Hey all! First time pc builder here, and it’s gone really well, but my computer just won’t recognize my gpu.

My hardware:
- PNY Geforce RTX 5070 Ti
- Gigabyte B850 Eagle Wifi6e
- AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
- MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5, Fully Modular Compact Gaming 750W Power Supply
- Manta XSky DDR5 32GB

Current State:
- Gpu light turns on but fans don’t spin
- Black screen when monitor is plugged into GPU
- Device manager does not detect GPU

- Nvidia driver installer does not detect GPU
- Computer works on integrated AMD gpu

What I’ve tried:
- Changed gpu slot from PCIEX16 to PCIEX1_1
- Turned on hidden devices in device manager and scanned for new hardware
- Tried to install nvidia drivers (but couldn’t complete because it didn’t detect the gpu
- Changed pcie from auto to gen 4 and 5 manually
- Reconnected power cord and adapter
- Updated bios
- Installed Gigabyte Control Center and installed all recommended drivers
- replaced gpu with a friend’s 5070ti to see if there was a problem with this specific card (no difference between the two cards noted

- Connected PSU directly to GPU using a 12v 6x2 connector

- Resetting my CMOS

- Trying a new PSU (it seems to still work the same as the previous PSU)

- Using Display Driver Uninstaller to clear any traces of drivers

Things I haven’t tried:

- trying a new motherboard- This feels like the next stop, and I obviously feel really reluctant to try that. I guess it’s technically possible that I somehow damaged the pcie slot in the motherboard, but my guess is that an accidental scratch wouldn't lead to the motherboard just fully not recognizing that the gpu is there? I could be wrong

Any thoughts? As i said, this is my first time, so if there’s something obvious i might have missed, please let me know! Thank you!

Photo links:

https://ibb.co/XrWyQNCK

https://ibb.co/tTQ689cj

https://ibb.co/HL1QVgMK

https://ibb.co/4ggy5th2

https://ibb.co/wNWVXkFW

I'm clueless why this is happening on my laptop. anyone know a fix for this? Gigabyte gaming a16 r7, 16gb RAM, rtx 5050 8gb.

Does the SSD tool in GCC work only with GIGABYTE's SSDs?

#This post was written with the help of AI for translation-purposes.

>TL;DR:
Gigabyte Support tried to downplay a hardware-related issue by simply disabling the protection mechanism. It was assumed that the display error regarding the VRAM amount was the cause of the problem. After a well-founded objection, a replacement for the card was arranged. The replacement GPU was delivered in terrible condition.

Hey everyone.

Today I want to share my ongoing RMA incident with Gigabyte.
I am currently fighting a battle over my broken RTX 4090. It died from a clear VRAM failure; not caused by me, but likely just through material degradation, voltage, temperatures, or whatever else. The fact is, I had a hardware problem and turned to Gigabyte support, hoping to get it resolved quickly and easily.

I want to share my experience with you today, structured a bit like a short story. I tried my best to write it in a way that both tech-savvy folks and non-techies can easily follow along.
I hope you enjoy the read. Maybe you have similar stories? I would be really happy if you shared your own experiences in the comments below.

Prologue: The Silent Black Screens

It all started in early March 2026. I was just having a good time playing a heavily modded session of Fallout 4. Suddenly, my screen went completely black. It wasn’t your typical system crash where the PC reboots or the audio starts looping aggressively—the speakers just went quiet, and the screen went dark.
I was a bit skeptical, so I just sat there and waited. After a few minutes, my regular Windows desktop simply reappeared. The game had closed itself, but there were no error messages, no weird visual artifacts, no driver crash pop-ups. Nothing. I didn't think much of it, assumed it was just a random mod conflict, restarted the game, and kept playing.

About half an hour later, it happened again:
Black screen, a short wait, and back to a perfectly normal desktop.

Still no graphical glitches or artifacts whatsoever.

At this point, I decided to look a bit closer to see what was actually happening in the background. I opened the Windows Event Viewer to check the system logs. That’s when I noticed several errors pointing directly to my GPU. The most critical one was a hard hardware error reported by the Nvidia driver itself:

At

>\Device\00000106
GDDR, Uncorrectable DRAM error in FBPA 5 subpartition 1 physAddr 0x045f2840

Chapter 1: The Troubleshooting & The Missing VRAM

Working in IT, I know my system inside and out. My rig isn't just for gaming; I also use it for local AI research and testing on a smaller scale. Because I need maximum stability for those workloads, I had manually enabled the ECC (Error Correction Code) state for my RTX 4090 in the Nvidia Control Panel about two years ago, and it has been running like that ever since.
Since I knew an "Uncorrectable DRAM error" in the Event Viewer is a massive red flag, I decided to dig deeper into the logs. Sure enough, I found two more errors pointing to the exact same issue:

>Error_ID: 14
Event_Data: \Device\00000106
Row Remapper: New row (0x00000000045f2840) marked for remapping, reset gpu to activate.

