Mobo or graphics card bad?

[danrogers1982]

I will try to keep this short. I built an i5-6600k with asus z170e motherboad and asus strix 980ti oc edition. WHen the card was in my z97 build i had a mild overclock on it. WHen I built into the z170 board, about 2 minutes into unigine after putting the OC on, pixelation on the screen and then a system freeze and reboot. Wiped 2 times and was never able to get my res back up to 2k, it would just pixelate and reboot. So i did a full wipe back to windows 8.1 pro, and managed to get the system back up to 2k@144hz. Fresh install and minimal driver install and did check in asus gpu tweak and msi afterburner that no OC was in effect. Started unigine and it crashed with pixelation. SO i took the card out, wiped again and used iGPU for a day or 2 to get homework done. Last night i slapped 2 powercolor r7 240's in, amd drivers, turned crossfire on and got freeze and reboot in games and benchmarks.

So, is my board bad?

My buddy is taking the strix home tonight to put in his build. So we will see, but wanted everyone's input on the board. Thanks.

 

[maestro0428]

What power supply are you using? Have you tried the gpu in a different slot? Sounds like a bad card to me, RMA if you still can. Asus is pretty good about repairs/returns.

 

[Shaun o]

Bit of a tricky one this.

The first thing to look at would be the differences between both systems.
In particular how different the power supply unit is from the z170e system build to the z97 system build.
If the powers supply's differ in brand and wattage, then the first thing I would do it swap power supply from the system you know worked when the 980 ti card had a slight overclock on it.

See if the pixelation on screen still happens and any system freeze Dan.

If you got the same result from the system that froze with the 980 ti card in it when you set up a crossfire of two R7 240 cards then it would point to the power supply as a possible cause.

Not every chip set of a motherboard is as stable as another some due to the components used can be a bit more tetchy when it comes to power provided by a set power supply unit.
Where another motherboard may have a larger tolerance to slight power fluctuations and compensate for the discrepancy much better.

So I do suggest that you swap power supply's to test if it is the case Dan.

In that way you can Identify if it is the problem and not have to spend hours messing around.

If it turns out to be right, then you know all you have to do is Buy another power supply or another of the same brand and wattage as the other power supply you tested the system with it the result is it remains stable with no screen artefacts or freezing of the system.

 

[danrogers1982]

I tried the second slot and same issue. THe power supply is a 750w EVGA gold. I am looking into rma'ing the card, but cant seem to find the serial number. None of the numbers alot the bottom will take on the asus rma page. Their site says the sn is on the back of the card but theres a backplate.

What power supply are you using? Have you tried the gpu in a different slot? Sounds like a bad card to me, RMA if you still can. Asus is pretty good about repairs/returns.

 

[danrogers1982]

The power supply issue was raised in my head, but in this case its fairly new and came over from the z97 build. well actually i just took the z97 components out of the case and put in z170 (mobo, cpu, ram and new cpu cooler). I have a 550w, but havent looked to see if it can handle the system. I will plug in into pcpartpicker after work. also, the 2 r7's dont pull of the psu directly so I gave the psu a pass for now.

Bit of a tricky one this.

The first thing to look at would be the differences between both systems.
In particular how different the power supply unit is from the z170e system build to the z97 system build.
If the powers supply's differ in brand and wattage, then the first thing I would do it swap power supply from the system you know worked when the 980 ti card had a slight overclock on it.

See if the pixelation on screen still happens and any system freeze Dan.

If you got the same result from the system that froze with the 980 ti card in it when you set up a crossfire of two R7 240 cards then it would point to the power supply as a possible cause.

Not every chip set of a motherboard is as stable as another some due to the components used can be a bit more tetchy when it comes to power provided by a set power supply unit.
Where another motherboard may have a larger tolerance to slight power fluctuations and compensate for the discrepancy much better.

So I do suggest that you swap power supply's to test if it is the case Dan.

In that way you can Identify if it is the problem and not have to spend hours messing around.

If it turns out to be right, then you know all you have to do is Buy another power supply or another of the same brand and wattage as the other power supply you tested the system with it the result is it remains stable with no screen artefacts or freezing of the system.

 

[danrogers1982]

another thing thats wierd, is the card does work. Its only after I put a load on it that it pixelates and crashed. THAT could mean psu yeah? Like the gpu would draw more wattage and the psu couldnt supply it so crash. THoughts?

 

[maestro0428]

It could still be the psu, but unless you can try the card in another system, I say RMA it. So the serial # isn't below the backplate on the pcie finger?