Windows wont recognize gpu? Black screen

[kukemaim]

Hi,

I've had this problem for a while now. But where to begin...

I removed my 5770 from a working case to change its cooler. When I put it back in, I got a black screen. Tried lots of things, concluded that it must have been dead from a static charge (did wear woolen slippers at the time lol, thanks Santa).

Bought a new gpu, xfx 6870. To my horror, the same problem occurred. Fan spinning, windows loading on the background and only way to get a picture was to plug the DVI to mobo (6870 was still slotted).
MEANWHILE, i received conformation that the previous card, 5770, was indeed dead.

So I decided to test the 6870 on a friends pc as well and it worked...Then i sent the motherboard to another friend, who tested it with his own gpu and psu, that also worked.

So I concluded that it must be my psu thats causing the problem. I have a modular 850W SilverStone Strider. Since it was powering my system successfully without the gpu, I figured maybe one of the 6pin sockets was damaged. I switched the cables around, tried molex to 6pin adapters and nothing. Took the gpu out for a while and in frustration tried again later. I dont quite remember what else I did exactly but IT ACTUALLY WORKED. Thats until I needed to restart, after which I got the black screen again.

A couple of million retries and messing around later, I got it working once more. Now I remember what i did prior to that (Im not sure though that it had anything to do with it starting properly). While to DVI was plugged to mobo, I ran the windows "Find and fix problems with devices" troubleshoot utility, it said "Hardware changes might not have been detected", "The troubleshooter made some changes to your system, try attempting the task you were trying to do before."
Ahaa, thats it I thought. So I plugged the Dvi from mobo to gpu but it still didnt give me picture. Powered down with the power button and turned it back on. Now thats the second time I got it working. Happily I thought the problem was gone for good. Until I needed to restart (the reason being that I used ASUS TurboEVO to apply auto overclock, again not sure if that even matters).

So whats causing this randomness, only 2 successful power ups out of ~50. Now the other things that I though of:
- Different pci slot
- While the dvi is in mobo but the card is still slotted, only the integrated intel 3000 graphic is turning up in device manager
- In bios under System Agent Configuration > Graphics configuration > Primary display is set to [Auto], can also set it to PCIe, but it switches back to Auto. That should work as well, shouldn't it?

When the dvi is plugged to the gpu, the monitor shows the "entering power save mode" icon for a sec and then powers down.

I hope this wasn't too long and confusing, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

:|
Btw running:
i5-2500k
Asus p8z77-M
xfx 6870
2 * 4gb Hyber-x ram
Silverstone Strider 850W modular.

 

[Tweak155]

Can you see the boot sequence or is it black the whole time? In other words, does it only go black when it is time to use Windows?

 

[kukemaim]

Its black the whole time. Wont show me picture in any situation when the dvi is in gpu. Sounds like a broken gpu doesnt it. But why would it work in my friends pc then? Why did I get it working in mine?

 

[Tweak155]

Try running it without any power connected to the graphics card. Should be fine as long as you don't run anything graphically intensive.

 

[kukemaim]

Try running it without any power connected to the graphics card. Should be fine as long as you don't run anything graphically intensive.

No picture Conclusion?

 

[Tweak155]

No picture Conclusion?

That's a tough call. I'm still not convinced it is any one component, I just thought removing the PSU from the equation (as much as possible) might point it to the PSU if it worked.

Could it be one of those weirdo issues where moving the ram around solves it? Always worth a shot!

EDIT:

And pulling the CMOS battery (with the psu unplugged from wall) for a little bit. I've had that work on some WTH issues.

 

[kukemaim]

That's a tough call. I'm still not convinced it is any one component, I just thought removing the PSU from the equation (as much as possible) might point it to the PSU if it worked.

Could it be one of those weirdo issues where moving the ram around solves it? Always worth a shot!

EDIT:

And pulling the CMOS battery (with the psu unplugged from wall) for a little bit. I've had that work on some WTH issues.

