Problems booting after crash, is it the GPU?

[reckoner04]

My specs:

intel i7 870
corsair h60
asus p7p55d pro
2x 2gb ram
zotac gtx 570 (reference design)
1tb hdd
60gb ssd
no-name 850w psu
bluray drive
windows 7 64-bit

None of the parts have any warranty on them anymore. There is little dust in the system and everything seems fine superficially.

The problems started while I was playing Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. During the game, the screen suddenly locked up and then the PC automatically tried to reboot. While it was loading the BIOS (I hope I'm using these terms correctly - the system was still looking for/checking all the plugged in components), artifacts appeared and I instantly shut down the PC. The artifact looked somewhat like this though I'm really not sure since I didn't have time take a good look at the screen. There was certainly something wrong with the picture though.

When I tried to boot again after that, the monitor didn't wake up even though all the fans in the computer were spinning as usual when booting. I tried again several times, but I couldn't get the monitor to display anything.

During the (unsuccessful) boot, the red LEDs on the motherboard went on and off one after another, but the VGA LED stayed on permanently. I did some research on the internet and it seemed that many people with the P7P55D PRO had problems where the VGA LED stayed on but the problem actually lay somewhere else.

I then reset the BIOS by moving that 4-pin cap on the motherboard around. It didn't help.

I borrowed an EVGA 9500GT from my brother to replace my GTX 570, which worked fine! I then put in the GTX 570 again and strangely enough it worked as well on the first try, but the monitor lost the signal after about ~20-30 seconds (about when the Windows logo should have popped up), and it took really long to display anything in the first place (maybe ~10 seconds until the screen woke up). I then tried again a few times but it would work only rarely (maybe once in ten tries) and always went blank before it even got to the Windows loading screen. But even when the screen went blank while booting, the boot still seemed to continue as the HDD light on the case was flickering sometimes.

At that point I thought there were 3 different possible problems I could be having:
- defective GPU
- overheating GPU
- bad PSU

I checked the two 6-pin power connectors which go into the GTX 570 and they both showed 11.9V on all yellow wires, which seems fine to me. This is where I am now. My next step will be to reapply thermal paste to the GPU and see if that fixes the problem - if not, I will buy a new card. I don't have any paste here though so that will have to wait.

Now to the point of this thread: I'm no expert, is there maybe something I am missing? Did I troubleshoot correctly and is my conclusion correct that it is certainly the GPU that is having problems? I had a ZOTAC GTX 470-AMP! before which got replaced by the current GTX 570 under warranty, so the GTX 570 is actually only a year old, while the PSU is over 2 years old and doesn't belong to any real brand (at least I can't identify anything... I bought the system complete) which made me suspect the PSU. I didn't think that there would be an overheating problem with the GPU while booting up, but the fact that the card sometimes works (and then shuts down after a few seconds) and sometimes doesn't work at all points in that direction. If the card was having other issues it wouldn't work at all, am I right with this assumption?

EDIT: I also tried to boot the system with just one ram stick, CPU and GPU plugged in and it didn't work either.
EDIT2: In my restless (computer-less) state I tried to boot up again with all the usual components (listed above) plugged in, with only keyboard and monitor as peripherals. Surprisingly enough, I managed to boot to the desktop. A few seconds after reaching the desktop, the screen turned completely white and stayed that way until I shut down the computer again. What does this mean?
EDIT3: I never received any error messages.
EDIT4: I did the same as in EDIT2 again, but using safe mode. A while after reaching the desktop, the screen went blank (not white) again.

[Sthos]

If the GTX 570 is under warranty I would send it in.

[reckoner04]

If the GTX 570 is under warranty I would send it in.

Unfortunately it isn't .

[prankstar]

sounds to me like a resolution issue when turning the computer on keep hitting f8 when a menu screen comes up select the option to run at the lowest resolution see if that helps at all did you ever receive a message saying signal out of range

[reckoner04]

I managed to get the monitor to display something in 3 out of 4 tries today. EDIT2 and EDIT4 above were two of those tries. On the other try, I pressed F8 during startup and let it sit on the boot-device-selection screen until the screen went blank again. I think this completely rules out any OS related issues.

