BF's PC going haywire

[kaiju_wars]

So my bf recently upgraded his PC.  I'll list the old specs and the new ones as it'll be important.  Also sorry for the length of this post, I'm at my wits end, cause while my BF is better at software diagnostics, I'm (usually) better at hardware diagnostics).  

 

Old PC:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
• MSI B550M Pro-VDH WiFi mobo
• 32GB TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 3200MHz ram
• WD SN750 500GB SSD
• Seagate Barracuda 4TB HDD
• MSI GAMING Z TRIO GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
• Fractal Design Ion+ 860p 80+ Plat PSU

New PC:

• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WIFI 7 mobo
• 32GB G.SKILL Ripjaws M5 Neo RPG DDR5 6000MHz ram
• Kingston NV3 1TB SSD
• WD SN750 500GB SSD
• Seagate Barracuda 4TB HDD
• MSI GAMING Z Trio GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
• Fractal Design Ion+ 80+ Plat PSU

He was planning on buying a new (at least) 1000W PSU once he upgraded his GPU, he was waiting on AMD to announce the 9080 and 9080XT (if they're going to).

SO here's the issue.  For about a day, his new PC is working fine, he's loving it.  He was playing FF14 last night and suddenly black screen.  Then it bsod'd like 4 times.  He checked everything, nothing out of the ordinary, then suddenly black screen.  Power to the PC, but his GPU is refusing to output anything.  GPU is getting power, the fans are spinning, etc.

At first I thought "Ok, it's the PSU, the GPU must not be getting enough power or something cause with his new CPU and mobo, it's pushing close to that 860W limit." If he uses the iGPU on the 9800X3D, he gets a display in Windows, no going black, no cutting the screen, everything works as normal.  Since the dGPU last cut the screen to black, it'll POST, show the Gigabyte (well Aorus) splash screen, once Windows starts loading in, black screen.

 

So we boot into Safe Mode, DDU the GPU drivers, back into normal Windows.  Everything is fine, Windows decides to install the "Microsoft basic display driver," black screen.  DDU again, disconnect from the internet.  GPU is displaying properly, no more black screen.  Yay, so we decide to use my PC, download the latest 3080 driver to a flash drive, go back to his PC.  We start installing the Nvidia drivers.  Black screen, cut display, no display output.  So we got to that issue.  If no GPU driver is installed for the dGPU, we get a display.  If we download generic drivers or the actual Nvidia driver, we lose the display.  So my bf found a "solution" on YouTube.  Undervolting his model of 3080, he tries it.  GPU cuts completely, no fans spinning, nothing.  It's dead.  I go into my spare (but old) collection of GPUs, and grab the most powerful one I have, my old faithful, the GTX 780 GHz Edition.

 

GPU is spinning up, so we think ok we killed the 3080, and the 780 isn't as power hungry as the 3080.  We get into Windows, install the latest Nvidia driver, because while they no longer do "game ready" drivers, they still do occasional security driver updates.  They also made one for Windows 11 for the 780 (according to their own website), so I grab it.  Start installing the driver, black screen, no display

 

So to be safe, we reset the CMOS, we DDU the drivers, we're down to only the mouse, keyboard, his portable monitor, and one stick of RAM installed (yes we went to the very basics of troubleshooting).  Still the same issue.  It's close to 5am at this point, we go to bed.

 

The dawn of the next day.

 

BF reinstalls Windows only one SSD connected this time, the Western Digital one.  Just basic windows, doesn't do his usual registry edits, deleting of OneDrive, downloading extra anti virus software just using Windows Defender, like it's basic, it's an computer.  Also, weirdly, his 3080 is just magically working again.  He connects to the internet, Windows installs the basic video driver, GPU is still displaying.  Cool!  We download and start installing the Nvidia drivers aaaaaaaaaand blank screen GPU loses the ability to display again.  POST shows, once it's past that to load up Windows, no display.  So we go back into safe mode (have to through the iGPU btw), DDU, try again, same thing.  We switch to the 780.  Same thing.

 

So screw it, we go back to his old PC, again with just one SSD, and it's also doing the same thing.  Doesn't matter if it's the 3080 or 780.  Keep in mind the old PC also got a fresh install of Windows.  

All this to say, we get windows up and running, it works.  Install GPU drivers, we lose the ability to display out.  We have to use the iGPU, go into Safe Mode, and DDU the dGPU drivers, go back into regular windows, plugged into the dGPU again.  But basically as soon as we try to install a driver on either dGPU, we lose display, on now 3 fresh Windows installs and two separate computers.

 

I'm still thinking its the PSU maybe, but it could also just be the GPU is done (and my old 780 is finally done too ) But I don't know what else to do.  Any advice would be appreciated.

 

He even tried a BIOS update on the new MOBO with no luck.

