Score:2

Radeon 5450HD card not working until rebooting the system

za flag

System Specs

  • AMD FX 4300
  • AMD Radeon 5450HD
  • 500GB HDD
  • 2x 4GB 1600MHz RAM
  • TA970 Motherboard
  • DELL Monitor connected via VGA

Some Context

  1. I am running Ubuntu 20.04. All current updates installed.
  2. A few months ago, the graphics card's VRAM died. It started working fine after 10 minutes in the oven, though.

Problem

  1. Monitor stays black on boot.
  2. No BIOS startup screen
  3. Can access the system after boot via SSH.
  4. Everything works except the video output.
  5. sensors and sudo lshw -c video do not list the video card

First Occurrence

Around 3 weeks ago

Work-around

Restart the system

Frequency

Very often, but seems to get higher if there's a long gap between use (12+ hours)

Already Tried

  1. Reset CMOS
  2. Reset BIOS
  3. Reassemble the entire system
Score:0
in flag

Monitor stays black on boot. No BIOS startup screen

Looks like this is a hardware problem, rather than a software problem. So i would try this:

  • turn off the computer
  • disconnect the power cable
  • disconnect the monitor cable
  • remove the graphics card
  • look for anything suspicious, maybe a burned component on the card
  • put the graphics card back in, make sure it's not loose
  • put the monitor cable back in, make sure it's not loose
  • put the power cable back in, make sure it's not loose
  • turn the computer back on

Even if this is a hardware problem, there might be useful information in "/var/log/syslog".

If the card has another output connector (eg. DVI instead of HDMI), it's worth trying that one.

In my experience, when RAM is malfunctioning and this is not caused by overheating or intended overclocking/overvoltage/undervoltage, there is no way to fix it. If the RAM is not replaceable, i'd consider the whole device being broken.

Bl4d35m1th avatar
za flag
A few months ago, the VRAM on my graphics card died (screen tearing, multicoloured vertical stripes on the monitor, etc), so I baked it in the oven for a while, reapplied thermal paste, and checked it for any burns. It worked just fine after that, right up until a few weeks ago. Is there a way to know for certain that it is dying? It almost always turns on when I restart the computer, just not when I do it from a cold start.
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