Help me diagnose fault in my computer system

I have had some trouble with my PC, and could use some guidance as to figure out exactly what it is. I will first briefly describe what I think might be malfunctioning, then my hardware, then I will explain how it started and my troubleshooting of it, then summarise what I think I have come to.

Description of my problem:

I believe the issues most likely lies either within the motherboard, the graphics card, or within a software either within the two or on my system drive. The issue is at first my graphics crashed during gameplay, then it seems I was unable to get any good system graphics output ever again, sometimes I could not get any picture at all since the display only showed no contact, and I could never get audio from the motherboard or graphics card ever again through either HDMI or DP (I only used those two).

My hardware:

Main components:

Motherboard: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z390-F-GAMING/

CPU: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/126686/intel-core-i7-8700-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-60-ghz.html

RAM: https://www.hyperxgaming.com/us/memory/fury-ddr4 (2 DIMMs, 3200MHz, 8GB each)

Graphics card: https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-STRIX-GTX1080-A8G-GAMING/specifications/

PSU: https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categories/Products/Power-Supply-Units/Power-Supply-Units-Advanced/RMx-Series/p/CP-9020179-EU

Cooler: https://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/1378

Case: https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categories/Products/Cases/Graphite-Series™-760T-Full-Tower-Windowed-Case/p/CC-9011073-WW

Other units:

Display: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/predator-model/UM.HX1EE.005

OS: Windows 10 Pro (64bit)

OS drive: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/56571/intel-ssd-320-series-80gb-2-5in-sata-3gb-s-25nm-mlc.html

Storage drive: https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/storage/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/1/

Disc drive: http://www.liteonodd.com/en/dvd-internal/item/dvdinternal/ihas124.html

How it started + troubleshooting:

How it started:

I was just playing DOTA2 and I was in a match like many matches before, and it was an intense teamfight when all heroes used their powers and fought at the same time, when suddenly my screen got filled with purple box artefacts and everything on the screen froze, although I could still get audio through my headphones jack. I was not able to do anything to make anything happen on my display, so I reset the computer. When I came back into the game everything was really low resolution with low framerates, when heroes used their abilities and fought eachother the performance not just on the screen but also what I could hear through my audio jack when became super low that it was just unplayable.

Troubleshooting:

I went to the loggs (Event viewer) and found this by the time it would have happened:

First it was this:

Label: "Warning"

General: "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered"

Source: "Display"

Event-ID: "4101"

There was also this:

Label: "Error"

General:

"The description for event-ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

0a7c(28d4) 00000000 00000000

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table"

Source: "nvlddmkm"

Event-ID: "14"

So with this information I first decided something had happened with the drivers. I went and downloaded the newest drivers for my graphics card, I tested it out and still no luck, I couldn't play games due to low frame rate and bad graphics. By accident I also noticed something really weird: in the volume control I could no longer use the DP connection I had with my graphics card and my display to make the Display play audio. I rarely used to get audio from the display before, and my headphones still worked fine, but up until this point this had never been an issue. When I troubleshoot with the software it says it cant play audio cause no cable (HDMI or DP, I tried both), is connected (then how can I get a picture?), even though it is still the graphicscard's audio drivers visible as the audio type I troubleshoot.

So I try something new (and now it gets really weird again): I unplug the power to the display and plug it back in, and this time I get no picture, the display just says it gets no signal. I try to restart several times and still no signal.

Next I clear CMOS, and restart the system from there.

I plug my laptop into the display with a DP cable and have no issues getting getting both picture and audio. I plug my main computer to the TV with a HDMI cable through my graphics card and get no picture. So I plug my HDMI through my motherboards i/o and into the TV, and this time i get picture but no audio. So i plug my laptop into the TV with HDMI and get picture and audio. Now it gets weird again: I plug my DP port into my graphics card and back into the display, and this time it works! I restart both units and this time it doesn't work. I plug a HDMI into my graphics card again and into the TV and this time i get picture, but still cant get audio. So now I do this: i plug my DP connected to GPU cable into the display, HDMI through GPU into TV at the same time (this is the first time I had ever attempted two screens with this card btw, so even if it didn't work now I couldn't confirm if it would have worked before), and I turn on the system. First I get pictures for both units, but once I am a few seconds into windows the display loses contact and the TV gets filled with purple box artifacts. If I unplug both cables without turning the system of and try one with the other and even with just the motherboard I still cant get any picture from any screen. I try many different combinations like that forever, without getting any consecutive result when it works and when it doesn't, the only thing I can come up with is that I cant use two displays at the same time either through the card or backpanel, or both interfaces consecutively cause then both displays wont get signal or just one will, and once I lose signal I cant get another unless I restart the computer first. Only my main computer has this problem, not my smaller laptop, and the signals for respective display seems to work whenever they want to, there is no real trail (other then the previously mentioned) when it works and when it doesn't.

Now I take the motherboard out of the case and only plug in only the system disc and graphics card into it (RAM, cooler, CPU still attached, with PSU hooked up with all cables to all components without any case). Then it seems I manage to get picture almost anytime with both displays, but still just one at a time and no audio cause the system still says the audio cable is not connected, i try both using the graphics card and backpanel with the same results. I switch the GPU between the two other PCI-e slots with still the same results. I completely withdraw the GPU and use only the backpanel for HDMI and DP with the same results.

