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What happens if you turn on the PC without plugging the power cable for the GPU? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I was changing the case fans, after I put everything back together, I forgot to plug in the power for the GPU. I turned the pc on and I saw the white LED on GPU power port lid up and heard the fan spins like crazy (I don't know if it was the CPU fan or the GPU fans), I panicked and immediately turned off the power supply.

Everything happened in less than 2 seconds, I've run some stress tests and gamed for a few hours and nothing bad happened (yet?) so I assumed everything is still fine (for now?).

What happens if I had left it on like that for longer? And why did the fan ram up like that?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Really? Thanks, I heard the fan rammed up to max speed the instant I turned the power on so it scared the shit out of me. Do you know which fan it could have been and why did it do that?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Could have been any of them, but I believe the one over the CPU would be my best bet. It's just a check to make sure it's working, and if it fails you will most likely see an error at the end of the post, which is right before the OS loads. GPUs are not required for most PCs to function unless you got a motherboard that does not have an on-board display output, in which case you just have no way of hooking up a display. If this was the case you could still get to the PC if you knew how to remote into it as well.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

my motherboard has display output but my CPU doesn't have an integrated GPU so I need the graphics card for output.

btw, it just popped up in my head: What if I plug in the power without turning the PC off? Will something bad happen?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

The physical copper wire connection in the plug and socket is not instant and as its wiggled around, breaking and making connection in quick succession, will likely cause voltage and amperage spikes which can damage components on the gpu. In the best case nothing happens and you have a black screen until you power cycle your pc. Worst case is a dead gpu core.

[–] Scubus 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wasn't me, but I would assume you got down voted because it's not possible for your mobo to have a display output without having an integrated GPU.

That display output is literally a component of the onboard gpu

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

My Intel Core i5 12400F literally DO NOT has integrated graphics so even if there are physical ports on the mother, I cannot get output from any of those ports. How the hell do they think I get video output from the motherboard if the CPU literally has no way of doing it?

[–] Scubus -3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It's not the CPU that contains the integrated graphics, it's the mobo. Do you know what mobo you use?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Gigabyte B660M DS3H DDR4. I've already tried plugging it in, which I don't even need to, and lo and behold, no output to the monitor. Like I already said, how do you even get video out from a CPU that has no iGPU?

[–] Scubus 2 points 11 months ago

Ignore everything I said, evidently I am an idiot

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Do you have a source for that? I've only ever known integrated graphics to be part of the CPU.

[–] Scubus 3 points 11 months ago

Did I just step into the Twilight zone?

I just confirmed that you are correct, but I am positive that both of the mobos I bought in the last decade had graphics cards built into them. I have legitimately no idea how I'm only just learning that that's not normal.

Thanks for letting me know