GPU not drawing power suddenly

[gouca]

Hi!

After a car trip, my PC, albeit well secured and softly packaged started misbehaving out of nowhere. At first I couldn't post at all and after carefully disassembling and reassembling the PC it booted up normally. Everything went fine until I stressed the GPU (GTX970 Strix) causing lack of display signal and PC reboot. 

• Ryzen 3600
• B450I GAMING+ AC
• 16GB (2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws V)
• Seasonic Core GC-650W
• ASUS GTX970 Strix (with lots of errors reported by other users in the past regarding power states)

Windows Event Viewer is full of the following errors:

Quote

 

(Event ID 18)

A fatal hardware error has occurred. 

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor APIC ID: 1

The details view of this entry contains further information.

 

Quote

 

(Event ID 13)

The description for Event ID 13 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

\Device\0000008d
Graphics Exception on (GPC 2, PPC 1): ESR 0x513238=0xffffffff

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table

 

 

PC does work normally though outside of stressing the GPU. Hours of memtest and CPU stress test were flawless.

 

Whenever I play anything stressing the GPU starts stuttering hard and downclocks from 1113 MHz down to 500 MHz. GPU-Z reports that during a 2-hour stress test the median GPU clock was 504 MHz whilst temperatures were great but I'm getting power draw warnings, meaning the GPU is reporting a 200W draw but 8-pin power connector is only supplying up to 30W apparently. PCI-E slot is providing the normal 75W and GPU limiting factor (PerfCap) is listed as POWER.

 

 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/45043817

 

I'm quite far from home with extra components to try singling out the cause so I was just thinking of going to the nearby PC store and start replacing components one by one.

I've done a full Windows reinstall and reapplied thermal pastes to both CPU/GPU and a full BIOS reset multiple times. 

 

Defective components could be:

• PSU and its 12V rail (regardless of being only 2-months old)
• GPU and its power system
• Motherboard and its PCI-E -slot

In which order should I go?

 

[Vishera]

Was the GPU connected to the PCI-E slot on the motherboard the whole trip?

Without proper packaging the weight of the GPU can damage the PCI-E slot.

[gouca]

Just now, Vishera said:

Was the GPU connected to the PCI-E slot on the motherboard the whole trip?

Without proper packaging the weight of the GPU can damage the PCI-E slot.

This was my first thought as well. Will need to try with a mATX motherboard and a new case since for whatever reason there's not a single sub $250 ITX motherboard for AM4 anymore.