GPU fried, anything I can do?

StoleMyOwnCar

2[H]4U
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Sep 30, 2013
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Yesterday I was playing WoW and getting some stuttering. I'd been getting that in Civ 6, too, but much worse. Thought it was a driver issue. Updated Nvidia drivers before playing WoW.

Woke up today to a distinct (surprisingly mild though) burning smell in the living room. Thought it was my aquarium tech, but nope; my displays didn't have a picture. Opened up the GPU to find that some of the VRAM modules looked like they had blackish areas under them, it smelled really burnt, and the backplate (normally black) had this orangish area. Thankfully it didn't actually catch on fire (probably), and the rest of the components seem good. Hooked in my old 780 and it's running just fine, but obviously my old 780 isn't going to power this 3440x1440 Acer Predator worth a crap.

Checked Gigabyte's site and looks like I'm screwed. Although I bought it in November as part of an open box deal, the thing's warranty ended at the beginning of this month because I guess they go by manufacture date...

So has anyone had any luck getting service slightly outside the warranty like this? Or should I be looking for a new card. TBH I was just fine with this thing's performance at this resolution, so I'm thinking about getting a 1080Ti as I think that would be the good spot for this monitor for about 3-4 years. Most 980Ti's would be going out of warranty at this point like this one; not doing that again. Kind of annoying since I only overclocked the thing once and it wasn't even that much; I then just left it at stock. The new generation seems too expensive to invest in, and I don't think I need it considering I game a bit less now anyway.

Opinions? Birthday's coming up so I'm probably just going to get a 1080Ti...

... side note I wonder if making all of those ridiculous rockets in Kerbal somehow fried my VRAM....
 
The only thing you can do is try. Open a support ticket with Gigabyte and give it a shot. They'll probably say no, but you never know.

On your side note, I've no idea if this kind of thing can happen anymore, but my younger brother did once fry an old ATI Rage 256 video card via software. He spawned hundreds of grenades all over a Deus Ex map, flew high enough to put the whole map on his screen, and detonated them all at once. The machine shut down, then we smelled the magic smoke - half of the GPU's VRAM was fried.
 
I gotta go with the previous posters. RIP GPU. I'm sure you can find some component level repair shop to take a look at it, but for that price you can replace it.
 
If you do get a 1080ti, avoid Gigabyte. Have a feeling they use sub-par components on their HW. They've been caught doing that with some of their motherboards. After a review, they would then come out with a v1.1 with reduced phases or cheaper parts in a bait and switch sort of thing.
 
The only thing you can do is try. Open a support ticket with Gigabyte and give it a shot. They'll probably say no, but you never know.

On your side note, I've no idea if this kind of thing can happen anymore, but my younger brother did once fry an old ATI Rage 256 video card via software. He spawned hundreds of grenades all over a Deus Ex map, flew high enough to put the whole map on his screen, and detonated them all at once. The machine shut down, then we smelled the magic smoke - half of the GPU's VRAM was fried.

That's true... I guess tomorrow (or tonight) I'll just open a support ticket and see if they'll just take a look at it.

For what it's worth, I went and bought a 2080. Frankly I do think it was a ripoff, price wise, but I felt it kind of pointless to spend for older tech that will be out of warranty sooner at this point, considering what just happened to me. For some reason my 780 started acting up as well, so I didn't have much choice if I wanted to game at all. =_=;

If you do get a 1080ti, avoid Gigabyte. Have a feeling they use sub-par components on their HW. They've been caught doing that with some of their motherboards. After a review, they would then come out with a v1.1 with reduced phases or cheaper parts in a bait and switch sort of thing.

It is a Gigabyte again, mainly because it was the most inexpensive one I could find at Microcenter at the time (by some 50$), and I was out with my friend. Whether or their support says they will repair it, I might decide to return this 2080 in favor of a better manufacturer... depending on the quality of their support. I have 30 days, and Microcenter tends to be fairly painless with this stuff. We'll see. Unfortunately EVGA is selling out rather fast, and I don't know much about Zotac or MSI comparatively. ASUS is totally out because screw ASUS; I've read those horror stories.
 
you may a power supply or something else causing problems. 2 dead video cards in 2 days seems like there are other issues causing the cards to die.

