GTX 980 on its deathbed.

[Malik Sajid]

Hi, guys!

I've just bought an used gtx 980, I installed it, powered up my machine, passed POST without any issues. But at the very first moment Windows gets involved, the screen turns into a rippling horizontal lines festival.

Since the problem didn't arose while POST nor in BIOS, by that time I was completely convinced it's a software-related problem, so I went ahead and cleaned my old AMD drivers, installed latest NVIDIA drivers, but that only made matters worse, now whenever I tries to boot up, Windows just crashes on the loading logo.

I uninstalled the drivers again so I can at least log into Windows, and now everything seems to be fine and fully stable without the driver, I even managed to watch some movies.

Here are a couple of things I'v noticed:
- Setting resolution above 800x600 makes the horizontal lines appear. (vRAM issue?)

- if I take a screenshot, these lines don't appear in that screenshot. looks like the problem is happening after the image gets computed internally, that led me to think it got something to do with TMDS, so I tried to connect the GPU over DVI-I to VGA converter to send the signal over RAMDAC but that got me nowhere.

I also tried to flash the latest BIOS provided by MSI.

Out of desperation, I decided to take the card apart to physically examine it, didn't notice anything bad except that vRAM chips had some oilly stains around it, I thought it could be flux and the previous owner had baked this card, but it looks like these stains are coming from the thermal pads which were so sticky and greasy, also the entire chip was extremely covered by a cheap thermal paste, I gave the card a nice alcohol bath, reapplied thermal paste and cleaned all the mess, but the problem still exists.

What do you think?

 

[Regeneration]

Defective. Return it or bake it.

 

[Frick]

Defective. Return it or bake it.

Wouldn't count on that working, afaik the 9xx series didn't really have problems baking could fix (compared to say the 8000 series).

 

[Malik Sajid]

I'm really not into baking the card especially in an oven, I'm willing to give it to a technician to reball it but first I want to know whether it's a GPU or vram problem. If it's a vram problem, could it also get reballed just like GPU?

 

[xtreemchaos]

that TIM looks like toothpaste, return bro.

 

[silentbogo]

It looks like defective vRAM. It's definitely fixable and if you have a decent workshop in your area that won't charge you an arm and a leg - it'll be relatively cost-effective.
You can try the latest version of MATS utility (low-level memory test). I should have it somewhere, will post it in a minute.

Defective. Return it or bake it.

Fuck no. Don't bake it.

 

[Malik Sajid]

that TIM looks like toothpaste, return bro.

Unfortunately I can't return it, I bought it untested and the previous owner is saying it was fully operational, it's my fault.

It looks like defective vRAM. It's definitely fixable and if you have a decent workshop in your area that won't charge you an arm and a leg - it'll be relatively cost-effective.
You can try the latest version of MATS utility (low-level memory test). I should have it somewhere, will post it in a minute.


Fuck no. Don't bake it.

Thanks! There's a technician nearby, who offered me to reball the gpu, but I just just wanted to hear your thoughts before I give it to him.

I'm waiting for that utility, didn't hear about it before.

 

[xtreemchaos]

have you tryed a diff hmdi/ display port lead ?. here in the uk it would cost more to reball than it would be worth, you can pick up rx580 for less money.

 

[Malik Sajid]

have you tryed a diff hmdi/ display port lead ?. here in the uk it would cost more to reball than it would be worth, you can pick up rx580 for less money.

The card coming with 1x HDMI, 1x DVI-I and 3x DP

As I've said I already tried to send the signal over DVI to VGA, so a different interface and a different cable, but with no luck.

Also these artifacts don't appears in BIOS or when resolution is set to 800x600 so it's also not a monitor issue.

I will see how much would it cost me to get it reballed and I'll evaluate my choices.

Another thing makes me suspect vram, that GPU-Z doesn't return some data related to the memory in an accurate manner but that could be due to the driver isn't installed.

 

[xtreemchaos]

have you tryed updating the bios, people dont normaly mod nvidia bios but it has been known to happen or it could be bugged out.

