[SOLVED] GTX 1080ti - White squares artifacts

[Marco_l87]

Hello,
lately my 1080ti has been behaving strangely... When I play Warzone, after 2 or 3 matches, the game suddenly crashes and artifacts (white squares) are displayed all over my screen. After this the pc freezes and I need to restart.
When this happens, I am unable to play anymore: if I restart warzone, the game crashes as soon as I start a match. I thought it might be my card dying so I ran a benchmark with Unigine Heaven and I left it running for over 30 minutes. Everything went fine. No crashes, no artifacts, nothing.

What can I do to solve the problem? Is it really my card dying?
Since the problem only appears after 2 or 3 matches and not right away, I am going to change the thermal pads and thermal paste just in case, even if the temperatures are stable around 64 degrees celsius in-game.
And as an extreme solution I might try an heat gun to fix any cracked soldering...
But I am doubtful about my card dying... if it was the case, why would it be running benchmarks for so long without any issues? I hope you guys can help me, thank you in advance for any reply!
Cheers

See image: https://i.postimg.cc/6yXP1vxZ/0986-E720-453-F-405-E-8310-D569-D2810469.jpg

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

We're going to need a little more information. Please list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

include the age of your PSU and the version for the OS if you're on Windows 10. On a side note, check and see what BIOS version you're on for your motherboard at the time of writing. To rule out your drivers being the issue, you can try and use DDU, to uninstall your GPU drivers, reboot, then manually source the latest driver from Nvidia's support site, installing the driver in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

 

[Marco_l87]

Thank you for welcoming me and for the prompt reply!

CPU: Ryzen 7 5800x
Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix X570-E
RAM: Corsair Vengeange LPX 32GB
SSD: Samsung 980 Pro M.2 250GB
GPU: Asus Rog Strix GTX 1080ti 11G Gaming
PSU: Corsair RM750x (1 year old)
Chassis: NZXT H710
OS: Windows 10 (latest version)

Bios is up to date, drivers are up to date. I'm an IT system engineer so all the "standard debugging" has been done already

 

[geofelt]

If the problem is happening with one game, I would look to a game patch.
Or, check the wargame forums for such issues.

The pattern looks to me like a software glitch more than a hardware failure which would appear more random and less defined.

Failure after a while smacks of a temperature issue.
Is the 64c. the temp of the cpu or the graphics card?
Neither should be a problem.
If you run HWmonitor or such, you will get the current, minimum and maximum temperatures.
It is the maximums you are looking for.

I would not try to repaste since it is unlikely to do any good, and you may screw things up in the process.

Since this problem has happened lately, what might have changed since all was well?
Possibly some new app or maintenance update.

You could try using system restore to reset back to when all was well.

 

[Marco_l87]

Temperature is GPU. CPU runs a lot hotter than that but that's normal for the 5800x.
HWmonitor shows max temperature around 66 degrees. Still good.

The issue started after a driver update and game patch (they were both installed on the same day), after that I tried to rollback the video driver to the previous version but the issue kept coming, so I waited for another driver update and game patch to come out, installed them and checked the issue, hoping it would have been fixed but unfortunately it's still there.
Of course all of this was done by fully removing the previous driver and installing the new one with a clean install.

The problem is happening with one game because it's the only one I play I will try to play other games and see if they also present the issue or not.
The issue with Call of duty warzone is they keep pushing updates and you won't be able to play unless you have the latest patch installed, so even system restoring to a previous point would not work.... Oh, yeah and I also uninstalled and reinstalled the full game just to be sure, same issue.

That's why I am approaching the HW failure option, because all other options have almost been cleared out.... and those artifacts are usually indicating HW failures....

 

[geofelt]

If it is a failure of the GTX1080ti, then good luck in finding a comparable card at any reasonable price.

Can you borrow a replacement to try?