I should have added a bit of context. The 780 was working fine, and then I took it out in order to fix the Kraken G10 bracket on it because it obviously wasn't cooling properly (the GPU was running at 96C, though somehow the gameplay was smoother than my 980Ti lol...). Not sure if the pump was busted or something. I probably failed to do the right anti static procedures and may have been rough when inserting it or something, after I reseated the Kraken (and maybe I tightened it too much).

It does power on, and I don't think anything is burnt, but I'm getting screen artifacts just booting up now. Like blue lines on a black screen going into BIOS (or lighter blue on blue in a wallpaper). Like the colors are off in certain spots. I've had these weird sort of issues with some Diablo 3 full screen issues gone horribly wrong, but I'm not sure what's causing it here. It's the same thing happening across all outputs. It's like either the vram is hard corrupted throughout multiple boots, or the output buffer is (if that makes sense). Which again happened to me with Diablo 3 somehow; I had to swap to the outputs on the other GPU as I was running SLI at the time (and uninstall drivers if I could get to them), and eventually it fixed itself; it's like it needs a flush or something. Might be the case here, or the outputs might just be messed up. I didn't feel like messing with it.

Though you are right in that it does not necessarily mean the PSU's faultless. It's a Corsair HX850 and I've had kernel power failures with it before... though strangely not since I got a UPS. Then it didn't happen a single time in years. Shrug.... idk what to think and I don't know how to test it.

I took the 2080 through an hour or so of Far Cry Primal on 3440x1440. It played well. At stock, boosts to about 1845-1860 without any fan changes... or that's what it settles at after an hour or so (GPU usage is capped whole time). Running at like 81-83C though. Maybe this Gigabyte cooler does suck, or maybe it's normal. Was very smooth gameplay though.
 
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I should have added a bit of context. The 780 was working fine, and then I took it out in order to fix the Kraken G10 bracket on it because it obviously wasn't cooling properly (the GPU was running at 96C, though somehow the gameplay was smoother than my 980Ti lol...). Not sure if the pump was busted or something. I probably failed to do the right anti static procedures and may have been rough when inserting it or something, after I reseated the Kraken (and maybe I tightened it too much).

It does power on, and I don't think anything is burnt, but I'm getting screen artifacts just booting up now. Like blue lines on a black screen going into BIOS (or lighter blue on blue in a wallpaper). Like the colors are off in certain spots. I've had these weird sort of issues with some Diablo 3 full screen issues gone horribly wrong, but I'm not sure what's causing it here. It's the same thing happening across all outputs. It's like either the vram is hard corrupted throughout multiple boots, or the output buffer is (if that makes sense). Which again happened to me with Diablo 3 somehow; I had to swap to the outputs on the other GPU as I was running SLI at the time (and uninstall drivers if I could get to them), and eventually it fixed itself; it's like it needs a flush or something. Might be the case here, or the outputs might just be messed up. I didn't feel like messing with it.

Though you are right in that it does not necessarily mean the PSU's faultless. It's a Corsair HX850 and I've had kernel power failures with it before... though strangely not since I got a UPS. Then it didn't happen a single time in years. Shrug.... idk what to think and I don't know how to test it.

I took the 2080 through an hour or so of Far Cry Primal on 3440x1440. It played well. At stock, boosts to about 1845-1860 without any fan changes... or that's what it settles at after an hour or so (GPU usage is capped whole time). Running at like 81-83C though. Maybe this Gigabyte cooler does suck, or maybe it's normal. Was very smooth gameplay though.

If you were having some issues with the PSU in the past, I would go ahead and replace it. It most likely is still under warranty, so grab a nice sub $100 750-850W Gold (I have been using the excellent SeaSonic Focus Plus Gold 850s which are usually under $100 with MIR/IR sales). Send the old PSU in for a warranty claim and then keep it or sell it for $45 when you get a replacement back from Corsair.

I would never place $80~100 price tag as too a high a price for piece of mind and time saved+ not frying new HW.
 
Hmmm... fair enough. These PSU issues tend to be somewhat insidious, so it's very hard to tell what exactly the issue is. I can try replacing it. I think with a single card on this 2080 I should expect sub 650W TDP, but I guess 750 or 850 would be optimal for it? What's the best PSU HOCP reviewed most recently? Guess I have to dig through the reviews.


Honestly I doubt that it's under warranty anymore, though. I think I bought it soon after I started my out of college job, and that was well over 5 years ago.

