[SOLVED] Is my GPU definitely dead?

Aug 26, 2019
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About a week ago, I went to switch on my PC and nothing happened. It had been working the day before and there had been no indication that anything was amiss. There was an LED light on the motherboard but, nothing else happened.

First thing I did was swap the PSU for a new one. This seemed like a relatively cheap thing to test. Same symptoms (ie. nothing happened!)

Next, I disconnected everything apart from the CPU & 1 x RAM stick and removed the GPU. This time, the PC powers up fine. Swapped to the other RAM stick. Powers up fine. So, I reconnect the drives but, leave the GPU out and I could boot into windows no problem.

To my inexperienced mind, this meant either the GPU or motherboard are possible culprits (is this right?)

I tried the GPU is another PCI slot - PC won't boot. I borrowed an old GPU from someone and, with that installed, the PC powers up fine (However, I cannot check the output as it has no HDMI slot).

System details:-
Asus Z170-E mobo
i7 quad core processor
16gb RAM
Geforce 1070 GTX
Corsair CX 650M PSU

It seems reasonable to conclude from these tests that the GPU is dead and that I now have an 'upgrade opportunity' but, before ordering a new one, I want to be certain that I haven't missed anything or that there are other tests I should do to be certain the GPU is the problem.

To be clear, I am neither confident nor experienced in these matters so, apologies if I have missed any essential information. Unfortunately, I don't have any other machine I can use to test the 1070 GPU.

Thank you in advance
 
Solution
Nobody likes an unresolved thread! I took the GPU to a local PC repair shop, who has confirmed the GPU is indeed dead.

So I have now ordered a shiny new 2080 XC2 Ultra Gaming GPU. In advance of it's arrival, I thought I would uninstall the drivers of the existing card but, they don't seem to appear in the add/remove programs list. I see an NVidia 3D vision controller driver, Nvidia Geforce Experience and Nvidia PhysX system software.

This raises a few questions which I'm hoping you knowledgable chaps can answer for me:-

1 - Do I need to uninstall the drivers before installing the new card?
2 - If so, how do I do it?
3 - Should I uninstall any of the Nvidia software listed above?

Thanks in advance :)
Aug 26, 2019
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The original PSU was the same brand, although a slightly better model (gold as opposed to bronze, whatever that means!) I swapped to a brand new PSU and swapped all cables with those provided with the new unit.

The setup had been running without issue for a little over 3 years.

When I originally specced the machine, I was told I didn't need a 650W PSU and did I want a 550W unit instead. I stuck with the 650W option in case of future upgrades.
 
To my inexperienced mind, this meant either the GPU or motherboard are possible culprits (is this right?)

I tried the GPU is another PCI slot - PC won't boot. I borrowed an old GPU from someone and, with that installed, the PC powers up fine (However, I cannot check the output as it has no HDMI slot).

If one of the OLD GPUs work fine on your system, then I don't think there might be some problem with the PCI-Express x16 slot.
 
Aug 26, 2019
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It seemed to work, in the sense that the system powered up okay. I drew the same conclusion as you but, to be sure, I tried the GPU I suspect has failed in a different PCI slot and the system still wouldn't power up - which again indicates the GPU is the problem, right?

In case it matters, the old GPU I tested with didn't require any additional power from the PSU.
 
Aug 26, 2019
4
0
10
Nobody likes an unresolved thread! I took the GPU to a local PC repair shop, who has confirmed the GPU is indeed dead.

So I have now ordered a shiny new 2080 XC2 Ultra Gaming GPU. In advance of it's arrival, I thought I would uninstall the drivers of the existing card but, they don't seem to appear in the add/remove programs list. I see an NVidia 3D vision controller driver, Nvidia Geforce Experience and Nvidia PhysX system software.

This raises a few questions which I'm hoping you knowledgable chaps can answer for me:-

1 - Do I need to uninstall the drivers before installing the new card?
2 - If so, how do I do it?
3 - Should I uninstall any of the Nvidia software listed above?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Solution