So now I try to run a game when I have picture, first no GPU just the backpanel to run goat simulator. Right from the menu start the entire system runs slow (not just the game, the entire computer) with low framerates and abysmal resolution, until I close the game and it returns to normal. The I run through my graphics card, I try all the PCI-e slots and nothing changes, it is still just as bad as when I run with no GPU at all. Next i try a much older card, a GPU from around 2010 with only 1GB and only VGA, and it still has the exact same results as when I run with my newer GPU and no GPU at all. I have also checked that I have the right NVIDIA drivers installed too (not that the motherboard/processor uses any NVIDIA drivers, I think).

Summary:

Through these tests I can only guess that the fault would be somewhere within the motherboard, although I cannot conclude it since unlike with the rest of the components I have no other motherboard I can test them against to see if my other components work as they should. It seems likely that the motherboard would be at fault though, with how it can never detect HDMI/DP audio no matter where the cable goes, my other displays and laptop doesn't have the same issue with each other, and changing graphic cards and slots doesn't work either.

I have reached a dead end here, and don't know what next steps to take. Is there anything I can do about this, any tweaks to the software that could solve this, or anyway to find out not just what component is faulty, but also what part of it doesn't work, and in that case how it could have come to be that way?

I would appreciate any advice you could give me.

https://www.howtogeek.com/174068/how-to-identify-which-hardware-component-is-failing-in-your-computer/

I hope this helps.

Take out your gpu and use onboard to see if it works.

@npiet1: Already did that, it is the same result.

To rule out software,drivers and windows is to do a fresh install. If the problem continues chances are its the motherboard

UPDATE:

It has been a while, but I had to find a new motherboard I could use with some of my old components, these ones had DDR3 so they wouldn't work with any of my current components. In short I have used another set of RAM, processor, cooler, and motherboard I could test my other components on, these were left over parts from previous rigs that I knew were all functional.

When using them with my current setup the problem still remained, so I can rule out the motherboard, processor, RAM, and cooler as any faulty mechanics. After having cleared both CMOS, SSD, and HDD at the same time to reformat and install everything anew and the problem still remaining it must be something with the hardware then. I have also been able to rule out it being an actual graphical error by getting a no-post or a freeze, since i have tested shutting of the computer with the old ctrl + f4 trick and it working, but when the issues start appearing the ctrl + f4 trick doesnt not do anything, so that means it must be a problem with the entire system, and not just with graphics. I did manage to get a new clue as to what might be the issue; once when the graphic glitches started occurring and before the computer went into no-post, I got a windows message on the screen as to what had failed saying "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION". I looked it up and found it was related to old and dysfunctional SSD or HDD drives. This could be probable since at this point I have used the same SSD and HDD to run and store to for almost 10 years. It would be easy to identify the issue if only one of the components were fault, however when I try to either run the system with just the SSD or the HDD I still get the same problem.

I currently believe the most likely scenarios are these:

1. Both my SSD (for running the system) and HDD (for storage) have got the same hardware failure at the same time when working together, and therefor both would need to be replaced. This could have occurred for example when the SSD wrote to the HDD and something went wrong leaving both components damaged. Or if one component got the issue and I continued using the system giving time for the issue to be written over to both components. In this case both would need to be replaced and not used with other components.

2. Despite me reformatting both drives they still have a hardware issue even though they are not damaged. When reformatting only the currently used memory is classified as available, and the data is still there on the device despite being declared empty. This data could still be causing problems even though it is classified as inactive.

3. I have several issues with different components with different tasks that all post the same result. This would be very serious since it means when a new component is connected to the system and run the issue is transferred to that component as well making it also damaged and can spread the corruption to the devices it is used with. This would mean the same issue can be spread for storage devices, to motherboard, to RAM and CPU, etc.

4. The problem really lies with the PSU all along, since this is the only component I have not yet replaced in the system to test if the system still runs the same by just replacing that component with another one.

[SOLVED]

Ok so it has been a while, but I did completely solve all issues a few weeks ago with the help of a friend, and by all issues I mean there were multiple hardware failures. I wont need any further advice from anyone on this topic, but I am just putting this out there in case someone has something similar happen to them and they could use my findings to help them out.

The issues:

In the beginning my SSD drive I ran my system on became permanently corrupted. During a quick event that crashed my computer the corruption spread through the SATA cable and into my motherboard, through the other SATA cable into my HDD, and through the PCI-e into my graphics card. After the initial impact my motherboard could be restored with just a CMOS cleanse, but both my storage units were permanently damaged and could not be saved by a reformat. The cache memory of my graphics card was permanently corrupted, and since there was no way that I could clear those the GPU also became obsolete. The SATA cables I used at the time also took damaged to their fail-safe-system and became faulty. Even after multiple reformats of my SSD when testing with new SATA cables the cables soon after just being plugged in and turning on the system for a few minutes became faulty and had to be replaced.

In short; my HDD, my SSD, my 2x SATA cables, and my GPU all had to be replaced due to permanent irreparable hardware damadge.

How it happened:

I turns out as I was unaware at the time I played a huge risk with how I had set up my storage allocation on my system. While not just using an old SSD with just 80 GB to run my entire system on, and have a modern OS like Windows 10, I had also completely filled the storage on my SSD with the programs I thought the most important to make them run the fastest. With a completely filled SSD my OS had absolutely no excess space for allocated memory it uses to run the system (my friend told me always to leave at least 32 GB available) and when it happened I ran a demanding program the extra data space the OS needed was forced out of my SSD, through my SATA cables (which have fail safes that were damaged by it) into my HDD which also took damadge, and worst of all into my GPU which had it's cache permanently altered by this overextended allocated OS data. Like my motherboard a simple memory clean could have restored my GPU to a normal state, but since so such administrative controls are possible for it there was nothing to be done, and it was kaput.

Buy a new pci-e graphics card.