RTX2080 Error 43, Drivers will not install

Arkanthos · December 5, 2018

Good Evening Everyone this is an odd one but I hope someone can help...

System Specs (awesome minesweeper pro rig):

i9 7900x (took this little champ all the way to a stable 5GHZ, and the house didn't burn down either!)

Asus Prime x299 Deluxe (firmware version: 10.0.17763.1)

Thermaltake 1200w power supply

32 gig Corsair DDR4 (I might need more... emphasis on need, not might)

Too many HDD/SSD (think I'm up to 13...)

Asus RTX2080 Turbo (attempted drivers: 416.34, 417.22)

Windows 10 Pro 1809/17763.134 (fresh clean install with just driver updates and a non-crap browser installed, pro is just so that I can RDP to my desktop with my Surface pro, and do some photo editing while Netflixing)

This is the "I'm glad I held onto my old graphics card" tale. I have been running dual GTX 970 SC in SLI before now. I took the opportunity of a sale to upgrade those to dual RTX2080.

First issue: Upon installing the new cards in the system, it wouldn't POST. B2 error, load VGA Bios. Ok, fine, updated the BIOS. Still the same error. Ok, lets swap the top card with the old 970... Hey! it POSTs and boots. This is with one GTX970 and one RTX2080. Awesome. I figure I can get better info as to why the cards would not run if I can jump into windows. I go into installing drivers... nothing. I delete the drivers and install an older set from closer to when these were launched. Still nothing. I nuke the OS and install fresh onto the boot drive, same thing. Around and around we go, making 0 progress. One thing I haven't tried is tossing the other RTX card in to see if it might have just been a bad unit right from the get go... But frankly, I do not suspect that the card is bad.I checked with CPU-Z to validate that the silk screening on the cards, and the outsides of the boxes match the contents on the PCBs, and they do.

So here's the awkward bit... checking the compatibility chart for the motherboard, and there is no mention of RTX anywhere. I assume that this is because they just haven't updated it... Of course, now that I am at the point where I could really use ASUS tech support, they are closed.

Here are some event viewer entries:

Driver Management concluded the process to install driver display.inf_amd64_981681cc88e8d010 for Device Instance ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1E87&SUBSYS_86651043&REV_A1\4&11CC2D3&0&0000 with the following status: 0x0.

Device PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1E87&SUBSYS_86651043&REV_A1\4&11cc2d3&0&0000 had a problem starting.

Driver Name: display.inf
Class Guid: {4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Service: BasicDisplay
Lower Filters: 
Upper Filters: 
Problem: 0x1F
Problem Status: 0xC01E0438

Riddle me this, why does it look like the driver is installing for Win 10 AMD 64bit? Seems odd.

In the mean time I'll try all the releases of nvidia drivers since RTX launch and see if something sticks... If someone has the silver bullet for this thing, I'll owe ya a case of an age appropriate recreational beverage or snack.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Arkanthos
Edited to clarify subject