Why are my GPU's dying?

pparks1 · 13 Apr 2020

Hmmm, this is something that I don't have any experience with. I've never actually had a video card die on me. All of them have worked up to the point where I replaced them with something else. On my old desktop, I'm running about a 10 year old GTX 570 and it's still fine.

Obviously with the above stated, you can conclude that I have never had a windows update, or update for any Linux based OS that I have run blow up my hardware. With as long as I have been on forums such as these, you would have to think that updates blowing up hardware would have come up if it were happening.

Do you run a UPS on your computer? Perhaps you are having some power fluctuations causing you to experence multiple hardware failures. I run a UPS on all of my machines.

bobkn · 13 Apr 2020

Supra said:

I just tried again with the second vBIOS (there's a switch on the card), without any display cables plugged in or with just one. This is now also with two separate VGA power cables instead of one that splits, just in case.

(snip)

Dual vBIOS? Haven't seen that in a while. (My 7970 had one.) That would seem to make it even less likely that BIOS corruption is the explanation.

sygnus21 · 13 Apr 2020

Some AMD cards (can't speak on NVidia) feature dual vBIOS' My (AMD) Sapphire R9 Fury is one. There should (mine has it) be a small slider on the card to switch from primary to secondary. Also the "primary" provides the higher performance.

Supra · 14 Apr 2020

pparks1 said:

Do you run a UPS on your computer? Perhaps you are having some power fluctuations causing you to experence multiple hardware failures. I run a UPS on all of my machines.

I have a surge protector.

bobkn said:

Dual vBIOS? Haven't seen that in a while. (My 7970 had one.) That would seem to make it even less likely that BIOS corruption is the explanation.

True, but if I switch the vBIOS and install it in another PC and it still doesn't work, it makes no difference to me.

Does anyone think buying an RTX 2070 Super is a particularly stupid idea? I have RMA'd the first GPU, and I think I'm going to arrange an RMA for the second and get refunds for both.

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I came across this thread looking for RAM compatibility of all things. He's having the same issue and thinks it's to do with Zen 2 on motherboards preceding X570 chipset. It doesn't make sense that it worked before, though, or that it didn't work in my sisters PC.

TV2 · 14 Apr 2020

The key, to me, is that this card was working at one point and then stopped working after changes were made.
It is unlikely that 2 cards are bad in a row - it happens, sure, but winning-the-lottery rare.

In your first post you mention doing a bunch of customizations - to the card, and to the system BIOS.

To test this card properly I would want to be running it with all defaults. No updated flash on the card, and my system bios with all defaults (no CSM for testing).
I would also test this card (un-modded) in another PC. I don't l know if you have the opportunity to do that.

If it were me I would want to solve this problem before spending a bunch on new hardware. I'd be more apt to get a cheap used card for small money just to test to determine if this is a hardware problem or a system problem. I keep a known working GTX260 here just for that reason.
Other than that the 2070 would be an awesome card.

Supra · 16 Apr 2020

TV2 said:

In your first post you mention doing a bunch of customizations - to the card, and to the system BIOS. To test this card properly I would want to be running it with all defaults. No updated flash on the card, and my system bios with all defaults (no CSM for testing). I would also test this card (un-modded) in another PC. I don't l know if you have the opportunity to do that.

The only thing I changed the second time around for it to stop displaying anything was CSM support. Even when I put in another card (GTX 1660 Ti), enabled it, and put my card back in, it didn't display anything. So I don't believe the BIOS setting had anything to do with it. The second one didn't get flashed, I just had it tested in another rig and it didn't display anything in that one either. I got a RMA for it and it's gone now.

TV2 said:

If it were me I would want to solve this problem before spending a bunch on new hardware. I'd be more apt to get a cheap used card for small money just to test to determine if this is a hardware problem or a system problem. I keep a known working GTX260 here just for that reason. Other than that the 2070 would be an awesome card.

After confirming the card didn't work in my sister's PC I bought a 2070 Super. I know all odds are against two cards from two different suppliers dying in a row, but if they don't work in two different PC's it would seem like that has happened. I'm blaming this on Navi/Windows/Zen 2 in an X370 motherboard.

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Had the 2070 Super for a day, I am trying not to restart/shutdown/sleep. After installing kb4549951, I'm getting the exact same flickering on logon. I don't think Windows is the culprit if it's two different updates. Realistically, if this GPU also stops working on me, what do I do next?

Also why was this thread moved to the insider subforum?

TV2 · 16 Apr 2020

The Mods think this is more of an Insider issue than a Graphics issue.
And that may be the path to the answer to your problem.

Supra · 16 Apr 2020

It's happening without being on an insider build though, so wouldn't it seem to be hardware related?

TV2 · 16 Apr 2020

If that is true then yes. But the title of your post is what they are looking at, most likely.
If you believe it belongs in Drivers and Hardware then you can ask for to be moved or even renamed.

vgchat · 19 Apr 2020

I've seen flickering like that... when I hooked up my other tower with a nvidia card in it, it would flicker. I couldn't figure out what the issue was for the longest time. The culprit turned out to be freesync. I disabled that and the flicker went away, so if your monitor supports gsync or freesync, try disabling it and then boot up your rig.