Side note very surprised that a USB-C to DVI adapter works with my Qnix 2710. Not perfectly. I get random line flashes occasionally. But it does work. Only a secondary monitor anyway.
 
If you do get a 1080ti, avoid Gigabyte. Have a feeling they use sub-par components on their HW. They've been caught doing that with some of their motherboards. After a review, they would then come out with a v1.1 with reduced phases or cheaper parts in a bait and switch sort of thing.
Wasn't the EVGA card catching fire :)
 
Hmmm... fair enough. These PSU issues tend to be somewhat insidious, so it's very hard to tell what exactly the issue is. I can try replacing it. I think with a single card on this 2080 I should expect sub 650W TDP, but I guess 750 or 850 would be optimal for it? What's the best PSU HOCP reviewed most recently? Guess I have to dig through the reviews.


Honestly I doubt that it's under warranty anymore, though. I think I bought it soon after I started my out of college job, and that was well over 5 years ago.

Side note very surprised that a USB-C to DVI adapter works with my Qnix 2710. Not perfectly. I get random line flashes occasionally. But it does work. Only a secondary monitor anyway.

Well I do not know your sig rig specs since there is no sig so I guessed lol...You ideally want it around 50% load or so for peak efficiency you lose very little going above and below with modern units.

Best? Go buy a Seasonic Focus Plus 650/750/850W Gold, or spend moar for the Platinum models (but the price difference will never be made up in it's lifetime in saved operating costs).
 
There's an EVGA 1000w going for cheap on amazon with a 7yr warranty if that fits the bill.
 
Well I do not know your sig rig specs since there is no sig so I guessed lol...You ideally want it around 50% load or so for peak efficiency you lose very little going above and below with modern units.

Best? Go buy a Seasonic Focus Plus 650/750/850W Gold, or spend moar for the Platinum models (but the price difference will never be made up in it's lifetime in saved operating costs).

I don't really like showing off my gear much. Feels like branding myself and showing off my consumerism... but I'll stop there because this isn't a political topic. Here's an unnecessarily detailed list of my parts:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($369.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: EVGA - CLC 240 74.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING (WI-FI AC) Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($184.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Crucial - M500 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($332.26 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($332.26 @ Amazon)
Storage: Toshiba - 5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($174.29 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2080 8GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($789.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair - Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($142.99 @ Newegg Business)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($124.89 @ My Choice Software)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-P14 FLX 65.0 CFM 140mm Fan ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-P14 FLX 65.0 CFM 140mm Fan ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor
Monitor: Asus - ROG SWIFT PG278Q 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor
Monitor: Acer - Predator Z35P 35.0" 3440x1440 100Hz Monitor ($848.43 @ Newegg Business)
Keyboard: Logitech - G710 Plus Wired Gaming Keyboard ($117.00 @ Amazon)
UPS: APC - SUA1500 UPS
Total: $3897.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-28 00:17 EDT-0400


Some things are a tad inaccurate. Like obviously I shucked those WD reds from the externals deal going on, and my version of Windows 10 is actually Education Edition, which I think is a little different. But minor differences.

Frankly I'm also looking at my motherboard as a possible culprit. The thing is, I've had AIO pumps just mysteriously die on me, and/or start acting weird. Which could be a PSU issue I guess, but...

I had actually purchased an 850W Focus Plus off Amazon for about 105 (technically 95 with an MIR, but I don't really turn those in often because it seems like a pain) a little bit before you made that comment lol. It was just kind of a resigned "oh well, guess it'll be this..." kind of purchase. I kind of have doubts that it will resolve anything, but... well whatever, already a 2080 in the bucket, here's more. It'll be here tomorrow.
 
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I don't really like showing off my gear much. Feels like branding myself and showing off my consumerism... but I'll stop there because this isn't a political topic. Here's an unnecessarily detailed list of my parts:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($369.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: EVGA - CLC 240 74.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING (WI-FI AC) Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($184.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Crucial - M500 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($332.26 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Red 8TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($332.26 @ Amazon)
Storage: Toshiba - 5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($174.29 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2080 8GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($789.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair - Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($142.99 @ Newegg Business)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($124.89 @ My Choice Software)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-P14 FLX 65.0 CFM 140mm Fan ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-P14 FLX 65.0 CFM 140mm Fan ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor
Monitor: Asus - ROG SWIFT PG278Q 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor
Monitor: Acer - Predator Z35P 35.0" 3440x1440 100Hz Monitor ($848.43 @ Newegg Business)
Keyboard: Logitech - G710 Plus Wired Gaming Keyboard ($117.00 @ Amazon)
UPS: APC - SUA1500 UPS
Total: $3897.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-28 00:17 EDT-0400


Some things are a tad inaccurate. Like obviously I shucked those WD reds from the externals deal going on, and my version of Windows 10 is actually Education Edition, which I think is a little different. But minor differences.

