So my robe fried my GPU?

GulagArch

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Ok, so I've built a handful of rigs over the past 22 years for personal use, all gaming rigs, never fried anything.

EVGA GTX 1070 8GB OC

Tossed my robe onto my computer chair and heard a little zap, figured it was nothing to worry about and walked away. Come back a couple hours later and no video. Tried the other outputs and PCIE slot, nothing. Dug out a DVI cable and tried onboard video and it fired right up, everything seems to be working just fine. Is my GPU for sure shot? Why would a zap to the exterior of my case cause only my GPU to die? The ground at my power outlet tests good.

Going forward is there anyway I can directly ground the case myself? I want to ground the hell out of it and not have to worry about this, as I don't game much right now (kids) I may not even bother buying a new GPU especially if they can fry from a friggin robe touching the case.

Kind of off topic, but WHAT THE F is going on with GPUs over the past 4 years? How is my card still remotely decent and not only that, but worth more than what I paid? Mind boggling, I thought I was losing my mind trying to find a replacement!
[EDIT] altered post incase GPU manufacturer monitors these forums.
 
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sorry for your luck but it sounds like static electricity and yes gpus are vunerable. Unfortunately many video cable can come in direct contact with the case. You are lucky if there are no other issues. Best way to get rid of the problem is to buy a humidifier or bare minimum use an anti static wrist strap before touching the case or discharging built up static before touching your case. I would rma the GPU and see what happens. Just tell them it quit working. I had to laugh when I read the title reminded me of when people blamed SUVs for an accidents when it was really the driver. IE Ford Bronco kills again.
 
sorry for your luck but it sounds like static electricity and yes gpus are vunerable. Unfortunately many video cable can come in direct contact with the case. You are lucky if there are no other issues. Best way to get rid of the problem is to buy a humidifier or bare minimum use an anti static wrist strap before touching the case or discharging built up static before touching your case. I would rma the GPU and see what happens. Just tell them it quit working. I had to laugh when I read the title reminded me of when people blamed SUVs for an accidents when it was really the driver. IE Ford Bronco kills again.
RMA a card I bought 5 years ago? Is that possible?
 
RMA a card I bought 5 years ago? Is that possible?
You can contact them and see what they say, if they say no, you're no worse off than you are now, and if they agree, you may end up with a replacement card.
 
It shouldn't. Did you check continuity between the case and the grounding prong on your power cord?

This.
A huge amount of static applied to the case should cause no harm with a well set up PC.

Ever seen those guys who get in a Faraday cage thats zapped with millions of volts from a Tesla coil.
Same thing, the cage protects them like a case will a PC.

I would also check your mains earth is functioning correctly.
 
https://www.wikihow.com/Check-Earthing-at-Home

Following that article I have .81 V leakage. So it's below the 2 V threshold, should be good there. Very strange.

Just submitted purchase order confirmation after troubleshooting with EVGA, hopefully get RMA approval soon. Their customer service has been very rapid so far.
 
Your earth didnt contribute to this problem.
tbh, even if it wasnt connected the case should be enough protection, but as something weird happened I thought it worth checking anyway.

It looks like the zap was either a coincidence (the card was about to zap itself anyway), your movements could have helped trigger that or triggered another problem with a loose electrical connection somewhere, or there was another mains issue like a large mains spike (you would have noticed this if house lighting flashed slightly and a good quality PSU should handle this anyway, but not everything is always perfect).
All are guesses, its a weird event.
To be safe I would check all the mains connections and wiring leading to your PC and wiring inside the PC.

It will be interesting to find what EVGA say the problem is, assuming they are vocal on it.
Let us know what they say.
 
Snap a pic of the pcb when you take it out, if it's not covered with a backplate. Probably won't be able to see any damage anyway, but worth a look.
 
What do you mean no? PC was working perfectly, tossed my robe and heard a zap, all of a sudden no GPU functionality. Working perfectly for 4+ years till that static shock to the tower.
 
What do you mean no? PC was working perfectly, tossed my robe and heard a zap, all of a sudden no GPU functionality. Working perfectly for 4+ years till that static shock to the tower.

I'm not seeing it, except in some weird circumstance. I have shocked my pc's more times than I can count (dry climate, winter).

I have shocked a few usb ports that caused a system to restart, but never killed a gpu.
 
What do you mean no? PC was working perfectly, tossed my robe and heard a zap, all of a sudden no GPU functionality. Working perfectly for 4+ years till that static shock to the tower.

Because it doesn't work that way. We literally used to touch unpainted parts of the chassis to discharge static electricity all the time before handling components. You cannot generate enough static electricity from a robe to fry a GPU through the computer casing. It's not enough power and the case isn't going to conduct that charge well enough to fry your GPU. Period. Even if this could happen, it would fry something like the motherboard before your GPU.
 
Even if this could happen, it would fry something like the motherboard before your GPU.
That's not necessarily true. The gpu bracket ties the case directly to the GPU ground plane, whereas the mb is on standoffs, on a tray which is attached to the case. The GPU is also a much smaller circuit board with a lot more tiny components grouped together really closely, on the front and back. If it did happen to cause failure, GPU would be top of my list.
 
Then this is one massive coincidence. We received a snow storm and it got really cold, we do not currently have a humidifier and I had received painful static shocks from blankets and my robe in particular the days prior to this. I tossed my robe onto the computer chair, robe grazed tower, POP, check back 30 minutes later and GPU is dead. No power surges that we know of, no liquids nearby, nothing came loose inside case. No issues for four years whatsoever. Wonder what the chances are it simply happened to die at the same time.

That's what I was thinking Nobu, GPU is tied to the chassis on it's own and took the brunt of the shock maybe?
 
Then this is one massive coincidence. We received a snow storm and it got really cold, we do not currently have a humidifier and I had received painful static shocks from blankets and my robe in particular the days prior to this. I tossed my robe onto the computer chair, robe grazed tower, POP, check back 30 minutes later and GPU is dead. No power surges that we know of, no liquids nearby, nothing came loose inside case. No issues for four years whatsoever. Wonder what the chances are it simply happened to die at the same time.

That's what I was thinking Nobu, GPU is tied to the chassis on it's own and took the brunt of the shock maybe?
I wouldn't say that– there are other components also grounded directly to the chassis, the rear io and sometimes front usb/audio in particular. But those are often fused, so if any damage occurs to them it's usually isolated to that component and doesn't take down the whole mb.
 
Did you confirm that the 1070 is undetected by the OS? It's possible that the card's video output is cooked but the rest of the board is okay. If the OS can still see the card, you can use the 1070 as a render offload while having your monitor hooked up to onboard video.
 
Interesting thread. It can get dry here and when I take my wool jacket off I can often feel quite a bit of static build up. I usually intentionally touch the exterior of my computer case at that point, because I know it's grounded. I figure it's better than sending that shock through the keyboard, mouse, or headphones. This can be quite a bit of static, where every hair on my arm is standing straight up and the arc when I touch my case is over 1/4" long. It's never caused a problem.
 
You using the same cable and input on the monitor with onboard video as you were with the video card?
 
Denied. On the lookout for 2070/3070.

Thanks.

Maybe ask razorwind and see if he can help. He's resurrected cards before.

The zap you heard could have been one of the mosfets on the card cooking off, but hard to know without having a picture of the PCB.
 
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