[CatTNT]

are there any weird lights on the GPU?. I found out tons of my issues one time came from a bad PSU i would've never known about if my GPU didn't include a "Bad power" blinking LED. The documentation telling me that GPU LED indicated a bad PSU was buried deep in their site/manual. 

Also, more recently, I thought I had something wrong with windows/PSU because it was impossible for me to install GPU drivers, did WEEKS of testing to find out my dying 14900K was the root cause, only confirmed by underclocking the CPU and that magically fixed all issues. 

Try underclocking each piece one at a time, first CPU, RAM, GPU, see if underclocking fixes anything. To fix my 14900K, i needed to underclock by 300MHz

[kaiju_wars]

1 minute ago, CatTNT said:

are there any weird lights on the GPU?. I found out tons of my issues one time came from a bad PSU i would've never known about if my GPU didn't include a "Bad power" blinking LED. The documentation telling me that GPU LED indicated a bad PSU was buried deep in their site/manual. 

Also, more recently, I thought I had something wrong with windows/PSU because it was impossible for me to install GPU drivers, did WEEKS of testing to find out my dying 14900K was the root cause, only confirmed by underclocking the CPU and that magically fixed all issues. 

Try underclocking each piece one at a time, first CPU, RAM, GPU, see if underclocking fixes anything. To fix my 14900K, i needed to underclock by 300MHz

No there aren't, but he also straight up unplugged the light on his GPU (granted the only one I noticed when taking apart his GPU like a year ago because he wanted me to repaste it) was the RGB light bar on the top.  He leaves it unplugged cause he "hates RGB."

 

We can try underclocking, but it would be weird if his old parts and new parts were both dying, which leads me to think it's either the GPU or PSU again.

[Zupadupa]

It's possible it's due to Nvidia's stupidly buggy drivers, I remember reading black screen was commonly reported over the past couple months when installing drivers which meant the PC had to be hard reset to bring back

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1ldmjk7/game_ready_studio_driver_57680_faqdiscussion/

 

Have a look at some of the comments, that was posted 12d ago

 

Latest driver is 576.80

 

Try:

 

1. Downloading the latest 576.80 installer (for offline mode)
2. Download DDU https://www.guru3d.com/download/display-driver-uninstaller-download/
3. Boot into safe-mode (offline mode) and run DDU then reboot into normal windows (but offline) and then install latest driver (clean installation)
4. Once finished installing drivers, turn internet back on

 

 

If that doesn't work, try using older nvidia drivers 576.02 / 576.15 - you will need to stop Windows from downloading driver updates before doing this

 

If you are using a Display cable, try HDMI

 

Also worth looking into if G-sync or other things are possibly causing issues

[kaiju_wars]

20 minutes ago, Zupadupa said:

It's possible it's due to Nvidia's stupidly buggy drivers, I remember reading black screen was commonly reported over the past couple months when installing drivers which meant the PC had to be hard reset to bring back

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1ldmjk7/game_ready_studio_driver_57680_faqdiscussion/

 

Have a look at some of the comments, that was posted 12d ago

 

Latest driver is 576.80

 

Try:

 

1. Downloading the latest 576.80 installer (for offline mode)
2. Download DDU https://www.guru3d.com/download/display-driver-uninstaller-download/
3. Boot into safe-mode (offline mode) and run DDU then reboot into normal windows (but offline) and then install latest driver (clean installation)
4. Once finished installing drivers, turn internet back on

 

 

If that doesn't work, try using older nvidia drivers 576.02 / 576.15 - you will need to stop Windows from downloading driver updates before doing this

 

If you are using a Display cable, try HDMI

 

Also worth looking into if G-sync or other things are possibly causing issues

We figured it out, as a Hail Mary he went to Best Buy and bought a new PSU.  The connector for the PSU for PCIe was completely fried and melted.  It’s working now he was able to install the latest nvidia drivers

[kaiju_wars]

3 hours ago, CatTNT said:

are there any weird lights on the GPU?. I found out tons of my issues one time came from a bad PSU i would've never known about if my GPU didn't include a "Bad power" blinking LED. The documentation telling me that GPU LED indicated a bad PSU was buried deep in their site/manual. 

Also, more recently, I thought I had something wrong with windows/PSU because it was impossible for me to install GPU drivers, did WEEKS of testing to find out my dying 14900K was the root cause, only confirmed by underclocking the CPU and that magically fixed all issues. 

Try underclocking each piece one at a time, first CPU, RAM, GPU, see if underclocking fixes anything. To fix my 14900K, i needed to underclock by 300MHz

It 100% was the power supply.  This is where the PCIe connector connects to the PSU.

[Zupadupa]

Glad you sorted it, always easier when it's a hardware issue vs software!