Two fried GTX 980ti's?

[MrRobville]

This week I received two KFA2 GTX 980ti's from a colleague who had them collecting dust at home, one was supposedly defective and the other in fine condition. I could use these to upgrade from a GTX 970.

 

After I had installed the proper 980, the PC booted up fine, and I had installed the proper drivers. So far everything worked fine. As a test, I booted up the Kingdom Come Deliverance game to check the graphics. First I noticed that the settings were downgraded to a resolution of 1680x1050.

As soon as I changed it back to my native resolution of 1920x1080, the PC shut off entirely while the standby light kept flashing. I couldn't turn it on again. If I switch off the power entirely for a moment, and try to boot the PC up again, all it does is that I can see the fans jolt a little and all lights flicker once, and then it's dead again.

When I placed my 970 back in the PC again, everything booted up fine, and I'm typing this from it right now.

 

So I figured I mistook the faulty GPU for the correct one. So I replaced it with the other one. Again, the PC booted up fine, and Windows seemed to work alright as well. But again, when I booted up Kingdom Come, I only got as far as the main menu (where the environment is already loaded). This time the resolution was correct, but as soon as I clicked on the graphics settings, snap, the PC was off again.
Once more, it won't boot whatsoever. Just a slight jolt in the fans and a brief flicker of lights.

I tried putting them in the other PCI-E slot, nothing. I checked if the cables were inserted properly, nothing. I made sure everything was dust free beforehand as well.
My PSU is a non-modular Corsair TX650 650 Watt from 2011. Again, once I placed my 970 back again, everything booted fine as usual, and I can load any game I like without any issue.

Is it possible that both 980's have been fried? And if so, can anyone tell how that would be possible? Or would the PSU be at fault? even though it runs fine with the 970?

I'm a little puzzled.

[muito_gostoso]

try different computer and different psu

[Jurrunio]

Use DDU to remove the drivers before swapping cards

[Radium_Angel]

17 minutes ago, MrRobville said:

Is it possible that both 980's have been fried?

Yes, or arrived to you DOA.

[MrRobville]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Yes, or arrived to you DOA.

Wouldn't I be unable to even boot to Windows if that were the case? They both briefly worked until I started doing something graphically demanding.

 

6 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Use DDU to remove the drivers before swapping cards

I forgot to mention this. I've indeed tried using DDU to do a clean driver install. However, with Windows 10 it is impossible to run a fresh install from Geforce Experience since Windows will be automatically installing drivers once they are removed. The PC would run hardly 5 minutes without any drivers until suddenly the screen flashes and, the GPU is detected again as well as a 2019 driver. In fact I cannot even run the Geforce installer beforehand because it says another installation is already going.
This thing is enough for its own topic really, as I spent hours trying to find a way to keep Windows from (re)installing drivers by itself. I now just assume that Windows does install the proper drivers when it sees that nothing is installed.
 

14 minutes ago, muito_gostoso said:

try different computer and different psu

Unfortunately, I do not have these lying around. I will try to see if I can find a computer elsewhere where I can try the card in.

[Radium_Angel]

10 minutes ago, MrRobville said:

Wouldn't I be unable to even boot to Windows if that were the case?

It;s possible it was in "good enough" shape to boot a basic display until it got pushed (by the game) and then poof, off it went. Wouldn't be the 1st time I've seen something like that

[MrRobville]

18 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

It;s possible it was in "good enough" shape to boot a basic display until it got pushed (by the game) and then poof, off it went. Wouldn't be the 1st time I've seen something like that

That makes sense. After all, they were sitting on a shelf as they were replaced for (at least one) being faulty.

Is there any chance that it was my PSU who fried the cards? Or would my 970 have been killed meanwhile as well? That one still runs like a charm, even when I stress it.

 

I'm still considering upgrading my GPU, but I feel a little cautious now.

[Jurrunio]

39 minutes ago, MrRobville said:

I forgot to mention this. I've indeed tried using DDU to do a clean driver install. However, with Windows 10 it is impossible to run a fresh install from Geforce Experience since Windows will be automatically installing drivers once they are removed. The PC would run hardly 5 minutes without any drivers until suddenly the screen flashes and, the GPU is detected again as well as a 2019 driver. In fact I cannot even run the Geforce installer beforehand because it says another installation is already going.
This thing is enough for its own topic really, as I spent hours trying to find a way to keep Windows from (re)installing drivers by itself. I now just assume that Windows does install the proper drivers when it sees that nothing is installed.

Dont use Geforce experience for driver install, that thing could create more problems. Download the driver only file from Nvidia's site, disconnect the system from the internet, DDU the old driver, then install the new driver. Could install with Geforce Experience if you wish so.

[MrRobville]

2 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Unplug eth cable, go to control panel, system, advanced system settings, hardware, device installation settings and set it to disabled, that's it.

