Aurora R10, RTX 3080 card failure

Good evening. I'm sorry to hear about your issue with the Alienware Aurora R10 and RTX 3080. I have also encountered this same problem and contacted Dell to resolve/replace the video card. I purchased my PC in December 2020... Your description of the problem sounds very similar to my issue also.

I have experienced similar crashes when playing graphically intensive 3D games (Doom 2016, Soom Eternal, Crysis 3, etc) within minutes of those respective games lunching. I also use Blender heavily for 3d modeling and graphics design work and have experienced these crashes as well. I"ve lost files due to crash caused data corruption of in-process file saves.

Before contacting Dell, I spent about a week troubleshooting the issue on my own to create reproducible scenarios that I could demonstrate the problem to Dell Technical support in the event their diagnostic checks failed to detect the issue. Luckily, when I contacted Dell support, the support tech ran a Dell video stress test and was able to reproduce the problem on the first try. It looks like my due diligence to independently isolate and document the issue was unnecessary. Note I did execute the full preboot hardware diagnostic tests which all passed -- so I fretted the thought of initiating a support ticket before knowing how to concretely demonstrate the problem.

For anyone curious about the steps the Dell technical support took to confirm the problem. The tech used the Dell SupportAssist application, and navigated to the following troubleshooting stress test feature to confirm my reported issue was indeed caused by the Nvidia RTX 3080 video card. If anyone suspect they may have this issue, please try out the Dell SupportAssist windows application stress test for your self.

Launch SupportAssist
Goto the Troubleshooting tab
Expand the "I want to troubleshoot my PC" section
Scroll down to the bottom of the listing to find Video Card.
Click Video Card, you will be greeted with a notification prompt. Click Continue.
Select "Video Stress Test", then click Run Test

Wait for the test to run to completion. For me, the issue occur most often following the completion of a graphical intensive process. Dell's Video Stress Test ran to completion, and at the end of the process, the telltale crash occurred causing my mouse and keyboard to no longer respond, and monitor goes completely black. Occasionally, there is graphical flickering of 1 frame appearing every 60 seconds in between the black screen. In this error state, my PC is completely unresponsive and my only option is to power cycle and cold boot the machine. Weirdly, Windows Event logs lack any errors that could have helped isolate what led up to the crash.

After Dell technical support confirmed the issue with the video card. I was informed that I will receive a replacement RTX 3080 card in 10-15 days. I'm waiting on shipment information at this point, so crossing my fingers on this one.

I feel bad for you but I'm glad that I am not the only one in this situation.  They do not even have an ETA for the cards to ship to Dell, let alone for the replacement in my system.  If new builds are any indication, they are anticipating no cards until April, so that isn't promising.  

I ran the same tests as you and have the exact same issue with failure during 3D applications.  Older games will work but anything involving 3D simply crashes the card.  Interestingly enough, when running the tests through the Dell site, the card shows a FAILURE and under "Response" it says that the card is working fine (probably more of a web issue though)

If anyone is considering a new purchase, it seems all of the other cards are shipping.  Unfortunately for myself and other 3080 owners, there is no option to "Downgrade" cards.  So instead of a slightly worse card, our option is "no card"

My Mistake, I paid in full when I purchased, otherwise I would not be paying either.  A new 3080 system is showing a ship date of mid April now, so realistically I will be waiting months, with no other options.  I cannot recommend this to anyone considering purchasing at this time.

So I feel comfortable to say this now <Soliciting other users is not allowed>

After weeks of reaching out to support I am told:

The card can only be replaced with the same card (cannot upgrade or downgrade cards, even if other cards are available)

The card is NOT AVAILABLE

If i want to replace it with another card, say, because I need my computer to earn an income, I can CONTACT THE SALES TEAM AND BUY ONE!

So, buy one of these systems, and take a huge risk.

I have a brand new Aurora R11 that was dead on arrival and has been sitting here for 12 days with a defective 3090. Card was unable to even finish initial Windows set up without major artifacting. 

Dell has delayed my replacement video card now three times and has not responded about the latest delay. They have also been ignoring two service requests from Customer Server to get me a whole new replacement machine.

The best part is no one will answer if I am still eligible to return this PC if they are unable to get me a replacement part within my 30 days return.

Fingers crossed, but try out simply turning off GSync, see if the problem occurs again.  I tried it and I am having some luck so far. 

Gsync off was not the solution.  The card worked for a bit, about 30 minutes (Probably because it had been unused for several days), and now will not post, so the computer is dead. It seems like it is the card itself though I don't have an answer why from support, just that the card needs to be replaced.   Awaiting a card replacement is the only option now.  I will try to update this post when a solution is met. I hope that it will be positive news.

If anyone was wondering the replacement policy, I was told that replacement is only considered after 5 business weeks (35 days) at which point, if replaced, the device would be replaced with a "refurbished" machine.  So far this is the only warranty I have every seen that replaces a defective product with a used product, but I haven't gotten to that point yet and I'm hoping I won't have to.

Do the cards have serial numbers?  I'd purchase a new one from Dell and return my broken one.  I don't normally do stuff like that, but it's really shady on Dell's end that you can purchase one but not get a replacement one.

Just an update. Today I received my replacement RTX 3080 card, it looks new but who knows for sure. I will play a few modern games this weekend and report back on the results of the replacement.

Looks like I’m in the same boat.  I received my R10 with a 3080 today that was a scratch and dent unit.  The screen goes black every 5-15 seconds for about seconds.  5 hours on remote support that kept crashing because whatever the issue is.  4 techs, tried all kinds of stuff.  So they decided they needed to replace the card.  Got an email with a that said a tech would be here on Tuesday to replace the card and about a minute later the Appointment was cancelled.

Are you getting 117 and 141 kernel power hardware errors reported if you look at windows reliability monitor? 

Thats great to hear!   If you dont mind my asking, when did you first report the issue?   I have been waiting 21 days since failure so im curious as to the timeframe.   Every email to support just tells me they are "working on it"

 I opted for the 1000 psu, so i dont believe it would be a psu issue.   Not sure if its related to the issue, but the cpu was running very hot, 99°C as well.   Lots of issues with this pc for me.