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Troubleshooting customer's GPU problems...need some advice...

N

night_2004

2[H]4U
Joined
May 31, 2007
Messages
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About a week ago I sold my GTX 275 to a customer on Amazon, and he's having some problems getting the card up and running. No video is being output, the PC does boot up, but then beeps "no VGA detected" during POST.

Before he does a return with me, I would like to see if there is anything else that we can try to narrow down the problem. Before the card was shipped I know it was working but at the same time USPS could have screwed it up during shipment.

GPU: eVGA GTX 275
Motherboard: GA-MA770-DS3P
PSU: Tuniq Potency PSU-POT650-BK 650W

The other thing I have been told is that the old GPU for the system is/was a 9500GT, so the GTX 275 is quite a step up in terms of gaming capability but also power requirements.

My gut instinct is that the PSU (two 12V rails, 25A each) is being overloaded on one or both rails with the GTX 275. He has another computer he tried it in and the same thing happened, but does not yet know what PSU is in it (I should know by tomorrow). The GTX 275's fan is running so at least it is getting some power...that tells me the power circuits are not dead at least.
 
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Alright, so the customer has gotten to the point where the motherboard apparently is not beeping but the video card is still not outputting anything. (EDIT: Nevermind...the motherboard does not beep at all now...which means something is goofy there we need to look into still)

Maybe the power connectors were loose, maybe the PSU is marginally okay.

Quick question...I've been trying to find out the configuration of that dual rail 12V line. Are all the PCIe power cables on one rail, with everything else on the other? Or is it something more complex than that?
 
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I tried googling around to find a reputable review for that power supply, but came up empty handed, which leads me to believe it is most likely crap.

I would have them try a better power supply.
 
We're having trouble getting him another power supply. There are plenty of NewEgg reviews on it though, but yes none of them are professionally done.

He did try booting the system with minimal hardware plugged in and it still does not work. :/
 
what is the trouble in getting a better psu? I wouldn't trust newegg reviews at all, especially for power supplies.

My guess is that the power supply the customer has is "optimistically" rated at 650 Watts, when in reality it will supply less than half as much, if even that.

in my line of work I have seen 550 W units that sell for less than $30 that weigh nothing. Sure enough, most of these units struggle to provide enough power to power up a system with a cpu, single hd and integrated graphics.
 
skruideli said:
what is the trouble in getting a better psu? I wouldn't trust newegg reviews at all, especially for power supplies.

My guess is that the power supply the customer has is "optimistically" rated at 650 Watts, when in reality it will supply less than half as much, if even that.

in my line of work I have seen 550 W units that sell for less than $30 that weigh nothing. Sure enough, most of these units struggle to provide enough power to power up a system with a cpu, single hd and integrated graphics.
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The problem is cash on his side I believe. Best Buy apparently tested the GPU for him and confirmed it was bad, so he's sending it back my way.

Best Buy might have screwed up the test as well so I'll do my own testing, but I expect the card will be bad and I'll have to RMA and/or go after the shipper for damaging it in transit.
 
Or the customer jammed his card into the motherboard and ruined a few contacts... you won't be able to tell until you get it back.
 
Well, I got the card back today and it is indeed bad. Fan spins up full throttle and my PC does not get a VGA output at all. The computer itself does seem to attempt to boot though, since when I put my 5870 back in the PC Windows complained about the last time I tried to boot it. So it does get past POST.
 
night_2004 said:
Well, I got the card back today and it is indeed bad. Fan spins up full throttle and my PC does not get a VGA output at all. The computer itself does seem to attempt to boot though, since when I put my 5870 back in the PC Windows complained about the last time I tried to boot it. So it does get past POST.
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Just be grateful you have closure on the issue and that the hardware was indeed bad.

I sold my last motherboard to some dummy on [H] and he said the board was bad. I gave him troubleshooting steps and he gave me the standard bullshit response yea, uh huh, done that.

I took the board back and refunded his money. I was out $18 shipping for a board I sold for... I think $75. I turned around and sold it to a coworker for $25 telling him it may or may not work. It worked just fine.

F---ing prick. I hope he raged as his lazy, dumb ass diagnosed the failing components in his build with no success. I'd pray he spent three weeks of RMA'ing every individual component as he did it, if I thought that would have an effect. :)

Yea, no real closure for me... I'm still talking about it.
 
What really bothers me though is that the computer POSTs even with the GTX 275 as the only GPU in the system. No video or anything *but* I have my motherboard set to halt the POST process if anything is wrong.

When I leave my 5870 in as the primary GPU, Windows does not detect the GTX 275 whatsoever. Not as an unknown device, zip, zilch, nada.

So it seems that the GPU is not communicating with the motherboard at all. I've got half a mind to insert the GPU as the only device, let Windows boot, and try to remote desktop into it to see what I can do.

If I can't quickly solve this I'll need to look into replacement options ASAP. I don't want to leave this guy hanging.
 
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This is why I only sell used parts if I can install them now. I'm tired of people screwing them up and then blaming me and demanding money back. It's just not worth the hassle anymore. And I really hope it's just me but family seem to be the worst offenders in being pricks if something is wrong and it's usually their fault.
 
night_2004 said:
What really bothers me though is that the computer POSTs even with the GTX 275 as the only GPU in the system. No video or anything *but* I have my motherboard set to halt the POST process if anything is wrong.

When I leave my 5870 in as the primary GPU, Windows does not detect the GTX 275 whatsoever. Not as an unknown device, zip, zilch, nada.

So it seems that the GPU is not communicating with the motherboard at all. I've got half a mind to insert the GPU as the only device, let Windows boot, and try to remote desktop into it to see what I can do.

If I can't quickly solve this I'll need to look into replacement options ASAP. I don't want to leave this guy hanging.
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sounds to me like either it got damaged in shipping or he screwed something up that caused it to kill the card which ive had happen when a guy bought a working radeon x1550 AGP from me.. complained how it didnt work blah blah and i know it worked because i had been gaming on it the day before i shipped to him to test the card.. then magically it didnt work for him because he decided to install it on a system with some pos generic psu that didnt have enough amps on the 4 pin molex cables because he had so much crap daisy chained together which then damaged the card and killed it..

did he bother to take the GTX 275 out and put the 9500GT back in just to check all the hardware and to make sure everything worked correctly?


Dark Shroud said:
This is why I only sell used parts if I can install them now. I'm tired of people screwing them up and then blaming me and demanding money back. It's just not worth the hassle anymore. And I really hope it's just me but family seem to be the worst offenders in being pricks if something is wrong and it's usually their fault.
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completely agree.. i no longer sell parts to family members.. or even give them away to them.. so sick of their complaining because they have no clue what they are doing..
 
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