GTX 980 Ti Diagnosis: Mechanical Medical Mystery?

Norveejun

Commendable
Jul 17, 2016
11
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1,510
FORETEXT: Hey there, so I just came down to the United States from Canada which involved getting past U.S. Customs. I have a feeling they did something or maybe it got damage on the ride down here, but I don't see any damage internally.

PROBLEM: When I tried to start my rig, the screen would have about half a dozen small, green little horizontal lines always in the same spots. When it got to the Windows logo screen they would suddenly dominate the screen in unison, the display would go black, and then the computer would just idle for about 20-30 seconds and would restart.

Windows would tell me it didn't startup properly and the usual repair stuff would be offered to me. I tried the automatic startup repair option, but it of course did nothing. After a couple hours of investigation, I narrowed the problem down to my GPU. I uninstalled the drivers in Device Manager for it and then rebooted the computer.

It got past the logo screen this time and I even got my password halfway entered into the box before it crashed again just like before. I restarted the computer and quickly entered my password in after setting the BIOS to boot normally (not fast boot) and it worked. I got to my desktop and then tried to reinstall my GPU's drivers through GeForce Experience. I did a 'clean' installation, but it crashed the same way during their installation...

So, here I am. I don't know what else to do. I really hope my GPU isn't broken. Both the fans on it are spinning and it certainly looks healthy. It was working just fine the day before I left for America and it got packed.

SPECS: Windows 10: Home, 32 GB RAM, i7-6700k, GTX 980 Ti, and a CX 600 PSU.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Solution
Well, you could try running a previous driver on it. One that you know was previously installed and worked fine on. If the problem persists with that, it is not a software issue. You know it worked on that same driver previously. If it suddenly doesn't work on that driver, there's a hardware problem.

Norveejun

Commendable
Jul 17, 2016
11
0
1,510


God damn it, I pressed the 'solution' button for your post by mistake... Can that get undone?

I have a GTX 760 here I'll try and swap in, be right back.
 

Norveejun

Commendable
Jul 17, 2016
11
0
1,510
I mounted the GTX 760 and there were no green lines during the boot-up phase, loaded in perfectly fine, and the resolution is my normal 1920x1080 again instead of the 1024 it was for my 980.

Does this mean my GTX 980 is broken? It runs fine in safe-mode and normally when I unistalled the drivers.
 

Norveejun

Commendable
Jul 17, 2016
11
0
1,510


That was an awesome video. But, I'm not quite at that point yet. I think it might void the warranty if I told them I threw it into the oven for a quick cook.

 

genthug

Honorable
I assume that video was baking the PCB... I would take a look at it without the cooler on and just check to make sure there aren't any fractures or anything like that. If you can't find anything, and it still doesn't work, and you are still under warranty, I would RMA it. If there isn't a way to get into your computer normally without it forcing the machine to crash, there's an issue with the hardware. It's clearly not software at this point because the 760 works.
 

gr8tst

Honorable
Oct 31, 2016
167
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10,710


Haha excellent point. Didn't think of that lol.
 

Norveejun

Commendable
Jul 17, 2016
11
0
1,510


Weird though that if the driver is uninstalled that the GPU doesn't cause any issues. I know I sound like I'm in denial, but really any other theories would be nice. I'll probably contact U.S. Customs and submit a property claim too.
 

genthug

Honorable
Well, you could try running a previous driver on it. One that you know was previously installed and worked fine on. If the problem persists with that, it is not a software issue. You know it worked on that same driver previously. If it suddenly doesn't work on that driver, there's a hardware problem.
 
Solution

Norveejun

Commendable
Jul 17, 2016
11
0
1,510


It's a brand new card, it's a couple days over 5-months. I just can't believe it's actually dead. I hope Newegg helps me out..