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Thread: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

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    HEXUS.social member Disturbedguy's Avatar
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    Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Hi all,

    Bare with me while I try to explain the problem I am having.

    I have a 4GB EVGA GTX970 SC ACX2.0 and for the last few months have been having a strange issue in that my GPU fans spin up to almost max RPM for no apparent reason.

    I can be sat browsing the web and the fans will just spin up. The problem initially started with a sound that I initially believed was something hitting the fan, when I checked what I noticed was that one fan was spinning freely while the other fan was attempting to spin, then stopping. I did some googling and most things I found suggested that it had happened for others and the fix used was to use the EVGA Precision X software to manually set the fan speed to 100% for a few seconds and then drop this down to 0 again.

    I did this and it initially seemed to fix the problem, however for the past month or so its an almost daily occurrence that the fans spin up without, from what I can tell, any reason.

    I initially thought it was an issue with overheating but the temps when browsing the web sit around 27 degree's, this has been checked with EVGA Precision X and GPU Z so I don't think over heating is the issue.

    What I did notice in EVGA Precision X is that the GPU and Memory clock shoot up and then the fans kick in, almost every time the GPU clock spikes to 1164MHz while the Memory Clock spikes to 3505MHz and I can't figure out why. I haven't tried OC'ing the card or setting it to use the boost clock or any of that stuff.

    Thing's I've tried -

    Removing and re-seating the GPU
    Disconnecting and reconnecting the power connectors
    Swapping the leads (modular PSU)
    Making sure the fans on the GPU are clean
    Setting a custom fan curve to try and keep the fans spinning but at a relatively low RPM
    Updating NVidia driver
    Updating EVGA Precision X to latest version
    Using EVGA Precision X to set all settings to Default, just to be sure

    The last thing I can think of, is to try uninstalling the EVGA Precision X software to see if its having the software installed, that is causing the issues.

    Any help / advice would be appreciated.
    Quote Originally Posted by TAKTAK View Post
    It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...

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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Can you post your build? It could be motherboard, PSU or GPU.

    Try the 970 in another PC.

    Try another card in your PC.

    It could just be one fan faulty. Check the lead from the fan to the PCB. Maybe the lead got damaged by the fan - "something hitting the fan"

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    HEXUS.social member Disturbedguy's Avatar
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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Quote Originally Posted by i7Baby View Post
    Can you post your build? It could be motherboard, PSU or GPU.

    Try the 970 in another PC.

    Try another card in your PC.

    It could just be one fan faulty. Check the lead from the fan to the PCB. Maybe the lead got damaged by the fan - "something hitting the fan"
    Screenshot

    Don't have another PC or other card to test.

    PSU is a 1000W Corsair PSU - few years old.

    It could just be one fan faulty. Check the lead from the fan to the PCB. Maybe the lead got damaged by the fan - "something hitting the fan" - this would involve removing the shroud, something I am not prepared to do.
    Quote Originally Posted by TAKTAK View Post
    It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...

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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    You don't know anyone else with a PC?

    1000W should be high quality. What model?

    If you don't want to do a teardown, maybe take it to a shop, get a friend to help or borrow or buy a replacement GPU. You are boxing yourself in as to what you can do.
    Has the lead been damaged by the fan? Can you see?

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    HEXUS.social member Disturbedguy's Avatar
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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Quote Originally Posted by i7Baby View Post
    You don't know anyone else with a PC?
    - That's not what I said. I said I didn't have another PC or another card to test - which is what you asked.

    Quote Originally Posted by i7Baby View Post
    If you don't want to do a teardown, maybe take it to a shop, get a friend to help or borrow or buy a replacement GPU. You are boxing yourself in as to what you can do.
    Has the lead been damaged by the fan? Can you see?
    - With all due respect, I'm not boxing myself into anything. Why would I take apart a GPU, that I believe is still covered by EVGA's warranty?

    Anyway, a work colleague may have a 970 (same model as mine) going spare to allow me to test, won't know until tomorrow.
    Quote Originally Posted by TAKTAK View Post
    It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...

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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Given it happens when the GPU clocks tick upwards it sounds like something momentarily loads the GPU, and I'd guess there's a profile somewhere that links the fan speed to the GPU load rather than the temperature.

    All sorts of things can load the GPU momentarily - the first suspect would be flash/HTML5 adverts/video/etc. (this happens on my laptop on a semi-regular basis: I'll scroll down a website or load a new page and the laptop fan will suddenly kick in and occasionlly the browser will freeze as it atempts to access the GPU for acceleration).

    If the temperatures are stable then I don't think it's anything much to worry about, but it'd be handy if you could find out what's causing that GPU load...

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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    May not help directly but I had the 970 SC model and never ever had the fans just spin up. As you know they are stopped until the temp rises then they start moving. But never had that issue. I had a problem with it crashing in certain games and sent the card to EVGA who sent me back the upgraded 970 SSC so bonus there.

    As scaryjim says things do load the gpu but I never had that. Maybe run a live linux and load that up and browse some web pages etc and see if it happens in linux, if not could be software related rather than the card itself.
    Jon

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    HEXUS.social member Disturbedguy's Avatar
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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    Given it happens when the GPU clocks tick upwards it sounds like something momentarily loads the GPU, and I'd guess there's a profile somewhere that links the fan speed to the GPU load rather than the temperature.

    All sorts of things can load the GPU momentarily - the first suspect would be flash/HTML5 adverts/video/etc. (this happens on my laptop on a semi-regular basis: I'll scroll down a website or load a new page and the laptop fan will suddenly kick in and occasionlly the browser will freeze as it atempts to access the GPU for acceleration).

    If the temperatures are stable then I don't think it's anything much to worry about, but it'd be handy if you could find out what's causing that GPU load...
    Cheers Jim.

    Yesterday I watched / monitored GPU Z and Task Manager before it started spinning up and I didn't notice any additional load / temporary load on either the CPU or GPU but the fans span up and sat at 2000RPM for a few minutes before it dropped again for a second then span up again.

    If my colleague does manage to bring in a 970 tomorrow (or even tonight) then I will test with that GPU and see what happens.
    If it doesn't happened with the loaned GPU (ill give it a day or two) ill switch back to my own GPU and see if it happens again, if it doesn't I've clearly been a berk and missed something obvious during my checking / testing.
    Quote Originally Posted by TAKTAK View Post
    It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...

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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Would it be worth partitioning the hard drive, installing a fresh copy of windows, doing a bit of testing to see if there's something you may have accidentally clicked when configuring the fan profile?
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    HEXUS.social member Disturbedguy's Avatar
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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    Quote Originally Posted by MrRockliffe View Post
    Would it be worth partitioning the hard drive, installing a fresh copy of windows, doing a bit of testing to see if there's something you may have accidentally clicked when configuring the fan profile?
    Funny you should say this - I was planning a rebuild / format during my time off in a few weeks - so this will definitely be something on my list to remember / look out for.
    Quote Originally Posted by TAKTAK View Post
    It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...

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    HEXUS.social member Disturbedguy's Avatar
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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    So, my work colleague dropped a GTX off for me last night.
    Swapped the cards out and the machine ran fine, no random GPU fan spin up or the like.
    So at this point im suspecting a faulty GPU will know more when I swap mine back in and see if it still happens
    Quote Originally Posted by TAKTAK View Post
    It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...

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    Re: Is my GTX 970 Faulty?

    As I said I had that very card and the same Precision x software and never had anything like you did.

    I think EVGA returns has changed to the UK now but I sent it off to wherever it went to and the turnaround was pretty quick.
    Jon

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