Lockup with 1070

[porina]

I was given an Asus Strix 1070 card as not working. Well, not strictly true. When it was given to me, it was stated it'll work fine on Windows desktop, but if you fire up a 3D game, the system will crash.

 

I got it home, put it in the nearest system, driver update, and all looked fine on the desktop. I fired neokpalive since I had it downloaded already, and it crashed as described. System totally unresponsive. If you don't know nekopalive, it's basically dancing catgirls made using Unreal engine. Not exactly a strenuous load for a GPU. I had GPU-Z open at the same time, but as it crashed so suddenly I didn't see anything unusual before it locked up.

 

So, what could cause a sudden lockup on load? The previous owner speculated there could be damage caused by long term GPU sag. The PCB was slightly bent and I wondered if some of the components were making contact with the what appears to be metal backplate. They had already tried running it in different systems with different PSUs, making power unlikely.

 

I just took the card apart. No obvious signs of damage. Cooling solution looks in good condition.

 

Not sure where to go with this. I will put it back together, minus the backplate to see if that makes a difference. Having said that, I think the backplate is needed to mount what looks like a cooling plate, so I might have to improvise a new holder for that. It is a bit questionable if it is for cooling or for board stability.

 

If it still crashes without the backplate, the other ideas I have are to lower PCIe speed, or try underclocking the core and vram.

[Crunchy Dragon]

You could try a different vBIOS.

[nick name]

You could put washers on the backplate to space it away from the PCB if you must use the backplate.  

[Fraya]

could most likely be the gpu chip could have de-soldered / not fully connected with the PCB, if you live in the UK, its worth sending it to "T-Fix" there in London and you just need to follow there online instructions and send it to them with the details, if they can't fix it then they will buy it for parts for about £40, and if they can't fix it they don't charge you. 

it costs abut $100 for the service / testing etc, but its worth it 

i had a problem with a 1070ti once, it turned out my PSU wasn't giving enough juice for it, so that's something to look at (power delivery) as this would crash the computer / instant turn off when in game or something where it would load / work the GPU. 

 

 

[porina]

13 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

You could try a different vBIOS.

If I get it working stably with a downclock then a custom bios could be an option. I had to do this with an old AMD card before, but not looked into if it is possible with nvidia without breaking something. I recall that was a limitation with mining bioses when that was a thing.

12 hours ago, nick name said:

You could put washers on the backplate to space it away from the PCB if you must use the backplate.  

I'll keep that in consideration if it is proven to be the cause. Due to the screw length this might not be easy.

9 hours ago, Frayia said:

could most likely be the gpu chip could have de-soldered / not fully connected with the PCB

I don't think I'd spend money on getting it fixed. A 1070 is still not a bad GPU but the cost to fix it would be significant compared to its market value. If I give up on this I might offer this to anyone else who fancies a go at it.

 

I suppose there is also the oven trick to consider as a last resort.

[nick name]

I should have added that the washers be plastic, but I'm pretty sure you know that.  

 

Have you tried using it vertically?  And if you don't have a vertical mount -- putting the PC on its side?

[porina]

1 hour ago, nick name said:

Have you tried using it vertically?  And if you don't have a vertical mount -- putting the PC on its side?

I haven't, even though I had the case on its side when installing/uninstalling it! 

[porina]

I'm close to giving up on this...

 

With the backplate off and in a vertical orientation, I put it in my cheap Xeon build and it was just totally unstable. It would lock up at any time, sometimes sooner or later.

 

Fully reassembled, I put it back into the system I had it in yesterday. Limited it PCIe to gen 2, and it seemed to work a while before locking up. Limit it to gen 1, I was checking if it was actually running gen 1 with the built in render test in GPU-Z and it crashed then. Back to gen 3, it was crashing all over the place again. Dropping back to gen 2 seems to allow it to work longer. After many more crashes I got Afterburner installed and set all of core clock, mem clock and power limit to minimum allowed. Back to the catgirls, and it worked for a long time before it crashed again.

 

So... basically nothing I tried has worked so far.

[Fraya]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:38 AM, porina said:

If I get it working stably with a downclock then a custom bios could be an option. I had to do this with an old AMD card before, but not looked into if it is possible with nvidia without breaking something. I recall that was a limitation with mining bioses when that was a thing.

I'll keep that in consideration if it is proven to be the cause. Due to the screw length this might not be easy.

I don't think I'd spend money on getting it fixed. A 1070 is still not a bad GPU but the cost to fix it would be significant compared to its market value. If I give up on this I might offer this to anyone else who fancies a go at it.

 

I suppose there is also the oven trick to consider as a last resort.

But you don't seem to get it, a 1070 will still sell well if working, with T-Fix, if its non repairable they won't charge you (you get the deposit money back) and they will even offer £40 for your old card for components off it, basically recycle it. 

Its a win win, and if it is repairable they will let you know and if its going to cost more than the cards worth they will advice you on this and then you can decide to bin it and get £40. 

 

I have personally used them and its a great service. 

 

[porina]

2 hours ago, Frayia said:

with T-Fix, if its non repairable they won't charge you (you get the deposit money back) and they will even offer £40 for your old card for components off it, basically recycle it. 

Its a win win, and if it is repairable they will let you know and if its going to cost more than the cards worth they will advice you on this and then you can decide to bin it and get £40. 

I'll give them another look. When it was first mentioned I did quickly look at their website but I didn't see this.