Alienware Desktops

[Gallifrae]

Aurora R12 Specs:

• CPU: i7-11700f (liquid cooled)
• GPU: AW RTX 3080
• RAM: HyperX DDR4 3200MHz 2x8GB
• PSU: 1000W

Been working through this issue for probably the better part of 2 months. I've tried a whole long list of things:

1. Fresh OS install
2. DDU and reinstall from Nvidia, Dell, Device Manager
3. msconfig startup only Windows apps
4. Uninstall iCue, AWCC
5. TDR Delay changes
6. Disabling hardware acceleration
7. Setting power to high performance
8. Disabling Gsync
9. Disabling OC
10. Trying XMP1, XMP2, and Disabling it
11. Disabling/enabling Intel Speedstep, Speedshift
12. MSI Afterburner undervolting, unchecking IO boxes
13. New PSU (Tried corsair 1000w from Best Buy)
14. New Motherboard (Dell RMA)
15. New GPU (Dell RMA)

The mobo and GPU swaps were both from dell support. The new GPU was the "last resort" and it actually resolved the issue, but only for 3-4 days. Now I'm unable to run any game on the tower, and cannot complete any UNIGINE benchmarks either. So....what exactly happens?

1. Game with high load kicks off
2. GPU fans ramp up
3. Screen starts flickering
4. PC Freezes
5. Screen goes black
6. PC drops to idle state - all LEDS still on, keyboard light off, display off. Powers off with a simple press of the power button

It can take up to 20 tries to get the PC to reboot...which is why I'm wondering if it might be temp related. ANYWHO....WhoCrashed shows mainly VIDEO_TDR_ERROR and other GPU/Driver related errors. Event Viewer is mostly inconclusive but will sometimes show video issues too.

I spent some time debugging and monitoring with GPU-Z, and I noticed that PerfCap was showing Pwr/Vrel a ton when under load before the crashes. 

As far as temps, CPU is chilling at low 50's, GPU temps spike up to 75-80C under max load. I'm curious if the RMA replacement might have bad thermal paste/pads and some components are overheating. I might take it apart to check in the next few days.

To help confirm it might be GPU I tried a friends 3080 and the PC was running much better, but still felt somewhat unstable at least in Fortnite (FPS drops every 2-3 seconds from 100Hz to 30Hz, some lag). With their GPU, GPU-Z was showing a ton of Vop/Vrel issues moreso than Pwr. FH5 ran fine though, no issues.

So I'm just curious what is causing this. I've tried literally every option I've found online and maybe half a dozen not listed above. I don't want to keep having Dell support send parts out but they don't seem to want to take time to debug my system before just shipping parts out. Would love some help!

Audio crackling/high latency with my old 3080 and RMA'd 3080 (since day 1), but not with friends 3080.

Below is a capture from GPU-Z right before the screen flickers and the PC crashes to black screen/idle.

[Vanadiel]

Use Afterbuner, set your GPU fans at manual 100% and try again.

[Gallifrae]

Tried it but no luck. Adjusted all the curves and was able to get temp down to low 70's, but now it will crash even @ 56C when kicking off the Superposition benchmark. Going to see if tech support will RMA it...Kinda sad I need to RMA 2 GPU's in less than a month. There's a whole forum here where multiple people are experiencing the same issue and it could point towards some design flaws in the 3080. Wouldn't be surprised if this is my case....

[Vanadiel]

I have an RTX3080 and had zero issues, and I use it every day in one form or another.

So I don't think it's a design flaw. But it could be temperature related. But if it crashes even at 56 Celsius than temperature is not an issue.

Your 12 volt is still within spec, but it is on the low side. What is the 12 volt at idle?

[Gallifrae]

I can take a look. What's curious is they did an RMA on my mobo the week before my GPU wet the bed because BIOS was corrupted.

Also curious that another 3080 runs fine, and I also tried a 3060ti running the same game and benchmark settings and it didn't show any sign of problems either.

thanks for the replies!

