[SOLVED] 980 Ti is forcing windows to run repair tool on boot attempt (or simply not boot) following a green screen crash

[sessosaidso]

I was gaming earlier today and I hard crashed with a green screen, prior to this there was a slight smell of burning (I thought my wife had lit a candle - the aroma was a bit sweet). I had to manually restart the computer and upon doing so windows refused to boot and kept either giving me a bluescreen (Critical Process Died) or asked me to run repair tool (that blue diagnostic screen with options). After a few attempts to boot, the computer would go straight to black screen following BIOS.I immediately checked my components. Both the CPU and GPU thermal compound was remained unburnt (I replaced the compound). There was no outward sign of anything burning, so I am left to assume it was dust being burnt.

I went and grabbed a GTX 710 from BestBuy and popped the card in and Windows boots and everything works. I breathe a sigh of relief knowing everything is good.

I pop the 980 Ti back in quickly and am able to boot to windows. However the computer crashed after about 2 minutes, and the whole thing from earlier starts again. I pop the 710 back in and it's all good.
What exactly is going on? Drivers are up to date abd my BIOS is up to date. I have never seen a GPU do this to a computer before. I know my 980 Ti is a bit old, but it did the trick and I was hoping to hold out until the 3080's are available (and back at msrp).

Any insight would be helpful, thanks!

Edit: Sorry , posted in Graphics cards, but I realize this may be a more appropriate location for this issue, I'm sorry!

I was gaming earlier today and I hard crashed with a green screen, prior to this there was a slight smell of burning (I thought my wife had lit a candle - the aroma was a bit sweet). I had to manually restart the computer and upon doing so windows refused to boot and kept either giving me a bluescreen (Critical Process Died) or asked me to run repair tool (that blue diagnostic screen with options). After a few attempts to boot, the computer would go straight to a black screen following BIOS.I immediately checked my components. Both the CPU and GPU thermal compound remained unburnt (I replaced the compound). There was no outward sign of anything burning, so I am left to assume it was dust being burnt.

I went and grabbed a GTX 710 from BestBuy and popped the card in and Windows boots and everything works. I breathe a sigh of relief knowing everything is good.

I pop the 980 Ti back in quickly and am able to boot to windows. However the computer crashed after about 2 minutes, and the whole thing from earlier starts again. I pop the 710 back in and it's all good.

What exactly is going on? Drivers are up to date and my BIOS is up to date. I have never seen a GPU do this to a computer before. I know my 980 Ti is a bit old, but it did the trick and I was hoping to hold out until the 3080's are available (and back at msrp).

 

[littlepaulio]

I considered my GTX 980 (not TI) quite old when I went to sell it and barely got over a €100 for a pristine card in it's original box. That's just my rant. It sounds like the first time you really need to replace the compound. Do you have a log of it's temps just before it shutdown? Also, what were you overclocking it to? You can't necessarily see where the hotspots on the old compound and thermal pad were. I would definitely definitively replace the compound and I wouldn't use it until you do.

 

[sessosaidso]

I considered my GTX 980 (not TI) quite old when I went to sell it and barely got over a €100 for a pristine card in it's original box. That's just my rant. It sounds like the first time you really need to replace the compound. Do you have a log of it's temps just before it shutdown? Also, what were you overclocking it to? You can't necessarily see where the hotspots on the old compound and thermal pad were. I would definitely definitively replace the compound and I wouldn't use it until you do.

Good question, the thing was downlocked by about 90 mhz on both the chip and RAM, the thing was so old it would crash without it. I am less surprised it died, and more fascinated that it seems to want to eat the boot manager with it.

I replaced the compound before I put the card back in and still had the issues.

 

[littlepaulio]

Good question, the thing was downlocked by about 90 mhz on both the chip and RAM, the thing was so old it would crash without it. I am less surprised it died, and more fascinated that it seems to want to eat the boot manager with it.

I replaced the compound before I put the card back in and still had the issues.

Maybe it just got stuck in a loop, then temps soared, speeds were throttled and Windows said bye. I'm not really sure what you mean by "eat the boot manager with it". Do you mean it kept going to boot manager after restart? I've never had a GC cause me booting problems to my knowledge, but if you're MB is too getting too toasty usually Windows will die. You're really lucky your main PCIE slot is still working, that would have got costly...