Defective RTX 3070 and now computer won't start?

[draemn]

This is more of just a record keeping of my problem as I work with it, but if anyone has suggestions, feel free to comment.

1. Had a 3070 Tuf plugged into computer and no issues for 1 month.
2. Got a 3070 eagle OC and swapped it out, computer booted and had some issues with display drivers and the new GPU (wasn't seamless)
3. Updated to latest nvidia drivers 461.09 (Jan 7 release)
   1. Fan kicked into over-drive on the GPU... just the first fan (closest to the display adapters), as I would come to learn later. This fan continues to run like a bat out of hell while HwMonitor reports fans at 0 RPM. Temps are low.
   2. Cannot use start button or windows hotkey on keyboard, had to ctrl+alt+del to get the power menu to restart computer
4. After rebooting fan problem starts up again within a couple minutes, but this point I don't know I have a problem, just that the GPU fan is insanely loud for the temperatures. Go ahead and play video games for a couple hours keeping HwMonitor open to keep an eye on the situation. At some point HwMonitor reports the GPU fans ramping up but the noise is the exact same, but at least no more 0 rpm.
   1. Tired to reboot computer again, couldn't use start menu, just used reset button on case.
   2. Fan problem doesn't stop this time, continues to persist the entire time computer is rebooting
5. Uninstall nvidia driver through "control panel" and immediately fan ramps down to a lower (but still high) RPM when the process starts, second monitor becomes disabled.
   1. Restart computer (I forget how, but I think I had to use the ctrl + alt + del again)
   2. oddly enough, computer monitor ends up working at full resolution but I can't find nvidia control panel, so drivers are not installed?
   3. Install older drivers 460.89 and I think my problems are fixed but turns out the problem comes back and again later and I can't use the windows button or hotkey for the start menu to come up.
6. Do some experimenting with the fans and manually setting fan speeds (MSI afterburner)
   1. If computer boots without any fans spinning (intended behavior) all the fans work properly with afterburner and behave as expected
   2. As soon as 1st fan starts spinning like a bat out of hell, software thinks all fans are 0 RPM and no other fans are spinning
   3. When other fans are told to spin, software reports their fan speed, but only the 3rd fan spins, 2nd fan doesn't spin.
   4. Noticed the 2nd (middle) fan has a little twitch
7. Re-seat the GPU, completely unplug it and plug it back in, boot computer.
   1. Get the small amount of time of no fan problem and then it happens within 1-2 minutes of starting computer
   2. within 5 minutes computer crashes and just shuts off.
   3. Won't turn on anymore, press power button and get all lights to quickly flicker on and then power button does nothing anymore
      1. discharging the power (unplug or turn off switch) and then pressing power button causes a quick flicker again but then nothing
8. Uninstall 3070 eagle and re-install the 3070 tuf that was working fine for a month
   1. Won't turn on anymore, press power button and get all lights to quickly flicker on and then power button does nothing anymore
      1. discharging the power and trying again get same results
9. Decided to swap the PSU, same problem
10. Decided to remove GPU and start removing RAM sticks same problem
11. Reset CMOS
12. Looked at the riser cable I was using to plug in my sound card, removed it just to be safe
13. Computer works!!!! 3070 eagle is still giving me the broken fan issues but now windows start menu works

 

[Izerous]

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[draemn]

what the ever hell... the riser cable was causing my computer to fail to start.... The 3070 eagle is still defective, but at least my computer boots.

 

[Sagath]

what the ever hell... the riser cable was causing my computer to fail to start.... The 3070 eagle is still defective, but at least my computer boots.

TLDW; try changing your mobo setting to PCIE3 from 4. If that doesnt work, but a really expensive cable.

 

[sswilson]

Did you use DDU when you switched cards? How about uninstalling AB?

 

[Izerous]

what the ever hell... the riser cable was causing my computer to fail to start.... The 3070 eagle is still defective, but at least my computer boots.

But the riser cable was only plugged into the soundcard not the GPU !?! or a riser cable for each

 

[draemn]

TLDW; try changing your mobo setting to PCIE3 from 4. If that doesnt work, but a really expensive cable.

Lol, you're funny. My mobo is 7 years old, there is no PCIe 4 option

Did you use DDU when you switched cards? How about uninstalling AB?

Nope. I didn't have any problems with my 3070 tuf when I installed it from my 780. AfterBurner I actually installed AFTER the 3070 eagle so I could change the fan speeds via software. I'll try DDU now that I've got the computer running again.

But the riser cable was only plugged into the soundcard not the GPU !?! or a riser cable for each

Yeah, I have my GPU plugged into the first slot and I didn't want to choke the fans with the sound card, so I used the riser cable to plug the sound card into the last slot on the motherboard and then installed it (floating) on the 7th slot. I'm using a mATX motherboard, so hence why the 7th slot on the case isn't on the motherboard itself.

 

[Sagath]

I missed the fact its the sound card not the GPU my bad. Its obviously still an issue with the sound card, regardless though.

Why it materialized when you put a new GPU in...well now thats the question.

 

[sswilson]

Did you have any kind of ASUS control software that might be tied to the vid card? (Long shot, but I'd uninstall that as well)

 

[draemn]

I missed the fact its the sound card not the GPU my bad. Its obviously still an issue with the sound card, regardless though.

Why it materialized when you put a new GPU in...well now thats the question.

It might be that I'm using a full length PCIe riser cable for a 1x slot sound card? It probably wiggled a little loose and caused an issue. I'm too scared to try plugging in the riser cable by itself (no sound card attached) to test out more theories... I just want to go back to solving my 3070 eagle or getting a RMA as a last solution.