Graphics Card (RTX2060) Problems

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Gurezaemon

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#293756 11-Feb-2022 17:55

I've been running an Nvidia RTX2060 for a couple of years now, with no problems. I keep drivers updated, and it has been 100% solid, and temperatures have been fine (no higher than 70°, even under high load). The card has been otherwise fine, with no artifacting or other glitches.

A couple of weeks ago, while at idle, the two monitors that the 2060 drives went black, and the video card fans ramped up to maximum rpms, higher than I've ever heard even during hard gaming. A minute or so after, using the other monitors I looked at display settings, and it said the 2060 wasn't installed. Nothing (Speccy, GPU-Z, etc.) detected the the RTX2060.

I rebooted into safe mode, and after stripping out the up-to-date driver by using DDU, I let Windows install the default driver, which is from 09/2020, and this seemed to fix the problem.

Until today. Same problem again. I removed the elderly driver above, and let it install automatically again. The same problems still remains. This now happens every 5-10 minutes. Given that this is already on the default driver that automatically installs, I'm not sure how to roll back any further. I've also tried a couple of drivers from a year ago, with the same result.

A reboot fixes the problem, for a few minutes until it happens again.

My business partner had the exact same problem a while back with the exact same hardware, and now is using a year old driver, and is nervous about installing newer drivers. He's convinced it is a driver issue, and I tend to agree with him.

Other details:
-Windows 10, regularly updated
-4 monitors, with the RTX2060 driving two of them. The other two are run by an old passive Radeon card and the onboard port. This setup has been going fine for years.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could be causing this?

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MaxineN

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#2866591 11-Feb-2022 18:27

Nah I don't think it's a driver issue. If you're getting it with the default drivers (which are like 453.xx something these days and we're at 511.xx) GPU is cooked and drivers are not being restored because the card cannot enter 3D mode or even take a slight core clock jump.
I'm gonna say you're looking at a new GPU.

Best you can do to rule it out completely is try it in another system and see if the same behavior exists.

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SpartanVXL

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#2866595 11-Feb-2022 18:29

Can you list which driver version is causing grief and which one is okay? E.g. 456.78 vs 412.34

I would not hold onto the notion of ‘driver issue’ your turing card is still well supported. If it drops off your hardware list then either it’s getting disconnected somehow (software or hardware wise) or there is a hardware fault.

I would start diagnosing by removing other factors then adding them back in, objective being you want to get the 2060 running.

I would remove the Radeon card and ddu it’s drivers. Install default nvidia driver with the 2060 installed then attempt a driver update to latest DCH drivers

From there test if one monitor on the 2060 works well. If so you can add monitors, then if you want the radeon card

Side-note, you can have four monitors attached to the 2060 without using anything else. This of course assumes you have the right ports on your monitors and GPU (Displayport MST let’s you use one DP port for multiple different monitors)

Gurezaemon

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#2866689 11-Feb-2022 21:54

Thanks very much for your input - it's given me lots to think about.

My drivers before the problem started a week or so back were the latest Game Ready Drivers 511.65 - WHQL (maybe the version before), and the drivers from the automatic Windows install were 456.71.

Both of these are unstable.

In the last two weeks since I had the initial problem and reverted to the 456.71 drivers, things have been rock solid, including gaming, video editing, etc. I don't know what could have caused any overvoltage issues otherwise.

Another issue with diagnosis is that this is very intermittent... I could swap something out and have it fine for a week before it presents as an issue.

I think a good step would be to swap this 2060 into the kids' computer, and let them play with it for a while, while using my old 1050 Ti, (perfectly fine for work and game purposes) and see if they notice anything.

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Gurezaemon

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#2866927 12-Feb-2022 13:09

We're in tomorrow now. A couple of hours of normal usage, and things seem back to normal.

This is confusing me. As MaxineN indicated, my problems yesterday would suggest that the card is on the way out, but I've just run Furmark for an hour and things have been totally stable, with temperatures topping out around 81° which given the heat here today seems fine. A few minutes of playing Doom at pretty high settings doesn't seem to be a problem either.

I only recently did a fresh install of Windows 10, so I'd rather not go through the palaver of that again.

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timbosan

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#2867010 12-Feb-2022 14:30

Funny enough I had a similar problem - main PC which a 3060 LHR, used for browsing / Steam games / email, otherwise it mines FLUX when not used. It was 100% stable for weeks, then after a automatic reboot (Windows Update) its been really unstable. Firefix wont 'draw' on the screen properly, using most apps causes the mining software to just exit along with a screen flash (like the driver crashing or restarting). Its like something internal has changed. So far I have just rebooted and as long I dont use it too much it seems OK.

Currently running 472.12 Game Ready drivers. Next step is to reinstall Nvidia drivers today. Could just be coincidence?

MarcJapan

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#2867546 13-Feb-2022 14:46

Gurezaemon's business partner here! Machine is currently running rock solid... I also use it for gaming, and can e.g. run Flight Sim 2020 (which gives graphics cards a real workout) for hours on end without any problem whatsoever. Have run furmark and other similar problems on it without issue. Until, that is, I upgrade the drivers. Did that twice last year, and once again this January. It may be coincidence, but shortly thereafter I had exactly the same problem described above. Rolling back to windows drivers has instantly solved the issue in all three cases. I'm now running the default windows driver from 2020, and can push the card hard without any issues. Current install has been solid for six weeks and has been e.g. left on for days on end and gamed with. This is also my workstation and as such it gets used for long hours.

I initially suspected a hardware fault but given the contrast with previous experiences where hardware faults resulted in e.g. significant artifacting, boot difficulties, and general instability, I'm now dubious about it actually being the card. I'm able to move into and out of accelerated 3D gaming and video playback without any problems. I am, however stumped as to what the issue is!

FWIW our setups are now aging but were high-quality gear when purchased.

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Gurezaemon

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#2867808 13-Feb-2022 17:35

So... this progressively got worse yesterday, to the extent that I couldn't get past the login screen.
It always got as far as the login screen however, which I thought was weird if it was a hardware issue.

In desperation, I took the side of the case to reseat the card, and lo and behold, the 8-pin connector was barely inserted. I pushed it in properly until it clicked, and it has been fine since. I have no idea how it could have come loose.

I'm thinking that the card may have drawn enough power from the motherboard to get to the login screen, but not to do much else. I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens, but touch wood there is nothing more to it.

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