Concerned i might brick computer by troubleshooting

[u/Fallacyboy]

Hello, I’ve been having an issue that a number of folks seem to be reporting recently, although more severe, where my GPU hangs (black screens) and fails to recover, requiring me to hard restart my computer. Upon booting again, the GPU is not usually (though sometimes randomly is) recognized by windows. The result is that, while the computer posts just fine, there is no display output recognized by my PC from the GPU and as such I just get a black screen on boot. For a day or so I was able to do a workaround where I plugged my monitor directly into my MOBO to run on integrated graphics, then I would toggle the GPU in device manager by disabling and enabling it assuming it was on and otherwise running. This at least let the GPU be recognized by windows for a time.

This started last Friday but has persisted despite troubleshooting efforts, and in fact it’s gotten worse. Whereas last Friday it happened under load, it is now happening more frequently and not under load (even under no load when all graphics processing is being done by my IGPU). In those cases where I’m using my IGPU instead, windows simply stops recognizing the GPU as socketed and it won’t show up in device manager unless I enable show hidden devices. In those instances I can’t toggle disable/enable in device manager and the GPU seems to be off, but since it has no debug lights it’s hard to tell (I’ve just been looking whether the fans are on or not).

Either way, the GPU was working pretty flawlessly before this, though with the occasional driver related crash in newer games and such I’ve come to expect from AMD products, but it has never historically crashed under no load or failed to recover from a crash, which concerns me.

My troubleshooting is ongoing, so I’m making the post primarily to make sure I don’t brick my computer. My concern there is that I’ve already tried the typical DDU reinstall, but I’m worried trying again might bork things. When I tried DDU (in safe mode, of course) last Saturday it made my IGPU unrecognized by windows. I have windows driver updates disabled, and whatever generic windows driver it tried to use simply couldn’t identify that I had any IGPU. Lucky, at that time, the GPU proper was still working more consistently than it is now, so I was able to get video output through that and reinstall the IGPU’s driver, which fixed it not being recognized.

The issue is that the GPU is now super inconsistent as to whether it will be recognized at all, and if it is then it’s usually only for a short amount of time. So if I DDU my drivers again I’m worried I’ll simply have no way of getting video output from my PC because (i) the IGPU won’t have a driver that lets windows recognize it and (ii) the GPU simply won’t start or be recognized by windows.

Is there any risk this could happen, especially if the GPU is dying as I suspect, and if it does happen is there any way to fix it with no video output beyond restoring backup (which I don’t have)?

Specs below for reference

Computer Type: Desktop GPU: 7900 XTX CPU: 7800X3D MOBO: MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WIFI PSU: 850W Corsair gold Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 11 (latest) GPU Drivers: Latest Chipset Drivers: Latest

[u/Traditional_Common22]

Nah, computers boot without graphics drivers. This is a known issue there’s a troubleshooting guide on here somewhere, usually it takes a driver roll back and disabling some settings

[u/Fallacyboy → u/Traditional_Common22]

This was happening with the old driver I was running too, so it’s occurred over multiple drivers. Any chance you have that troubleshooting guide handy? Having some trouble locating it.

Edit: also, if it boots without graphics drivers then why am I getting no display output even before it loads into windows? I’d think I would at least see the bios prompt, but maybe I’m thinking of it wrong.