Strange issue

[Schoolofmonkey]

I have an idea what's wrong, but it's still got me scratching my head.

The other day my Gigabyte GTX980 G1 died (Bought October) while playing Settlers 7, 3 machines wouldn't turn on with the card in them.
I should of known something was wrong when it wouldn't overclock past stock clocks anymore and I had been smelling a strange intermittent metallic smell for a few weeks, I just thought it was the heat sink on the card as I never smelt it with my GTX780ti.

So that was RMA'd to PCCG yesterday.
I've got my son's R9 280 in my machine at the moment,

But I still had been having the strange metallic "wiffs", smelling the video card directly lead me no where, so I though it could be the Powersupply.
It's no cheap PS, its a Seasonic XP-1200 Platinum 1200W.
So having a serious think about it I opened the back of my Primo a checked the PS, "Hmm" I though, "That filter could be restricting airflow and making the PS a lot warmer". So I removed it.
Metallic "wiffs" lessened and were no where near as strong.
So I had the "yay solved that one".

This morning when I went to wake up my machine everything woke up but the screen until I hit the reset. (Though my son and wife did get a couple of blue screens when waking his machine up with this same card.)
This never happened in the entire time I've had the 4 month old 4790k setup.

Questions are:

1. Do you think when the GTX980 died it could of effected the motherboard's PCI-e slot?

2. Could the power supply be faulty, I do have the 4790k overclocked, and stressed the ass off it last night and the system is stable.

3. What the hell is the metallic smell, I do have the rear of my case facing my direction (along the wall on my desk), unless its the rear exhaust fan (thought of it as I was typing)

I usually don't get stumped like this, and I've never had a GPU die on my in my whole computer owning life (20+ years excluding the commodore 64 I had as a kid..lol)

I do have a eVGA Supanova G2 1000w power supply here I can swap if needed.

The system
4790k cooled with a Corsair H110
G-Skill Trident x 2400 16GB DDR3
Asus Maximus VII Hero
Seasonic XP-1200 Platinum
Phantek Enthoo Primo Case (I'm using the fan hub)
Gigabyte R9 280 (Till the GTX980 gets back)

[Slash003]

I think you may have stressed the GPU too much and that metallic smell is the smell of a burning GPU. Might wanna get that thing outta the system before you wreck the slot. 

[AndrewZ3]

I don't think that the slot would be affected because you are running that 280x in the same slot and it is running fine (assumption).  If you aren't running it in the same slot than I would put it in the slot that the 980 was in and if it doesn't work than the slot is damaged.  Also, if your wife and son were getting blue screens it was probably something with their systems or the card.  About the PSU, it looks like that PSU is more than big enough to run your system even when it's hella overclocked.  However, anything could be faulty.  The metallic smell is actually common when people get their 980 over 70C and it is just new card smell even though the card has been used.

[Schoolofmonkey]

The R9 280 is in the same slot the GTX980 was in and its working fine, played a few hours of Wasteland 2 (Very surprised how well the 280 does perform in some games actually.)

I'd say the 280 that had passed around and caused wake up issues in 3 machine could be at fault, might try a newer driver.

Did a bit of Googling and it seems pretty common.

 

I will admit I do have a 144hz monitor, so it keeps the 280 at full clocks in 2d mode (had to drop back to 120hz is it would idle), the GTX980 never did that it would always downclock.

Could explain the metallic heatsink smell I'm getting now though as the card idles at 40c.

 

Funny with the GTX980 2 days before it died I got a full 70 hours of Dragon Age Inquisition in (5 hour stints), and it was Settlers 7 that killed it..lol

[Schoolofmonkey]

I knew my questions usually stump everyone...lol..

 

Just to double check it's not the PCI-e port I tried it in the lower slot, same smell.

My wife had a wiff too, She can smell it slightly through the rear fan grill, but not off the card.
(Stupid second PCI-e slot only runs at 8x on the VII Hero)

 

Might be the rear Phantek fan..

[TheGeekster]

No chance of another graphics card at hand? If you try that and it doesn't smell, then it's graphics card, otherwise open the case up and stick your head in, see if you can find where the smell is strongest, or while the side is off, try unplugging the rear fan?

 

Also couldn't hurt to try the other power supply, but if it is, the air flowing out the back of the power supply smelling you should be able to smell that straight away strongest at the top of the system.

[Schoolofmonkey]

No chance of another graphics card at hand? If you try that and it doesn't smell, then it's graphics card, otherwise open the case up and stick your head in, see if you can find where the smell is strongest, or while the side is off, try unplugging the rear fan?

 

Also couldn't hurt to try the other power supply, but if it is, the air flowing out the back of the power supply smelling you should be able to smell that straight away strongest at the top of the system.

 

Yeah I tried my spare 7750 (yeah loved AMD in the past), smell is still there, its strange you feel a puff of warm air an then the smell.

 

In the Enthoo Primo has the power supply in its own compartment at the far side of the case, I did turn the case directly at me and stuck my nose againts the PSU, no smell.

It did last me through a GTX780ti.

But it still concerns me as my GTX980 died, but I did start smelling the metallic smell after a week of buying it, and it lasted 3 months.

 

I have a eVGA Supanova G2 1000w in a spare computer, I might swap them over, like the cables better than the seasonic anyway, just a huge job..lol..

 

Pic so you can see the setup, I should mention there's a spilt system AirCon right above me and that I have a top mounted H110.

Oh crap could the AirCon be blowing the RAD's air at me while it swings and it's just started to get hot here about a month ago and started using the AirCon, right when I started to smell the metallic smell. (I'm feeling a little silly now, you know that cringing feeling you get when you've done something stupid.)

Still the GTX980 died without a single shred of warning (70 hours of DA:I max settings no frame rate issues, CTD, pixelation etc, play Settlers 7 two days after finishing DA:I the machine powers off, card dies)

[Schoolofmonkey]

Well I've got the eVGA Supanove G2 1000w in, smell over the last 30 minutes is gone.

I'm starting to wonder if the PCI-e power could be over volting, could be the reason my GTX980 died, and why the R9 280 high a slight smell...