Graphics card R9 290 4GB Repair attempt - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: rutinger
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 21, 2021, 12:09:17 pm
content: Hello guys,First time posting, english is not my first lenguaje so excuse me if there are any typos.I have an r9 290 saphire, which I bought in 2016, with 4 gb of memory gddr5.Thing is, the card works partially. When you try to load any graphics driver for the graphics card the image goes black. When that happens I have to go to safe mode and uninstall all drivers. So the graphics card seems only to be working on windows graphic basic drivers only.I've googled this problem and it seems that its pretty common in this series of graphics card, and the solutions are pretty inconsistent, I've tryed all of them an none of the posible software related solutions work. But I haven´t found any hardware attempted solution.So I teared it down and checked all main circuits, I tested main components too like mosfets, short in rails etc... with no conclussions, all seems to be ok. So I'm hitting my head with a stick and I want to ask if anybody here knows what can cause a graphics card when loading a driver crash.Maybe one of the many memory chips died? maybe gpu core its broken? maybe 0.95 v rail failing? maybe the only solution it's bake the card? I really don't want to do this.If there is some information that you want to ask feel free to do it. At this point I don't care if the graphics card works, only want to know what can cause this issue.Thank you in advance.

author: RayRay
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2021, 12:32:54 pm
content: Welcome to the forum!As for the issue, if you ask me, you're jumping into conclusions on this one.I mean, it seems to me that you've automatically presumed the issue to be hardware related (when it could also be a software matter) and this hasn't been properly looked into. Try testing the card on another desktop computer (or formatting/reinstalling the operating system) and see where that takes you. It's entirely possible that there's nothing wrong with the card itself.

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2021, 01:42:55 pm
content: TRUE.. it may be related to those crappy MS 3rd part paid drivers..As you may and should test it on a decent stable *NIX OSpreferably with vanilla Xorg drivers...It may also be a crappy BIOS and the vendor may or may not havea decent update.Quite common today these enormous options (and lack of) BIOS and firmware.I am sick of it.tired to hunt programmers and firmware..Paul

author: rutinger
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 21, 2021, 08:27:15 pm
content: Hello again!Thank you for the welcome!! I'm going to answer to you guys:Quote from: RayRay on March 21, 2021, 12:32:54 pmIn this matter I already tested the graphics card into three different pcs with the same result: Posting video until windows automaticaly finds and downloads driver for the graphics card and boom no image. 2 of the three pcs had a fresh win10 install.Quote from: PKTKS on March 21, 2021, 01:42:55 pmI think i might try this one and install this SO, to see if the card actually works ok . But the main purpose if it works is using it in win 10. (Thats because I didn't try other OS yet)and maybe before trying SO,I will try different BIOS. It will take me some time to do this test but I will keep you guys updated.If it were to be actually a software related issue, it's kind of sad that old video cards won't work because of crapy drivers or BIOSESThank you guys again!!!Rut

author: perieanuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 09:04:40 am
content: hi,you skipped one important step, testing thoroughly the video card in freah installed os with correct driversif unsure, win10then after testing with specific sw you can detect bad memory etchardware repair should be last issue if the sw tells you some memory or video processor is not goodi'm not giving 'lessons', but restart from scratch like some other poster says, install fresh w10 and test the card

author: rutinger
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 10:17:21 pm
content: Quote from: perieanuo on March 22, 2021, 09:04:40 amHello! Thank you for your response, I apreciate it very much. I really tried that on 3 different machines, 2 of them had a fresh install of win10, in one of them I actually disabled the windows automatic find and install drivers, because in the moment windows recognizes the card, it tries to install a driver that would make the card go black image.In the drivers matter, I actually tried like 7 or 8 from amd, to the oldest ones on guru3d (even ones that I actually used and played with this graphics card) to the newer ones with same result, black screen.Can you please tell me what software can I use to diagnose the card? I didn't know that you could actually run a diagnose without installing any graphics driver?

author: perieanuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 11:38:55 am
content: when i was repairing laptops, hardware testing was done by booting live linux or windows (starting with hiren boot cd and so on), you have tons of themfor example, any ubuntu or whatever live linux will start your system/video card, then any video card test sw will be okhttps://www.cyberciti.biz/open-source/command-line-hacks/linux-gpu-monitoring-and-diagnostic-commands/https://lifehacker.com/five-best-computer-diagnostic-tools-5551188depending on your skills and preferences, you can choose a win or a linux approach, can't tell which one you may likequick example for win:https://us.informatiweb.net/tutorials/it/live-cd/ubcd-test-your-hardware.htmlyou can also read herehttps://tehnoblog.org/graphics-card-repair-how-i-fixed-gpu-card/you may find your problem with let's say for example, ubuntu live cd and some testing package, but after you will need to repair the card, meaning changing some caps or reflow graphic processor or whatever is necessary, it's for you to decide if it's ok to spend the time to diagnose, IF you can go further and repair the cardso, bon courage!!