>Error_ID: 14
Event_Data: \Device\00000106
GPU recovery action changed from 0x0 (None) to 0x4 (Drain and Reset)

I started researching what "Row Remapping" actually means.

Long story short:
The Nvidia driver registers a specific chunk of memory as faulty and physically blocks it during boot. This prevents the system from accidentally writing into that dead chunk during normal operation, which would otherwise crash the whole PC.

When I read that, my hair stood on end. If a chunk is permanently blocked, my total available VRAM must be lower.

I distinctly remembered my Task Manager always showing 24 GB of VRAM. I panicked, opened Task Manager, and checked the dedicated GPU memory.

Lo and behold: I was suddenly sitting at exactly 22.5 GB of VRAM. 1.5 Gigabytes of memory had just been sliced off to keep the system stable.

I just thought, "What the f***."

The SMI Logs Proof

I needed hard proof to confirm this, so I turned to Nvidia's command-line tool, nvidia-smi. I ran a detailed report, and the output confirmed my fears. While the volatile errors (for the current session) were at 0, the aggregate (lifetime) logs showed the undeniable hardware failure:

>==============NVSMI LOG==============
Timestamp                               : Sat Feb 28 08:42:29 2026
Attached GPUs                           : 1
GPU 00000000:0A:00.0
ECC Mode
Current                         : Enabled
ECC Errors
Volatile
DRAM Uncorrectable          : 0
Aggregate
DRAM Uncorrectable          : 2

The "Aggregate DRAM Uncorrectable: 2" was the smoking gun. My VRAM was physically dying, and the driver was amputating pieces of it to keep the card alive.

Chapter 2: The RMA Process & The Battle with Support

After gathering all the logs, screenshots, and information, I decided to contact Gigabyte. I had registered my card for the extended 4-year warranty right after purchase. Since I live in Germany and the card was in its third year, I had to deal with Gigabyte's manufacturer support directly rather than the retailer (MediaMarkt).

I filed an RMA request with the German support team. They sent back a form asking for a summary of the error, serial number, and proof of purchase. I did exactly that and received an RMA number. I was told to ship the card to them. I carefully removed the GPU, packed it into its original packaging, and documented everything with photos. The card was in absolutely pristine, mint condition—it looked brand new.

Then I waited. Three weeks passed with the status stuck on "Processing." When I finally asked for an update, Gigabyte sent me screenshots claiming:

>"No error found (NTF). We are returning the card."

Their excuse? They claimed the missing VRAM was just the ECC function taking up space for error correction. While that's technically true for RAM, it doesn't work that way for VRAM without losing capacity unless there's a hardware failure.

I knew that before the crash, I always had 24 GB shown even with ECC active.

I even crosschecked on a friend's RTX 4080 with ECC also activated, but still shows the full 16 GB of VRAM.

I refused to accept their findings. I looked at their "test" screenshots and realized they were running generic stress tests on a system with an Intel i5 CPU that couldn't even push the 4090 to its limits, let alone systematically test the memory. They basically just turned off ECC, which reset the blocked rows, making the 24 GB reappear in Windows, and claimed it was fixed.

I pushed back, provided instructions on how to actually test it (using MATS/MODS or OCCT), and told them they need to bomb the memory with read/write operations to provoke the failure.

After another week, Gigabyte caved and offered a replacement: an Aorus Master RTX 4090 (Keep that in mind for later...), since my Gaming OC was "no longer available." They called it "refurbished but functional." I accepted it because their alternative was simply sending back my broken card. I thought at least I'd get a working, equivalent product. Boy, was i wrong...

Chapter 3: Disappointment and Disillusionment

After over two months of back-and-forth and patiently waiting, I finally received the package with the RTX 4090 Master inside. Today, on May 11, 2026. From the outside, the shipping box looked completely undamaged, so I opened it up.

Inside, I found the exact same black box I had originally used to send my RTX 4090 Gaming OC to Gigabyte. It still had the same tape I used, just re-sealed with a single new strip, and the RTX 4090 Master was practically squeezed inside.