Frankly I'm also looking at my motherboard as a possible culprit. The thing is, I've had AIO pumps just mysteriously die on me, and/or start acting weird. Which could be a PSU issue I guess, but...

I had actually purchased an 850W Focus Plus off Amazon for about 105 (technically 95 with an MIR, but I don't really turn those in often because it seems like a pain) a little bit before you made that comment lol. It was just kind of a resigned "oh well, guess it'll be this..." kind of purchase. I kind of have doubts that it will resolve anything, but... well whatever, already a 2080 in the bucket, here's more. It'll be here tomorrow.

Well hopefully the PSU will handle the issues. Have you updated the BIOS anytime recently? Is so, did the AIO failures and such happen shortly after?
 
Standard operating procedure here.

Also I've had great success with MSI. Not so much with gigabyte.

Aye, me also. Still running my MSI Z170 Plus board (non gaming branded), its been flawless, BIOS updates and all. Go with MSI.
 
Well, my motherboard isn't Gigabyte. As seen in the parts list up there, it's an ASUS...

I just kind of read somewhere that if it wasn't broken, doing a BIOS update could be hit or miss...
 
There's a market for dead 980 TI on Ebay. Looks like minimum $65+ - shipping/fees. Don't just toss it.
 
There's a market for dead 980 TI on Ebay. Looks like minimum $65+ - shipping/fees. Don't just toss it.
There's a market for dead anything on ebay--amazing how many smart people can resurrect stuff out there. (y) Or perhaps they're shady people that are going to dupe people with fake cards using the parts off the 980. :( I hope for the former!
 
There's a market for dead anything on ebay--amazing how many smart people can resurrect stuff out there. (y) Or perhaps they're shady people that are going to dupe people with fake cards using the parts off the 980. :( I hope for the former!

I think it's more about collecting. If all you want is an example for a display case, dead card good way to go.
 
The only thing you can do is try. Open a support ticket with Gigabyte and give it a shot. They'll probably say no, but you never know.

On your side note, I've no idea if this kind of thing can happen anymore, but my younger brother did once fry an old ATI Rage 256 video card via software. He spawned hundreds of grenades all over a Deus Ex map, flew high enough to put the whole map on his screen, and detonated them all at once. The machine shut down, then we smelled the magic smoke - half of the GPU's VRAM was fried.

Now THAT'S [H]
 
you may a power supply or something else causing problems. 2 dead video cards in 2 days seems like there are other issues causing the cards to die.

Check that. I've had a faulty PSU blowing basically everything given enough time.

I try to upgrade PSU before anything else because of that. If itt's just a old rig with spare/junk parts, whatever, but anything I'm spending serious money on gets a brand new quality PSU before anything else.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned reading the extended warranty terms if bought with a credit card.
 
VRAM modules looked like they had blackish areas under them, it smelled really burnt, and the backplate (normally black) had this orangish area. Thankfully it didn't actually catch on fire (probably)

Realistically probably unrepairable.

I'd love to buy it as a display piece.

I don't mind waiting to till after all other options are exhausted if you want to see if you can somehow get gigabyte to RMA first.

Id give you $50 shipped for it you can put towards your 1080 TI budget.
 
Almost certainly won't count if it was open box, but worth a try.

It was indeed open box. I think I'll have to contact Microcenter and hope they have the exchange receipt on file. I didn't get it in the email for some reason. Basically I got it at a discount price originally. There were two of them returned as a pair. I came back and did an even exchange for the other one in the pair because the one I got originally kind of ran hot. For some reason I have the receipt for the first one I bought in my email, but not the exchange I did...


Check that. I've had a faulty PSU blowing basically everything given enough time.

I try to upgrade PSU before anything else because of that. If itt's just a old rig with spare/junk parts, whatever, but anything I'm spending serious money on gets a brand new quality PSU before anything else.

