What to do with torched Titan Xp?

S

skypine27

Gawd
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
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I'd been running 2 x Titan Xp's (the april 2017 cards) in SLI (see sig) under custom water. Recently the system auto shutdown, and then next time I booted it up, white smoke came off the right side of the PCB of the bottom card, an area which I think houses those big capacitors. I pulled the card out and the PC runs fine with just the other Titan Xp.

I visually checked out the card and can see some brown electrical smoke type stains on the water block. I have no idea if the blocked leaked (100% distilled water and dye is supposed to be non conductive anyway), if I had long ago slightly damaged one of those little silver electrical 'blips' on the PCB while removing the stock air cooler and it only now "snapped" off. Or something totally different. No clue.

Anyone ever return a failed card to NVIDIA that had a water block on it? I dont even have the OEM air cooler anymore, and i wouldn't put it back on anyway and try putting one over on NVIDIA. I sent their customer service an honest email (ie I guess I voided the warrantee by putting on a water block but can we work something out here....) but haven't received a reply yet.

Anyone else have any experience in this field? I'm not paying 1800 USD (They were 1200 when I bought them new from the Nvidia store in April!) for one of these things now (Thanks crypto coins!) when hopefully new gen stuff is due this summer, but I would pay something like 500-600 if NVIDIA would "fix" mine or send me a replacement.

Signed,

OneCardForNow!
 
Most companies now will warranty cards under water, but they have to have the OEM cooler. I doubt they'll cover water damage, but the use of a water block doesn't exempt you from other coverages. I think you kind of screwed yourself by getting rid of both OEM coolers.
 
Armenius: Nah, not yet. Going on vacation tomorrow morning for a week but will when I get back.

The blowup sequence was weird too (anyone without a strange interest in this field, skip below!):

1. Booted PC normally into Windows. Come back a minute later, and everything is shutdown. Thought, "Thats odd"
2. Power button on both the front case and the MOBO failed to do anything.
3. MOBO RGB LED lights still on and functioning (which is normal when shut down but connected to wall socket)

(at this point I had no idea it was the card, I suspected it was the PSU. The self test button on the PSU failed to produce a green light, so I bought a new PSU)

4. Hooked up new PSU and......SAME thing, mobo RGB lights on like normal, but neither power button will cause a boot
5. OOPS, I'm really stupid because I realize that I haven't pressed the self test button on the NEW PSU, so maybe in some universe it's possible to have 2 x bad PSUs in a row, so I press it....
and white smoke starts pouring off the bottom video card!
6. Removed the bottom video card and PC runs fine (and new PSU self tests fine). I had already thrown out the original PSU so I couldn't check if it would self test without the bottom card installed or not.

As an uneducated guess....
Something went bad with the bottom Titan Xp and the PC auto shutdown or the PSU auto shut off. Possible the original PSU was somewhat damaged by the short because it failed to self test many times, both with everything plugged in and later with all cables pulled. Put in new PSU and it still wouldn't start, maybe due to safety? Held down the self test button which (I'm guessing) does briefly power all the modular sockets, including the 8+6pin cables I had going to both video cards. Bottom card goes up in smoke. PC still works fine with just top card only.
 
Last edited:
BigJayDogg3 said:
Most companies now will warranty cards under water, but they have to have the OEM cooler. I doubt they'll cover water damage, but the use of a water block doesn't exempt you from other coverages. I think you kind of screwed yourself by getting rid of both OEM coolers.
Click to expand...

Damn. Im really bad at keeping old stuff, possibly an aggressive sub conscious anti-hoarder thing. If I had kept the OEM cooler, I'd be real tempted of a "moral lapse" and slapping it back on and playing dumb. I doubt they pull apart cards sent back in for returns... but I don't have it and Im going 100% moral on this one anyway.

I'd make a deal with NVIDIA, "Hey give me a new card for 600 (1st choice) or refund me 600 and don't give me a new card" (2nd choice) but Im not sure a giant corporation is willing to play Lets Make A Deal with Joe Consumer, especially with "new" (possibly not even new but fakes pretending to be new) Titan Xps fetching 1800 USD because of Crypto.....

Will let you know if they ever answer my honest email account of what happened.
 
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skypine27 said:
Armenius: Nah, not yet. Going on vacation tomorrow morning for a week but will when I get back.

