I took my computer apart to put in a new E8600 and some water cooling, and without thinking I gave my new Sapphire 5870 a shot with a can of compressed air which did blow some significant amount of dust out of it, but now it doesn't work AT ALL. It doesn't show the BIOS logo screen or system boot up, it doesn't even change the monitor power LED color from yellow (stand by) to green (OK). The computer fully boots as though the card is OK as I can hear the Windows start up music as the it goes all the way through the boot process -- but no video on my monitors whatsoever. Is there anything you guys think I can do to get my video to display again, and get my new card woking properly again?Thank in advance to any help you can provide.

Is the video cable connected from the graphics card to the monitor? If the card was not seated properly or one of the PCI-e power connectors were loose it would give you a warning sound on startup. Regardless, check your connections (internal and external) and try again.

I would say the same, try the connections, make sure they are ok, also not sure the makeup of the 5870 but if it has multiple outputs on the back, try the other one. Finally, try a different PCIE slot to rule everything out before you confirm the card is dead...Good luck Chuck! I just went through the same with my monitor :(-P

Hi, guys. Yes, the external cable connections are fine and the PCIE slot is OK too -- my old 4870 performs just fine (albeit with q more blurries and stutters).(Hi, Paul, old buddy. I'd already bookmarked your monitor thread -- sorry to hear about your woes! -- but I'll be following it closely as I may be in the market for some new monitors myself)

And you have both a 6+2 pin (8 pin) and a 6 pin PCI-e power connector connected to the card?

And you have both a 6+2 pin (8 pin) and a 6 pin PCI-e power connector connected to the card?

Long time no talk Chuck, I hope all is well!!!I'll let you know how the 27 at 2048*1152 works out ;)What I would try is putting the 5870 in as a secondary card if you still have the working 4870. Then you can use the 4870 to troubleshoot the 5870... It does not sound promising if all the connections are good though. Did you possibly knock a fan cable loose?-Paul

And you have both a 6+2 pin (8 pin) and a 6 pin PCI-e power connector connected to the card?

I have 2 6 pin PCI-e power connectors connected to the card, both marked PCIE. (Actually, one of them IS an 8-pin but the card only has two 6 pin receptacles, so that is all that can be connected.The fan spins but no video from either head.

I took my computer apart to put in a new E8600 and some water cooling, and without thinking I gave my new Sapphire 5870 a shot with a can of compressed air which did blow some significant amount of dust out of it, but now it doesn't work AT ALL. It doesn't show the BIOS logo screen or system boot up, it doesn't even change the monitor power LED color from yellow (stand by) to green (OK). The computer fully boots as though the card is OK as I can hear the Windows start up music as the it goes all the way through the boot process -- but no video on my monitors whatsoever. Is there anything you guys think I can do to get my video to display again, and get my new card woking properly again?Thank in advance to any help you can provide.

There is hope...Like everyone says, try all connections including re-seating it in the PCIE slot and swaping cable connections if there is more than one. Also if it is easily accessible try the cards own little on card heatsink-fan connection incase there are preventive measures incase of failure. might be locking the card down. Edit...I see you say the fans spins but if the sending wire is not seated it would act the same so still worth a try.Was installing a heatsink on my GTX last week and it acted like it was dead and gone. I though I must have nicked it somewhere,(Accelero's are tough) re-seasted it several times, checked all connections and it seemed dead for sure (crap, Fermi's not out yet!), checked everything one last time...all was good. Dont give up.Hope your ok.

