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What happened to my 1080Ti?

penailija

penailija

penailija

Associate
Joined
19 Feb 2019
Posts
4
I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

I have been using my Zotac Geforce GTX1080Ti Blower -graphics card for roughly a year now. I assembled a custom loop few days ago and did everything as cautiously as i could. After reassembling everything I have not been able to get video out of my GPU anymore. UEFI changes video-output on every boot from PCI-E to CPU and Windows' device manager says that GPU is not working right with error code 43. I have also put back the stock cooler and tried the card on several different computers, same result.

I'm quite certain that my graphics card didn't get a single drop of water on it. I also didn't apply physical force to it. However, I spotted a strange mark on top of one PCI-E lane on the PCB. Can anyone help identifying that what is going on in there and where has this mark came from? Do I have any possibility of a warranty claim anymore? :(

Images provided below.

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That's a short, notice the bare copper, the bubbling is from heat. You likely scratched it or something during handling. At this point, it's safe to say it's bricked, as for RMA, I very much doubt it.
 
agnes said:
That's a short, notice the bare copper, the bubbling is from heat. You likely scratched it or something during handling. At this point, it's safe to say it's bricked, as for RMA, I very much doubt it.
Click to expand...

Alright. Thanks for the rapid reply.

I have handled so many GPUs in my life and been so much more sloppier during the processes and never broke one. This time I really tried to do everything as slowly and carefully as I could, since this was the most expensive GPU I have ever had. Not one part of the process comes to my mind when I would've damaged that spot or something would've shorted it. If I knew that at which point I screwed up, I would have a much more calm mind. Now I just keep thinking that how is this even possible.
 
Azrael1 said:
Happened to me once when I fitted a custom cooler years ago. The video card was just never right again.
Click to expand...

Tried to RMA it?

Maybe I'll try to RMA my card, worth giving a shot at least. This was the first custom loop I built and I really enjoyed doing it. Real shame that it ended up like this. But I'm not going to give up! :rolleyes:
 
Put the stock cooler back on and RMA it, probably just a coincidence that it decided to fail after you'd fitted the water block.
 
You cant RMA the card Zotac dont allow for cooler to be removed breaks the warranty as soon as you take it off.
 
Depending on what your soldering skills are like, you may be able to solder fine gauge wires from the two gold PCI pads at the bottom of the first image, to wherever they go to. Very 'Buildzoid' I know, but doable.
Make sure that where the burn mark is there is an open line on the traces and that they're not touching each other. Then a drop of conformal coating or clear nail polish to seal the exposed traces.
 
As others have said, slap the stock cooler back on it and RMA it mate, for the cost of postage, it's worth a shot.

And same thing happened to me, I was SLI'ing 2 GTX 8800's with Danger Den blocks, one of them randomly just kicked the bucket. And you may have been as careful as always, it might have just been the cards time. Not your fault, it's just one of those things.
 
penailija said:
Tried to RMA it?

Maybe I'll try to RMA my card, worth giving a shot at least. This was the first custom loop I built and I really enjoyed doing it. Real shame that it ended up like this. But I'm not going to give up! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
just dont tell them you put it into a custom water loop that will be the excuse they use to not give you another card if you do. just say its not working and you have seen that mark.
 
Looking at the picture the bubble is under the coating so does not show any sign of mecanical damage. So RMA it. Its up to them to prove you damaged it make sure all screws are not damaged and theres no sign of the cooler being off.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Really appreciate the helpfulness around here.

I surely won't tell them that I've been trying to watercool the card. Luckily Zotac doesn't use "warranty void if removed" stickers on top of screwheads and the screws are really good quality. You can't even tell that I've been tightening and untightening them several times by looking at the heads. On the outside the card looks just like the cooler has never been removed. However, if they remove it I think they can tell from the thermal paste that I have opened it.

I'll try to RMA it anyway, I'll keep you posted how it goes. If they reject it and send it back to me maybe I'll try to buildzoid it. Nothing to lose at that point, right? :rolleyes:
 
If you get to the bullzoid stage, probably worth paying an electronics engineer with all the gear to attempt to solder that. If indeed that is the failure. Qualified PCB engineer could identify summat else. I can solder, but not on projects that delicate. To get a £500 card working could be worth it depending on the quote.
 
That’s a strange looking mark. It looks like nail varnish or some kind of resin. If they refuse the RMA I’d be tempted to use a tiny bit of something abrasive to remove it and inspect the traces underneath. As others have said you could possibly fix it yourself.

Saying this it may have nothing to do with the problem :(
 
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