The blowup sequence was weird too (anyone without a strange interest in this field, skip below!):

1. Booted PC normally into Windows. Come back a minute later, and everything is shutdown. Thought, "Thats odd"
2. Power button on both the front case and the MOBO failed to do anything.
3. MOBO RGB LED lights still on and functioning (which is normal when shut down but connected to wall socket)

(at this point I had no idea it was the card, I suspected it was the PSU. The self test button on the PSU failed to produce a green light, so I bought a new PSU)

4. Hooked up new PSU and......SAME thing, mobo RGB lights on like normal, but neither power button will cause a boot
5. OOPS, I'm really stupid because I realize that I haven't pressed the self test button on the NEW PSU, so maybe in some universe it's possible to have 2 x bad PSUs in a row, so I press it....
and white smoke starts pouring off the bottom video card!
6. Removed the bottom video card and PC runs fine (and new PSU self tests fine). I had already thrown out the original PSU so I couldn't check if it would self test without the bottom card installed or not.

As an uneducated guess....
Something went bad with the bottom Titan Xp and the PC auto shutdown or the PSU auto shut off. Possible the original PSU was somewhat damaged by the short because it failed to self test many times, both with everything plugged in and later with all cables pulled. Put in new PSU and it still wouldn't start, maybe due to safety? Held down the self test button which (I'm guessing) does briefly power all the modular sockets, including the 8+6pin cables I had going to both video cards. Bottom card goes up in smoke. PC still works fine with just top card only.
Click to expand...
A protection fault will prevent a boot sequence until whatever is causing the fault is removed. If your PC doesn't turn on after a shutdown then it's best to open the PC and visually inspect it, especially if you're watercooling. I'm guessing the BIST bypassed the protection fault and the little power it passed through the motherboard was enough to make the video card go up in smoke.
 
skypine27 said:
I dont even have the OEM air cooler anymore...
Click to expand...

Your first mistake.

skypine27 said:
....I sent their customer service an honest email (ie I guess I voided the warrantee by putting on a water block but can we work something out here....) but haven't received a reply yet.
Click to expand...

The 2nd!

If it were an AIB card then no, I'd agree, don't try and pull a fast one. But direct to nvida is different, that Titan Xp won't find it's way back to another customer AFAIK. So as long as there's no physical damage due to man-handling, then just put the cooler back on and send it back to Nvidia. But obviously next time... ;)

skypine27 said:
Armenius: Nah, not yet. Going on vacation tomorrow morning for a week but will when I get back.

The blowup sequence was weird too (anyone without a strange interest in this field, skip below!):

1. Booted PC normally into Windows. Come back a minute later, and everything is shutdown. Thought, "Thats odd"
2. Power button on both the front case and the MOBO failed to do anything.
3. MOBO RGB LED lights still on and functioning (which is normal when shut down but connected to wall socket)

(at this point I had no idea it was the card, I suspected it was the PSU. The self test button on the PSU failed to produce a green light, so I bought a new PSU)

4. Hooked up new PSU and......SAME thing, mobo RGB lights on like normal, but neither power button will cause a boot
5. OOPS, I'm really stupid because I realize that I haven't pressed the self test button on the NEW PSU, so maybe in some universe it's possible to have 2 x bad PSUs in a row, so I press it....
and white smoke starts pouring off the bottom video card!
6. Removed the bottom video card and PC runs fine (and new PSU self tests fine). I had already thrown out the original PSU so I couldn't check if it would self test without the bottom card installed or not.

As an uneducated guess....
Something went bad with the bottom Titan Xp and the PC auto shutdown or the PSU auto shut off. Possible the original PSU was somewhat damaged by the short because it failed to self test many times, both with everything plugged in and later with all cables pulled. Put in new PSU and it still wouldn't start, maybe due to safety? Held down the self test button which (I'm guessing) does briefly power all the modular sockets, including the 8+6pin cables I had going to both video cards. Bottom card goes up in smoke. PC still works fine with just top card only.
Click to expand...

That sounds EXACTLY like the top block spilled water onto the card below, caused a short blowing it up and causing the PSU to auto cut-off from that point forward.

Sounds self-inflicted I'm afraid!

And I bet the original PSU was fine. What was it out of curiosity?
 
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