[Tesla1856]

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@Gallifrae wrote:

1. Uninstall iCue, AWCC
2. TDR Delay changes
3. Disabling hardware acceleration
4. Disabling Gsync
5. Disabling OC
6. Trying XMP1, XMP2, and Disabling it
7. Disabling/enabling Intel Speedstep, Speedshift

---

OC, XMP1-2 should never have been enabled in the first place. Did you get a new Intel CPU on each motherboard swap?

And I understand you wanting to try everything, but these I listed above ... should not have been messed with.

It taking 20 tries to reboot (not sure exactly what that means, but it sounds bad).

Yes, I use AfterBurner on my RTX-3080 and it's rock-solid.

 Voltage remains locked (so, should be safe stock level).
Core and Memory clock stay at +0 (no OC, just stock clocks)
Power Limit reduced to 80%. Temp Limit reduced to 80c. Auto Fan Speed.

And some other settings:

In Windows-11, Game-Mode is ON. I set it to use the (Nvidia) "High Performance" dedicated video-card whenever possible (Steam, all games, etc.)
In Windows-11's Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) is Disabled.

In Nvidia Control Panel, I have "Fast Vertical Sync" Enabled (similar to having it off, but without the occasional tearing).

[Gallifrae]

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@Tesla1856 wrote:

---

@Gallifrae wrote:

1. Uninstall iCue, AWCC
2. TDR Delay changes
3. Disabling hardware acceleration
4. Disabling Gsync
5. Disabling OC
6. Trying XMP1, XMP2, and Disabling it
7. Disabling/enabling Intel Speedstep, Speedshift

---

OC, XMP1-2 should never have been enabled in the first place. Did you get a new Intel CPU on each motherboard swap?

And I understand you wanting to try everything, but these I listed above ... should not have been messed with.

---

OC is disabled and greyed out. As far as I know they kept the original CPU in the system. Makes sense the other items should never have been messed with, and it goes to show there's some instability (whether hardware or software). Just became somewhat desperate especially after already having 2 parts replaced - Anything I tried I found on another forum. Not ideal to try them all, but at least helps with process of elimination before trying to RMA.

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@Tesla1856 wrote:

It taking 20 tries to reboot (not sure exactly what that means, but it sounds bad).

---

Basically after it black screens/artifacts...I'll hard reset the pc. Press power button - powers up/LEDs on does nothing for a very long time - no display, no bios, nothing. Press power button again - instant off. Rinse, repeat until it kicks in or wait 15min+. Easy to tell when it actually starts up because the fans don't just go to an auto-on speed.

---

@Tesla1856 wrote:

Yes, I use AfterBurner on my RTX-3080 and it's rock-solid.

 Voltage remains locked (so, should be safe stock level).
Core and Memory clock stay at +0 (no OC, just stock clocks)
Power Limit reduced to 80%. Temp Limit reduced to 80c. Auto Fan Speed.

And some other settings:

In Windows-11, Game-Mode is ON. I set it to use the (Nvidia) "High Performance" dedicated video-card whenever possible (Steam, all games, etc.)
In Windows-11's Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) is Disabled.

In Nvidia Control Panel, I have "Fast Vertical Sync" Enabled (similar to having it off, but without the occasional tearing).

---

I'll give these a shot and see if they help with stability.

[Gallifrae]

Just finished up with a followup from Dell Tech Support and they sent me a list of things to try. After none of them resolve the issue they have determined the card is faulty and they're scheduling a replacement. Guess we'll see if this is the correct fix, probably should have it early next week after the holidays.

[Vanadiel]

I would suggest once the new card is installed, to stress it with some benchmarks and watch the temperature. You likely will end up adjusting the fan curves for better thermals. I would suggest MSI Afterburner for that.

[Gallifrae]

Sounds good - I have a good fan profile through MSI/AWCC that helps a ton when the card actually wants to run.

I'm planning on stressing it a good amount when I get it - my last card started acting up as soon as 1 day after I got it.