Or, consider this as a good reason to upgrade graphics.
If you buy an upgrade card and get the same symptoms, your problem is elsewhere.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I saw a youtube video, a guy had an msi card of some type, but the cooler had begun to pull away from the thermal pads on the VRMs and the card would sag a bit, and the card would not act right. In the video the guy removed the fans and ran a large zip tie around the cooler and card to hold the cooler to the card. Then reinstalled the fans and said it worked better.

Perhaps use ddu to clean off the driver, then reinstall the latest driver? You may also dial settings back 1 click. I have a 1070 myself, and in world of warships, though I can run ultra quality, sometimes things like the armory or shop wouldn't load right. When I dialed back to high settings it works perfect. So it could be something with the way the card handles AA or something.

 

[perrynick17]

power supply could be dropping volts under load I would test the rig with a different power supply, if you have an over clock profile for the build cpu,ram/gpu restore them to default use DDU to uninstall driver and reinstall driver

 

[Marco_l87]

ok so I have an update... not a good one.
3 days ago when I ran Unigine heaven benchmark it ran without any issues.
Today I tried to run it again, just in case.... and as soon as the benchmark starts, the artifacts are back and the pc freezes. So I guess my 1080 is actually failing.

as geofelt said, it is definitely not a good time for a GPU to fail, video cards prices are so damn high...
I will try and check the thermal pads anyway and try the heatgun as a last step before buying a new card.... I know the previous owner used this card to mine ethereum so maybe the card is just worn out....

I will keep you posted about it, should I manage to find the problem and fix it Thank you!!!

 

[Marco_l87]

Another update

I disassembled the card, checked the thermal pads, they were ok.
Cleaned a little dust here and there, replaced the thermal paste on the GPU and reassembled everything.

Started the computer, all good. Started benchmark, no more artifacts right away and it runs smoothly.
I will let the benchmark run for at least an hour, then try to play a little warzone tonight and let you guys know if the problem is actually solved

Stay tuned!

EDIT: ran a benchmark for 1 hour without any issues. Max temp: 62° C. I will play a little tonight and keep you posted!

 

[Marco_l87]

Oh well, yesterday evening I played for 3 hours straight with no issues at all.
Max temp ingame 57 degrees, so 7 degrees lower than before!

I guess I actually DID fix the issue, at least for now.... not sure if it was that thermal paste replacement, or the cleaning, or what else... but at least it works! 🥳🥳

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Just make sure to keep as good of airflow around the card as possible.

 

[SlimeyGuy]

Hey Marco is your fix still working in the meantime? Have the same problem with the exact same gpu for about 1-2 months now, pretty sure since I updated gpu drivers back then.

 

[Marco_l87]

Hey there! Yup, still working! Never had a single crash ever since!!

 

[SlimeyGuy]

Glad to hear this, after all there seems to be a fix to this mysterious issue lol. I was really desperate because even after returning the card to Asus and after them "allegedly" fixing it crashes still occurred. :/ Well I got one more month of warranty left so I'll return it once again tomorrow and if the problem is still existing I will try your fix.

 

[Marco_l87]

I hope my fix will also work for you! I am also not very sure about what "my fix" is about

• Could have been the thermal paste replacement (but again temperatures were already normal)
• Could have been the dust but I highly doubt it as there was very little because my case has dust filters
• Could have been just removing and reseating the GPU in the Pci-E slot
• Could have been anything really

In case nothing you do solves the problem and the warranty goes off, there's still the heat gun solution... but the risk of breaking the card for good is high...
Anyway, good luck!

 

[SlimeyGuy]

Thanks for listing your steps in one place I'll hope for the best!

 

[Marco_l87]

Well I guess talking about it brought bad luck....
Today (right after a Warzone update, again) the artifacts are back!

 

[SlimeyGuy]

Sad to hear the bad news. Guess we're in the same boat again haha. :/

 

[Marco_l87]

I will try the heat gun in a week and see if that solved the issue, if not, i'm getting a new card :\

 

[SlimeyGuy]

Good luck!!