Question RTX 2080 Super OC - Screen turning Black and fans going to 100%

[CarefulMeow]

I have a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super, that is crashing under load. The screen goes black and the fans turn up to full blast until I turn the system off.
The rest of the PC seems unaffected (Discord still works for a period after the screen goes black)
It's operates fine when not gaming.

I have managed to determine that using the GeForce App to turn the Power maximum % right down (min=42%), it stops it crashing. (almost indefinitely)
When I turn the Power maximum % up to 100 whilst in a game it crashes instantly.
It seems to crash around the 60/70% mark.
I am also getting a zapping or arcing sound that increases in intensity as I turn the Power Maximum % Setting up (only when the PC is under load (In game) - which is also concerning!

I have completely factory reset the machine and all drives
Run DDU and reinstalled with fresh drivers
Re-applied thermal paste and pads (thermals now much better but it didn't seem to be a huge problem before)
Reset the overclocking to factory

To be honest I am completely stumped beyond either living with the power@42% and occasional crash or scrapping the card.
Grateful for any ideas or thoughts!

Specs
OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Home
Version 10.0.26100 Build 26100
GPU: Gigabyte Gaming OC GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3600 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 2101, 11/01/2024
BaseBoard Product PRIME Z390-A
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32.0 GB
PSU: Corsair RM750W 80+ Gold Cert ATX Power Supply

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

I am also getting a zapping or arcing sound that increases in intensity as I turn the Power Maximum % Setting up (only when the PC is under load (In game) - which is also concerning!
Might want to roll up a sheet of A4 paper, then hold one end to your ear while the other end is used to probe for the source of the sound.

I have completely factory reset the machine and all drives
You could also perform a clean install of the OS after recreating the bootable USB installer in offline mode and then manually installing all relevant drivers with the latest version to see if the issue persists.

PSU: Corsair RM750W 80+ Gold Cert ATX Power Supply
How old is the PSU in your build?

From what you've described, it might be one of two things;
1| Your PSU is having issue delivering power to the card when the latter is taxed
or
2| Your GPU's power delivery componentry are failing.

You might want to source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built PSU that can deliver 650W of power to the entire system and see if the issue rears it's head again. If your GPU behaves the same way on another system with a reliably built PSU, then the problem is your GPU.

 

[CarefulMeow]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

I am also getting a zapping or arcing sound that increases in intensity as I turn the Power Maximum % Setting up (only when the PC is under load (In game) - which is also concerning!
Might want to roll up a sheet of A4 paper, then hold one end to your ear while the other end is used to probe for the source of the sound.

I have completely factory reset the machine and all drives
You could also perform a clean install of the OS after recreating the bootable USB installer in offline mode and then manually installing all relevant drivers with the latest version to see if the issue persists.

PSU: Corsair RM750W 80+ Gold Cert ATX Power Supply
How old is the PSU in your build?

From what you've described, it might be one of two things;
1| Your PSU is having issue delivering power to the card when the latter is taxed
or
2| Your GPU's power delivery componentry are failing.

You might want to source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built PSU that can deliver 650W of power to the entire system and see if the issue rears it's head again. If your GPU behaves the same way on another system with a reliably built PSU, then the problem is your GPU.

Hi, thanks for the welcome and swift response!

Might want to roll up a sheet of A4 paper, then hold one end to your ear while the other end is used to probe for the source of the sound.
Zapping sound is for sure coming from the right hand side of the GPU.

You could also perform a clean install of the OS after recreating the bootable USB installer in offline mode and then manually installing all relevant drivers with the latest version to see if the issue persists.
This might be slightly above my knowledge so will take a while to suss it out, but should probably give it a go. That said I'm quite confident at this stage that it's not a windows issue to be honest.

How old is the PSU in your build?
Same as the rest of the PC so 4 years

You might want to source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built PSU that can deliver 650W of power to the entire system and see if the issue rears it's head again. If your GPU behaves the same way on another system with a reliably built PSU, then the problem is your GPU.
You're totally right, really only the best way to get to the bottom of which component is making a fuss.

I have a recoding of the zapping sound and a couple of GPU-Z logs of the crashing, but nothing is standing out to me (I'm not totally sure what I should be looking for)

 

[Lutfij]

Zapping sound is for sure coming from the right hand side of the GPU.
use the A4 paper cylinder trick and then power down, inspect the connection to the GPU. Disassemble the card and inspect that are.

 

[CarefulMeow]

Zapping sound is for sure coming from the right hand side of the GPU.
use the A4 paper cylinder trick and then power down, inspect the connection to the GPU. Disassemble the card and inspect that are.

FYA, I've edited my reply with some more details!

 

[CarefulMeow]

Zapping sound is for sure coming from the right hand side of the GPU.
use the A4 paper cylinder trick and then power down, inspect the connection to the GPU. Disassemble the card and inspect that are.

Seems to be coming from the the area where PSU plugs into the GPU. Inspected and nothing seems off. Some Blueing around the Main Chips though and a potentially tragic thermal pasting job now I have had it apart so many times.

https://imgur.com/a/ks9h507

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/gpu-ks9h507