Ugh . . . so far, so dead. Nothing seems to work so far . . . :(

Ugh . . . so far, so dead. Nothing seems to work so far . . . :(

#1. Did you get it from NewEgg?#2. Which Manufacturer?#3. Did you put liquid cooling on it yet? #4. Warranty?Hope so! :(

Sorry about that.Proper way to clean up inside of your PC is not to blow the air. Sucking the dust with powerfull vacuum cleaner is the safest way. If you take out any card with lots of dust on it, first you have to separate the cooling fan on it. After that you can soak it in water, brush it with a soft paint brush then rinse under thinly runing water. Same procedure is valid for cooling unit with separated fan. Dry it with warm air. Make sure its completely dry, attach the fan to the cooler fin. Apply small amount of thermal paste on the GPU and RAM modules then attach the cooler unit to the card. Do not overtight the screws. They're already spring preloaded.If the card is still not working do not leave it on a mainboard. Otherwise it will do harm to the motherboard.Regards.

#1. Did you get it from NewEgg?#2. Which Manufacturer?#3. Did you put liquid cooling on it yet? #4. Warranty?Hope so! :(

#1. Nope. Tigerdirect.com.#2. Sapphire#3. No.#4. Sapphire's Warranty website refers you backt to the original retailer, which took Tigerdirect completely by surprise.As always, they are taking care of me and shipping me out a new card today. I'll have it no later than 2 days. Tiger comes through AGAIN.BTW, the reason I started buying from Tigerdirect a couple of years ago was because the usually had the best prices, but more importantly I knew they would ship same day and I could have what I bought with two -- never any more than two, mind you -- days. Newegg takes up to 3 or 4 days just to ship, unless you pay extra to have their warehouse people actually do their jobs. That really irks me, although Newegg is certainly not alone in that policy. I've bought a lot of stuff from Tiger, and they have always taken care of me. Anyway, all's well that ends well.FWIW, I've been running my "old" 4870 the last couple of days OC'd like I used to have it, and the difference between it and the 5870 is remarkable, with stutters and blurries making a comeback, and being very evident in my FS9 flights. I'm really looking forward to getting back to the 5870 soon.Thanks all for looking and helping and, most of all, for your support!

Sorry about that.

Thank you!

Proper way to clean up inside of your PC is not to blow the air. Sucking the dust with powerfull vacuum cleaner is the safest way.

Thank you -- like I said, I did this without thinking and the blast force from the can had been greatly reduced by me, but I should know better! The darn thing really didn't even need to be cleaned -- it was 3 months old -- but I feel it certainly should have been able to stand up to what I did to it. I'm not sure what the safe way to clean a video card is any more! -- I actually blew out my first 4870 using the method you recommended, and it wasn't a powerful vaccuum either -- it was like a dustbuster. It was a VisionTek and they fixed it for just the two way shipping charges.Weird thing is that this time, the computer "saw" the card and completely booted, just no video, so I know there's a loose wire in there somewhere, but I didn't want to disassemble it until I found out whether or not Tigerdirect.com would come through for me, which they did . . . with flying colors.Thanks again everybody!

Sorry about that.Proper way to clean up inside of your PC is not to blow the air. Sucking the dust with powerfull vacuum cleaner is the safest way. If you take out any card with lots of dust on it, first you have to separate the cooling fan on it. After that you can soak it in water, brush it with a soft paint brush then rinse under thinly runing water. Same procedure is valid for cooling unit with separated fan. Dry it with warm air. Make sure its completely dry, attach the fan to the cooler fin. Apply small amount of thermal paste on the GPU and RAM modules then attach the cooler unit to the card. Do not overtight the screws. They're already spring preloaded.If the card is still not working do not leave it on a mainboard. Otherwise it will do harm to the motherboard.Regards.

Hello> Sucking the dust with powerfull vacuum cleaner is the safest way.Please be very carefull doing this, there is truly a lot of static generated in a vac cleaner hose.

I took my computer apart to put in a new E8600 and some water cooling, and without thinking I gave my new Sapphire 5870 a shot with a can of compressed air which did blow some significant amount of dust out of it, but now it doesn't work AT ALL.

Interesting. I did the same with a 6600GT and after that it was defect. I used a purchased can called dust off which is supposed to remove dust in computers. It does use compressed air and I noticed that it also cool parts and makes them wet in a way. Is this a coincidence or as I suspect that this cans can destroy the videocard?