I didn't think much of it at first. I pulled the card out to inspect it. At first glance, it seemed like a decent card, but as we all know, those anti-static bags are usually dark greyisch or blue-isch and blend in pretty well with the dark color of the GPU. But looking closely through the bag, I noticed something was off.

It looked... bent. Like it had a slight curve pushed inwards.

I took it out of the anti-static bag and inspected it from all angles. I looked at the corner where the anti-sag bracket is supposed to attach, and it didn't line up. It was physically bent. A piece of metal was literally sticking out. I checked the cooling fins and saw that in some places—especially right next to the high-power connector—parts of the heatsink were also bent. Then I checked the parallelism between the cooler and the backplate and noticed massive irregularities; in some spots, they were closer to each other, in others, the gap was wider. The backplate itself was sagging. It looked as if someone had installed the GPU and just dropped something heavy right on top of it.

Then I looked at the thinner part of the card where the third fan is located. It wasn't just slightly warped; it was severely bent. There was a literal N-shaped crease in the metal.

After the initial shock, anger and absolute disappointment took over. I immediately photographed and documented every single bend, crease, and scratch. I replied directly to the RMA email thread, explicitly stating that the graphics card is not free of material defects and that I refuse to accept it.

They promised me a "refurbished and functional" replacement, not a physically mangled safety hazard for my pc. I don't want to risk, that the 12VHPWR-Connector starts burning inside my case, because PCB is clearly warped arround this connector.

Honestly, I am beyond disappointed with how Gigabyte handled this entire situation. They tried to twist facts, gaslight me, and treat me like an idiot. And when I fought back, they tried to sweep the problem under the rug by sending me a visibly damaged, structurally compromised card to get rid of me.

I understand the current state of the world and how incredibly expensive hardware is right now. But I also spent a massive amount of hard-earned money to afford this GPU. I have rights as a consumer. The extended 4-year warranty was the exact reason I chose Gigabyte over Asus, Zotac, or anyone else.

I’ve had good experiences with Gigabyte in the past, buying their products for 15 years since I was a teenager.

But now, that one time I actually have a critical issue with one of their most expensive flagship products, Gigabyte showed me my true value to them:

>Absolutely nothing.

As long as you hand over your cash and keep your mouth shut, you're a "good customer."

But the moment you point out flaws in their repair or diagnostic process—even when you're literally helping them do their job—they try to mislead you just to save face and wiggle out of the warranty trap they set for themselves.

Epilogue: My Advice to the PCMR Community

If any of you are dealing with a similar issue, I can only give you this advice:

Hold your ground.
Don't let customer support brush you off or gaslight you.

If you feel something is wrong with your product, and you've tested and documented everything to the best of your ability, stand up for your rights.

This day and age, our dignity and our own integrity are sometimes all we have left.
We aren't crazy, and we aren't clueless kids anymore.

As an adult who actually understands technology, do not let them belittle you and talk their way out of it.

Since I received the card today, on May 11th, I immediately reopened the RMA case this very same day. I am now eagerly waiting for Gigabyte's reaction to the pictures and documentation, and to see what they have to say in their defense.

If they try to weasel their way out of this or claim they have fulfilled their duties, I will explicitly reject that and very likely take legal action, as I firmly believe they are trying to dodge their contractual obligations.

If anything else comes to light regarding this situation, I will gladly keep you all updated here.

Thank you for your time.

Hey all,

I want to upgrade from a ryzen 3600 to a ryzen 5800xt. In order to do that, need to update my bios on my b450 Aorus Pro Wifi rev 1.0.

On the website there is a warning under bios version f40 that says before you update to that version you have to install “ec fw update tool.” Here’s the link:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B450-AORUS-PRO-WIFI-rev-1x/support#Support-Bios

My current bios version is f42a which doesn’t show up on that page. Originally I believe I had this board bios updated to support Ryzen 3000 by someone else.

Am I ok to just update from f42a to the most recent version? I don’t know if I should or not or just wait and buy a new b550 board.

GIGABYTE AERO GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC 16G (GV-N507TAERO OC-16GD) WHITE EDITION

GIGABYTE AERO GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC 16G (GV-N507TAERO OC-16GD) WHITE EDITION

• Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed.

Elevate your gaming and content creation with the GIGABYTE AERO GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB GDDR7. Featuring a sleek white and silver aesthetic, this card is the perfect centerpiece for a premium white-themed ("ICE") build. Powered by the latest NVIDIA Blackwell architecture and 16GB of lightning-fast GDDR7 memory, this card delivers, smooth, high-FPS performance at 1440p and 4K with next-gen AI capabilities (DLSS 4).

