Question 1080Ti Upgrade Random Freezing

[Oreos]

Hello Toms Hardware!

Not really sure where to turn now as I'm all out of ideas on this one.

I recently upgraded my old 5/6 year old MSI 980 to a fancy second hand Asus ROG 1080Ti OC edition which was very well looked after from what I saw, even had the original shipping box. The guy bought it for his build, used it for less than a year and now I am the new owner of it so I refuse to accept that the card is buggered after a year. He didn't seem too clued up on tech so I don't think it was a mining card as he only had one for sale locally and was pretty clueless on aspects of gaming & tech.

So, back to the issue! I've installed the card the way I presume anyone would, remove old drivers with DDU and shutting down, slotting the new card in, downloading new drivers and ASUS GPU Tweak for the OC mode and jobs a goodun?

Sadly not the case, I have this random freezing that I can't pin point to anything right now bar the GPU, I even put my old 980 back in to test and had two days of freezeless gaming. The 1080Ti will even freeze on basic desktop stuff such as Discord & watching YouTube videos but it's so random so I'm sure it's the card not my system.

The things I've checked so far:

• GPU drivers uninstalled & reinstalled.
• Swapped 1080Ti back for 980 no freezes.
• Updated anything motherboard related included BIOS, chipset etc.
• Removed MSI afterburner in exchange for ASUS GPU Tweak.
• Installed just GPU driver & PhysX (I read the audio driver can be buggy).
• Double & triple checked all cables in my PC.
• Re-seated RAM just in case.
• Temperatures are way under in the mid 50°c.

Literally all out of ideas, so if anyone has any similar experience & fixing let me know, I can't find much luck on Google.

PC Specs:

• Intel i7 8700k stock clock.
• Asus ROG Maximus Hero X (Wi-Fi) motherboard.
• Asus ROG 1080Ti OC edition (The problem child).
• 2x8GB HyperX Fury RAM 2666MHz.
• SeaSonic 1,000w Platinum PSU (Overkill I know).
• Samsung Pro 512GB SSD (Windows 10 install).
• 2x Seagate Sata Drives.

Thank you in advance.

 

[PC Tailor]

Welcome to the forums Oreos!

Thank you for the detailed post! Looks like you've covered a hell of a lot of the initial steps. There is every potential that the GPU is faulty, do you notice any issues with the contact pins on the GPU itself?

Also, how old is your PSU?

The 980 only really takes up to 165W but the 1080Ti can easily pull 250W+, so a faulty PSU can easily cause these kind of issues if it is struggling to supply the appropriate power to the upgraded GPU. I wouldn't suspect this as much with a Seasonic Platinum, but it's certainly possible, especially as the PSU ages.

 

[Oreos]

Thank you PC Tailor!

Thought I'd try as much as I could before reaching out, especially all the common steps. All the pins look ok on the GPU, it is a very immaculate example with all original boxes including posting too for this one.

The PSU is 4 years old this October but as you say with a platinum Seasonic I'd be surprised if it's faulty.

I'm literally stumped on this issue!

 

[jankerson]

Use the 425.31 Driver, the newer ones have issues.

 

[Oreos]

Use the 425.31 Driver, the newer ones have issues.

Tried this tonight, but sadly still micro freezes ingame and on desktop.

 

[jankerson]

Tried this tonight, but sadly still micro freezes ingame and on desktop.

You have to use DDU.

Also unplug the Ethernet connection before doing it and leave it unplugged until the 425.31 drivers are installed.

 

[davew1860]

Does the freezing happen at stock settings, overclock settings, or both?

 

[Oreos]

You have to use DDU.

Also unplug the Ethernet connection before doing it and leave it unplugged until the 425.31 drivers are installed.

I did use DDU to uninstall the most recent ones I had, then re-installed 425.31 but not with my ethernet out, why does that make a difference can I ask?

Does the freezing happen at stock settings, overclock settings, or both?

It happens on both game mode and OC mode (the factory one).

 

[jankerson]

I did use DDU to uninstall the most recent ones I had, then re-installed 425.31 but not with my ethernet out, why does that make a difference can I ask?



It happens on both game mode and OC mode (the factory one).

Yeah it makes a difference because windows will install a driver on it's own if it's connected.

 

[Oreos]

Yeah it makes a difference because windows will install a driver on it's own if it's connected.

Just did DDU, unplugged my ethernet, reinstalled the driver, rebooted and plugged the ethernet back in. Fingers crossed!

 

[Oreos]

Tried again, still freezing.

I guess I need to admit the card is broken?

 

[Oreos]

980Ti has started freezing randomly now.

Power supply on it's way out?

 

[PC Tailor]

Does the issue still occur in safe mode?
Does the freezing only occur in certain patterns / applications?

 

[Oreos]

I can't pinpoint when it freezes really, it even happens on desktop.

At a LAN event right now and it froze twice in Overwatch when all 12 people dove in twice, and it happened in CS:GO when I was watching an angle but no one around me.

 

[PC Tailor]

Does the issue still occur in safe mode?

 

[Oreos]

Safe mode took a while to load into same as my normal OS.

The freezing is so random I can't guarantee when it happens it's so odd.

 

[Vali Pali]

Hello.

Did you check Event viewer to see if there are specific error messages when freezing occurs?