Hey everyone, I've been trying to make this thing work for over a week and I'm at my wit's end with it...
 
When I try to plug in the 2080 using VGA cables, the PSU acts like it tripped a breaker (it clicks on and immediately off) and never turns on, no lights from the GPU or error codes from the MB. From there, the only way to turn on the machine is to turn off the PSU and turn it back on again, which it'll fail to do if the 2080 is still plugged in. I've tried 2 types of VGA cables: 4+4 going to 6+2, and I also tried a split cable. 4+4 going to 6+2 and 6-pin.
 
As soon as I show any video card a whiff of either set of VGA cables, it's the same result: PSU trips a breaker and won't turn on. I have noticed with a 980 and a 1080 I had laying around that using those VGA cables still trips the breakers but causes the power plugs on the cards to smell like burning electronics... no visible damage to either and they both still work, but I obviously stopped trying as soon as I noticed this. I only mention this because I thought maybe the initial cables were defective, hence trying the split cable.
 
I am currently running on the 1080 using PCI-e cables (4+4 to 6+2) with no problems. Using PCI-e cables, both the 1080 and the 980 run just fine, but when I plug those into the 2080, all 3 red lights very briefly turn on, then it settles on a single red light, and I get no output from the card on my monitor (I've made sure I'm on the HDMI output and I've even tried a miniDP to DP cable). My research tells me a single red light on a 2080 means it's getting insufficient power, but that doesn't make sense with a 1200W PSU.
 
I've tried 4 of the 5 PCI ports (the 5th one would squish some cables so I didn't do that one), flashing the BIOS to the latest version, updating all MB and GPU drivers to the latest, bought and returned PSUs from Best Buy (750w to 1000w)...
 
Does anyone have any ideas at all? What could I possibly be missing? The GPU was being used in a SLI configuration up until a few months ago (I might be able to grab the identical 2080 and see if the one I have happens to be broken).
 
HELP!
 
Specs:
PSU: Corsair AX1200
Motherboard: ASRock x99 OC Formula/3.1
CPU: Intel Xeon 10-Core E5-2687W v3 @ 3.10GHz (Cooling: Corsair H80i v2)
RAM: HyperX 128Gb (8x 16Gb) DDR4
GPU: EVGA 2080 Ti FTW3

Cool GTX
New issue with an existing PC or is that a New GPU  (2080 Ti FTW3) going into your PC ?
 

Both? My work was getting rid of old PC gear that had been collecting dust. Among the parts were a PC with everything except the GPU and PSU. Used my home PSU (1200W) and grabbed one of the two 2080's available (used to be SLI). Co-worker gave me 2 VGA cables which I tried first (didn't know about different wiring...). PCI-e cables just don't power the card, but they work fine for 980 Ti and 1080 cards.
 
Tried out 3 other PSUs from Best Buy, a 750W, 850W and 1000W, using their respective cables, but the result was the same (single red light and no output)
 
EDIT: I also tried the card on a different/older MB with the same behavior

yeah... what a bummer :/ I'll hopefully get to try the other 2080 with my PSU's PCIe cables and see if I have any luck. I wouldn't expect both of them to be failing

thanks, yeah I came across those from scouring the internet for a solution. I did just stumble into the one where someone suggests plugging into different PSU positions, I'll have to try that tonight just tried this but no improvements, although I'm not sure what the method is supposed to be here, so my approach was kind of haphazard.
 

Cool GTX
Did you also try the second BIOS position, that card has a very small switch by the PCIe sockets

Sorry just saw this, yeah tried switching from BIOS A to BIOS B and got the same results as always. 
 
EDIT: if you meant the physical switch on the video card itself, I'm just seeing a switch to go from Normal to OC
 

EVGA support seems to think it's a bad card. I'm gonna try the other 2080 on Monday and if it works, then I guess I'll know for sure, unless there's something else I'm missing. 

I think I've tried everything I can on my own (see below) but no improvements. Tomorrow I'm gonna try the other 2080 and probably confirm that I have a dead card while the other one works fine. 
 

Cool GTX
 
What OS are you using?

Windows 10
 
 

Cool GTX
1) Make sure the PC is unplugged - the MB always has power even if Windows is shut down (soft off)

Just attempted this again: turned off computer, switched PSU to off, unplugged PSU, long-pressed power button, and then turned everything back on.
 

Cool GTX 
2) That you are grounded, (no static discharge = ESD procedures)
 

Check.
 

Cool GTX
3) Everything is fully locked into place PCIe slot & PCIe power

Check.
 

Cool GTX
4)Turn Fast Boot = OFF (in the MB BIOS), Before you change any hardware (you need the MB to look for new hardware)

Forgot about fast boot and also didn't know MB looks for new hardware with Fast Boot off. Fast Boot is off by default but I had turned it on at some point. When I updated all MB drivers and also flashed the BIOS, it went back to default (off).
 

Cool GTX
5) Use known good video cable & monitor

Check.
 

Cool GTX
6) Have the appropriate Nvidia driver already downloaded & read to install - OR - reinstall if need be

Updated as part of my attempts inside the OS earlier on, but the card never gives me an output, and it doesn't sound like it's booting all the way up because pressing the power button turns it off almost immediately (turning off from OS takes a bit longer).
 
I really appreciate all your help with this, it's been invaluable! If nothing else, I've learned what not to do moving forward (had no idea about using other PSU cables, and my experiences with Best Buy PSUs is that the cables for one PSU don't fit any other - except apparently the EVGA PSU's VGA cables I initially used). 
 
I'll report back tomorrow but I think we already know it's probably a dead card. 

Welp, sure enough, the other 2080 still works just fine, including in my machine, so it's confirmed and I just had a bad card. Good to have it resolved now anyway! Thanks again for all your help!