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My PC specs:

  • Intel Core i5 2400
  • Intel DH61WW Motherboard
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 500 W Gigabyte PSU
  • XFX GeForce GTS 250
  • Windows 7 Ultimate
  • Custom make, bought on July 2011 except the graphics card, which I bought 2 years ago

Well, it's a mid range gaming PC and I play games a lot. The PC and monitor are connected to a UPS.

Yesterday I was playing Skyrim. Just crossed 52 hours of gameplay. Suddenly it crashed. It happened once before and Skyrim is known to be full of bugs despite I'm playing 1.3 patch. I restarted the game.

After playing about 1-2 minutes, my monitor goes dark. At first I though there was a power loss somehow. But the power indicator was turned on. The monitor goes to stand by mode after showing a message that it is no longer getting any video signal.

I was able to run the computer using build in video adapter. Then after 30 minutes of trial and error, I found that the PC is no longer detecting the graphics card. I checked the power supply to the graphics card, the fan was spinning. I plugged off the card, removed dust from it, plugged it in, connected the power supply, found the fan spinning but the BIOS confirmed that there is nothing in the PCIe slot. The board only has one PCIe slot.

I don't have another PC to test the card, nor do I have anything to test the PCIe slot itself. The only thing I can do is to take the PC to my vendor.

Before taking it to my vendor, is there anything else I can try? I can't do much with the hardware, but want to try some software that may tell me whether the graphics card or the PCIe slot is damaged or something else happened.

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You reseated the card after blowing it out, and made sure that the Back Power connections are all back in the card? Sounds like the card died. the BIOS is the lowest level of software, while it is not ever perfect, if the card isnt seen there, no software is going to help. I guess the idea your getting at, is you can get into the Internal integrated graphics then check device managers to see if a "unknown" device is shown there. check the memory map for that resource? With those symptoms, I would first want to shove it into another computer, which you dont have. – Psycogeek Jan 4 at 15:10
@Psycogeek: i've started to believe that my card died. just hours ago i discovered that the fan makes loud noise even without any 3D load. – Donotalo Jan 4 at 16:17
The fan on ATI models would not Kick down until the card is Initilised. so now we can assume, you probably have power to at least some degree, and the card still isnt being inited. Another thing to check, is if the GPU and Rams are still "cold" or room temps. the chips being all cold of course meaning they are not doing anything. – Psycogeek Jan 4 at 16:58
@Psycogeek: the card is from nvidia, modified by xfx. but i believe similar thing happens. no idea how to measure gpu temperature if pc doesn't recognize the board. all other pc components are running properly. – Donotalo Jan 5 at 4:36
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@Psycogeek: i'm more like software-guys. i stay away from hardware. i have nothing in my home to test the card physically. thanks for your comments. anyway, i'll take the card to my vendor. i forget how many years i got warranty for it, but from other xfx products i think it is 2 years. my card died when it's age is 2 years 14 day! i was planning to buy a new card in the Q4 of 2012 - choosing one from NVIDIA's Keplar or AMD's Souther Island. but luck is not with me. thanks again. – Donotalo Jan 5 at 5:04
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