3060Ti won't boot into Windows with latest drivers

[Zhaoman]

Hey guys,

I'm in a bit of a pickle. I managed to snag a 3060Ti (hallelujah) and it works perfectly until after the latest drivers are installed, then there is no signal. Everything works perfectly with my previous 1650 Super. This is what I have done:

1. Removed all drivers with DDU in Safe Mode.
2. Swapped 1650S with 3060Ti.
3. Boot into Windows and install the latest Nvidia drivers.
4. During the install process, the screen goes black and displays 'no signal'.
5. Restarting the PC, all of the debug LEDs flash on and then off like normal and I can get into the Bios no problem but after POST I get no signal. I don't know if it boots successfully into Windows or not. The card is definitely working because it can POST and runs fine in Safe Mode and also without drivers. But installing the latest drivers seem to result in no signal.
6. If I replace with my 1650S everything works perfectly and I can retry uninstalling drivers and repeat...

I have tried the latest 460.89 and the earliest 457.51 drivers that support the 3060Ti. I was reading around and maybe my next step is to try a clean install of Windows? I also notice there is a new AMD chipset driver since 11 December 2020 which I haven't installed. Any ideas?

My rig is: Ryzen 2600, 2x8GB Corsair Vengence, MSI B450I Gaming AC, 450W Silverstone SST-ST45SF, Sabrent Rocket SSD.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[kalniel]

I've encountered the same thing with Nvidia cards on occasion - seems like they don't output signals on ports they don't detect a cable/monitor on sometimes to save power. Sometimes fiddling with power saving options can help, other times a new cable/different monitor input did the trick.

[Zhaoman]

I've tried all the hdmi and displayport ports on the card as well as the monitor. I don't understand why it would output without a driver but fail when there is a driver? The 1650S works fine as well. Maybe I should install the driver with the 1650S and then tweak power management settings and then install the 3060? I've also disabled sleep/low-power settings for the pci-e slot in the bios. Do you think a clean windows install might work?

[Pob255]

it sounds like the card is having issues talking to the monitor, both hdmi and display port are a 2 way interface, gpu polls the monitor to get info from it, refresh rate, resolution, etc and when you install the drivers that communication if failing.

first step. run a windows 10 update, make sure it updates all drivers
motherboard bios update, it might be something screwy with pci-e gen4, although that's more likely to not detect the card in the first place before it get as far as windows (that's what happened with older pci-e gen changes)
if you've got a high refresh rate monitor with some form of overdrive/freesync/g-sync might be an idea to turn that off and remember to set windows back to 60hz

[Zhaoman]

Thanks both for your suggestions. I've already updated Windows 10 to the latest version. The only optional update I haven't installed is one called "Intel - net - 19.51.29.1", I assume that shouldn't help?
It does lean towards being a monitor handshake error of some sort so I'll try disabling freesync on the monitor, in fact I have now disabled all optional extras on the monitor like low latency as well. I have kept DDC/CI on as I assume that's what the GPU needs to handshake with the monitor? I could try turning that off too if you think it'll help?

My monitor is an Acer XV280K which supports freesync only and VRR wouldn't work over HDMI anyway so I didn't think of turning it off but I'll try it and report back. Last things on my list to try:
1. I noticed there was a newer BIOS (June 2020 vs Nov 2019 what I have) so I thought I'd try flashing that but since the GPU works without drivers and can get into the BIOS I didn't think that would make a difference.
2. I have another 3060Ti on the way (FE this time, got really lucky again!) so I'll try that instead of this Asus Dual.
3. If the new FE card doesn't work then I'll try a fresh install of Windows, pretend it's a new build from scratch. Could some registry values be messed up? I don't know.
4. Tear my hair out??

[kalniel]

The joy of PC gaming.

If you can boot into windows without installing the driver can you then use windows update to pull down drivers rather than nvidia?

[Zhaoman]

Yes I can definitely try that too! I'll try in the evening after work, cheers.

[Zhaoman]

So my 3060Ti FE arrived this morning and I did the exact same routine and... it worked! So does that mean there definitely is something wrong with my Asus 3060Ti Dual? Is this grounds for a return or RMA?

[kalniel]

So my 3060Ti FE arrived this morning and I did the exact same routine and... it worked! So does that mean there definitely is something wrong with my Asus 3060Ti Dual? Is this grounds for a return or RMA?

It's on them to prove the card works - but if it does work in a different system then they might refuse to refund.

[Jonj1611]

Unless you bought from Amazon, they will refund it

[Zhaoman]

I bought both from Scan so I'll submit a return query now and see what they say. It's crazy to think if I hadn't bought the second 3060Ti that I would still be sitting here tearing my hair out. I can't for the life of me think of what could be wrong with my set up that the Asus card won't work but the FE will... Thanks for all your suggestions guys!