Question Can a windows update soft-lock a GPU?

[OutPhase]

Hello, I'm a bit paranoid with installing my replacement GPU. I had an Asus model RX 6700XT for about 7 months with no issue. There were hiccups every now and then when I would boot and no post but I would just swap out to my nvidia card and reset drivers and reinstall and everything worked normally.

Recently I had a windows update and my AMD GPU wouldn't post. So I had it RMA'd and was sent a replacement. Their report said it wouldn't post either but I'm unsure if it was my fault with windows, or software, or maybe it was just a bad batch with faulty hardware. All I know was that after the update the card stopped working.

Is that a possibility or just a coincidence?

 

[Karadjgne]

Coincidence. It's not you. They said gpu wouldn't post either and you know their test pc is good.

Drivers are temporary. They disappear at each shutdown. Only vbios is permanent and while software can temporarily change settings, ultimately vbios has a default that cannot be touched without serious, deliberate breaking into.

It's similar concept to a cellphone. You can change themes, settings, volumes, what's on/off, but there are some settings and the factory default settings that can't be permanently changed without jailbreak the phone.

 

[OutPhase]

Update:

So I found out this entire time... it had nothing to do with drivers or hardware. I was using a Gen 3 rise cable with a Gen 4 default card. So I had to make sure to manually change it in the BIOS settings.