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this is my first topic. I spent a couple days already Googling everything, ended up in this forum a couple of times, and it seems that no one had the exact same issue I have.

First things first: My graphics card is a Gigabyte GeForce GTX970 TwinTurbo OC 4GB: https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N970TTOC-4GD My monitor: AOC G2460PF 144Hz: https://eu.aoc.com/en/gaming-monitors/g2460pf

Context: My wife spilled a glass of water the other day and a bit of it ended up running through the motherboard/graphics card top to bottom, around the connectors areas (motherboard connectors, DP and HDMI in the graphics card, but also a bit in the PCB).

I dried it all up very well, put it in rice for 24h, and plugged everything back. It works! or so I thought.

After I log in on Windows 10, a few seconds later, screen goes black. "Alright, might be some sort of update corruption, or drivers". So I booted in Safe Mode. While in there, at a low resolution, everything is OK. No black screen. And can be on safe mode for as long as I like. Cool. I uninstalled the graphics card (Display Adapter) and reinstall the latest drivers from nvidia support website. Same problem. Tried the same with my monitor drivers. Same problem. Restarted to a previous System Restore Point, a week back. Same problem. Ended up formatting the whole computer to a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro, with brand new drivers. Same problem!!!! Now I was truly puzzled. Not even formatting it did the trick.

Now what's incredibly interesting is that I can boot from my other SSD where I have Ubuntu 18.04 installed, and it works!! No black screen no nothing, after a while using it.

I have a couple of theories but I am looking for extra help here, in case I missed something: 1) Could potentially be the monitor that got wrecked to work on 144Hz (and somehow it switches to that mode automagically once the drivers are installed?). The monitor has an option to use DP1.1, but I understand that locks it to 30Hz, rendering it pretty much useless? 2) The graphics card is broken, and somehow can work on Ubuntu at 1920x1080@60Hz but not on Windows (assuming it sticks to 60, and does not jump to a higher rate as said on point 1).

I also did all the usual stuff about unplugging and plugging everything back again etc. Even tried different DisplayPorts on the graphics card, even tried HDMI cable instead of DP. I also tried a TV (4K@60hz) via HDMI and also blacked out after a few seconds.

"Basic" graphics usage work as per BIOS access and Windows safe mode, but that's about it. Well, and Ubuntu on Full HD somehow ?? ... I know the latter makes it sounds like a driver issue, but then again: I formatted the computer and installed everything from scratch, and same problem...

Any help, will be hugely appreciated!!!

Thanks :)

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    Partial hardware fault. Windows works the card harder than Ubuntu does, and a specific card component needed for high performance is failing. New card time, I'm afraid.
    – K7AAY
    Mar 3, 2020 at 22:53

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I am the OP although it did not recognise me as such.

I unplugged the card and now I am using the motherboard's integrated Intel HD 4600 one. No issues so far so I can safely discard the monitor and motherboard. I am putting the GeForce in quarantine (i.e. in front of a dehumidifier) for a day or two and see if this fixes it. Otherwise, as K7AAY said, time for a new GPU.

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