I just turned 17 and finally "finished" my first build and it works pretty great..... when it turns on. Here's a build list:
Asus Z-97A
Pentium g3258
Sapphire hd 7950
hgst travelstar 7k100 with windows 8.1 and windows 10
and a seasonic X1050 (I know its overkill, it was free)
Allow me to explain the problem in it's entirety. The pc turns on every time and runs great when the 7950 is unplugged and I'm using on-board graphics.
Once I plug It in and try to turn it on, there's a 95% chance that there'll be no post with the error LED lit up for the x16 pcie slot. And that's where it gets really funky in my opinion, if I hit the power and switch bios on the card at just the right time it'll boot right up. It doesn't seem to matter which bios I'm switching from or to, that's just the luck of the draw.
After it boots with the 7950, the system is rather unstable. And of course, once it tries to restart, the fun begins again. Nothing is overheating, all drivers are up to date, and the power from the wall is clean. This is my first build and as you can probably tell, I'm rather unexperienced. Any help or ideas will be appreciated, thanks.
Hi @max_bales
I'll let others chime in as to what the problem may be?
But I just wanted to say that my very first build in 1995 (I'm 46 years old) had an interesting problem where when I turned on the PC, it wouldn't boot, wouldn't load Windows 95. However, if I turned it off for a minute then back on, it would boot without any problems!
Hope you get your problem sorted?! :O)
Try putting the HD 7950 in the second slot.
Also, do you have another computer that you can test with?
No, this is my only desktop. So far, it boots up at a better rate (50/50) but now it hangs up on the boot device as well as the x16 slot LED's. Any ideas? Really don't know what's up with this build, It's almost like my motherboard doesnt like my graphics card.
You're going to have to test the gpu in another machine. If it plays silly buggers in the other pc RMA the thing.
Just out of interest was the 7950 an ex-miner?
Lastly if you can check the socket pins on the motherboard - top left (pcie pins) - if there is a pin/s bent here then thats the culprit.
Update: As of last night, I got it to boot 5 times in a row. I'm guessing that the booting issue is fixed, but its still a little unstable.
A little extra info, nothing is overclocked and temps are looking stellar (29*C cpu and 39*C gpu) but every time I try to run 3dmark 11 through steam, the system gets to where steam tries to do something directx drivers for windows and then it crashes.
As far as I know, it was used in a normal pc for less than a month (it was a replacement for a rma) I'll check the pins this afternoon.
If you can run a live linux distro (any will do) - download a basic gpu stress tester - Heaven benchmark for example. Run that if fails then you can bet your money on the that its a hardware related fault.
If it was an RMA return it may have an intermittant fault - of which may not have been picked up in the replacement process. It may have been lucky in that it ran fine for the tester for the limited time they tested it - they then sent it back to customer with no fault found or to another person as a rma replacement. Happens all the time. Some cards with intermittant issues often become RMA boomerangs going back and forth.
The replacement should have come with a 12 month warranty of which you may be able to claim against.
(... I am also assuming you have done all preliminary troubleshooting - clean drivers etc as well).
also update your motherboard bios.