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diasflacog
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GTX 980ti dead

Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:24 pm

Hi. So about 2 days ago my EVGA GTX 980ti SC completely died on me while playing Skyrim.

Windows kept giving me these weird graphics card error something along the lines of "your GPU just recovered from a serious error blah blah blah". While Playing Skyrim the screen would go black and grey and it would "soft crash" but it would recover in like 8 seconds and the game would work again. I kept on using it and then all of a sudden the PC shut off completely and it wouldn't turn on at all. At first I thought "maybe the PSU is failing and it's not supplying enough power to it?" so I plugged in a fully working PSU to test my PSU and nope the PC didn't turn on even with the other PSU. No fans would spin no nothing. Just completely dead.

I then removed the graphics card and just plugged in the power cable to the PC (without a graphics card) and sure enough the PC fired right up. So it wasn't my PSU nor the mobo. I'm now currently using my old GTX 670 and the PC is working perfectly aside from the downgraded performance of course.

If I plug in my GTX 980ti the PC wont start at all.

Now onto my question. About a year ago or so I made a topic asking about some weird oily stuff "melted" onto my asus maximus vii hero motherboard that was coming from the area around the CPU. When I asked if this was bad most people here told me that it happens something to some boards and that it's nothing to be afraid of cuz that oily stuff is non conductive. However as I was inspecting my 980ti I noticed that the back plate had a big oil stain and it's that exact same oily stuff from the motherboard. Basically some of that oily stuff from the motherboard landed on the back plate of my 980ti and made it's way inside the 980ti's pcb.

Could this have been the cause of it's failure? Is this the reason why my 980ti wont work anymore?

It's weird that the gpu just died like that. I even ran Valley (benchmark stress tool) and it never went above 74c. That's perfectly normal especially in a hot room like mine. The gpu is still in perfect condition with only a tiny amount of dust and everything is in perfect shape. Weird that it would start failing like that then just die for good.
 
Krogoth
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:23 pm

VRMs probably gave out. The GPU is factory-overclocked SKU so that's not totally unexpected after a few years of heavy use. I doubt it is oily stuff because the card would be failed much sooner if the was able to soak into the PCB and cause a short.

Don't worry though, it looks like crypto-mining madness is in its death throes. There's already a surge of "used" GPUs on ebay and craigslist from miners with prices close to MSRP. With a little luck, you might be able to snag a 1080Ti for relative cheap once next-generation GPUs from Nvidia come out.
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Pville_Piper
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:35 pm

Windows10, EVGA G2 750w Power Supply, Acer XB270H G-synch monitor, MSI Krait Gaming 3X, I7 6700K, 16 gigs of CORSAIR Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 MHz ram, Crucial 500 gig SSD, EVGA GTX1080 FTW
 
diasflacog
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Sun Apr 08, 2018 3:55 am

So here's an update on my current situation. I would like some advice as well.

So I ended up getting an RMA from EVGA for my 980ti. I got a replacement GPU from them that was obviously used. The card they sent out was a 980ti SC just like the one I sent them. However, the card they sent out was not new it had cat hair on it (I think that's what it was or maybe dog?) and the heat sink has this weird dried "gunk" on it. I did my best to clean it off.

I said well this card doesn't look that great and it's obviously used but whatever if it works i'll take it apart and clean it myself. Those things matter to me.

The bad news is that the card doesn't work either. It just started crashing the exact same way as the one that was failing on me and eventually died. This is the windows error that I get.

"A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly."

Basically the same symptoms as my other card (the one that failed and died). Man i'm annoyed as **** right now. I also had to pay shipping out of my own pocket just to get a faulty card again? I heard that EVGA had amazing costumer service, but man this doesn't look that way at all. I had a bad feeling about the card when I saw how "out of shape" it was.

At this rate it's only a matter of time before it fails completely and just shuts off again just like the other card. The thing about my other card is that it atleast almost lasted 3 years until it just decided to die on me.

So what are my options? First MSI does this to me (sent out 2 faulty GPU's) and now evga? The worse part is that EVGA gets so much praised for their "amazing" customer support and this is how I get treated.

Sorry if I sound "whiney" but I had to let out some steam.
 
Darthutos
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:08 am

edit:
What is your computer case? How large is it? Ventilation? How many fans?

How did you clean it (the card)?

Also, because 980ti is considered "2 generations" ago, the manufacturers really don't "care" about them anymore.

I'm trying to find the common denominator here.

Both of your cards had melted black gunk coming out of them.

Presumably you cleaned both of them.

You used the cards on the same mobo. What is the gunk situation on the mobo? I know others said the gunk on mobo didn't matter. I'm having trouble believing it... Never even heard something remotely like it before.

I think I remember one time I had these "an error detected from your gpu, it had to be restarted" with one of my cards AMD 7870. It was in crossfire mode in a tiny HTPC case (Silverstone GD-08). I still keep it for breadboard diagnostic purpose, and I think the fans on it is dead (They never spin).

You just can't win sometimes.
 
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:28 am

If GPU #2 is exhibiting exactly the same fault as GPU #1 it's entirely likely that the problem is your board. Maybe something in its power delivery circuit has gone and it's letting through too much voltage/current via the PCIe slot?

I mean, you can see what happens with this second one and a second RMA process but I've found multiple instances before where there's a board/PSU fault and despite technically working, that board/PSU is responsible for killing other hardware plugged into it. It's not that common but I've seen it maybe a dozen times across several hundred dead pc's.
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diasflacog
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Sun Apr 08, 2018 5:31 pm

Hello, logging in to answer the questions you guys have.

