Prebuilt troubleshooting

[Feronix]

Hey guys,

My mate's parents have a 5 year old pre-built that is starting to die on them.

My mate told me about it getting BSODs a while ago but could never pinpoint the problem. This weekend it 'crapped out' completely as he thought it had gone completely dead.

I immediately thought it'd be the PSU (as he thought it immediately turned off after booting). I went over there on Saturday and apparently the system was just really quiet cause after taking the side panel off we were greeted with all fans spinning, also the PSU (note; the GPU fan was also spinning).

This made me think that the system itself was fine but somewhere, something went wrong displaying an image on the screen that kept telling us that there was no input. We tried a new cable first, just in case but that didn't help.

Then we tried the GPU from my mate's own system in his parents' PC and it worked! I assumed this meant the GPU was dead and let them order a new one that was also from the HD 5xxx series (as they're probably not going to be able to figure drivers out and it was the cheapest anyway).

It arrived today and he put it in the system... but the problem persists? With his GPU back in it is fine (even though that's an Nvidia one and runs without drivers) which made me think it was a driver issue. I made him run DDU and switch back to the new card but that didn't work either.

What do you lot think? DOA card? Some other problem? Would love to know, thanks!

 

[Wraith]

For his second card to be DOA would be very unlucky, I'd say give it the usual, flush out dust from the slots, magnifying glass check the PCI lane for wear or damage?

What's the spec of the system?
Is the Bios upto date?
Are the PCI cables OK?

 

[Kilbane]

Do both cards (new one and mates Nvidia) require power from a cable or direct from the PCI slot?

 

[Feronix]

For his second card to be DOA would be very unlucky, I'd say give it the usual, flush out dust from the slots, magnifying glass check the PCI lane for wear or damage?

What's the spec of the system?
Is the Bios upto date?
Are the PCI cables OK?

PC was very well maintained, barely any dust. From what I gather though he used to do that with a vacuum cleaner with precision extension. Could the static build-up from that have caused components to die? Doesn't really matter now but I still need to pinpoint what the problem is.

Took the battery out of the mobo as well but this didn't help either. Can't imagine the PCI lane would be damaged as that same card has been in it since the day it was bought until we took it out and put the other in, which worked immediately.

The PC in question is a Medion who do not offer bios updates on their websites, but even then this current one has functioned properly for the past 5 years and nothing has changed on a hardware level (and I don't think software either).

PCI cables/cpnnectors are non-existent on the PSU and all graphics cards involved.

Do both cards (new one and mates Nvidia) require power from a cable or direct from the PCI slot?

Nope, the original was an HD5xxx (undetermined) series with no power connectors that are also not present on the 350 FSP PSU unit (as used in nearly every pre-built ever). The non working replacement is an HD 5450.
The friends' video card that does work is a GT 535 that comes out of a Medion PC as well.

 

[Feronix]

No one got an idea then? I'm stumped myself too tbh. No idea what it could be.

 

[shambles1980]

heyo.. the hd 5xxx seriese had a driver issue with windows.. (basically windows didnt have any drivers at all that would work with them)
You may need to set up team view on the problem pc whilst using a working card (the nvidia/onboard)
set teamviewer to allow incoming lan connections have a set password and to start with windows...

download drivers for the hd 5xxx card and have them on the desktop

power off the pc and put the 5xxx card in.
restart the pc and go to a second pc
On the second pc or laptop connect to the problem pc using team viewer
"it should be the local ip address of the pc "192.168.x.x" and the password you set (probably best to set the ip static before you restart) If you did not set it to always accept incoming lan connections or you did not set a password then it will be a random password and you need to start again.

use the second pc to install the drivers remotely
And hope for the best...

i know about the driver issue because i had a hd5770 for a while and it was near impossible to install windows because of this issue.
You had to make a special automated install file and have windows on a usb drive to install..

i hope this is the issue because it should be fixable if it is..

the only reason it would be a problem now and not before would be that they either updated to windows 7 or something. Or the old drivers were uninstalled by mistake (or deliberatley in anticipation of a new gp or to test a different gpu etc)

any way like i said hope thats the issue and i hop it helps.

