What's more likely to be faulty in this scenario?

Dano · 30 Aug 2020 at 09:54

Just deciding which component I should start with...

Playing Flight sim yesterday my pc suddenly lost output to both monitors, pc was still running, sound was fine and spotify continued to play. After about ten minutes of waiting I still had no image on either display so I hit the power button and initiated a standard shutdown, restarted and was back in windows with an image on both screens quite happily. Launch a game and same thing, seems like I can happily sit in windows and use the pc for everyday stuff but as soon as I attempt to start a game I lose output to both screens and only a reboot will bring it back.

My initial thought was GPU (980ti) but having slept on it I am now thinking it could be the PSU failing to supply the power needed for gaming, what would your initial thoughts be?

I'm hoping PSU as that is still under warranty

I'll end up testing both in another system but would like to focus on the most likely suspect first of course, opinions?

Thanks all

Semple · 30 Aug 2020 at 09:57

It's more than likely the GPU. I had a similar issue with killing floor 2 a few years ago. PC was fine with light load tasks, but as soon as I played a heavy game it would start having issues.

You could try playing the game on minimal settings and see if that makes any difference. But I'd be fairly certain it's your GPU on the way out.

heatonpkmassive · 30 Aug 2020 at 09:57

Could be either, what's the actual brand and model of power supply?

Dano · 30 Aug 2020 at 10:00

Semple said:
It's more than likely the GPU. I had a similar issue with killing floor 2 a few years ago. PC was fine with light load tasks, but as soon as I played a heavy game it would start having issues.

You could try playing the game on minimal settings and see if that makes any difference. But I'd be fairly certain it's your GPU on the way out.

Will give that a go

heatonpkmassive said:
Could be either, what's the actual brand and model of power supply?

Corsair RM650X

orbitalwalsh · 30 Aug 2020 at 10:09

How much system ram you running as well ?
If you go over VRam then it will use system ram and that causes latency , but also flight sim uses a ton of system ram ontop

Blue160 · 30 Aug 2020 at 10:14

I can't quite see why a PSU issue would lose you the display output without actually crashing or shutting down. I suppose it's possible...

My money would definitely be on the GPU.

Dano · 30 Aug 2020 at 10:21

orbitalwalsh said:
How much system ram you running as well ?
If you go over VRam then it will use system ram and that causes latency , but also flight sim uses a ton of system ram ontop

16GB - It's not just FS but other games as well, Satisfactory lasted a couple of minutes before going, Frostpunk didn't even load.

Blue160 said:
I can't quite see why a PSU issue would lose you the display output without actually crashing or shutting down. I suppose it's possible...

My money would definitely be on the GPU.

I'm clutching at straws to be fair

Dano · 30 Aug 2020 at 10:46

Okay, so managed to run Satisfactory on potato settings for about five minutes before it lost signal, took three restarts to get any display back and windows was saying it had to force a GPU driver reinstall. Definitely looking like the GPU darnit!

heatonpkmassive · 30 Aug 2020 at 11:03

Dano said:
Corsair RM650X

If that's from the last few years, I'd not think that would be the issue, I'd say graphics card now.

orbitalwalsh · 30 Aug 2020 at 11:39

Running intel for internal GPU ? Leat be able to check games at the basic of basic at 720p etc .

But guessing GPU. Able to run stress test like Asus realbench or uni valley ?

Sparx · 30 Aug 2020 at 11:43

I'd be inclined to believe GPU personally going by the symptons.

As orbital said, do you have onboard graphics you could try? Or any other GPU spare?

Dano · 30 Aug 2020 at 12:37

Yup, time to start tearing things apart and swapping parts into another machine, cheers all

drakulton · 30 Aug 2020 at 12:51

What temp is the GPU indicating just before it crashes?

Dano · 30 Aug 2020 at 13:01

50 something, was the first thing I checked

Though I've no idea how hot it was when it first had the issue as I didn't have monitoring open. It was quite possibly somewhat warm

Randomface74 · 30 Aug 2020 at 13:10

Getting a new gpu isn't a waste anyway so I'd start with that.

Dano · 30 Aug 2020 at 22:07

Well, the gpu appears to be working perfectly in another machine. And the pc with the issue is working fine with another gpu, though it's so old that's not saying much. Time to rip the PSU out I guess.

b0rn2sk8 · 31 Aug 2020 at 09:49

Are you sure it’s not a driver/software issue?

I’d look at software if the GPU works fine in other systems. Remove and reinstall the GPU driver. If that doesn’t work, rebuild the OS from scratch.

Dano · 31 Aug 2020 at 10:12

b0rn2sk8 said:
Are you sure it’s not a driver/software issue?

I’d look at software if the GPU works fine in other systems. Remove and reinstall the GPU driver. If that doesn’t work, rebuild the OS from scratch.

Driver remove/reinstall was the very first thing I did, actually tried three different versions. OS reinstall is definitely next on my list, once I've run a further test with a different PSU.

heatonpkmassive · 31 Aug 2020 at 12:58

Be interested to know the result, if it is the power supply they don't go like this often, they tend to pop.

Mr Mcgoo · 31 Aug 2020 at 16:01

i believe it to be your power supply. i had the same issue and turned out to be my 12v rail that was dropping below 11v under high loads 50% and gpu lost display output and a simple restart fixed it. i was running some extension cables for the 24 pin atx and gpu and cpu power cables. after removing each one at a time testing in between i saw my 12v rail increase with each extension i removed. the largest increase i had was the 24 pin atx extension giving my 0.6v increase and fixed my issue.

Do you use extension cables? if not try a different certified cable or if under warranty, RMA it for a replacement