[SOLVED] EVGA 970 won't boot normally ?

[ChillAxis]

Starting off, I've posted about this before but new problems have arisen. the card was purchased as broken ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/373724033649?ViewItem=&item=373724033649&nma=true&si=2U3AvStmceGGbbEwqwoDTTv%2Bce8%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 ), but I believed that I could potentially fix it

the steps I've taken so far:
-installed a fresh copy of windows
-it didn't boot
-reapplied thermal paste
-still didn't boot
-ran it in safe mode and installed the newest drivers
-it booted normally (without safe mode) and worked for a time in regular windows and survived a few benchmarks before it artifacted, turned off, and wouldn't turn on again normally without booting into safe mode
-tried reinstalling the drivers from both the Nvidia site and EVGA's site
-still wouldn't boot normally

all together this has left me with a couple questions for future repairs
-does this card have thermal issues, and should i purchase fresh thermal pads?
-do the most recent drivers typically work or should i use an older driver, and if so what driver should i use?
-could this be a bios issue and if so what bios should i use?
-is there a way to underclock the card from the BIOS or can i only do it with software?

the computer is running on a gigabyte ultra durable motherboard with a ryzen 3 3200,16 gb of ddr4 ram at 3200Mhz and an EVGA 650 watt power supply

 

[Koekieezz]

gigabyte ultra durable motherboard

Which Model and chipset? please give details. Also could you post te 1st page of gpu z screenshot of your gpu?

 

[ChillAxis]

Which Model and chipset? please give details. Also could you post te 1st page of gpu z screenshot of your gpu?

it is a GIGABYTE B550M DS3H AM4 and i cannot send a gpu z screenshot because, as previously stated, i cannot boot into windows without safe mode

 

[hang-the-9]

Seems that broken card is actually broken.

No you can't underclock it from the computer BIOS.

Having thermal issues won't affect boot since that would only show up once you push the card a bit. Even if the card was overheating during use, if it was not damaged it would still boot fine and should work in simple tasks. You did not really try any "repairs" just basic trouble-shooting with drivers. For what version drivers to use, looking at nVidia's support site will tell you what will work with a 970, but does not seem like a software issues to me.

My thought, it's a physical issue with the card that will require component replacement, which one, no way to tell, could be the memory, could be the main core, many things will cause issues like you are seeing.