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so I've had big issues with my computer for about 2 months now. After 2 years, my video card seemingly died, so I bought a 280x as a replacement. Well after 2 months, if supposedly failed as well, so I replaced it with a new 280x, which failed as well after 2 days. After trying various things, we took it to a repair shop, who just said "yeah it's the video card", so we bought a new 290x, but, yep, it failed again after 2 days. So we took it back and they changed a few things, and it apparently worked for them, but after 2 days again, it crashed. I am unsure of what to do.

What we did:

  • Ran memtest for 2 nights, finding no errors
  • ran prime95, with no issues
  • general cleaning of the computer
  • updating BIOS
  • we ATTEMPTED to uninstall and reinstall video card drivers, but can't even get into the computer

What they did:

  • First time: changed video card and ran Furmark for a few hours, and said it was the video card.
  • Second time: defaulted BIOS settings, new thermal paste, reseated graphics card.

How it crashes:

  • The first crash after putting in the first 280x, was extreme flickers followed by random coloured patterns covering the screen, but that changed after changing video cards for the second time.
  • Now the screen will go black all of a sudden (happened while gaming, after 2 days) and the fans (the graphics card fans I believe?) start working very fast.
  • Can only turn it off by holding down the power button.
  • Turning it on again will crash after about 5 seconds on the desktop.
  • After leaving it off overnight, just pressing the power button causes very fast fans and nothing on the monitor.

Specs:

  • Intel Core i7-3930k
  • Corsair H70 CPU Water Cooler
  • 16Gb DDR3 G.Skill 4x4Gb 1600Mh
  • 120Gb Intel 520 Series SSD
  • 2Tb WD Caviar Green WD20EARX SATA 6Gb/s 64mb Cache SATA3
  • AMD Radeon R9 290x
  • 750w CoolerMaster GX 80 Plus

Thanks for your help.

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    maybe the motherboard (PCIe slot has an issue). Is the PSU stable?
    – magicandre1981
    Apr 19, 2015 at 6:32
  • @magicandre1981Yes it may be the motherboard or power supply, but we are unsure on how to test either. I feel fairly safe ruling out the video card as an issue, as well as the ram, or any kind of overheating issue, as we viewed temperatures as well. How would we go about testing the motherboard or power supply? Thanks for this!
    – Michael T
    Apr 19, 2015 at 7:48

2 Answers 2

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Have we tested any of the cards in a secondary computer? Are we testing the computer on different monitors or the same monitor every time? If we have and all these cards have legitimately failed, I'd recommend investing in a new power supply. Corsair makes incredibly solid power supplies (As a rule, don't go cheap on your power supply. It's arguably the most important piece of your computer even if it's not doing any computations.).

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  • I personally have not tested the cards with another computer, and I doubt the repair shop did either. It is one option to look at, however I seriously doubt 3 cards would be corrupt, although it is a possibility. My other concern was that it may be the power supply, like you suggested, although I am not sure how to test that. I have given the repair shop a 3rd try at it, but I doubt they will do anything. We have another repair shop to try after this as we are not that tech savvy. How would you test the power supply? Thanks for this!
    – Michael T
    Apr 19, 2015 at 7:46
  • Something like one of these: newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899705003 It'll only give you the basics (Is it putting out power at all? Are they even vaugely within parameters? That sort of thing.) but it's something. I'd try the cards in a second system to make sure it's actually the cards. If it is, I'd be highly suspect of the power supply.
    – Nathanial Meek
    Apr 19, 2015 at 7:51
  • Hey man just wanted to say that I took my computer to the repair shop and told them to look at the power supply and they said there was issues with it, so they changed the power supply and tested it, and it worked for them, so I bought a new one. Hopefully all goes well. Thank you!
    – Michael T
    Apr 23, 2015 at 1:26
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Try updating the BIOS. I have a 3930K and an HD 7970 (The first PCIe 3.0 GPU and the 280X is a rebrand of it) and I had similar sounding issues when I first got the card. When a new BIOS came out I tried updating and that fixed it. Also if your BIOS has options for switching between PCIe 3.0 and 2.0 modes try toggling that back and forth as well.

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