Hi
Back in 2012 i bought 2 EVGA graphics cards - one for me and one for my wife, we had identical PCs:
 
Part Number: 01G-P3-1463-KR
Part Desc: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Superclocked

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Place Purchased: Ebuyer
Purchase Date: 5/18/2012
Date Registered: 5/24/2012 11:28:24 PM
 

Last week my graphics card suddenly started showing glitchy artifacts then crashed windows 10, never to boot again. No amount of driver uninstalls or re-installs in safe mode would fix the issue and i ended up having to buy a £100 replacement (750Ti). Just bad luck, these things happen, 4 yr life span isn't great but not too shabby either.
 
Yesterday, my wife's card started showing artifacts and now windows 10 won't load the driver. Again driver re-installs haven't helped. So again i am forced to spend £100 that i can ill afford.
 
Now in isolation these events are just bad luck but for the cards to fail within 1 week of each other makes me suspicious. 
(My card had had much heavier usage)
The most likely explanation is a windows update or a card driver update but both cards fail to show correct output well before windows boots i.e. at bios splash screen....actually that's not entirely true, mine is fine at bios but windows won't boot, whereas hers lets windows run but has artifacts from the moment it powers on. 
Initially i decided mine was hardware related rather than driver related because i was able to swap her card in to test and it all worked fine. 
So, while writing this it occurs to me that maybe my handling of her card during that test might have damaged something, though it worked fine for a week afterwards.
 
Anyway, i am rambling now. Could this be planned obsolescence or is it just really bad luck/poor handling? Am i right to conclude that it is not driver related?
I still have my old card so tonight i plan to just see, out of curiosity, what happens if i put it in her pc.
 
Thanks for your time
Steve
 
 

Hey Steve, welcome to the forums.
 
From what you've described it just sounds like coincidental bad luck. Many users on this forum are running some very old hardware with no issues. A friend of mine is still running his GTX 580 and my GTX 260's still truck along whenever I need them.

yeah, the more i think about it the more unlikely it is, given that they failed in different ways.
Do you think i am right to rule out software changes though i.e. do these both sound like hardware death?

Maybe take a hard look at your power delivery. Seems like that would be one of the common elements between both machines, if you are getting voltage drops/spikes, surges, etc, it could affect both machines but at slightly different rate.
 
But probably just ugly coincidence.

Although not as common as it used to be, solder cracking somewhere on the card's PCB can cause artifacting, freezing, BSOD/Driver fail, boot fail and other issues..A GTX 560 comes from an era where solder cracking wasn't really what you'd call 'uncommon'..Unfortunately, your card's KR suffix indicates a limited 3 year warranty from date of purchase and you're out of warranty..However, if solder cracking is the problem and you're in a pinch, you might try the 'oven trick' to reflow any solder cracks that might exist and hope for the best..Disassemble the card and bake only the PCB like this but with the GPU chip side up..Baking with the GPU chip side up, not down, is important!..If solder cracking is the problem, baking it to reflow any cracks might fix the card for a while or for a long time or maybe even not at all, who knows..Many people (including me) have salvaged failed cards using the 'oven trick.'

Clearly the cards failed in different ways. Planned obsolescence? Nope.

thanks all, will consider those options

I have been using Corsair power supplies now for over 5 years, they have not let me down once. I also buy far more capacity than needed to be safe.

veganfanatic
I have been using Corsair power supplies now for over 5 years, they have not let me down once. I also buy far more capacity than needed to be safe.

Same here. I'm still using a first gen HX1000w from like 2009. Still running strong and silent. No coil whine from my 1080 or anything weird. I've always had an UPS as well I'm sure that has helped this PSU last. 

Steve,
 
It's not bad luck. Or poor handling. Its the change of season. I wish I knew, however the spring and fall changes, just wreck our electronics. I seem to always loose at least one piece of equipment. this year I've lost 2. My 980 and my 480 died. 480 dies just last night.
 
More people die during this period too.