 

[Feronix]

Awesome reply mate, thanks so much! I have forwarded your post to him to see if he can do it on his own and otherwise I'll help them try this at some point soon

I also did suspect they ran a Windows update or something but I do believe they were already running Windows 7, maybe they recently upgraded to Windows 10, I'll ask them.

Thanks a lot!

 

[shambles1980]

Awesome reply mate, thanks so much! I have forwarded your post to him to see if he can do it on his own and otherwise I'll help them try this at some point soon

I also did suspect they ran a Windows update or something but I do believe they were already running Windows 7, maybe they recently upgraded to Windows 10, I'll ask them.

Thanks a lot!

id imagine 10 would have the drivers needed. 7 deffo did not though..
so if the drivers were removed and it tried to use default windows drivers it would black screen..

the most logical explanation i can think of is a driver update was attempted as a clean install, the app managed to clean out the old drivers so black screen occured. then you cant see any prompts if any happened you restart thinking it will fix it and you are stuck. (that is if it is the issue.) but as you said they were both hd 5xxx cards this is the most likely situation.

 

[cooperman]

Windows 7 works fine with a 5450 (instaled them in to office pc's back in the day, still have a box full of them somewhere in the loft) so i dont see that being the problem tbh.

 

[shambles1980]

Windows 7 works fine with a 5450 (instaled them in to office pc's back in the day, still have a box full of them somewhere in the loft) so i dont see that being the problem tbh.

I hope it is the problem. because it would be a reasonably easy fix.
im trying to find the windows document that referenced it as a known issue. but its been so many years now its buried under years of other similar titled forum posts.

edit:

AMD implemented eDP support after the Windows 7 DVD was finished. Therefore, the AMD Radeon graphics driver on the Windows 7 retail DVD does not support eDP,” Microsoft stated. “AMD has released an updated driver that fixes the eDP issue. The update must be incorporated into the setup process for setup to complete successfully.”

there is a solution designed for advanced users, involving the AutoUnattend.xml answer file and the latest graphics driver and a USB flash drive. “Copy the uncompressed graphics driver onto the USB flash drive. To do this, follow these steps: download the latest driver for your graphics adapter from the AMD Web site. Run the downloaded program (.exe) to extract the driver. The program will prompt for an installation location, such as c:\ati\support\. After the extraction is complete, locate the installation folder that is noted in the previous step. Copy the installation folder onto the USB flash drive,” Microsoft explained. Users will also need to create the AutoUnattend.xml answer file, by opening a Notepad file and copying the text highlighted in blue at the bottom of this screen. The file has to be saved as AutoUnattend.xml using the UTF-8 encoding format, and then it needs to be copied to the root of the USB.
“From the Windows 7 installation DVD, start the computer that has the AMD Radeon GPU that uses eDP.Immediately connect the USB flash drive after the computer starts from DVD. Follow the instructions to complete the installation process. When the system restarts for the first time, disconnect the USB flash drive,” Microsoft added.

i understand that this is specifically referencing the install of windows (which is how i know about the issue my self) But i dont see how it cannot be applied to this situation.
and i always have used dvi "still do" if you were wondering.

 

[cooperman]

Dident thay fix the embedded displayport problem with windows 7 sp1? the pc's useing these i fitted them to where all still VGA but i dont think that matters.
I cant imagine that AMD still keep's these cards uptodate its possible windows has since had a update thats broken it (thats happend before lol)

Off topic but I remember trying to get doom 3 running on one of those 5450's and it did @ 800x600 15fps lowest setings lol

 

[Feronix]

One thing I just realized though... if it's a Windows/ driver related issue, how come we don't see the bios screen either? That makes it seem more like a hardware fault somewhere.

 

[shambles1980]

that does make things a bit more complicated.