No luck with either of those Im afraid. When I removed (and put back) the battery and tried to boot for the first time (dvi plugged to gpu) there was again no picture. Windows didnt load either, guessing it was because there was some kind of dos message which i failed to see through the dark screen. So i plugged the dvi to mobo and surprisingly didn't get a picture either. Powered down with the button and the picture was back (with mobo unfortunately). So back to square one.

Btw, I always thought that if you forgot to plug in the power cable to gpu you'd get exactly that - no picture. No?

Any additional way of making sure that the integrated graphic isn't getting in the way?

 

[tweakboy]

Something is up with the motherboard or PSU. First get a new PSU and try it. If it doesn't work then it's the motherboard and you have to RMA it. gl

 

[Vectronic]

I'm gonna go out on a fairly small limb here, but...

You have only tried DVI right?... no VGA, HDMI, or DisplayPort that the card should also have? (unless it's dual DVI)?

If it has, and works with the VGA connection, but not the DVI connection... change your DVI cable.

It might be faulty, or more likely one that doesn't have the right pin setup, which is causing your GPU to not recognize the monitor as connected, or is connected but isn't powered on.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Also, make sure you have the card properly seated in the pci-e slot.

Have you tried a different monitor?

 

[Sidekicknichola]

FWIW This happened to me the other day -

6850 in my 970-a mobo, has been working for about a year now just fine.... updated drivers to the newest ATI release - during update screen goes black.... PC is still running, GPU still running.

Run in safe mode, revert to old driver, works great. Try to update again, black screen. Bought a 7950 to test - updated drivers, works great.

* I would open in safe mode, go to your device manager and roll back your driver to an older/original one and try it...

 

[Tweak155]

No luck with either of those Im afraid. When I removed (and put back) the battery and tried to boot for the first time (dvi plugged to gpu) there was again no picture. Windows didnt load either, guessing it was because there was some kind of dos message which i failed to see through the dark screen. So i plugged the dvi to mobo and surprisingly didn't get a picture either. Powered down with the button and the picture was back (with mobo unfortunately). So back to square one.

Btw, I always thought that if you forgot to plug in the power cable to gpu you'd get exactly that - no picture. No?

Any additional way of making sure that the integrated graphic isn't getting in the way?

You shouldn't, but I can see how it might differ by card. I've done it more than once.

 

[kukemaim]

I'm gonna go out on a fairly small limb here, but...

You have only tried DVI right?... no VGA, HDMI, or DisplayPort that the card should also have? (unless it's dual DVI)?

If it has, and works with the VGA connection, but not the DVI connection... change your DVI cable.

It might be faulty, or more likely one that doesn't have the right pin setup, which is causing your GPU to not recognize the monitor as connected, or is connected but isn't powered on.

I have indeed tried with only DVI, two of them in fact. They did have the same pin lineup though. But if it really had the wrong setup, why did it work those 2 times? Might get a VGA to test tomorrow.

I also got this cable Dp > HDMI https://www.hama.com/00054594/hama-displayport-adapter-cable-for-digital-tv-180-m

That bastard doesn't work at all, even with mobo. The monitor displays "No DVI-D cable" message. I've no idea whats that about. Baah, theres no end to my suffering.

FWIW This happened to me the other day -

6850 in my 970-a mobo, has been working for about a year now just fine.... updated drivers to the newest ATI release - during update screen goes black.... PC is still running, GPU still running.

Run in safe mode, revert to old driver, works great. Try to update again, black screen. Bought a 7950 to test - updated drivers, works great.

* I would open in safe mode, go to your device manager and roll back your driver to an older/original one and try it...

The thing is I have nothing to roll back to. In those 2 successful boots, the catalyst got me the newest drivers available (I assume). Also If the gpu doesn't even show up in the device manager, then I cant use the rollback option.

Anyway, thanks for your ideas. Looks like I might need to start changing parts. Maybe my friend got lucky with the 6870, just like I did twice. Or maybe it is my strangely half dead, half alive psu

 

[Vectronic]

I've had monitor/GPU combinations where it would only recognize the display after doing a "Detect Displays" of some kind, otherwise it would just treat the monitor as not connected.

