
 
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Stuka87

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Dec 10, 2010
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First thing to try, pull the Sapphire card out. And run with just the MSI by itself. This will limit out a bunch of other possibilities.

If you have issue, the MSI card is at fault. If you don't, then we can look into the next things to try.
 

Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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Power supply up to the task?
It seems to be; it does sufficient amperage on the +12v rail, even though it doesn't meet the recommended 750w that AMD recommends.

First thing to try, pull the Sapphire card out. And run with just the MSI by itself. This will limit out a bunch of other possibilities.

If you have issue, the MSI card is at fault. If you don't, then we can look into the next things to try.
I apologize for not being clear enough; I've been running solely the MSI card for the past couple of days. It will work fine for many hours (I think I used it for around 8 yesterday) without any problems whatsoever. Then I shut down, come back the following morning, and it isn't working. Yesterday I was able to reseat it and it worked fine, but this morning I reseated it and there still was no video signal.
 

Stuka87

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Are you actually shutting down, or are you putting the system to sleep? This actually sounds similar to the wake from sleep bug that major 7950/7970's have.
 

Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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Are you actually shutting down, or are you putting the system to sleep? This actually sounds similar to the wake from sleep bug that major 7950/7970's have.
It is an actual shutdown. I only put it to sleep once.

650W seems too low imo. :/
That wouldn't surprise me, but I've been able to run games with crossfire enabled 3 times with absolutely no problem. Great performance too; for example, the metro 2033 benchmark goes from 45 fps average to 80 fps average, and the very beginning bit of Crysis 3 goes from around 27-30 fps up to 45 or 50.

Plus with the MSI card on its own there are problems with a video signal, so regardless of whether the power supply is enough for crossfire, there is still something else that is the problem.
 
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Stuka87

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I am leaning towards a hardware issue with the MSI card then. Something related to cold starts, since rebooting a few times seems to address it. I wonder if there is a newer BIOS available for it that you can flash onto the second partition? Then switch over to it and see if that BIOS works better.
 

Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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I am leaning towards a hardware issue with the MSI card then. Something related to cold starts, since rebooting a few times seems to address it. I wonder if there is a newer BIOS available for it that you can flash onto the second partition? Then switch over to it and see if that BIOS works better.
I don't know if it's necessarily cold boots though, I've powered it on and off repeatedly and still nothing. I'm currently at school though, when I get home later today I'll certainly try turning it off and on repeatedly, as well as possibly try a new bios.

One thing I thought about: could it be damage from static? Or would exposure to static electricity just make the card die entirely?
 
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MTDEW

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Oct 31, 1999
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If you're sure its not just a cold boot issue.
And you said multiple times that re-seating the MSI card usually works. (but not always)

It wouldn't hurt to pull the MSI card and carefully clean the PCI-E contacts with a pencil / pen eraser and some alcohol to be sure they're nice and shiny and making good contact with the PCI-E slot.
And while you're doing it, visually inspect the contacts on the GPU and look for any signs of extreme wear.
And blow the PCI-e slots out with a can of compressed air.

Its so simple to do, you might as well try it so you can eliminate bad contact with the PCI-e slot as one of the probable causes.


And I do agree with everyone else, 650w isn't quite enough for two in x-fire.
 
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Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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If you're sure its not just a cold boot issue.
And you said multiple times that re-seating the MSI card usually works. (but not always)

It wouldn't hurt to pull the MSI card and carefully clean the PCI-E contacts with a pencil / pen eraser and some alcohol to be sure they're nice and shiny and making good contact with the PCI-E slot.
And while you're doing it, visually inspect the contacts on the GPU and look for any signs of extreme wear.
And blow the PCI-e slots out with a can of compressed air.

Its so simple to do, you might as well try it so you can eliminate bad contact with the PCI-e slot as one of the probable causes.


And I do agree with everyone else, 650w isn't quite enough for two in x-fire.
Thanks. That's a really good idea, I'll definitely try it. To be honest, when I bought it I was expecting to have to upgrade my power supply, but I don't want to buy a new one yet since there is probably something wrong with the used card.
 

Stuka87

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Dec 10, 2010
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I don't know if it's necessarily cold boots though, I've powered it on and off repeatedly and still nothing. I'm currently at school though, when I get home later today I'll certainly try turning it off and on repeatedly, as well as possibly try a new bios.

One thing I thought about: could it be damage from static? Or would exposure to static electricity just make the card die entirely?

Its pretty hard to damage assembled PCB's with static as they have a ground plain. Individual components can be killed very easily when not mounted on a board.

But I have had to repair some PCB's that had a single part that was bad. In some cases opening the component up and putting it under a microscope showed they did have static damage. So its not impossible for a single component to have static damage causing the card to not always work.
 
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KingFatty

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Dec 29, 2010
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Is there any possibility that the software could be so picky, the driver, that it's crashing the system? Maybe also try a clean uninstall and installation of the drivers while the MSI card is installed?
 

Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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Is there any possibility that the software could be so picky, the driver, that it's crashing the system? Maybe also try a clean uninstall and installation of the drivers while the MSI card is installed?
I doubt that it is the drivers, as once I have booted into windows, so long as I don't put it to sleep/hibernate/shut down/etc., it works perfectly for as long as I want.

It's also worth noting that there is literally no video signal when it doesn't work. My monitor's LED keeps blinking as if waiting for a video signal, and of course there is no motherboard bios splash screen, much less the windows boot sequence.
 

Kenmitch

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Maybe Mb bios if its really old version. Sometimes updates are for gpu comparability issues.
 

Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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Well, I cleaned the contacts as instructed and let it dry for two and a half hours or so. I installed, turned on my PC, and still no video signal. However on the second time I attempted to get it to boot it did successfully; however, the first couple of seconds it was on the login screen the picture on my monitor was very screwed up, but it corrected shortly after. That does not happen with my fully functional 7950.

Edit: Right after logging in to the desktop, it gave me the "video memory management error" BSOD. That did happen a couple of times before, but I forgot about it.

So does that make it sound more like it is indeed a dying card? Or is there still hope for it? Later today I should be receiving an HDMI to DVI cable, as I have had more luck with HDMI when I was testing it a few days ago.
 

spat55

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Jul 2, 2013
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I had a HD 7850 crossfire system with a XFX 550w PSU and that couldn't power it for more than 3 months, so I think your PSU is not upto the task.
 

Rezist

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Jun 20, 2009
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I'd say a faulty card kinda sounded like the pci-e pins coulda had some damage. Sounds like possibly a poor power connection? Do the cards fans spin up when it start without video?
 

Morgoth780

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Jul 3, 2014
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I also just updated my motherboard bios. It didn't fix it.

I'm pretty close to just declaring it dead.

Edit: However, I did end up trying to boot a couple more times; the first and second were both failures, the second one booted but then gave me the "video memory management" BSOD, and then the fourth booted normally. That's the second time the booting has followed that pattern.
 
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N2gaming

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Nov 5, 2006
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I had the exact same problem with my system. My card is a HIS 6970-2Gig, , my problem ended up being that the card is so huge that it was to crowded in my case (and it took me a long time to find this out as intermittent problems do)

so it would work one day and then not the next, after finding that it NEVER happened when I was troubleshooting it on my kitchen table and after trying multiple things I

found it was my computers side case touching the video card just enough to move it from being completely inserted in its slot...I know its sounds weird but after bringing my system back to my station with the side cover off (about 12 months now) not one shutdown!

Sometimes with computers it not what one would think it should be...good luck!
 
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