After BSOD, Videocard no longer recognized

[JasperTheHague]

Hi everyone, and thank you for checking this out.

I have a serious problem; while playing a game, and at+tabbing to change a tune in iTunes, my PC BSOD'd. Now I have had a couple BSODs before on my 2yr old Medion PC but before they were related to a dodgy game-controller of mine.

Now it seems to be much more severe, when I rebooted after the crashdump I got no image on screen at all, after rebooting a couple of times I decided to try the VGA port on my onboard, which showed the start-up recovery thingy.

After going through start-up recovery my system installed the drivers for my onboard videocard and now it seems my original card has disappeared, won't be seen by windows 7 in anyway whatsoever...

Now I'm not a PC expert, I have checked out the BIOS and noticed the PCI-E had it's power disabled but other than that I cannot see what has changed and whether or not my videocard was bricked in the process or if there's a different problem.

The videocard is a AMD Radeon HD 7770, ASUS HD7770 Series, which has performed excellently so far, no glitches or any signs of overheating to my knowledge...

So my question is.. Can I check whether or not my card is bricked? and if the card is okay, can I re-enable it somehow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best, Jasper

Info about my PC:

i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40 Ghz, 3.40Ghz
8 GB Ram
Radeon 7770 HD video card

 

[crjdriver]

Before doing anything, post the following; exact pw supply you have installed.

Next when you have your ati video card connected, do you see any POST data and or a splash screen OR is is just blank with the orange light on the monitor?

 

[JasperTheHague]

Hi CRJdriver, thanks for pitching in!

I've just had a look (didn't build the rig myself) and it looks like the power supply is only 450W.

I don't get any POST/ splash at all, it is af if my videocard was never there, anything hooked into the back of the videocard (HDMI or DVI) just sits there as if I had plugged it into my cat

 

[crjdriver]

OK, post the exact pw supply you have installed ie corsair xxx123 or whatever.

Next do you have another video card to try in the pci-e slot OR another system to test your card?

 

[JasperTheHague]

It says it's made by FSP group/ Fortron/source, model no: FSP450-60EMDN, hope that helps. I do not have a separate machine at hand to test the card on I'm afraid..

label looks like this:

http://images.esellerpro.com/2131/I/770/64/DSCF3691.JPG

 

[crjdriver]

That is a decent pw supply; not great however not junk either. The only way you are going to find out whether or not you fried the card is to test it. If you do not have a test system, take it to a computer shop and they can test it for you. Note do not go to a best buy or other chain store; go to a real shop where they do builds.

If your pw supply is more than 3~4yr old, I would also consider getting a new one. They do not last forever.

 

[crjdriver]

Since it is working with the onchip video, you might want to check your temps and voltages. Post the exact mb you have installed ie asus xxx or whatever. Both asus and gigabyte have purpose designed monitoring software for their boards.

 

[JasperTheHague]

Hi CRJdriver, that's good to hear, I was under the impression that anything under 1 KW was rubbish but yeah I am an amateur hehe.

It's barely 2 years old, and I've had no problems with it so far. Do you think it's more likely that the power supply is the source of my troubles?

I will check my temps and volts now. I do that in the BIOS right?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[JasperTheHague]

K, I'm back. Here is what I could find:

Temp/Volts:

System temp: 26c
cpu fan speed: 857 rpm
system fan speed: 0rpm
cpu voltage: 1.116v
dimm voltage: 1.488v

My motherboard:
Intel core i7-3770 CPU @ 3,40Ghz
Total memory: 8192 mb (ddr3)
mainboard: Intel, Ecs, H77H2-Em

(I'm trying to find more details bout my mb but couldn't find any info on the actual card and am finding it hard to find the exact specs anywhere)
Does that help at all?

 

[JasperTheHague]

The feeling I had was that during my start-up recovery it looks like some changes were made to my machine, looks like some recovery util restored some old files and since then my videocard doesnt work. would it be at all possible that by resetting to an earlier version my videocard was disabled somewhere?

 

[crjdriver]

No. If you are not seeing post data during startup with the card installed, either the card OR the pci-e slot has failed. No drivers are even loaded until windows loads.

 

[JasperTheHague]

I've had the PC running with the box open and I noticed that the card's fan is running as normal.. so would that count out the hardware problems? I'm really confused now.. (I uninstalled the intel video drivers, and the old AMD ones, then unplugged the card, rebooted, then rebooted with the card connected to the pwoer supply again and now the fan runs, still no progress with anything on screen however...

It feels as if this start-up recovery had set my PC back to some archaic state from before the videocard was installed or something.. looks as if the card is running, in the BIOS i enabled the power to PCI-E, and I set the standard videocard to PCI-E but it seems to always use the VGA adapter from the motherboard instead..

 

[crjdriver]

I've had the PC running with the box open and I noticed that the card's fan is running as normal.. so would that count out the hardware problems?

No. As I said if you do not see post data during bootup with the real video card installed and connected, you have a hardware problem. Either the card has failed; the mb slot has failed, pw to the card has failed, etc.
Most modern systems disable onboard/onchip video when a real video card is installed however check your mb manual.

The only way you are going to find out which one failed is by testing.

 

[JasperTheHague]

Thank you so much for your feedback. So I will go to a PC-build place and take my videocard to be tested.

So, if I understand it correctly, the problem could be in one of (or some/all of) the following:

- videocard (bricked or not?)
- PCI-E connector on my motherboard
- Power supply

At least now I can give a more detailed description of the problem. hope they can get it fixed or that I won't have to replace anything too expensive..

Thank you for sharing your time and expertise!

 

[crjdriver]

You are welcome.