980ti dead? Code b2, VGA LED on

[Boothy128]

Hi guys, I really hope that someone can help me out. I'm one step away from trying the oven baking method of reviving dead graphics cards but thought I would reach out for help before doing so. 

 

My PC:

i7 3820 (OC'd to 4.4)

MSi 980ti Gaming 6G x2 in SLi

Asus Rampage IV Gene Motherboard 

Corsair Veneance DDR3 1866mhz 

Vertex 4 SSD (Windows 10)

Samsung SSD (Games)

Fractal Design Newton R3 1000w

Phanteks Evolve Enthoo Tempered Glass 

Custom EKWB water cooling on CPU and GPUs, using a 240mm and 360mm rads and EK Vardar fans. 

 

Issue:

PC was running on both cards on air just fine for months. Decided to go onto water for reduced noise levels

 

Installed customer water cooling loop but with one card only due to shortage of the 980ti TF5 EK GPU block. Worked perfectly on one card. 

 

Finally, got second GPU block so installed it onto card and then added the card to the PC. 

 

On in the same day I got the oculus rift and played it all day with no issues, though did not turn on SLi, mainly because I forgot to in all the excitement of getting the rift. 

 

The next day I sat down to play witcher 3. I remembered that SLi would be off so I opened the Nvidia Contol Panel and activated it. 

 

Launched witcher 3 and it ran for about a minute and then the computer shut down. My initia thought was that the overclock had failed. (+100 clock, +200 memory). 

 

PC would power up but no video signal. Got error code "b2" on the LED display and also have the "VGA LED" lit up on the motherboard. 

 

What I have tried:

Reseated RAM - no effect

Tried single stick of RAM in different slots - no effect

Removed CMOS battery for a minute to clear it - no effect 

 

Tried using only one graphics card at a time...

GPU 1 ONLY (the one I used on water whilst waiting for waterblock 2) - same error messages

 

GPU 2 ONLY - WORKING FINE 

 

I jumped into the BIOS and reset all settings to default (F5 key, save and exit)

 

----

 

It appears at first glance that GPU 1 is dead. Any ideas for how I can revive it? 

 

 

[Armakar]

Did you try turning it off and on again?

[Boothy128]

6 minutes ago, Armakar said:

Did you try turning it off and on again?

Oh man, I wish I thought of that lemme just try it.......

 

Nope

[Cryptonite]

21 minutes ago, Boothy128 said:

Oh man, I wish I thought of that lemme just try it.......

 

Nope

sorry buddy but it's most likely dead, I'm also sitting with a dead 980 Ti Kingpin from EVGA that's dead behind me, the other one is running fine in my rig though.

[Armakar]

Yeah, a serious point, you can try the oven method but that's classic death symptoms. Even if the oven method works I don't think it will last much longer. Do you still have warranty on it? Strange that such a good card died relativity quickly.

 

Either way, nice build.

[Boothy128]

12 hours ago, Armakar said:

Did you try turning it off and on again?

 

Cheers - I love the build, just a shame the second card is dead. Good thing one 980ti is still pretty great on its own.

 

Warranty would have been voided as soon as I removed the stock cooler I think? There's a sticker that sits on top of one of the screws that warns against it. 

 

Guess you never think hardware failure would happen to you. I've only had one component fail on me in the last 10 years (a psu)...I guess I was due some bad luck 

 

Still open to any suggestions people have though 

 

Will report back on the bake if I end up trying it 

 

[Armakar]

1 hour ago, Boothy128 said:

 

Cheers - I love the build, just a shame the second card is dead. Good thing one 980ti is still pretty great on its own.

 

Warranty would have been voided as soon as I removed the stock cooler I think? There's a sticker that sits on top of one of the screws that warns against it. 

 

Guess you never think hardware failure would happen to you. I've only had one component fail on me in the last 10 years (a psu)...I guess I was due some bad luck 

 

Still open to any suggestions people have though 

 

Will report back on the bake if I end up trying it 

 

Doesn't relaly matter if warranty is " voided " . Tbh, if you can shove the stock cooler back on with no noticeable changes, do it and send it back.

[belfouf]

can you exctact the BIOS of the working card to flash it into the one that fails ?

 

can you boot with the non working card ? (using iGPU of your i7)

[Boothy128]

2 hours ago, belfouf said:

can you exctact the BIOS of the working card to flash it into the one that fails ?

 

can you boot with the non working card ? (using iGPU of your i7)

Never tried to extract or flash a bios on a GPU before, would need to look into it 

 

Not sure that a 3820 would have iGPU. I think it was released before that was a thing 

[belfouf]

22 minutes ago, Boothy128 said:

Never tried to extract or flash a bios on a GPU before, would need to look into it 

 

Not sure that a 3820 would have iGPU. I think it was released before that was a thing 

checked about the iGPU, sry you're right. Look over BIOS flashing though, it can save a card

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/173582/msi-gtx980ti-6144-150622

[Boothy128]

8 hours ago, belfouf said:

checked about the iGPU, sry you're right. Look over BIOS flashing though, it can save a card

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/173582/msi-gtx980ti-6144-150622

Thanks for or the link, I'll check it out 

[Boothy128]

Forgot to let people know what happened

 

Basically I couldn't get the PC to boot with the card insterted at all so I baked it....

 

Nothing changed at all so I've just written it off as a dead card