I upgraded my graphics card from a GTX 1070 to an RTX 5060. Since installing the 5060, I've been dealing with crackling audio and occasional system crashes, while switching back to the 1070 makes the problems disappear. I've already spent about a week troubleshooting and have 32 GB of RAM, an i7-8700, and an Alienware Aurora A7 motherboard. What should I check next?
2 Answers
Since the 1070 works normally in the same system, the driver change is the first thing I’d eliminate. After that, check whether the power supply and its cables meet the 5060’s requirements, and make sure the card is fully seated in the PCIe slot. If a clean driver install and power check don’t help, the new card could be defective or there may be a compatibility issue with the older Alienware platform.
Try doing a completely clean graphics-driver installation. The old 1070 drivers can sometimes conflict with the new card even if you install the latest version over them. Use a driver cleanup utility in Windows Safe Mode to remove the existing NVIDIA driver, restart, and then install the current driver for the 5060 from NVIDIA’s website. Also choose the clean-install option if the installer offers it.
I updated the drivers, but I didn’t remove the old ones first. I’ll try a clean installation in Safe Mode.