Question XFX RX 580 8GB apparently died from VR

[igor_kavinski]

My RX 580 was previously stress tested with Unigine Superposition and passed it just fine. After that, I was busy so didn't get to run any game on it. Yesterday, I decided to setup the PIMAX P2 VR headset attached to the HDMI port of the RX 580. Pi Tools setup went fine and I saw in VR that I was standing on some rocky ledge and there were huge planets on opposite sides in the sky.

After confirming that the headset was working, I opened the new Edge Chrome browser to look up how to setup the NOLO VR controllers. At that point, the monitor screen went black and the RX 580 fans started blowing like crazy at full speed. I waited a few seconds for them to get back to normal but they didn't. System was unresponsive so booted it. Despite booting, the fans kept blowing at the same rate. Again, no output on the monitor. This time, I turned off the PC at the mains. Connected the monitor to the integrated Intel HD graphics and Windows came back. Checked device manager and there is no RX 580 under Display Adapters anymore. Scanned for hardware changes but no luck in detecting the 3D card. Any idea what could have happened? The card is no longer under warranty. Time to chop it up into a bazillion pieces or does anyone have an idea on how to bring it back to life?

 

[dr1337]

I had a 390x that would give me issue after issue while running VR, eventually after getting a 580 that would fuck up constantly too, I narrowed my issues down to a bad PSU.

In your case however it kinda does seem like the GPU is actually dead. I suppose the pimax could be bad and it sent USB power down the hdmi lines somehow. Its really weird to me that the GPU would try to boot and then turn its fans on max power. If you don't have any other rigs to troubleshoot with tbh its gonna be a hard time outside of getting another GPU and hoping it also doesn't blow up.

 

[Guru]

If your warranty is still valid, just use the warranty, if not you are out o0f luck.

I mean with the new generation mid range coming very shortly within 1 to 2 months, you can wait a bit and snatch up a used GPU on the cheap. I predicted in another thread that used GPU prices are going to fall as much as 50% once we have a good supply of mid range GPU's from Nvidia's 3000 series and AMD's 6000 series.

 

[igor_kavinski]

No warranty. Bought it used. Think it was used for mining since the clocks were weird (1200MHz gpu and 2100MHz RAM) but it passed Unigine Superposition without breaking a sweat so was working fine from what I could tell. Opened the case and removed the 8-pin connector. Red LED comes on and system doesn't boot. Put the connector back and the LED turns blue and system boots but still no detection in Windows and none of the Radeon's display outputs is working. I also took out the card to try and smell any burnt odors but there was none. Any ideas for a Radeon friendly Linux Live distribution that I could put on flash usb? Also tried switching the dual bios switch but no dice.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Call me a bit skeptical of your story. If the card had a modded /mining BIOS flashed to it, then AFAIK, you MUST use modded drivers; the standard AMD kernel driver checks the BIOS signature and refuses to load the Windows kernel driver if there's something amiss.

What is it you're not telling us? Were you mining on it yourself, too?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Call me a bit skeptical of your story. If the card had a modded /mining BIOS flashed to it, then AFAIK, you MUST use modded drivers; the standard AMD kernel driver checks the BIOS signature and refuses to load the Windows kernel driver if there's something amiss.

What is it you're not telling us? Were you mining on it yourself, too?

From what I know, it was a modded BIOS with downclocked GPU and overclocked RAM because I think mining needs more bandwidth (I've no clue since I've never mined myself). Picked up the card used and on the cheap in 2018 (~$160) and it was just lying around collecting dust because I normally game on my PS4 Pro and XB1X. Installed it so I could get it ready for playing HL:Alyx this year and that is when I ran Unigine Superposition to gauge its performance.

It did have weird POST issues from the start like displaying only the BIOS splash screen and then going dark until the Windows screen came up. I don't know about the BIOS signature thing. Maybe the signature of the BIOS was left untouched by the modder and he only changed the GPU/MEM clocks? It's an XFX GTS XXX edition and very well-built. I did have the optional AMD driver installed and not the WHQL one. Anyone know a cheap repair service?

 

[igor_kavinski]

So anyone want to guess what happened to it? I'm guessing maybe the 8-pin connector couldn't supply it with enough power and the card shut off to protect itself from damage? The PSU is only 400W(Huntkey brand). I do have a Corsair 500W PSU so will need to check with that.

Amazingly, nothing else was affected by the "incident". Rest of the system specs are i7-3770, Z77 Gigabyte mobo, 32GB DDR3-1600 and 160GB Intel SSD.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The PSU is only 400W(Huntkey brand).

https://www.amd.com/en/products/graphics/radeon-rx-580

Requirements
Typical Board Power (Desktop)

185 W

PSU Recommendation

500 W

 

[Shmee]

Yeah I would definitely use a better quality PSU. You may get the card working again with one, and at the very least, you shouldn't have issues with adding a new card or other hardware.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yikes, that PSU.

Bad power will kill anything. That is both under spec and of questionable quality, which really becomes apparent when pushed hard/too hard.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Replaced the PSU with a Corsair 430W. Seems the card is dead for sure. Only the blue LED comes on. Anyone know if there is a fuse on it that may have blown? I could try getting it replaced.

