Question Is my MSI Gtx 970 dead?

[nick_gregarek]

Hi everyone, I have been having this issue with what i believe is my gpu. It was working fine with no problems for about a year or two, I then went to reset windows because it was acting slow and i presumed that i had too much installed or whatever. However after reinstalling windows, my gpu will most of the time not boot into windows, creates these red pixelated lines and my pc sounds like a mini car engine revving up.

I tried installing the latest drivers and even rolling back to old ones. I cannot test it on any other computer nor do i have a PSU to test. The weird thing is after I install the new drivers it will work for that time being until I shut my PC down and sometimes even after that. It even can go through a gpu stress test in that time period. But then it will either crash whilst i am doing something or wont boot into windows and instead the motherboard logo appears, the pixalated lines appear, and it goes on a loop until it gives me the option to boot into safe mode. My bios is updated, mobo drivers are installed, etc. I cant think of anything else.

I am pretty sure my gpu is dead/failing but any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much

PC Specs:

GPU: MSI GTX 970
MOBO: MSI Z97 PC Mate
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690k
RAM: Ballistix Sport 4GB Ram X2(8Gb)
PSU: Corsair CX750M
Storage: WD Blue 1TB
Lemme know if i forgot something 😀

 

[JakeyPoo]

That CPU has Intel Graphics. Try removing the graphics card entirely, and booting. If same problem persists, it's definitely not the card at fault.

edit- Yes, I did come across this randomly and made an account just to answer. Hello, Tomshardware... I'm finally one with you now.

 

[spencer.cleaves2]

If you are able to boot up with Integrated graphics from your CPU (pretty sure that i5 5690K supports integrated graphics) without the GPU installed, it is definitely a GPU issue. You could also try DDU your drivers in Safe Mode, then re-install. If you are still getting the issue without the GPU installed, we can assume that the GPU isn't causing the issue, and move to a different component like the PSU. If you are worried about not having a spare PSU laying around to test, here is what I have done in the past when I was troubleshooting:
-Go to Best Buy (or computer hardware store in you area)
-Let the sales person know that you are purchasing the PSU to test and will be returning it if it doesn't solve your issue
-Take it back to your PC and hook it up and find out if it solves your issue
-If it does fix it, you can either keep it or return it and get your preferred PSU (Seasonic, Corsair, ect.) assuming the hardware store in your area doesn't have the model you might want.
-If it doesn't fix anything, return it and continue troubleshooting

 

[nick_gregarek]

If you are able to boot up with Integrated graphics from your CPU (pretty sure that i5 5690K supports integrated graphics) without the GPU installed, it is definitely a GPU issue. You could also try DDU your drivers in Safe Mode, then re-install. If you are still getting the issue without the GPU installed, we can assume that the GPU isn't causing the issue, and move to a different component like the PSU. If you are worried about not having a spare PSU laying around to test, here is what I have done in the past when I was troubleshooting:
-Go to Best Buy (or computer hardware store in you area)
-Let the sales person know that you are purchasing the PSU to test and will be returning it if it doesn't solve your issue
-Take it back to your PC and hook it up and find out if it solves your issue
-If it does fix it, you can either keep it or return it and get your preferred PSU (Seasonic, Corsair, ect.) assuming the hardware store in your area doesn't have the model you might want.
-If it doesn't fix anything, return it and continue troubleshooting

Tested it with the integrated graphics and it works fine. Does this mean the gpu is done forever or is there hope? The only reason Im not sure its dead is because it only happened after i reinstalled windows, no huge amount of stress on it.

 

[spencer.cleaves2]

Well since we narrowed it down to your GPU, I would download the DDU software and DDUing your drivers in Safe Mode if you haven't tried that already. If you are unfamiliar on how to DDU your drivers in Safe Mode, I will link you a video. After you DDU your drivers, it will completely wipe all the drivers on your PC. Once you boot back up to regular windows (not in safe mode) you will just need to reinstall the newest ones again. Hopefully this helps, if not I hope there is someone who knows more about your issue than I do, but your GPU may be dead.

Video Link for DDUing Drivers:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxiLwLCxmkk

 

[nick_gregarek]

Well since we narrowed it down to your GPU, I would download the DDU software and DDUing your drivers in Safe Mode if you haven't tried that already. If you are unfamiliar on how to DDU your drivers in Safe Mode, I will link you a video. After you DDU your drivers, it will completely wipe all the drivers on your PC. Once you boot back up to regular windows (not in safe mode) you will just need to reinstall the newest ones again. Hopefully this helps, if not I hope there is someone who knows more about your issue than I do, but your GPU may be dead.

Video Link for DDUing Drivers:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxiLwLCxmkk

Ok thank you for the help. I have booted into safe mode and DDU my drivers. It works for a time and i can even run a stress test on it but will not work after 1-2 restarts. I will try it again but I think the best bet is the gpu is dead.

Thank you again for the help!

 

[spencer.cleaves2]

Ok thank you for the help. I have booted into safe mode and DDU my drivers. It works for a time and i can even run a stress test on it but will not work after 1-2 restarts. I will try it again but I think the best bet is the gpu is dead.

Thank you again for the help!

Yea maybe someone else will have some input that might help but that is the extent of my troubleshooting (without taking the whole GPU apart)