Seriously. I wasn't able to find one single topic that mentioned this. Thanks a lot!

[MrRobville]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Dont use Geforce experience for driver install, that thing could create more problems. Download the driver only file from Nvidia's site, disconnect the system from the internet, DDU the old driver, then install the new driver. Could install with Geforce Experience if you wish so.

I appreciate the advice. I'll install it like that next time.

 

As for the 980's, unfortunately the PC won't even boot anymore when those are inserted, so I cannot try a fresh driver install for those anymore.

[Jurrunio]

Just now, MrRobville said:

I appreciate the advice. I'll install it like that next time.

 

As for the 980's, unfortunately the PC won't even boot anymore when those are inserted, so I cannot try a fresh driver install for those anymore.

now they're very dead then 

[MrRobville]

Is there any hint on what might have fried these cards, Or are there too many variables? It's unlikely that a faulty driver fries a card right?
Thankfully, I got these cards for free, so I'm not too bothered, but in case it wasn't just a factory defect I'd like this to be a learning moment for when this might happen again to a card I paid for.

[MadAnt250]

2 hours ago, MrRobville said:

My PSU is a non-modular Corsair TX650 650 Watt from 2011.

It sounds like the GPU can't get enough power, it may be a dying PSU that just has enough for the 970 but, when pushed harder the PSU can't provide enough power anymore. Maybe you can test them in another system.

 

[MrRobville]

I see. But if it is a power supply issue, should there be no difference in the behavior between both cards?

First one failed and made my PC unable to boot. Then I inserted the other, and it booted fine, until the same thing happened.

If the PSU was unable to provide enough power, shouldn't it be the case that neither cards should've allowed the PC to boot at all, or that both cards should work until something demanding would occur?
I don't understand how one card could still run while the other was already "dead". I figure that if it is a power issue, they either both should or shouldn't work.
 

Because what changed, that suddenly neither cards work anymore at all? If the PSU was underpowered, it couldn't damage the cards, is that correct?

Or is there some failsafe within a GPU that once triggered, will prohibit the card from booting until sufficient power is met?

With the black friday deals coming up, I'm now tempted to buy a new PSU. But it would be a waste of money if I installed it, and it turns out that both 980's are truly dead.

[Sumolizer]

18 hours ago, MrRobville said:

This week I received two KFA2 GTX 980ti's from a colleague who had them collecting dust at home, one was supposedly defective and the other in fine condition. I could use these to upgrade from a GTX 970.

 

After I had installed the proper 980, the PC booted up fine, and I had installed the proper drivers. So far everything worked fine. As a test, I booted up the Kingdom Come Deliverance game to check the graphics. First I noticed that the settings were downgraded to a resolution of 1680x1050.

As soon as I changed it back to my native resolution of 1920x1080, the PC shut off entirely while the standby light kept flashing. I couldn't turn it on again. If I switch off the power entirely for a moment, and try to boot the PC up again, all it does is that I can see the fans jolt a little and all lights flicker once, and then it's dead again.

When I placed my 970 back in the PC again, everything booted up fine, and I'm typing this from it right now.

 

So I figured I mistook the faulty GPU for the correct one. So I replaced it with the other one. Again, the PC booted up fine, and Windows seemed to work alright as well. But again, when I booted up Kingdom Come, I only got as far as the main menu (where the environment is already loaded). This time the resolution was correct, but as soon as I clicked on the graphics settings, snap, the PC was off again.
Once more, it won't boot whatsoever. Just a slight jolt in the fans and a brief flicker of lights.

I tried putting them in the other PCI-E slot, nothing. I checked if the cables were inserted properly, nothing. I made sure everything was dust free beforehand as well.
My PSU is a non-modular Corsair TX650 650 Watt from 2011. Again, once I placed my 970 back again, everything booted fine as usual, and I can load any game I like without any issue.

Is it possible that both 980's have been fried? And if so, can anyone tell how that would be possible? Or would the PSU be at fault? even though it runs fine with the 970?

I'm a little puzzled.

Try another PSU as you said that your PSu was from 2011 so it should have degraded in its power delivery.

980ti are very power hungry as compared to 970

[MrRobville]

After a bunch of components for my new PC arrived, I was able to test one of the 980ti's with a brand new 750W Corsair PSU on a new ASrock motherboard. Same problem like my other PC, nothing. Not even a boot screen. Yet when I insert a new RTX 2060, it turns on just fine.

So I think at this point it is safe to conclude that both 980's are bricked. Upon asking more about them to my colleague, he said that before they got replaced by the store, they already started to act funny. With a complete system shutdown every once in a while. Only he was able to reboot them. I could find a lot about these symptoms, indicating that a GPU dies. Knowing that, I suppose I witnessed the final crash of both of these cards.

 

Glad to know though it wasn't the PSU that was at fault.