3080ti bricked itself - fans and led work, GPU undetectable.

[TheSadgeBrick]

Hi there, as the title says my 3080ti is somewhat dead.

The system specs are a 5800X on an MSI B550A-Pro board with 32gb ram and the Gigabyte Eagle 3080ti and a beQuiet Straight Power 11 850W PSU on the latest Win 10 version. Latest drivers + latest stable mobo BIOS also. 

24 hours and some minutes before writing this, I was playing GTA V, mid game the screen turned black, GPU fans went to 100%, sound was still there. Now, I've had that happen, not with that GPU though. I thought nothing of it, I clicked the restart button on my case, now it wouldn't post. VGA led was on. That was new. The card was running, but no signal at all. Fans are spinning at speed which is normal, not 100%. No burnt smell at all.

Step 1: Reseating and trying different cable combinations

The GPU has 2x8pin ( weird for a 3080ti, but it was the only GPU I could buy under MSRP just over 1 year ago - VAT stuff, bought it through my employer and at the time I was living in Germany, will be relevant later ). My PSU has 3 cables. Tried different combos of 2. That changed nothing. The other slot didn't change a thing at all. 

Step 2: Another GPU

I have a 1660 laying around. It works with every power cable, both slots. No issues at all. 

Step 3: Both GPUs, both slot configs ( see attachment below ) 3080ti is not recognized. It stays as PCI Device

Now I have litteraly no idea what to do. Next course of action would be to contact the retailer and Gigabyte to see if they will honor their warranty. I'll be writing an e-mail to the retailer first, after finishing with this. Given that I don't live in Germany anymore, but in Eastern Europe, specifically in a non-European Union country, it might be tough to pull off as the retailer doesn't ship to my country at all and Gigabyte doesn't show anything about my country.  

Which brings me to the next thing, if all that fails, what should I be looking at to try and salvage it? What could cause a card to be undetectable, but would allow fans to spin and the few led lights to light up?

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by TheSadgeBrick
Edited to comply more with the "Read before asking for help" topic.

[Bombastinator]

The problem with the video chain is there are a lot of parts and breaking just one causes the whole chain to fail.  This non-detection thing could well be a video card hardware error.  It could also be a motherboard or software problem though. 

[lafrente]

Did you try the hdmi or other dp ports?

[TheSadgeBrick]

23 minutes ago, lafrente said:

Did you try the hdmi or other dp ports?

Short of tearing the GPU down and vbios flash, I've done everything one can do at home. What throws me off is the fact that the fans spin, led lights up and it shows up as a PCI Device but it doesn't detect which and I get no signal from it. 

I really have no idea where could the issue be. I'm currently using the very same pc, with the 1660 instead of the 3080ti. I litteraly have no idea where I could start if the retailer and Gigabyte tell me to F off, and I'm more than certain they'll tell me that exact thing.

Edit: I'll be trying a different power supply tomorrow. I forgot to mention that. A friend will lend me a unit which is the same as mine. 
 

[night4552020]

Sounds like the card overheated and perhaps the thermal padding/paste broke on it. If feel comfortable with, buy pads and thermal paste and reseat the cooler. (that is if the warranty is unable to be used). Best of luck

[TheSadgeBrick]

Update: 

A friend brought me his entire PC to test with. Same 850w PSU but this time a 10900K and a 3070. 

That system posts with my 3080ti, but I've gotten display only from the iGPU. His PSU on my system made no difference. His 3070 in my PC works like a charm. 

Bonus, my 3080ti doesn't heat up one bit in the places where the VRAM and chip are. 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, TheSadgeBrick said:

Update: 

A friend brought me his entire PC to test with. Same 850w PSU but this time a 10900K and a 3070. 

That system posts with my 3080ti, but I've gotten display only from the iGPU. His PSU on my system made no difference. His 3070 in my PC works like a charm. 

Bonus, my 3080ti doesn't heat up one bit in the places where the VRAM and chip are. 

That’s a good friend.  Feel free to tell him that someone in another state (or nation) feels he has made mench points.  With his working system you can do things like test your video card and PSU and ram and stuff.  One at a time is best.

[TheSadgeBrick]

54 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

That’s a good friend.  Feel free to tell him that someone in another state (or nation) feels he has made mench points.  With his working system you can do things like test your video card and PSU and ram and stuff.  One at a time is best.

We already did everything I could possibly think of. It was a learning experience for him as I'm the one who built his system. 

Retailer got back, somewhat good news. I've asked them to clarify. 

[TheSadgeBrick]

Update.

After a huge back and forth with the retailer, they agreed on me using a package reroute service as "We don't ship to your country" even if I pay the shipping. I'll be sending the card in the next couple of days as soon as I get everything else in order. 

There was a back and forth with Gigabyte as well. Took them a while to respond to the first, but afterwards they were fast af boi. " Please understand there is no global warranty for the graphics card. " is what they ended it with. Serves me well when I buy Gigashit products and under MSRP. 

Hopefully it won't be repairable and I can ask the retailer if I could pay a bit more for something better.