Question 3060 Ti lost HDMI and then fixed by a BIOS reset

[Emplogy]

Hello all

I had a strange problem with my 3060 Ti - I was just casually browsing the web and listening to Spotify. Suddenly the monitor turned blank and the audio was interrupted. After a second or two, the audio resumed but the display did not. And here are what I tried to fix it.

• Rebooted the PC. Heard Windows startup sound but there was still no signal on the monitor.
• Tried two different HDMI cables, but still no picture.
• Tried the same HDMI cables with a MacBook (via Thunderbolt hub->HDMI), and all worked well. I usually have the PC connected to the monitor via HDMI, and MacBook via Thunderbolt->DP. The MacBook could connect to the monitor via both DP and HDMI. I didn't have a DP-to-DP cable to test the PC. But at least I ruled out the monitor and the HDMI cables being the culprits.
• Moved the GPU to another PCIe x16 slot on the mainboard, but this did not help.
• Rebooted many times. Strangely sometimes there was display signal but not always.
• The BIOS should be able to use 4K resolution. But during this, all BIOS screens were displayed in 1280x1024 when the HDMI signal was not lost.
• If there was an HDMI signal, I could boot into Windows in low-resolution mode (1024x768). But if I changed the resolution back to either FHD or 4K, the HDMI signal would be lost.
• If there was an HDMI signal and I let Windows boot normally (so it would use the resolution it remembered, i.e. 4K), the HDMI signal would be lost as soon as Windows left the loading screen.
• Windows did not complain about any hardware problems. And it could detect the GPU correctly all the time even during the signal loss.
• I also tried booting a live USB of Zorin OS (based on Ubuntu Linux), with the option to load the NVIDIA proprietary drivers. The HDMI signal was lost as soon as the live desktop environment started loading.
• Replaced the GPU with a very old GT210 card. Was able to boot into Windows. Installed the driver. The GT210 doesn't support 4K, but I could change the resolution without losing HDMI signal.

Finally, I reset the CMOS by shorting the Clear CMOS header. And then BIOS was able to use 4K resolution instead of 1280x1024. I could boot into Windows without any problem so far and wrote this post. But I still could not figure out what could have caused the problem. There was a problem with the display signal, but it was fixed by resetting the CMOS. I have run out of ideas on how to determine whether it is a problem with the motherboard or the GPU. Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.

And this is the spec of my PC:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B550-Plus WIFI II
Ram: Kingston FURY Beast 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 x2
SSD/HDD: WD Black SN850 1TB (OS disk), WD Green SATA M2 240GB (Linux disk), WD Green HDD 1TB (old disk for downloads)
GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 2X 8GB OC
PSU: Cooler Master MWE Gold v2 750W Modular PSU
Chassis: Kolink Observatory Lite Mesh Gaming Case
OS: Windows 11 Pro
Monitor: Samsung U32R59 (32" 4K 60Hz, connected via HDMI)

Edit:
The motherboard has been running the factory version (0303) of BIOS since I built it two weeks ago.
Right now I've updated the BIOS to 2604, which runs AMD AM4 AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.6b, so the factory version 0303 should be running AGESA older than 1.2.0.6b.
There's a beta version 2830, which runs AMD AM4 AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.7 , on ASUS' website but I didn't install it because of some hesitation towards beta.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Out of curiosity, what BIOS version are you currently on for your motherboard?

 

[Emplogy]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Out of curiosity, what BIOS version are you currently on for your motherboard?

The motherboard has been running the factory version (0303) of BIOS since I built it two weeks ago.

Right now I've updated the BIOS to 2604, which runs AMD AM4 AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.6b, so the factory version 0303 should be running AGESA older than 1.2.0.6b.

There's a beta version 2830, which runs AMD AM4 AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.7 , on ASUS' website but I didn't install it because of some hesitation towards beta.

 

[Emplogy]

Update:

This happened again and I returned the 3060 Ti to the retailer.

The motherboard has a set of LED lights to indicate the faulty components. And the VGA light would keep lit no matter how many hard resets I did. So it seems to be a faulty card and I might have missed the LED indicator last time.

Not sure if this is caused by overheating. I did play Microsoft Flight Simulator for a while and the GPU was at 80-83 degrees. This was hot but at least it was still below 90 degrees. However, the display signal was lost only after I closed the game for a while, and the GPU has already cooled down.

However, I determined that having the AIO cooler at the front panel might be a bad idea (but I can't install it at the top panel, the case is too small), essentially the front fans would be pushing hot air to "cool" the GPU. While I wait for a replacement, I've replaced the AIO cooler with an air cooler. I'm not overclocking anyway, and air-cooling is working as well as water cooling during idle load.

 

[Emplogy]

Update again:

The seller said the card was faulty and refunded. With the refund, I bought an Inno3D GeForce RTX 3060Ti iChill X3 RED LHR.

Installed the new card, tried to play Lost Ark, less than 3 minutes into the game, both monitors lost signal again while Windows continued running and audio also continued. At least the card was still working after reboot.

Now I think it's either problem with the PSU or the motherboard. Ordered a new PSU and waiting to see if the problem persists with the new PSU.

In the meantime, I removed the 3060 Ti from my PC, and am using a GTX960.

Lost Ark forced a 720p resolution so I couldn't really push the GTX960 to its limit, though I tried pushing it with Microsoft Flight Simulator. However, GTX960 only has a TDP of 120W, so even under full load, the GeForce overlay only showed the card was using 100W power. Minus 75W supplied by the PCIe slot, the card only drew around 25W from the PSU. So at this point, I can't determine whether it's the problem with the PSU of the motherboard.