Help needed for troubleshooting after Careless GPU Installation

Hi Guys,

I have a blackscreen from startup after a careless GPU installation. The fans run and no LED Error codes (anymore). Please bare with me as im still quite a noobie when it comes to computers and it'll be a long post since im trying to be as descriptive as possible; you'll understand more at the end of the post.

So what happened was that I previously had Nvidia 260m and I bought AMD 5870m to replace it, but unfortunately for me, i failed to install it properly. Im Used to fiddling around with my laptop without using any anti static wrist strap or anything (big mistake) of that sort. I installed the heatsink from the 260m onto the 5870, and all i did was Plug and Play.

I did NOT uninstall the 260m Driver nor did I disable the onboard. I just plugged the 5870m in and booted it.

The results were: Black screen from boot, and Fans running.

I then switched back to the 260m to see if it was because the 5870 was faulty. Everything booted normally up until the screen with options of going into safe mode came up. I tried starting normally, but it just suddenly restarted on me. i booted it up once again and the same thing happened. On the third try, it was just blackscreen again. LED Error came up on POST (SOLID/BLINK/BLINK).

The things i Tried were:
- Take out all the hardwares and booting it up to see if any of the other hardwares were affecting the start up (Harddrive, Ram, GPU)
-Individually testing each hardware on boot.
-Switching back and forth between my 260m and 5870m (LED error code never came up again ever since i switched back to the 5870, then back to 260) [i wasnt able to turn on CAPS/SCROLL/NUM Lock anymore as well].

Im not sure if I fried my motherboard or even both my GPUs. I dont know what else i can do to check for what the problem is.

Any suggestions guys?

All help is much appreciated! Thanks in advanced!

 

What thermal paste did you use? What way did you change the thermal pads?

 

Hey! i used artic silver 5. I used to have 260m SLI, but one of the card got fried so I had to switch the heatsinks on them. I just resued the same thermal pads from the 260m

 

Hm, if anyone would care to answer this: What would be the result of a fried motherboard? would my cpu still boot?

 

Depending on what got fried, but you should try getting LED codes.
Did you get any error codes when removing RAM, or CPU,...?
try just with the motherboard, AC adapter, power button board, and nothing else
if you dont get any error codes, if not it could be the mobo is shorted or something.

 

Ever since the 260m kept on restarting on me, i havent been getting any LED codes. Prior to the aggressive restarts, i was able to turn on CAPS/NUM/SCROLL, and i would leave it till the LED codes pop up (i assume this is how I am supposed to get LED codes). Now, no matter what i try, no LED would come up. I do not get any error codes from removing any of the parts including the RAM.

I have tried this, but i still get the same problem. No error codes + Black screen from start up + Fans running for a couple seconds then slowing down.

Lol at this rate, Im fully prepared to buy a new Mobo...

 

Are you sure that gpu you purchased is working properly? Its not that eas to fry mbo with static electricity. In future just make surr that prior to messing with various components you discarge yourself by grounding - just touching pipe or a foset should do the trick. Your description suggests 260m is in fact crapping out. Can you test new radeon at a friend or something? And in the end it might just be video or mbo bios issue. Are you running latest bios for your mobo?

sent via tapatalk - as i have big thumbs and small phone expect rettradred typos.

 

To be honest, im not 100% sure that the gpu is working properly. I bought it off of Ebay, so if anything i can always refund it (30days guaranteed money back) or exchange it. I contacted the seller, they said make sure its not working before sending it back.

I learnt my lesson.. i just went ahead and bought an anti-static strap.

yeah, my 260m was on SLI was causing a problem before, but prior to this problem, i was running on a single 260m. For all i know, the 260m + 5870m is failing me. According to other forums, if that really is the issue, my computer would just restart as soon as I press the power button; which in fact i've noticed personally on my other burnt 260m.

Yeah, im running the latest bios for my mobo. I've read that if i can get into safe mode and uninstall my Nvidia driver, that everything would fix it self once i start up again with the 5870 installed. The drivers would install itself, etc etc. and the cause of this is that Nvidia drivers are conflicting with the ATI... or something like that.

Thanks for helping out!

 

Drivers kick in long time after initial boot and have nothing to do with post screen. You said you dont even get to post screen as screen is black prior to that.

Afaik there are two things that are going on. One of them being dead ati card. Other being incompatible card with your notebook - you can try blind bios flash for it and try to find bios that works with dell/aw machines. Also there is remote chance that if you connect externsl monitor that ati card will give you picture on it. Its a long shot but that happened to me when i was replacing gpu in several acer notebooks. Gpu bios flash afterwards usually fixed issue in mpst cases where new gpu manifested problems in that way.

sent via tapatalk - as i have big thumbs and small phone expect rettradred typos.

 

Arctic silver 5 is not a user friendly paste, it's capacitive and can get issues if it gets places it should not be....

 

I've thought about this before too.. How long would you say is a long time? ive tried to leave it on after the initial boot for about 20minutes... and Just right before i turned off my machine, the fans started spinning even faster so i thought something is happening.. i left it on for another 20min or so, but nothing..

Hm. According to what you're saying, if its because my ati card is 'dead' that would mean that my 260m would be 'dead' as well; which in fact would be likely, just because as i said early, the 260m booted fine twice up until the POST screen. Then ever since its restart, its been booting with black screen. i hope this isnt the case...

secondly, ive done a 'bit' of research before buying the ati card to make sure its compatible with my R1. But if this is the case, it doesnt explain my failed 260m, unless i actually screwed up the 260m on the process of trying to install the GPU.

Ive Also tried connecting it to an external monitor in high hopes of it working, but no luck there. What's a GPU Bios Flash?

So you dont think this has anything to do with my motherboard right?

 

Interesting.. i had No idea.. Lol. For the sake of fixing this asap, I'd like to think i did a pretty clean job of installing the heatsink onto the card using the arctic silver 5.

 

The thing is you have R1
So if it was the GPU fault, you should just remove both, and let the integrated 9400M do it's job.
If that doesnt work, the problem lies in the motherboard itself or the components used (CPU, RAM, Screen) all of wich you should get a led error code.
Wich leads me to believe that the mobo is the culprit.

 

Drivers usually kick in after that black screen with windows logo.

Post-> black screen with windows logo -> drivers loading -> windows desktop or log in shows -> background/start-up programs load up -> windows ready for work

 

So just over the shiny die and not the whole package right?

 

Perfect! That may just be the answer i was looking for. The 9400m still gives me blackscreen as well, but the fans dont spin at all. I guess i'll buy a new motherboard.

 

Yeah, just over the shiny part; I use just about a little less than a pea size of it.

 

It may actually be the chipset causing the issue since they suffered from the nvidia balling issue IIRC.

 

im not too techy here... but wheres the chipset located?

 

Just a note on this, I really doubt this is the problem. Before thermal paste became the big market it is Arctic Silver was pretty much what absolutely everyone used including custom builders who would offer Arctic Silver upgrades. It was quite common on repasting to be cleaning the stuff off the entire chip and surrounding area with no issues whatsoever caused by it. I should mention this was even my experience with my Power Notebooks Sager from years ago which had Arctic Silver all over everything to no ill effect for years of operation. I'm always really unclear on why people suggest the thermal paste might have shorted something when 10 years ago they basically just bathed the entire gpu and cpu in the stuff.