Well as I said in an earlier post, I just got the Seasonic Focus 850 to replace my Corsair unit already. Do you think some short term (~week or less) to my old PSU would have hurt the new 2080 I got? Seems to be running fine, but I'm well within the period where I can just do an exchange.

Realistically probably unrepairable.

I'd love to buy it as a display piece.

I don't mind waiting to till after all other options are exhausted if you want to see if you can somehow get gigabyte to RMA first.

Id give you $50 shipped for it you can put towards your 1080 TI budget.

We'll see. I will try to see if I can get an RMA going first, because if they do repair it then I can at least give it to my friend or something to use. Generally, that's kind of what do with old parts: just let other people borrow them. They'll eventually give them back when they're mostly obsolete. Shrug.


... by the way as I mentioned though I do already have a 2080 lol.
 
I
Well as I said in an earlier post, I just got the Seasonic Focus 850 to replace my Corsair unit already. Do you think some short term (~week or less) to my old PSU would have hurt the new 2080 I got? Seems to be running fine, but I'm well within the period where I can just do an exchange.

My personal experience with this issue had the components going over a longer period of time than a single week. I wouldn't bother if I were you.
 
So how long does it take Gigabyte to get around to tickets? Like my first one I entered the Serial Number in wrong. Then I sent them an email reply with the S/N and receipt. Ignored. Made another request on their RMA site with the right S/N this time. Afaik, hasn't been touched...
 
Kay well, here's the progress. I sent it back to Gigabyte. They sent me back a "fixed" GPU. Yeah, I guess it's better than the original. It displays a test pattern on the DVI port. And nothing else. Not even the LED on the side lights up past about 3 seconds and the computer doesn't even post. Nice.

It looks like maybe they replaced the backplate, though. Yay. New backplate.
 
Time to get in touch with them again. I'd play that game for a free gpu...unless you want a 1080ti now that the prices have dropped even more.
 
Well no I've already bought a 2080 to replace it like I said, but the only thing is that I am now empirically realizing just how stupid I was for choosing Gigabyte for it. I should have paid more for anyone else, considering this is the kind of warranty support I can expect.

But yeah I sent them an email. The shipping costs, considering they don't even cover those, make this game kind of expensive to play. =_=;
 
Man, stories about this keep me away from MSI and Gigabyte.
Well no I've already bought a 2080 to replace it like I said, but the only thing is that I am now empirically realizing just how stupid I was for choosing Gigabyte for it. I should have paid more for anyone else, considering this is the kind of warranty support I can expect.

But yeah I sent them an email. The shipping costs, considering they don't even cover those, make this game kind of expensive to play. =_=;

The problem is that you're likely to get this kind of support from MSI, Gigabyte, Asus.. None of them are known for their above average customer service when it comes to RMA's. I had an MSI card fail and the person there that I was working with emphasized that I'd be MUCH better off trying to work something out with the retailer rather than thru MSI directly. He told me straight up that it was going to be a difficult road doing it thru them.

I've never experienced Gigabyte, but I can attest that Asus is terrible to work with. It's all anecdotal, but I've had great EVGA and Nvidia direct experiences.
 
Man, stories about this keep me away from MSI and Gigabyte.


The problem is that you're likely to get this kind of support from MSI, Gigabyte, Asus.. None of them are known for their above average customer service when it comes to RMA's. I had an MSI card fail and the person there that I was working with emphasized that I'd be MUCH better off trying to work something out with the retailer rather than thru MSI directly. He told me straight up that it was going to be a difficult road doing it thru them.

I've never experienced Gigabyte, but I can attest that Asus is terrible to work with. It's all anecdotal, but I've had great EVGA and Nvidia direct experiences.
It is anecdotal, and so is mine - had to RMA my MSI 970 twice. It was one of those that came with a sticker on the fan, and removing the sticker often damaged the bearing.

Both times were totally painless. Submitted RMA, approved a day or two later, MSI paid shipping, got my new card within a week of shipping my busted one.

I often wonder if most RMAs are actually like that, but we only ever hear about the awful ones.
 
I got a random UPS Quantum prepaid label in the email earlier today, going to Gigabyte. There was like 0 communication back to me, but I'm guessing this is for me to return my replacement for another one, since it references my case number... o_0

These people operate like ninjas, no communication just addresses and documents.

Well maybe this'll have a happy ending after all, going to try to stay optimistic and mail it back today.

Edit: Nevermind, there was communication. It was just in my Spam box...
 
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