My case is a corsair obsidian 450d, corsair RM 850 Gold psu, mobo is an asus maximum vii hero.

My mobo doesn't have "gunk" on it. All it has is an oil stain (making the black pcb shinier) that oil stain comes from the area that surrounds the CPU. The area that says "hero" behind my noctua NH U12S. I believe it's where the VRM's are at?

It's like if something under there melted away. I was told it wasn't a big deal and after doing some google searching others had a similar experience with other mobo's that worked just fine. This happened over 2 years ago though in 2016 and my PC has always worked perfectly the CPU never overheats nor does the motherboard. Again it's been over two years that this happened. My original EVGA 980ti SC is also from 2015 some of that melted "oil" landed on the back of it's back plate but again it worked perfectly for 2 years (with the "oil" on it's back plate. I highly doubt that's the reason why it died. MY PC has always worked perfectly only about 9 days ago did my PC start acting weird then the GPU just died while playing Skyrim as I explained in my first post.

Now onto the second question. This "new" card that I got from EVGA actually has this weird harden gunk on it it almost looks like rust? Cuz I was able to poke it gently and a piece of this rust came off the heat pipes. The replacement from EVGA also had some slightly bent heat sink fins and it had dog/cat hair in it (a lot of it). I had to unscrew the 4 screws holding the heat sink and fans and I replaced the old crusted thermal paste that it had on with some new one. I also took a bottle of canned air and removed all of the dog/cat hair on it. I I did my best to remove the rust/gunk of the heat pipes but a lot of it remains.

The 980ti SC that I sent in was in perfect condition in terms of aesthetics. It looked new still. I never took it apart or anything. When I did clean it it was with a canned air bottle and gently. It didn't have a any gunk/rust caked on the heat pipes. The heat pipes looked clean and chrome. The only stain was that oily stain that it had from when that oil came off my mobo and some leaked onto the back plate of the GPU. That was it.

See this is what pisses me off. I spent 700 dollars on that GPU. I sent them a almost mint card back in terms of aesthetics. I bought packaging supplies I payed for shipping and took time out of my own schedule to do all this and what do I get in return? A used gtx 980ti SC that had a ton of dog/cat hair on it's fins and rusted gunked up heat pipes with some bent fins? I knew right off the bat that something was odd judging from the cards presentation. They don't even have the decency to send something back that atleast is cleaned and in good condition.

The card isn't over heating either. I ran valley for about 10 minutes (before it crashed) at the temps never went above 74c and that's in a hot room. It's weird it's not over heating the card just stops working for no reason. The screen goes black, then gray then the image come back so it doesn't crash completely you know? But it keeps doing it over and over.

My original evga gtx 980ti did the exact same thing then it just died completely and my PC wouldn't turn on at all until I removed the gpu. I'm 100% sure that if I keep running valley or playing games it's gonna die for good just like my original one did. They both have the exact same problem.

I ran Skyrim earlier and right off the bat in the loading screen the card crashed and then it did it again. I was like "oh no it's gonna die soon..."

When it did that I was observing the card (my case has a big window on it) the LED's on the 980ti SC were turning off and coming back on again. The part that says EVGA Geforce GTX980ti SC would turn off and come on again. It's almost as if the GPU was losing power? Or dying.

Now I know what you're thinking "oh it's the PSU!" (believe me I thought this too) but I have a spare acer 650 watt psu that also works perfectly and guess what? It does the exact same thing with that PSU. Either I have 2 faulty psu's or it's the mobo or of course the GPU.

I have an old galaxy gtx 670 (the one with the after market cooler and heavily OC off the factory) and this card seems to work fine. It doesn't crash or turn off. The only problem with that card is that it can't handle Skyrim at 1440p with all of my graphical mods of course, but that doesn't mean the GPU doesn't work of course.

If you ask me it's the gpu but i'm open to any advice or suggestions. My PC is clean and free of dust. I take pride in my electronics so everything in my room (house) is nice and clean. I'm not a messy dirty person.
 
diasflacog
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Sat Apr 28, 2018 5:45 am

I know this is an old topic now and I wanted to give an update for anyone who cares.

I ended up getting another RMA from evga. I explained my situation and told them everything about the poor experience I had with the first RMA and how it had the exact same problem as the one that died on me.

They decided that an "advance" rma was the best choice for me and that they would be paying for shipping and everything. About 4 days later I was contacted by evga via email and they told me that my 980ti was not being stocked at all anymore and that they didn't have any nor would they be getting anymore and that they would replace it with a 1070ti with a blower style cooler on it. I was told to email them back to see if I had any concerns with the blower style cooler. Of course I do (I don't like blower style coolers that's why I bought the one with the ACX 2.0) I again explained my situation and why I didn't want the one with the blower style cooler blah blah blah so the next day they contact me and they said they would send me the model with the ACX 3.0 on it.

So they ended up sending me a brand new retail GTX 1070ti sc acx 3.0.

I was very pleased with this of course and the card is working great no more crashing no more turning off my PC etc etc. To make things even sweeter this card performs better than my 980ti I get around 10-13 fps more. I haven't OC it and I probably wont at all. I game mostly at 1440p and this card does this well. It OCs itself to 1911 already so I don't see much head room. From what I gather most of these 10 series GPU's OC up to 2030 max. So I doubt an extra 100mhz is worth the trouble.

I guess we can say that my mobo is still working great : )
 
strangerguy
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Re: GTX 980ti dead

Wed Jun 06, 2018 8:39 am

If I RMAed a 980 Ti and got back a 1070 Ti of any flavor I would be giggling and squealing like an excited little girl.
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