 

[Leeea]

Replaced the PSU with a Corsair 430W. Seems the card is dead for sure. Only the blue LED comes on. Anyone know if there is a fuse on it that may have blown? I could try getting it replaced.

You have nothing to lose at this point, so time to get creative!

Flash light and a magnifying glass. If you see nothing disassemble it. By disassemble I mean pull the shroud, fans, heatsink off. If it has a bottom plate that to. Then flash light and magnifying glass it again.

The card spinning the fans up does not mean much, the default state for a PWM fan is full speed until it gets a PWM signal. Fans at full speed means the fans are not getting any signal at all.

If you do not see anything, you probably are toast. For a super long shot you can start testing components with a multimeter. Odds are not on your side at that point.

-----------

It did have weird POST issues from the start like displaying only the BIOS splash screen and then going dark until the Windows screen came up.

Graphics cards are like cars, do not buy unless it is stock. That sounds like a non-stock bios.

-----------

So anyone want to guess what happened to it?

Being a custom modded bios, odds are the gpu did not shut itself down* as it went out of spec. I feel this is what really did you in.

Power supply failed to keep the voltage up. As the voltage drops amps go up, and it is the amps the fry things. A good power supply will shut down instead of going out of spec.

Sometimes a fuse pops. Sometimes the mosfets overheat and fry themselves. And sometimes the mosfets overheat and short circuit, frying everything they are connected to.

There is other bad things to. 60 hertz pass through to the DC line is never good.


* I once futzed with a MSI RX 580 4g, trying to get it to run as fast as the 8g version. It was not having it. I hard crashed that thing over and over, with line power disconnect being needed every time. That thing is still running today in a grand kids computer. A bit of abuse** makes a RX 580 feel loved.

**not to be applied to living things

 

[igor_kavinski]

Graphics cards are like cars, do not buy unless it is stock. That sounds like a non-stock bios.

Excellent and informative post! Yeah, unfortunately it seems the previous owner of the card was probably using it for mining and didn't feel the need to mention that to me. I also think the BIOS is to blame. Wish AMD drivers detected an unofficial BIOS and offered to flash stock BIOS. Talked to the local XFX office. They say they can't do any repairs here but they will get back to me and see if the card can be sent to their Hong Kong office for repairing. Keeping my fingers crossed...

 

[Motostu]

Does that card have a BIOS switch? Check to see that it's in the correct position. I bought a 570 a while back that had been used for mining, and while the symptoms were not the same, it did not work right until I discovered that switch and changed it.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Does that card have a BIOS switch? Check to see that it's in the correct position. I bought a 570 a while back that had been used for mining, and while the symptoms were not the same, it did not work right until I discovered that switch and changed it.

Unfortunately, I discovered the switch only after the card's apparent death. Changing the position of the switch has no effect now.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Weird update: I have a 1060 3GB that I was trying to sell off because of the low amount of VRAM. Decided to test it. No display output, just like my RX 580. On a lark, put it in the second PCIe slot and the BIOS splash screen came up but it instantly froze with a pretty wide black vertical bar. Tested the RX 580 in the same slot. BIOS splash screen came up but it froze again. Seems the RX 580 tried to pull maximum power from the PCIe slot and somehow fried the entire PCIe bus.

Other than this weird PCIe issue, the system seems to be running great, though now it's become just a productivity machine for running office software or maybe watching movies. Gonna have a hard time selling it off while explaining to potential buyers, just one issue you need to be aware of: you cannot game on this system with a discrete GPU

Time to check the RX 580 in a different motherboard...

 

[Leeea]

Time to check the RX 580 in a different motherboard...

Swap that BIOS first! Flip the switch on the card!

-------

It seems it was the mainboard mosfet that melted down, unexpected twist! I knew those RX 580s were hard to kill!

Is it possible the miner flashed both BIOSes on that card? I suggest considering flashing the stock one on before stressing it to be safer.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Swap that BIOS first! Flip the switch on the card!

-------

It seems it was the mainboard mosfet that melted down, unexpected twist! I knew those RX 580s were hard to kill!

Is it possible the miner flashed both BIOSes on that card? I suggest considering flashing the stock one on before stressing it to be safer.

I'm currently in the process of upgrading to a Z97 mobo so I will check the RX 580 on that. Just as soon as I manage to figure out how to get the Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z6 mobo to accept my Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600. Relaxed the timings to 11-11-11-28 and it's been stable enough to survive multiple runs of Unigine Superposition and PCMARK 10. Just two more 8GB sticks to go.

Flashing the RX 580 BIOS? Just thinking about that makes me very, very uncomfortable. I'm just too squeamish to do that. If it works, I'll just use it for gaming and postpone VR gaming until I can get a better 3D card. Will check what effect flipping the switch has on the GPU/MEM clocks.

 

[Leeea]

Will check what effect flipping the switch has on the GPU/MEM clocks.

I think it swaps between a performance bios and a quiet bios.

