Troubleshooting GPU Issue - Possible Edge Case

[HarleyTorrisi]

Hey Techer's

After going to turn my PC on the other day, I had some issues with my GPU. The GPU would immediately pump the fans at max, Asus q-led reported a VGA issue, and RGB was not visible on the GPU. 

I did the usual; remove the power, drain, and turn it back on. No luck... Removed and reinstalled GPU, and it worked... Fast track to tonight, I turn the PC on and the same issue again. Repeating the same steps and it all works again...

Now, I treat my PC parts with the utmost care, so I don't think this is a similar issue to N64 cartridges playing up  But I also don't know what to make of this.

My GPU is an MSI Black RTX 2080 TI. And I have everything routed through the USB-C port. It's worth noting that the USB-C going in does support 100w power for portable devices, so not sure if this is what may be causing an issue. i.e. feeding in power and F'ing with something. But my guess is Nvidia would have dealt with this and the firmware would reject power during negotiation. 

What do you think, could the above-mentioned be an issue? And also, is there any diagnostic software I can run against the GPU? It stresses fine, I can play Sea of Thieves on a cursed setting for several hours on end. So Im lost haha... 

Here is a complete list of my parts on pcpartpicker.com -> https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3dVDBj 

And here is my configuration.

[OddOod]

Honestly, my first guess is a dying GPU, though that PSU might be showing its age.
Failing to POST can be an early sign of death. Might be worth it to reflash the vBIOS with NVFlash, could just be slightly corrupted firmware

[HarleyTorrisi]

9 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Honestly, my first guess is a dying GPU, though that PSU might be showing its age.
Failing to POST can be an early sign of death. Might be worth it to reflash the vBIOS with NVFlash, could just be slightly corrupted firmware

Both are good points. Failing PSU did cross my mind as part of pulling out the GPU and re-installing, I reseeded the power cables. I will update the bios with NVFlash as you suggested, and update the results here... May take a couple of days for symptoms to reappear if not fixed. Im optimistic though, this is a refurbished GPU, for all I know it was a mining card that had been tampered with. 

[SpookyCitrus]

I work in a repair shop, I've seen this issue a few times. Every time it's been a failing GPU. The fans kicking up to 100% and no display with a vga led is something that a few 9 and 10 series cards did that came in and they were all bad. Exact same temporary fix worked for them too. Two of them lasted a couple months limping along with the fix but eventually they all just died. One was a GTX 970, the other two were 1080tis that were used for mining. The 970 was an oven card that had been resoldered a few times using the oven method after the client started getting the issue and watched Linus' video years ago on it. Afaik there is no real fix for it as it is a hardware problem, if you continue to get the issue after what you've tried already I'd say you're just going to want to look into getting a new card. 

[HarleyTorrisi]

4 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

I work in a repair shop, I've seen this issue a few times. Every time it's been a failing GPU. The fans kicking up to 100% and no display with a vga led is something that a few 9 and 10 series cards did that came in and they were all bad. Exact same temporary fix worked for them too. Two of them lasted a couple months limping along with the fix but eventually they all just died. One was a GTX 970, the other two were 1080tis that were used for mining. The 970 was an oven card that had been resoldered a few times using the oven method after the client started getting the issue and watched Linus' video years ago on it. Afaik there is no real fix for it as it is a hardware problem, if you continue to get the issue after what you've tried already I'd say you're just going to want to look into getting a new card. 

Dam, I really hope this isn't the issue  20 series is the last lineup to support USB-C, and as you can see in the diagram this is important for my setup. I knew it was a risk buying second hand haha, so I only have myself to blame. 

[OddOod]

The best move here would be to replace it. 30 series cards are selling for reasonable prices these days on Ebay. If you flip the card, the ethical thing to do is to note that it's been acting wonky, but we aren't gonna police what you do online. 

[HarleyTorrisi]

8 minutes ago, OddOod said:

The best move here would be to replace it. 30 series cards are selling for reasonable prices these days on Ebay. If you flip the card, the ethical thing to do is to note that it's been acting wonky, but we aren't gonna police what you do online. 

30 Series with USB-C support? 

[SpookyCitrus]

2 minutes ago, HarleyTorrisi said:

30 Series with USB-C support? 

Afaik they don't, however any 20 series or newer card should have plenty of display ports to where you can connect all three monitors directly or if you're looking to have two computers on a KVM switch as shown in your diagram there are plenty of KVM switches out there that will do what you want without requiring USB-C.

[HarleyTorrisi]

7 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Afaik they don't, however any 20 series or newer card should have plenty of display ports to where you can connect all three monitors directly or if you're looking to have two computers on a KVM switch as shown in your diagram there are plenty of KVM switches out there that will do what you want without requiring USB-C.

Unfortunately I am bound by USB-C. As shown in the diagram, I also have a laptop. But this is getting off topic  Thanks for the feedback, I think you may be right, GPU is dying. 

[SpookyCitrus]

14 hours ago, HarleyTorrisi said:

Unfortunately I am bound by USB-C. As shown in the diagram, I also have a laptop. But this is getting off topic  Thanks for the feedback

Right, you can still use laptops with KVM switches. That's all I was trying to point out is that if you really needed to with what I understand of your setup a simple KVM switch should allow you to connect both your laptop and your desktop to the three monitors at once.

 

I guess if you're not wanting to replace the USB-C equipment you already have you're bound to it, but it is what it is. 

 

It's not really off topic as you included this information in the post and you are worried about it being an issue if you were to get a card without USB-C. Just trying to help.

[HarleyTorrisi]

Hey all, so I don't know if it is fixed. But the issue hasn't come back since I used some rubbing alcohol to clean the connection area, and stuck a straw on the end of my vacuum to suck any dust out of the PCIE connection. I would assume once in and working, there should not have been any faults, but maybe the people that did the refurbish used a cheap chemical. Or this is not the issue and I'll find out later haha  Thanks everyone.