I picked up my Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 BZH (RTX 5090 / Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX) about six weeks ago. Compared to the competitors in my area (ASUS HP, Lenovo), it was about $900-$1000 cheaper brand new. I researched the laptop pretty well and knew of the not so great reviews due to the price point it was released at in contrast to the companies, but it was very hard for me to justify spending an extra $900-$1000 for a better reviewed laptop that essentially has the same innards.

After purchasing it and spending some time with it I observed some weird issues and that the performance wasn't where it should be. The GPU would downclock during sessions, and the CPU was hitting 105°C at only 20-30% usage would core thermal throttle a lot! I know these chips run hot, but those numbers were definitely not okay.

​The Investigation

​I started monitoring everything with HWInfo64. While the GPU core stayed under 87C (the thermal limit), the Memory Junction Temperature was pinning at 104°C every time I gamed or stress tested. This was causing the GPU to throttle down to 1700-1800MHz, even in Performance Mode with the fans at full blast.

​I decided it was time to open it up. I couldn't find any specific teardown guides for the Aorus Master G16 on reddit or YouTube, so I had to fly a bit blind.

​The "Smoking Gun"

​After disconnecting the battery and removing the heatsink, the culprit was staring me right in the face: A factory assembly error. Gigabyte uses thermal pads for the memory, and one of them was folded over on itself. It wasn’t making any contact with the memory chips at all.

​As for the factory paste, it wasn't liquid metal, but also not the typical thermal paste that's used. Maybe it was PTM? Maybe it was a type of mixture? I cleaned everything up using 99% ethyl alcohol (isopropyl is hard to find here) and coffee filters.

​The Upgrade

​CPU/GPU: Thermal Grizzly PhaseSheet PTM.

​VRAM/MOSFETs: Thermal Grizzly Thermal Putty Advanced (the blue stuff).

​The "Heart Attack" Moment

​After putting it back together, the laptop wouldn't post at first. On the second try, it booted, but the dGPU was missing from the system. I panicked, thinking I’d used too much putty and prevented the heatsink from seating, so I opened it up and thinned it out. Same result.

​The Fix: It turns out that disconnecting the battery and holding the power button clears the CMOS. My BIOS had defaulted back to integrated graphics only. A quick trip into the BIOS to re-enable the dGPU (and switching the MUX back in the Gigabyte Control Center) fixed everything.

​The Results (After 2 days of "curing")

​Please note that PTM requires about 10 cycles or more to reach max cooling potential and settle so that it can get to those microscopic areas on the surface of the die.

The results have been great.

Fan speeds: On Performance mode (very loud), I was previously seeing RPMS hit 6900, now they mad out at 5900. So a major improvement for acoustics there. I rarely ever play with Performance mode on unless I'm hooking up to a 4k display and want the extra power or benchmarking. I typically play on balanced and I'm sure that has gone down as well, but don't remember what the before was.

​CPU: In Cinebench and gaming, it now stays around 80°C–90°C (down from 105°C).

​GPU Memory: Maxes out at 84°C during stress tests (a 20°C drop!).

​Clocks: The GPU now sustains its full boost clocks in both Balanced and Performance modes. My temps when stress testing with Furmark stay at 77c and lower in other games and stress tests. In the Furmark beach, I was getting 184-190fps and now I'm getting 208-210. 3DMark graphics score at 24,700 when it used to be 22k-23k

Choosing the Silenced mode undervolts the card down to about 685mv and the clock speeds to about 1800 max, so it doesn't get very hot and that's why it's so quiet, and also msi afterburner curves don't really work there since GiMate takes control. Never really had an issue with the GPU on Silenced pre-pasting since heat and clocks were already low. I will say though now, after the repaste my performance on Silenced is actually better. So I can game quietly (even quieter than Balanced) without sacrificing too much.

​Because the thermal overhead is back, I was able to undervolt and overclock via MSI Afterburner. I’m currently running a curve at 785mv / 2300MHz. In Crimson Desert (1600p Max Settings), I’m seeing 70°C–74°C on Performance mode and 75c-82c in Balanced mode. I expect these to go down even more in the coming days when the ptm has settled.

​Moral of the story: If your high-end laptop is throttling, don't trust the factory assembly. Check those pads!

​(I’ve attached photos of the folded pad and the new putty application below.)