In one case it was the cord, in another it was the monitors power settings, in another I don't know, it was a crappy display gave up.

But the first two would work if I did a device scan, or a detect display from within the drivers... the second one would also work if I just turned the monitor off and then back on, then stop if the OS told the monitor to sleep, or restarted the PC.

 

[Tweak155]

I have indeed tried with only DVI, two of them in fact. They did have the same pin lineup though. But if it really had the wrong setup, why did it work those 2 times? Might get a VGA to test tomorrow.

I also got this cable Dp > HDMI https://www.hama.com/00054594/hama-displayport-adapter-cable-for-digital-tv-180-m

That bastard doesn't work at all, even with mobo. The monitor displays "No DVI-D cable" message. I've no idea whats that about. Baah, theres no end to my suffering.




The thing is I have nothing to roll back to. In those 2 successful boots, the catalyst got me the newest drivers available (I assume). Also If the gpu doesn't even show up in the device manager, then I cant use the rollback option.

Anyway, thanks for your ideas. Looks like I might need to start changing parts. Maybe my friend got lucky with the 6870, just like I did twice. Or maybe it is my strangely half dead, half alive psu

One option is to simply uninstall the driver and use the base drivers in Windows. Additionally, windows will eventually select its own drivers to install. These are 2 options.

 

[chibimike]

Hi,
- While the dvi is in mobo but the card is still slotted, only the integrated intel 3000 graphic is turning up in device manager
- In bios under System Agent Configuration > Graphics configuration > Primary display is set to [Auto], can also set it to PCIe, but it switches back to Auto. That should work as well, shouldn't it?

I'd sort this out. It should be set to PCIe.

 

[kukemaim]

I've had monitor/GPU combinations where it would only recognize the display after doing a "Detect Displays" of some kind, otherwise it would just treat the monitor as not connected.

In one case it was the cord, in another it was the monitors power settings, in another I don't know, it was a crappy display gave up.

But the first two would work if I did a device scan, or a detect display from within the drivers... the second one would also work if I just turned the monitor off and then back on, then stop if the OS told the monitor to sleep, or restarted the PC.

Im guessing you did this to detect a second display? Otherwise Id have to have the picture running with dvi, then insert the displayport as a second connection and then...detect the same monitor? Or what am I missing here.

 

[kukemaim]

Could a format possibly repair anything? Dont really see how. The system seems to have no idea that a gpu is attached to it, there's no signal coming through.

 

[Tweak155]

Could a format possibly repair anything? Dont really see how. The system seems to have no idea that a gpu is attached to it, there's no signal coming through.

Only benefit I can think is wiping everything graphics driver related. Could it work? Sure. Likely? I don't think so. But, a fresh start is always nice

 

[kukemaim]

Only benefit I can think is wiping everything graphics driver related. Could it work? Sure. Likely? I don't think so. But, a fresh start is always nice

Done that, with this guide. It actually had some remnants of the 5770 drivers left. Still didn't help

Spoiler

1. Go to Control Panel and double click on System. You can also right-click "Computer" on the Start menu (or on the desktop if it's shown there) and choose Properties.

Note: A faster way for opening up the System applet is to press the Windows logo key on your keyboard and then press Pause/Break at the same time.

2. Click on "Advance System Settings" link, and then click on the "Environment Variables" button.
. In the System Variables section click on the "New" button.

4. In the New System Variable dialog box, under the Variable Name value enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices (just copy the value from here and paste it there) and give it a variable value of 1.

Click Ok.
5. In the Environment Variables window notice how the new variable appeared in the System Variables section. Click Ok.

6. In the System Properties window click Ok.

7. Log off and log on.

8. Open Device Manager (Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager).

9. From the View menu click Show Hidden Devices and notice the change.

 

[Tweak155]

I mean if you format. It is impossible to miss any remnants using that method.

 

[kukemaim]

Oops, double post

Edit: Well this gives me an excuse to finally buy a SSD. Format should feel more bearable on new drive