My gaming PC had been crashing during games for a long time, and after I tried starting it in Safe Mode, it stopped booting properly. I took it to a local repair shop in the United States. The original system used an AMD Radeon RX 6600, an Intel Core i5-13600K, a Gigabyte B760M motherboard, 32GB of Corsair DDR4 memory, a Corsair RM750 power supply, and a Vetroo V5 CPU cooler. The shop said the cooler was allowing the CPU to run extremely hot and that the graphics card was not powerful enough for my games. I replaced the cooler with a Thermalright Assassin 120 and bought an XFX Swift Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB. The cooling problem seemed resolved, but the motherboard would not detect the new graphics card. I then bought two replacement motherboards— a Gigabyte B760M Gaming Plus WiFi DDR4 and a Gigabyte Z790 S WiFi DDR4—but neither detected the 9060 XT. The original motherboard did detect my old RX 6600. The new graphics card powers on and its lights come on, while the case power light also works, but the system displays a black screen and never seems to complete startup. I am unsure whether the problem is the GPU, CPU, BIOS, memory, power supply, or something else. I would like to return unnecessary parts and spend up to about $500 on a graphics card that can handle multiplayer games, MMORPGs, League of Legends, Steam games, and Photoshop for several years. What should be tested before buying anything else, and what graphics card would be appropriate if the replacement GPU is actually faulty?
4 Answers
The 750-watt Corsair supply should generally be adequate for this class of graphics card, but it still needs to be tested rather than assumed good. A competent repair technician should be able to identify whether the GPU, CPU, RAM, motherboard, or power supply is failing with spare parts and diagnostic testing. Once the system is stable, the RX 6600 may already meet your needs; if it is genuinely defective and you want a replacement under $500, choose based on current benchmarks and warranty rather than jumping to another unverified part.
The main issue is that the shop appears to be replacing parts before isolating the failed component. The RX 6600 should be capable of running the listed games, so the original GPU was not automatically too weak. A proper diagnosis would test the system with known-good RAM, CPU, power supply, graphics card, and boot drive. Also inspect the LGA1700 socket for bent pins and test each memory stick individually. I would stop buying parts from this shop until they can identify the failure, and consider returning the extra boards and graphics card if they are still within the return period.
The i5-13600K is worth investigating. Some 13th-generation Intel processors had instability problems that required a BIOS update and the appropriate Intel microcode settings. Repeated overheating or running an old BIOS could have caused crashes or possibly damaged the CPU, although that cannot be confirmed from the symptoms alone. The cooler’s painted fan blades would not normally insulate the CPU; the important checks are whether the cooler is mounted correctly, the protective film was removed, thermal paste was applied, and the temperatures were actually measured.
First determine whether the new card produces a display during POST or in the BIOS. If it does, the problem may be drivers or the operating system. If there is no BIOS display, check that the card is fully seated, the power cables are connected directly and securely, the monitor cable is plugged into the graphics card rather than the motherboard, and the motherboard BIOS is current. Clear the CMOS and test with one RAM stick, the old RX 6600, and a minimal setup. Since the original board recognized the RX 6600 but none of the boards recognize the 9060 XT, the 9060 XT itself, its power connection, or a setup/firmware issue is more likely than all three motherboards being incompatible. Do not buy another GPU until the shop tests this card in a known-working system.
The shop said the cooler was not properly removing heat from the CPU and gave me a very high temperature reading, although I do not remember the exact number. The case and GPU lights come on with the new card, but the monitor stays black and the computer never seems to finish starting.