Nvidia 572.16 bricked my GPU!

[Mr Mcgoo]

I have had no issues with my rtx 4080 super until i installed the 572.16 driver and after an hour i got a black screen which i soon found out was an issue for many people. However, upon reboot, the vga led on my mobo lit up and no matter what i did it refused to boot. cmos reset even taking my entire pc out in case i had a random short and nothing. As soon as i put my rtx 2080 super in it booted no problem. So i tested my 4080 super in another pc and same issues with no sign of life.

I have contact inno3d via a support ticket on thursday morning and have had to response except the automated email explaining they will respond within 24 hours usually earlier. Anyone able to help her as i have not had the greatest luck with inno3d in the past?

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

Sooooooooo....

Other than installing the driver did you do anything else?

Nothing. This card has been running at 2700mhz 950mv under load. never gone above 68c and 80c hotspot 100% load. Vram temps 60c max. cpu 68c 100% load. This system has been running like a dream since i built it 8 months ago. Then my first driver update since the driver i installed 8 months ago did this. All went seemingly well until i was playing crossout @ 1440p 90fps cap. cpu and gpu under less than 50% load when it happened. I monitor all my system stats on a 10" monitor. All voltage, power, temps and fan speeds. Nothing changed. System black screen and rebooted to a vga light on the motherboard and it never came back to life

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

Check the 12VHPWR connector - had a few issues with them and 4000 series cards where they just stop the card working entirely when even very slightly out. These 572.16 drivers seem to have some issues though so wouldn't entirely rule it out - in very specific conditions they will result in a complete system reboot with my 4080 Super.

Thankfully i was fully aware of this issue when i purchased my gpu. So i brought myself the corsair 600watt 12vhpwr cable for my hx1000i. Nevertheless I checked the cable over and nothing looks damaged in anyway. In fact it looks as good as new. However, as luck would have it, my friend just a few doors down from me, who i was online with at the time (yes it is 1.30am and was there for all of 45 mins lol), allowed me to test my cable on his 4070 super of which worked fine under 100% load at 190watts undervolted. Also to say thanks, I let him keep the cable as the short cable that is provided with these gpus are so short and don't look nice hanging inside the case like they do.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

Doesn't OCUK handle the whole term of the warranty for Inno3D?

Yes they do but i didn't purchase the gpu from ocuk. so the retailer i brought this from said to contact inno3d via their support page and fill out the form which i did and if done correctly i should receive an email confirming a response within 24 hours of which almost 5 days later i have had no reply.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

Not necessarily damaged - I've had a 3 instances now with the 4000 series where the cable was just fractions of a millimetre not quite in place properly and the whole GPU wouldn't start up, I guess due to the sense pin but it was literally a hair difference between working fine and nothing. Had me sweating a few times and first time thinking of the whole connector melting thing.

upon receiving your message i just tried the original 3x8pin 12vhpwr cable that came with the gpu and i had no luck again. vga led on the motherboard is still there. Also forgot to mention. Earlier today i decided to update the firmware of my motherboard which already had the latest update when i installed it 8 months ago. just in case that was the issue and still nothing from the 4080 super

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

But those are all software issues resolved by rolling back driver. How would a driver damage physical hardware.

I do believe the driver was the issue as I have had no issues since I installed the 4080 super until the driver update black screen issue everyone else is getting. It is possible that the driver that caused the black screen and caused my pc to restart itself did something to the gpu that failed during the reboot process somehow?

Although, i do know a few people that have had a similar issue in regards to the black screen issue with most drivers past 552.44. However this is the first time i have had a black screen caused by a driver especially as this caused an potentially unrecoverable error.