Predator G5920's graphics card broke?

Wilhelmus
Wilhelmus Member Posts: 7

Tinkerer
edited February 15 in 2019 Archives
Hello everyone,
yesterday I started up my good old faithful Predator G5920 desktop with intel core i7 3770K and instead of getting the starting screen I got no screen at all, however it started beeping.
The beeping is one long beep, two short beeps, one long beep, two short beeps, one long beep and then it restarts itself.
After the restart the monitor still gives no starting screen and it continuously beeps the 'one long beep, two short beeps'-sequence nonstop until I press the start-up button to shutdown the computer.
Is it trying to tell me its NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 graphics card is dead? If it is; which graphics cards would be good replacements I could possibly buy second-hand?
If it isn't the graphics card, what is good old faithful trying to tell me with its Morse code beeps then?
Thank you in advance for your support.

Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    One long beep and two short beeps then repeat: VGA not installed or VGA error. Graphics card error/not installed, graphics card memory error or graphics card BIOS checksum error.
    Try removing the GPU card and see if it will boot using onboard video. If so your diagnostic is likely correct, the card has failed.
    That shows that people have installed newer GPUs, so you can too. Likely it won't be enough to just get a replacement GPU, you will want to upgrade the power to support the extra requirements as well.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Wilhelmus
    Wilhelmus Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer
    billsey said:
    One long beep and two short beeps then repeat: VGA not installed or VGA error. Graphics card error/not installed, graphics card memory error or graphics card BIOS checksum error.
    Try removing the GPU card and see if it will boot using onboard video. If so your diagnostic is likely correct, the card has failed.
    That shows that people have installed newer GPUs, so you can too. Likely it won't be enough to just get a replacement GPU, you will want to upgrade the power to support the extra requirements as well.
    Okay, I removed the NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 graphics card and looked for the onboard video to plug the 19 pin monitor-plug in, but couldn't find anything. I started the Predator G5920 desktop without the NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 graphics card anyway and I still got the exact same beeping; one long, two short, one long, two short, one long, restart, and then the continuous 'one long, two short'-sequence beeping again.
    Does this mean the NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 graphics card isn't the culprit?
    You talk about upgrading the power... The model number of my power supply is; FSP500-70EP and claims to have a max wattage of 500W.
    Could it be the power supply then that broke?

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    Sorry, most motherboards have the onboard video exposed via at least a capped off VGA connector on the back. Yours doesn't. I still think it's the GPU card that's causing the problem. The only other options that I can think of are the motherboard and the physical slot. Is there another computer you could try the GPU card in? Or another GPU you could try in yours?
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Wilhelmus
    Wilhelmus Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer
    billsey said:
    Sorry, most motherboards have the onboard video exposed via at least a capped off VGA connector on the back. Yours doesn't. I still think it's the GPU card that's causing the problem. The only other options that I can think of are the motherboard and the physical slot. Is there another computer you could try the GPU card in? Or another GPU you could try in yours?

    Hello Billsey,
    sorry for the late reply, I got my old Medion computer from the attic and removed the XFX GeForce 6600 GT graphics card -> https://www.cnet.com/products/xfx-geforce-6600-gt-graphics-card-gf-6600-gt-128-mb-series/ and put that into my Predator G5920 computer.
    The result was no beeping from the Predator G5920 computer anymore, but also it still shows no screen... I assume this old graphics card is not compatible?
    Then I unplugged the XFX GeForce 6600 GT graphics card from my Predator G5920 computer and plugged it back into my Medion computer and checked if this would show a screen on my monitor... and it did, the old graphics card does still work.
    Finally I put the GeForce GTX680 graphics card back into the Predator G5920 computer and checked if it would give the same result as lat time; instead of the old previous beeping routine, it now beeps 4 short beeps, restarts, and does the 4 short beeps again, but no repeats of the 4 short beeps sequence, it stays quiet now. So there's a slight difference...
    So what is your verdict from this additional information?
  • Wilhelmus
    Wilhelmus Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer
    billsey said:
    Sorry, most motherboards have the onboard video exposed via at least a capped off VGA connector on the back. Yours doesn't. I still think it's the GPU card that's causing the problem. The only other options that I can think of are the motherboard and the physical slot. Is there another computer you could try the GPU card in? Or another GPU you could try in yours?

    Hello Billsey,
    sorry for the late reply, I got my old Medion computer from the attic and removed the XFX GeForce 6600 GT graphics card and put that into my Predator G5920 computer.
    The result was no beeping from the Predator G5920 computer anymore, but also it still shows no screen... I assume this old graphics card is not compatible?
    Then I unplugged the XFX GeForce 6600 GT graphics card from my Predator G5920 computer and plugged it back into my Medion computer and checked if this would show a screen on my monitor... and it did, the old graphics card does still work.
    Finally I put the GeForce GTX680 graphics card back into the Predator G5920 computer and checked if it would give the same result as lat time; instead of the old previous beeping routine, it now beeps 4 short beeps, restarts, and does the 4 short beeps again, but no repeats of the 4 short beeps sequence, it stays quiet now. So there's a slight difference...
    So what is your verdict from this additional information?


  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    I wonder if the old card just didn't have drivers... But I'd think it would come up at least with the basic driver that Windows includes. The motherboard still thinks there is a problem obviously. My beep code reference doesn't help with four short beeps, the generic AMI BIOS says a timer failure for four beeps. I wonder what would happen with the GTX680 in the old computer?
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Wilhelmus
    Wilhelmus Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer
    billsey said:
    I wonder if the old card just didn't have drivers... But I'd think it would come up at least with the basic driver that Windows includes. The motherboard still thinks there is a problem obviously. My beep code reference doesn't help with four short beeps, the generic AMI BIOS says a timer failure for four beeps. I wonder what would happen with the GTX680 in the old computer?
    The old computer doesn't have a 500W power supply for the GTX680; it only has a 350W power supply... :-/
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    Could you swap in the bigger supply for a test?
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Wilhelmus
    Wilhelmus Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer
    edited November 2019
    billsey said:
    Could you swap in the bigger supply for a test?
    I have been looking, but I think the huge GTX680 card is not going to fit into the old motherboard of the smaller Medion computer, because the old motherboard has a bus right underneath the graphics card bus and a couple of cylinders (capacitors?) right behind that graphics card bus as well that (I believe) are going to be in the way, which aren't present on the motherboard layout of my much larger Acer desktop computer. Also the 350W power supply has a 20 pin plug into the old motherboard of the Medion computer and the 500W power supply has a 24 pin plug into the motherboard of the Acer desktop computer, so... I don't think that's going to work, but I haven't tried to make it work either though...
    I have also been looking for second-hand GTX970 cards in my country's local "eBay"-website and I have seen quite a bunch being sold for less than 100 euros, so I think I am going to try that instead, unless you think that's a really bad idea...? Should I go for a specific brand like MSI, or Asus, or something else?

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