GTX 670 Power Edition gives no video signal

Question

Hoping somebody can help here. I've had a long string of problems which seemed graphics card related. Initially, the problem that Windows would reboot with no error message or warning of any kind about a minute after logging in. No problems in safe mode nor any problem if I set Windows to start in Diagnostic Mode. Advice at the time suggested doing a system repair from my installation CD but didn't have time to do this before going on holiday. On return, the problem had deteriorated (or a new problem appeared) - there was no video signal, not even the BIOS screen.
At this time my graphics card was an NVidia GTX 580, motherboard a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, I-7 950 CPU, 850W XFX PSU.
I ran through a host of tests to eliminate possible causes:
1. Tried the card in all PCI_E slots but still no video.
2. Tried another card (NVidia Quadro) in all PCI-E slots, system booted successfully with video and could login to Windows (difference here is the Quadro is powered directly from the motherboard).
3. Tried a number of DVI cables with both cards, the Quadro worked with all of them the 570 stubbornly refused to give a video signal.
Decided the problem was either the PSU or the GTX 580. Returned the latter under warranty and purchased the MSI GTX 570 PE. Installed this and again no video signal but ran through the above tests again with exactly the same results. However could now test the 570 on another system (could not try this with the 680 as PSU on my other system only had 2 6-pin PCI-E connections and the 580 required an 8-pin and a 6-pin power connection). The 570 at least produced the BIOS screen, booted Linux and presented a login screen. Didn't login as the PSU on this system was probably on the marginal side for wattage.
Decided then that I had a strange PSU problem. It could power my PC with the Quadro, suggesting motherboard, CPU, RAM and disks were all OK but could not provide sufficient power for either the 580 or the 670 cards. Bought a new 850W PSU and have just installed this with the 670 card in and yet again I get no video signal. I am now stumped as to what the problem can be so would welcome any suggestions as to what may be wrong and/or what else I can try.
Thanks,
George

Answer 1

Quote from: Svet on 16-November-12, 06:48:32
then you should contact mainboard vendor about it as problem is not in the VGA.
I had given what I thought was sufficient information about the PC spec in my first post. Both what I started with and what I'd changed. But I'll give the full spec here:
Motherboard: GA-X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0
CPU: Intel I-7 950 3.06 GHz
Memory: 3x4GB Crucial DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64
Disks: Samsung 64GB SSD SATA System disk
          WD 1TB and 500GB SATA drives
PSU: Coolermaster RS-850-SPHA-D3 80+ Gold - 3.3V:22A, 5V:25A, 12V:70A single 12V rail
GPU: MSI GTX 670 2GB OC Power Edition
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
The changes were the PSU and the GPU. The problem started when I had an XFX Black Edition 80+ Bronze PSU and a Gigabyte GTX 580 GPU otherwise the rest of the spec was and has remained the same. With my original spec, it ran perfectly happily for almost 2 years but then started with the system rebooting without warning about a minute after login (it would stay at the login screen indefinitely). After running some tests the clues seemed to point to the GPU configuration having been corrupted in some way (from sfc logs). However, if I set Windows to Selective startup, I could login and the system would stay up. I decided to do a system repair from my Windows 7 installation disk but had to postpone this for a couple of weeks during which time the PC was powered off.
When I next powered up the system, there was no video signal at any time. The investigation I did made me think either the GPU was faulty or there was a PSU problem - all other aspects of the system could be shown to work. I returned the GTX580 as it was under warranty and purchased the GTX670 with the refund. This exhibited the same symptoms as the 580 - no video signal no matter how long I left the system running. I was able to test the 670 in another system and it worked there. I couldn't run this test with the 680 as the PSU did not have an 8-pin PCI-E connector - just 2 6-pin connectors.
I then added an NVidia Quadro card alongside the 670 and booted the system with this as the display GPU. This gave me a video signal at all times and more importantly allowed me to get into Windows and check if it recognised the 670 in Device manager. It did but reported a problem as, until now, I hadn't been able to load the 670 driver. I did this and rebooted - again no video signal during post and initial Windows boot but I did get video as soon as the newly installed driver was loaded. This is the state I'm in now other than I've flashed the vbios as suggested and the GPU no longer works on my other PC.
Note, I can happily remove the Quadro and boot the system with just the 670, except I don't get any video signal until Windows has loaded the 670 driver - the monitor light stays stubbornly orange till that point. After that, everything seems to be fine - I don't get the reboots that this problem started with. The only other clue I have is with my original spec I always had a problem from shortly after building it where I would need to power cycle the system most times as I could not wake it from hibernate mode.
I'm hoping this helps as I know I have run out of ideas of things to do. The only thing I have left to try is update the motherboard BIOS.
George