2 week old R9 280x died while idling?

[l__T__l]

I was browsing the web when grey lines appeared across my screens, it froze like that so after waiting 5-10 minutes i turned it off at the power supply. I tried to turn it back on and it went into the BIOS fine but would not boot into windows, it would just display a black screen (it turned the monitor on as it usually would but instead of displaying my desktop it was just black pixels). I removed the OC from my CPU and the same issue occured. i restarted it a couple more times and the same issue occured multiple times. I then switched the 280x for a 560 TI, worked fine. Then i switched back to the 280x and the red GPU diagnostic light was on and it would no longer boot to BIOS.

 

My R9 280x has been used for two weeks after it returned from RMA. It worked fine and wasn't pushed very hard for that time apart from a couple of 1 mintue Furmark runs at stock clocks to test the thermals (which were bad and hit 90c very quickly although temps stayed in the high 70s when gaming) its stayed at under 80% utilisation. So it definitely hasnt been pushed too far and didnt die of age so what happened?

 

Normally i would be fine just sending it back for RMA but with the imminent launch of the 480 I listed this card for sale and lined up a buyer for $190 AUD, a price that i wont even get near to if i wait the minimum of two weeks to get it sent back to me. Because of that it would be nice if there is anything I can do to fix it and if not it would be nice to get an understanding of what happened.

 

System Specs:

i5-2500k (was at 4.6, bumped down to stock to see if that was the issue)

P8P67 Pro (so no iGPU)

4GB RAM (bottleneck keeping the GPU from being fully utilised in games)

Windforce R9 280x

 

[QFA350]

That's why you don't buy off gumtree!

 

[y_unit265]

If it is really dead you can try and microwave it. However this voids any warranty you have left on it.

[QFA350]

1 minute ago, y_unit265 said:

If it is really dead you can try and microwave it. However this voids any warranty you have left on it.

Microwave it? You put metal in a microwave and you will have an interesting light show in your kitchen!

[l__T__l]

1 minute ago, Warning said:

That's why you don't buy off gumtree!

 

It was brand new, turns out it works a little bit it, it can boot into safe mode with a little bit of artefacting, Doesn't seem to be able to do much else though.

[y_unit265]

2 minutes ago, Warning said:

Microwave it? You put metal in a microwave and you will have an interesting light show in your kitchen!

If you place the pcb in a microwave, you have a chance that it may re-solder a contact point.

 

My bad, I guess it is called an oven  

[QFA350]

1 minute ago, l__T__l said:

It was brand new, turns out it works a little bit it, it can boot into safe mode with a little bit of artefacting, Doesn't seem to be able to do much else though.

Can you try with earlier drivers and/or with a different operating system?

[l__T__l]

2 minutes ago, Warning said:

Can you try with earlier drivers and/or with a different operating system?

It might look pretty, better graphics than a dead card.

 

2 minutes ago, y_unit265 said:

If you place the pcb in a microwave, you have a chance that it may re-solder a contact point.

I would be very surprised if solder broke down in two weeks.

4 minutes ago, Warning said:

Can you try with earlier drivers and/or with a different operating system?

installing Mint, trying drivers now.

[l__T__l]

26 minutes ago, Warning said:

Can you try with earlier drivers and/or with a different operating system?

Doesn't work on mint, I spent 20 minutes downloading the ISO but already had it on the USB. It's artefacting pretty bad though so I'll probably just have to RMA. Would have been nice to make $50 on the card and go with something that doesn't idle at 45c at 2000RPM.

[QFA350]

14 minutes ago, l__T__l said:

It might look pretty, better graphics than a dead card.

 

I would be very surprised if solder broke down in two weeks.

installing Mint, trying drivers now.

That sucks! Well at least you are eligible for an RMA.

[y_unit265]

45 minutes ago, l__T__l said:

I would be very surprised if solder broke down in two weeks.

That is why my first post called out that it would be a final thing to do. It voids any warranty left. Who knows, as a last resort (if you don't want to rma) you may as well give it a shot.

[lonewolf5460]

Just rma the card then sell it man your losing cash for no reason.

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

7 hours ago, y_unit265 said:

If it is really dead you can try and microwave it. However this voids any warranty you have left on it.

You do mean BAKE it, not microwave it, right?

[l__T__l]

This is weird, it actually works fine now. Thanks for the help and advice but it seems to have fixed itself. I'll describe what happened to the buyer and provide the warranty but it seems fine to sell as long as it does fine over a 10 minute furmark test. This has been a big waste of time considering ive spent hours working with this when I have an assessment due tomorrow that ive barely started. At least it works though.