Turns out something broke. [KSP performance explosion (other games too)]

[Baenki]

I need to share my stupidity with you.

A few months ago i got a new High-End PC.

Specs: I7-4970

Radeon R9 280x

16gigs of Ram

etc.

Now a week ago i got myself a new Dell U2414H Full HD monitor.

I now use my old HP 1440*900 as a secondory.

The new one is connected to my PC by display port, the old one via VGA. That's important because the VGA-connection is to the mainboard not the 280x.

While running games despite my specs I always had to run most games including KSP at medium quality. KSP for example still had to reduce the in game timer sometimes (yellow).

So as I started KSP on my new screen for the first time it crased, again and again. So did all my other games.

I only could solve this by running KSP in windowed mode on lower resolution. Other games worked only windowed on 1440*900.

I tried a lot of stuff to fix that but nothing worked. ;.;

Ten minutes ago it occured to me:

"The games do only run on the resolution of my old screen, which is plugged to the mainboard. Hmm, could it be? Could my PC have used the cr*ppy onboard graphics all this time without me noticing?"

So i checked everything and found nothing. Yesterday I actually reset Windows in an attempt to solve this.

I checked Catalyst Control Center, maybe the 20th time, and found a dropdown where the R9 and the Intel Onboard graphics were listed. I checked the options and found a "deactivate display" option. I deactivated the onboard display, my secondary screen went dark. I reactivated the screen over Windows setting, started KSP and BAM!!! Full HD, resolution ULTRA, framerate explodes.

I have never used my high end gaming graphics card since I bought my PC. Damn I feel dumb right now.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Baenki

[Bilfr3d]

Huehuehue Yup you need to be careful about that. As a rule of thumb, try not to plug any display components into the motherboard if you have a graphics card installed, otherwise you'll run into trouble (as you found out the hard way). Usually, you can purchase adapters to convert DVI to VGA, so then you could use both monitors on your graphics card. Glad to hear you got it working though! I couldn't say I'd know what to do because... well, I've never had that happen to me before :3

[problemecium]

You people who have graphics cards other than the built-in one make me jelly :C

[Technical Ben]

All the hugs. You get all the internet hugs.

Great to hear it's running ace now. Lesson learned, make sure it's running proper! (Your a lot better than all those running HD tvs on 4:3 aspect ration SD content! )

[Baenki]

Actually now the PC completely broke down... seems something is broken. BIOS doesn't work, blue screens, game and driver crashes. Even Youtube videos freeze, while the sound keeps going. And I have graphical glitches everywhere...

Well luckily I have 2 years of collect and return service.

The computer is 4 months old.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Baenki

[T.A.P.O.R.]

Maybe try pulling the battery from the bios before booting up, it should clear the settings (it does on my ancient clunker anyway).

Are you able to load a bios via USB?

[Alshain]

I do more than that, I go into the motherboard bios and shut the intel graphics off entirely. Windows doesn't even know it exists that way.

[Baenki]

I can not take out the battery of the bios. If I open the case I lose the guarantee...

Bios/UEFI somehow is not acessible. I just get a black screen, no interface.

I'm going to contact customer support. My guarantee includes them picking up the PC from my home, testing the parts, repairing or replacing broken stuff and bringing it back to me. If there are still problems after that, I'll get an enterely new PC/refund.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Baenki

[Kerba Fett]

If you get your computer fixed, you might be interested in knowing that most Radion cards can support 3 monitors by using the DVI, HDMI, and Displayport. You need a Displayport to DVI adaptor to use more than 2 though.

[longbyte1]

Well that's unfortunate, but it's very likely that it's your graphics card. It would explain your BSODs and graphical problems since you started using the card instead of onboard. Sometimes everything is black because the motherboard is being smart and using the onboard video instead (as I see, you don't have anything plugged into the onboard). Try taking the card off and see if you get any more errors. If it's the card, mail it in instead of the whole machine. But if you don't know how to do that, just tell customer support that it might be a graphics card problem.

[Baenki]

Well i can not take the card out without guarantee vanishing. But if i deactivate it by device manager the errors stop.