---------- Post added 2013-02-28 at 10:45 PM ----------

sounds to me like a resolution issue when turning the computer on keep hitting f8 when a menu screen comes up select the option to run at the lowest resolution see if that helps at all did you ever receive a message saying signal out of range

I don't have anymore time to continue troubleshooting right now, but I can tell you that I never received such a message. Could it really be a resolution issue when I always ran the monitor at the same resolution (native 1920x1080)?

[Lemmiwink]

You, unlike the other post, definately have a CMOS battery problem. If that is your screenshot and you can't boot, get a new CMOS battery.

[reckoner04]

You, unlike the other post, definately have a CMOS battery problem. If that is your screenshot and you can't boot, get a new CMOS battery.

No, it's not my screenshot. I just did a quick Google search for something that looked similar and that was what I found. I will try that out though, they aren't expensive after all afaik.

[Lemmiwink]

They are not expensive, but I was tired yesterday and didn't really read your post, I just looked at the screenshot and read your symptoms. You said your computer worked fine with another gpu? Could you do that test again only this time, if you can boot, run MSI Kombustor and see if you crash using your brothers card? If you don't I think you can rule out a PSU problem, making the gpu the only logical problem left. Change your CMOS battery though, it's 5 bucks and it COULD still be the problem. Also, I would check my 3,3V and 5V voltages if you get into windows again. It could be a PSU problem if those are off (say your 5V is so off that USB devices crashes you before boot etc) just to be sure.

[reckoner04]

They are not expensive, but I was tired yesterday and didn't really read your post, I just looked at the screenshot and read your symptoms. You said your computer worked fine with another gpu? Could you do that test again only this time, if you can boot, run MSI Kombustor and see if you crash using your brothers card? If you don't I think you can rule out a PSU problem, making the gpu the only logical problem left. Change your CMOS battery though, it's 5 bucks and it COULD still be the problem. Also, I would check my 3,3V and 5V voltages if you get into windows again. It could be a PSU problem if those are off (say your 5V is so off that USB devices crashes you before boot etc) just to be sure.

I replaced the battery and unfortunately it didn't solve the problem. I will check the voltages as soon as possible (not right now ) and report back.

[Lemmiwink]

If voltages aren't off, I think we're looking at a faulty gpu

[Faithh]

11.9V is fine for 12V rail. But doesn't mean this PSU is working as it should.

During post getting artifacts like on the screenshot is definitly a fucked up GPU. Ive encountered this aswell with my 680 by using different a Vbios :P Lately a friends card had his display showing green & everything was displaying in blocks so I decided to clean the displayports thingies out and the problem was just fixed but still the card didn't allow to boot into Windows with a lovely bsod 116.

No-name 850W PSU is kinda suspicious. A psu is just the most important part if it comes to safety & components lifetime & stability wise, without a name I wouldn't take the risk using that PSU.

Anyways try this picture to find out which brand it is -> http://i.imgur.com/6KYvzSS.jpg

[reckoner04]

I reapplied thermal paste to the GPU and I tried another monitor, neither helped.

I think I'll order a new graphics card next, maybe also a PSU with it just to be safe. Do you think the Gigabyte GTX 660 OC and be quiet! Straight Power E9 600W would be good choices?

[Lemmiwink]

XFX 550W pro or something is more than enough, and it's high quality as well. No need to splash out on that expensive PSU and downgrade the GPU. With the money you'd save on getting an XFX instead, you could afford a 660ti or a 7950 instead. That PSU is very good though, but I'd rather have the stronger graphics card instead.

[Faithh]

I reapplied thermal paste to the GPU and I tried another monitor, neither helped.

I think I'll order a new graphics card next, maybe also a PSU with it just to be safe. Do you think the Gigabyte GTX 660 OC and be quiet! Straight Power E9 600W would be good choices?

You're not making good choices but smart choices

I'm glad you're switching your PSU out, finally someone who listens. Be quiet are really amazing power supplies and definitly units which doesn't coil whine at all. If you aren't planning to go SLI or CF, forget a 850W because you rather can spend the money in a better card tbh.

I would say the 7870 or 7870XT over the 660 and you get some free games which you can sell so more profit.

[reckoner04]

Thanks for all your input! I think this thread is over now.