You should be able to change the bios switch after the system has started, allowing it to boot with one bios, and then flash the other one.

you probably already know this:

TechPowerUp

Extensive repository of graphics card BIOS image files. Our database covers submissions categorized by GPU vendor, type, and board partner variant.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[igor_kavinski]

I think it swaps between a performance bios and a quiet bios.

You should be able to change the bios switch after the system has started, allowing it to boot with one bios, and then flash the other one.

you probably already know this:

TechPowerUp

Extensive repository of graphics card BIOS image files. Our database covers submissions categorized by GPU vendor, type, and board partner variant.

www.techpowerup.com

Not gonna do it. NOT GONNA DO IT!

Seriously, I'll just be glad if it starts working again. I miss how LOUD and FAST it is compared to my measly 1060 3GB.

 

[coercitiv]

@igor_kavinski - some XFX 580 cards came with mining optimized BIOS - so one firmware was for gaming and the other for mining.

My XFX 580 GTS XXX came with Gaming & Mining combo from the factory. I no longer use the card, but I saved the original mining BIOS, so here's a snapshot from the BIOS editor:



The main difference between stock and mining firmware is the lower max clocks (1150 vs 1300+Mhz IIRC) and the slight memory overclock.

Now, if the card you bought booted into windows properly after installing Radeon drivers, then chances are the firmware is the one from the factory, as the usual route of running modded BIOS requires a special software bypass to boot into Windows. You would remember having done that in the past.

 

[Stuka87]

This whole thread is a great example of why buying used GPU's since the mining craze is pretty sketchy. Its not just the risk of the card having been run 24/7 mining, its that the card may have a custom bios that renders the card unusable, or if it was modded to use only PCIe power, it could kill the mobo.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, that would be interesting, if a card COULD be modified to ONLY take PCI-E power (presumably off of a PCI-E 6-pin powered riser, which would exceed PCI-E's 75W normal slot-power spec). Could that be done via a BIOS mod, or would it require a hard-mod?

I was a little sketched, even buying some "factory refurb" RX 5600XT cards, from Newegg and Gigabyte. I had PC's shutting down, etc.

Which I think, I'm going to chalk up to a bad battery backup, as I recently read the reviews on my unit(s) at Amazon, and they are NOT good.

Also noticed from the pics, that when I attempted to move the power strip cable from the battery half to the surge half, that I had made a mistake, and the top plug on the other half was also battery. Since then, I've moved it down one, to the Surge plugs, and haven't had any further restarts of that PC.

Although, I've had a few restarts of my main rig (RX 5700 reference, GTX 1660ti, power usage lowered using Wattman and MSI AB respectively), and my CPU temp (on 240mm AIO WC) doesn't exceed 70C, even mining. Not sure if 750W Antec EDG Gold PSU is failing, or ... again with the same model battery-backup. Though, the backup didn't click over last few times the PC crashed. Seemed like a weird hardware or even possibly USB issue, as I recently added a few additional USB cameras to test out.

 

[Stuka87]

Well, that would be interesting, if a card COULD be modified to ONLY take PCI-E power (presumably off of a PCI-E 6-pin powered riser, which would exceed PCI-E's 75W normal slot-power spec). Could that be done via a BIOS mod, or would it require a hard-mod?

I was a little sketched, even buying some "factory refurb" RX 5600XT cards, from Newegg and Gigabyte. I had PC's shutting down, etc.

Which I think, I'm going to chalk up to a bad battery backup, as I recently read the reviews on my unit(s) at Amazon, and they are NOT good.

Also noticed from the pics, that when I attempted to move the power strip cable from the battery half to the surge half, that I had made a mistake, and the top plug on the other half was also battery. Since then, I've moved it down one, to the Surge plugs, and haven't had any further restarts of that PC.

Although, I've had a few restarts of my main rig (RX 5700 reference, GTX 1660ti, power usage lowered using Wattman and MSI AB respectively), and my CPU temp (on 240mm AIO WC) doesn't exceed 70C, even mining. Not sure if 750W Antec EDG Gold PSU is failing, or ... again with the same model battery-backup. Though, the backup didn't click over last few times the PC crashed. Seemed like a weird hardware or even possibly USB issue, as I recently added a few additional USB cameras to test out.

When AMD first launched polaris, there was an issue where it drew to much power from the PCIe slot, so they released a driver change to make it pull less power from the PCIe. So at least Polaris cards can dynamically change where they pull power from.

 

[igor_kavinski]

When AMD first launched polaris, there was an issue where it drew to much power from the PCIe slot, so they released a driver change to make it pull less power from the PCIe. So at least Polaris cards can dynamically change where they pull power from.

Ah. So pulling too much power is definitely an AMD issue then. Damn. Makes me wary of trying to use the card in my Z97 mobo since it definitely seems to be a downgrade in terms of build quality compared to my "PCIe bus fried" Z77 mobo.

Z77: https://www.anandtech.com/show/6108...eview-functionality-meets-competitive-pricing

Z97: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/G1Sniper-Z6-rev-10

After my recent issues regarding stability with their Z97 mobo, I swear this is the last time I've been stung by Gigabyte