 

[Malik Sajid]

have you tryed updating the bios, people dont normaly mod nvidia bios but it has been known to happen or it could be bugged out.

Yeah, when it comes to the second-hand market it's more likely to find Maxwell cards are BIOS modified due to their overclocking potential.

I was aware of that, so I asked MSI support to provide me with latest BIOS for the card but they've refused for some strange reasons, but an admin in the community forum did help and gave me the latest BIOS after checking my S/N.

 

[Vya Domus]

Never buy anything that you can't test prior, also avoid buying cards that are older than 3-4 years. It's a dud, you're wasting your time baking it, trying other outputs etc. I also can't see how any shop would be bothered to search for new memory chips and try and fix the card, it's a pretty tedious process and there is no guarantee it will fix anything. Only thing left to try is flash an original BIOS for this card but this looks like a hardware fault.

Anyway I see that you had a 570, what made you upgrade ? Those two cards are pretty much the same performance wise.

 

[Malik Sajid]

Never buy anything that you can't test prior, also avoid buying cards that are older than 3-4 years. It's a dud, you're wasting your time baking it, trying other outputs etc. I also can't see how any shop would be bothered to search for new memory chips and try and fix the card, it's a pretty tedious process and there is no guarantee it will fix anything. Only thing left to try is flash an original BIOS for this card but this looks like a hardware fault.

Anyway I see that you had a 570, what made you upgrade ? Those two cards are pretty much the same performance wise.

I was ashamed to mention that I sold my rx 570 8gb to get the gtx 980, it could even be considered as a downgrade, but I really have had enough of AMD drivers especially lacking a proper vsync controller for DX apps, I'm not justifying my move here, it was really a bad one.

 

[Vya Domus]

I really have had enough of AMD drivers especially lacking a proper vsync controller for DX apps, I'm not justifying my move here, it was really a bad one.

I have trouble with V-sync as well with my 1080 from time to time, I don't think it's a vendor specific issue. It's a Windows issue.

 

[Malik Sajid]

I have trouble with V-sync as well with my 1080 from time to time, I don't think it's a vendor specific issue. It's a Windows issue.

No No, what I'm talking about is an old known issue with AMD driver, it only has vsync controller for opengl apps, it's not that they implement it in a bad way for DX, it's not even there.

 

[Caring1]

Unfortunately I can't return it, I bought it untested and the previous owner is saying it was fully operational.

They lied, return it.
They knew there was a problem and thought repasting it could help.

 

[Assimilator]

The card is dead or as good as. Baking/reballing/reflowing is not going to help it because identifying the underlying issue, is nearly impossible. It could be a faulty VRAM chip, a defective GPU memory controller, or a burnt trace... to name only 3 of the millions of possibilities. You or any electronics expert are almost certainly not going to be able to fix it, regardless of what sort of tools you may or may not have.

The advice you should be asking for now is how to get the seller to give you your money back, and to help you with that we need to know how you bought the card. Was it face-to-face? Ebay? Etc.

 

[Malik Sajid]

They lied, return it.
They knew there was a problem and thought repasting it could help.

The card is dead or as good as. Baking/reballing/reflowing is not going to help it because identifying the underlying issue, is nearly impossible. It could be a faulty VRAM chip, a defective GPU memory controller, or a burnt trace... to name only 3 of the millions of possibilities. You or any electronics expert are almost certainly not going to be able to fix it, regardless of what sort of tools you may or may not have.

The advice you should be asking for now is how to get the seller to give you your money back, and to help you with that we need to know how you bought the card. Was it face-to-face? Ebay? Etc.

Thank you guys for your concern! I really don't see any way could bring my money back, it's gone with the wind.

I made the deal with the guy on OLX a platform similar to eBay, we arranged an appointment so I met him face to face yeah, he now simply refuse to admit that the card was defective, and I'm not gonna beg him to return it, it was my fault after all, I should've tested it.

But for now I got nothing but trying to fix it, after finishing my work, I'm gonna give MATS utility a shot to see if it could detect any vRAM errors or it just can rest in peace beside my good old soldier R9 280x.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

This is why i dont buy used in any capacity. (save for cars)