Bios is still not accesible though.

[longbyte1]

Well i can not take the card out without guarantee vanishing. But if i deactivate it by device manager the errors stop.

Bios is still not accesible though.

So you cannot access the BIOS from neither onboard nor graphics card? That "warranty void if computer open" clause is also interesting; I have never had such a label on my computer. It's always been implicit that any damage done by manual repair can't be covered by warranty.

It seems that your motherboard is using the faulty graphics card for BIOS because you set it in the options. Removing the card seems to be the only way..

[RocketPilot573]

You tried to plug it into the intel HD graphics slot?!

[Alshain]

So you cannot access the BIOS from neither onboard nor graphics card? That "warranty void if computer open" clause is also interesting; I have never had such a label on my computer. It's always been implicit that any damage done by manual repair can't be covered by warranty.

It seems that your motherboard is using the faulty graphics card for BIOS because you set it in the options. Removing the card seems to be the only way..

That is pretty rare. Usually, you open the case, all bets are off.

[LongHairedHuman]

Resetting BIOS might work indeed. Plug your monitor into the mainboard, and reboot. You should be able to access the BIOS through that. If it's not booting and just beeping at you, best bet is to contact the warranty provider to fix it. If you can get into BIOS, just look around and see if you can find factory reset, default values or something amongst those lines. Next, if you manage to boot into windows, go find the latest drivers for your video card, and install them. If that doesn't fix it, contact the warranty providing party.

Hardware problems are always annoying, I hope this helps and good luck.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

Well i can not take the card out without guarantee vanishing. But if i deactivate it by device manager the errors stop.

Bios is still not accesible though.

I'd be on the phone to customer service in that case.

Good luck!

[Majorjim!]

This is hilarious! Now find a surgeon to remove your palm from your face.

[Baenki]

Resetting BIOS might work indeed. Plug your monitor into the mainboard, and reboot. You should be able to access the BIOS through that.

Well that didn't work. I got a black screen when I tried to access the BIOS.

I got a black screen trying to access the UEFI.

Support it is!!!

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

Yeesh. I'm no computer expert, but this sounds REAL bad.

[LongHairedHuman]

Well that didn't work. I got a black screen when I tried to access the BIOS.

I got a black screen trying to access the UEFI.

Support it is!!!

The last thing you could try is having a monitor plugged into mainboard and on into video card when you try to access the bios. It could be something weird like that the mainboard switches to the video card when you go into bios. If that doesn't work, support indeed. It will probably involve shipping your computer, going to a tech centre, store or having a technician visit.

[Baenki]

I actually know they will send someone to pick the pc up and take it to the repair center.

I contacted them one week before to ask about it but I really needed the PC for uni at the time. So I will call them next week to get it fixed.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Baenki

[LongHairedHuman]

I hope it all works quickly out mate. When my video card was borked once, I was lucky to have a laptop I use for uni. I hope you too have a temporary solution to feed your KSP addictions.

[Baenki]

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Edited March 25, 2018 by Baenki

[sedativechunk]

OP, I only skimmed over your post briefly. If I were you, I would start benching your GPU outside of KSP; I highly recommend you download 3D Mark, it's free except if you want the more advanced leaderboard versions and things. Run it contiuously and see how your GPU holds up. If it starts crashing and/or having issues, it's very possible your graphics card is bad.

Check for all the stupid things first, eg. is it seeded properly, cables hooked good, updated drives, etc. if you rule out everything else, then your graphics card is probably busted.

[longbyte1]

OP, I only skimmed over your post briefly. If I were you, I would start benching your GPU outside of KSP; I highly recommend you download 3D Mark, it's free except if you want the more advanced leaderboard versions and things. Run it contiuously and see how your GPU holds up. If it starts crashing and/or having issues, it's very possible your graphics card is bad.

Check for all the stupid things first, eg. is it seeded properly, cables hooked good, updated drives, etc. if you rule out everything else, then your graphics card is probably busted.

Or dusty; my graphics card enjoyed crashing games and making ugly black screens. Until I checked SpeedFan and found out that the card was going 105C at 100% fan.