Question System issue/ Possible dying GPU?

[PowahRanger]

Hello people,

system specs:
OS: W11(was recently W10)
GPU: RTX 2080S (not overclocked)
CPU: Intel i9 9900K (not overclocked)
RAM: 32GB corsair vengeance RGB RAM
MoBo: GigaByte Z390 AORUS PRO
PSU; Corsair RM850X

Problem:
I've started having an issue with my system where, after around 10 minutes of playing Grand theft auto 5( A medium to heavy game to run) My monitors go black, as in they lose video signal. The fans of my graphics card suddenly spin at 100%. I can still hear audio from my spotify/game playing in the background so it only seems to be a video related issue.

After searching forum for some time, I was convinced it had to be an overheating issue. And so I have re-pasted my GPU with paste & pads from Gelid.
Temperatures have dropped significantly. Where before my GPU temp was 89C and hot spot temp was 110C. After playing a game for 25 minutes, they are now the following:

This was my test run from last night. Believing everything was fine now due to the heat issue being taken care of, I started up GTA again, and surely enough... after about 10-15 minutes my video feed cut out again.

I have found it very complicated to find any hardware related issue myself by doing online research and trying a few things. Looking at the windows event viewer, it does not show any errors or faults. Besides the power button being pressed to power the system off.
I have been logging data with GPU-Z and I cannot find any anomalies. There are currently 4 things that I am suspecting could be the problem.

1. GPU is dying
2. PSU is dying
3. Motherboard is dying
4. RAM somehow started failing

The reason i am suspecting the first 2 points is because if i limit my GPU power usage, my system does not crash. This is also how i keep my pc running nowadays.
I have also temporarily replaced my GPU with a GTX 1070 from one of my mates and I did not have any crashes running that.
Third point is what I often came across on the interwebs with mixed results.
4th point is because everytime my system has crashed, it has been just over 12GB ram used, but then again it does not happen when I limit my gpu power usage.

Benchmark programs like Prime95 and FurMark2 I can let run for hours without a single issue happening. I am hoping some of you could share your experience/expertise with me. Really am looking forward to learning more about this issue and what steps I can take to rule things out without spending hundreds of euros on a part im not even sure of is the problem.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Is it only one game or all games?

Are all your system drivers up to date? Lan, Chipset etc? Id your GPU driver up to date? What bios are you currently running on the mobo?

 

[PowahRanger]

Hello Roland,

I have gone through your points one by one.

It happens on all the games I have tried. (Hell Let Loose, GTA 5, Timberborn) It even happens sometimes during a discord activity? lol

Lan/Chipset should be up to date? I have not fully figured out how to update this so Im working on that.
My GPU is running the latest driver. Before the issue started it was running on a driver from august last year and since then I have updated it as my first measure, which did not help.

I was running BIOS version F10, which I just flashed to F13. I played GTA and after 10 minutes, video feed cut out again. Black screen, fans 100% and having to hard reboot via power button.

Thanks for your input, we shall continue investigating

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hello Roland,

I have gone through your points one by one.

It happens on all the games I have tried. (Hell Let Loose, GTA 5, Timberborn) It even happens sometimes during a discord activity? lol

Lan/Chipset should be up to date? I have not fully figured out how to update this so Im working on that.
My GPU is running the latest driver. Before the issue started it was running on a driver from august last year and since then I have updated it as my first measure, which did not help.

I was running BIOS version F10, which I just flashed to F13. I played GTA and after 10 minutes, video feed cut out again. Black screen, fans 100% and having to hard reboot via power button.

Thanks for your input, we shall continue investigating

After flashing bios, did you 'clear CMOS'? You do this by either pressing a button the rear IO panel, or short two pins.

Edit: Uninstall your GPU driver using DDU. Then reinstall the GPU driver fresh. See if that helps. What power plan are you using?

 

[PowahRanger]

After flashing bios, did you 'clear CMOS'? You do this by either pressing a button the rear IO panel, or short two pins.

Edit: Uninstall your GPU driver using DDU. Then reinstall the GPU driver fresh. See if that helps. What power plan are you using?

I have not cleared CMOS.

I did use DDU to uninstall my GPU driver, and installed the new one. Done in windows safe mode as often suggested.

I found and old reddit thread where the same issue was discussed. The OP eventually stated that replacing his power cable, that runs from the PSU to the GPU, solved his problem. I have done this as well, and so far I have been able to play gta for over an hour without issue.

How can something so serious be caused by a single cable?

I will keep my thread updated in the coming days for if the issue comes back or not. If it does come back I will try clearing my CMOS first. Thank you for your help so far Roland.

EDIT: system crashed again, now clearing CMOS and testing.

 

[PowahRanger]

Cleared CMOS, switched on XMP and tested. Again after 10 minutes, video signal gone, fans 100%. Sadly no fix yet.

It's bedtime for me now, hopefully there will be a suggestion as what to try next tomorrow. I probably won't have time to respond/test untill tuesday as it's my birthday tomorrow. Have a good one everyone!

 

[PowahRanger]

What power plan are you using?

Max performance

 

[PowahRanger]

Update
System reliably loses video feed, GPU fans speed up to 100% temperatures do not exceed 60C.

I remembered that the one thing that I've changed in my system, right before this issue started happening, was when sleep mode would be enabled, funnily enough I had set this at 10 minutes. Could this be linked to me losing video feed? That somehow my windows forces sleep mode? I had already put the settings back to never go in sleep mode but this hasn't solved my issue.

I'm hoping to hear thoughts on the matter.

 

[PowahRanger]

Have scanned my system with multiple tools for malware/viruses. found a few false positives, no luck there.
Followed a guide on youtube on how to repair windows in which some scans were also recommended. It did find corrupted files and a few broken drivers. Fixed those, still didnt solve the Issue.

Currently reinstalling windows

 

[PowahRanger]

Completely wiping my drives and reinstalling windows 11 from scratch did not solve my issue. New PSU is now on order. Will provide an update post when I have tested my system with that

 

[PowahRanger]

New PSU did not fix my issue, ordered a new graphics card. Perhaps the issue can be linked to GPU sag as I have done some reading that GPU sagging can break part of the Vram modules on the board.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Might pick up something like this to help future sagging.

https://www.amazon.com/Graphics-Bra...id=1715375027&sprefix=gpu+brace,aps,94&sr=8-3