Black Screen Crash

Seearbe

Seearbe

Seearbe

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Joined
31 Jul 2019
Posts
543
Hi everyone.

I've got a headscratcher of an issue here. PC keeps black screen crashing - I lose display and don't have the ability to hold the power button down to kill the computer and essentially have to switch off at the wall. I've checked that the '5-second hold' powers down normally, which it does. Crash can happen at any time - working on spreadsheets or using web - but is guaranteed to happen whenever I open or edit a large photo in Darktable. It doesn't crash whilst gaming (although Forza Horizon will occasionally crash to desktop - it's just the game the kids are playing at the moment so could well happen in other games too). No warnings pop up on reboot.

Things I've tried:
- Replacing PSU
- Reseating GPU
- Cleaning GPU with compressed air (although it's not dusty)
- Mobo BIOS update
- Remove GPU drivers with DDU and reinstall
- Windows+Ctrl+Shift+B to reset display driver (doesn't work)
- Screaming and shouting at the thing
- Setting power profile in Nvidia control panel to maximum

It's not a heat issue - system runs pretty cool. No overclocking on the system.

Any ideas how I can figure this one out before I take extreme action and buy a new motherboard and GPU!?
 
Does the event log capture anything of use? Have you tried checking windows over with an SFC /scannow and a DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth?

Also have you tried resetting BIOS to defaults (I know you say it has been updated) and also tried x1 DIMM ram?
 
Firegod said:
Does the event log capture anything of use? Have you tried checking windows over with an SFC /scannow and a DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth?

Also have you tried resetting BIOS to defaults (I know you say it has been updated) and also tried x1 DIMM ram?
Click to expand...
Event Log doesn't seem to be showing much, other than Teams Updater not working. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Teams because that's easy! Otherwise I'm never really sure where to look in all these log files.

Never used the SFC and DISM things before but doing it now.

Only setting I changed in BIOS after flashing was to enable XMP profile. Everything else is default.

Will try RAM next. At least I know Darktable can cause the crash instantly, so will be a quick test!

Thanks
 
Minibiker said:
Also, have you been tweaking the PC at all, Overclocking or Enabling XMP for RAM?
Click to expand...
As I mention above, only enabling XMP for RAM.

Scannow found some errors and fixed them.

C:\Windows\System32>DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.26100.1150

Image Version: 10.0.26100.3194

[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\System32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
 
Issue still not fixed.

Scannow found errors and fixed them but hasn't solved the problem.
I've tried both stick of ram in isolation and in different slots. Same issue.
Disabled XMP. Same issue.
72 passes of Memtest64 and no errors found.

So probably not RAM.

Is there a GPU memory checker utility? Is that what Cuda Memcheck is?
 
Seearbe said:
Issue still not fixed.

Scannow found errors and fixed them but hasn't solved the problem.
I've tried both stick of ram in isolation and in different slots. Same issue.
Disabled XMP. Same issue.
72 passes of Memtest64 and no errors found.

So probably not RAM.

Is there a GPU memory checker utility? Is that what Cuda Memcheck is?
Click to expand...
memtest86+ just a couple of cycles will highlight any RAM issues but also try OCCT as that allows Windows testing of VRAM etc.

At this point I'd be pulling everything apart. Put the motherboard on a box and run it all out of the the case. Drastic but you have to make a big changes at some point.

Example: Just rebuilding my brothers ancient X99 gaming system as the mobo died. Bought a generic X99 mobo + Xeon processor off Aliexpress. I knew there might be a few teething issues such as the system not powering down or resetting. Had to use the PSU power switch like above. Literally just plugged another PSU into the system did one power cycle which was fine. plugged the old PSU back in and now it's been perfect since. Weird but I've encountered lots of that over the years.
 
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you could try a Linux live distribution, see if it crashes there? Maybe if you have some spare storage space you could even do a small install then run and test darktable in a Linux environment?

If it crashes in Linux as well then you at least know it’s looking hardware rather than software?
 
Thanks all.

I've run multiple tests over several hours with occt and no errors found. Tested pretty much every configuration going there.

Then dealt with the obvious of uninstalling and reinstalling dark table. Same issue after 10 seconds.

Really frustrating me as testing suggests it's not an issue with hardware and then can't find record online of others having the same issue with darktable. Only thing is that there is the very occasional crash elsewhere.

But why that kills the hard reset on the mobo I've no idea!!
 
What OS?

I agree with trying another OS like Linux (darktable also has a Linux build) to eliminate hardware if possible. Or a clean install of the current OS perhaps.
 
Seearbe said:
But why that kills the hard reset on the mobo I've no idea!!
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I won't pretend like I know how this stuff functions on a lower level, but from what I'm aware, if the hard shut down doesn't work that means your motherboard is unresponsive.

If the above is correct, I'd assume it would have to be something serious to hang the board, like a chip on the board overheating, a major USB or PCIE (device) malfunction, a short, BIOS corruption.

When you replaced the PSU, did you also replace the cables?

Have you tried removing all non-essential devices?

Seearbe said:
Crash can happen at any time - working on spreadsheets or using web - but is guaranteed to happen whenever I open or edit a large photo in Darktable. It doesn't crash whilst gaming (although Forza Horizon will occasionally crash to desktop - it's just the game the kids are playing at the moment so could well happen in other games too).
Click to expand...
When you open or edit a large photo in Darktable, does it scan (and potentially, wake) multiple devices on your PC? This can happen when the file explorer is open in some apps, for example.

Seearbe said:
Scannow found errors and fixed them but hasn't solved the problem.
Click to expand...
When did you purchase the 870 Evo? I don't think it would cause a black screen so likely unrelated to your issue, but drives manufactured in 2020-22 can have problems.
 
I had this happen to me in the past few days, then i found it it was the monitor that was causing it - it could be either the cable or monitor itself, as my monitor is no longer powering on now and using my lg c2 at the moment until i get a new power brick. Ever since i havn't used my monitor that doesn't power on the black screen issue completely gone now.

Im thinking to narrow it down through my experience:
It's either a issue with:
- The Monitor you are using
- The Display Port or HDMI Cable you are using
- The motherboard you are using

I also do notice static can cause your PC to reset or crash itself, certain PC components or external peripherals can cause exessive static which can happen.
 
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I think I've identified the issue now. It seems to be something to do with Cuda cores.

I needed to work on a spreadsheet today and that was causing the same crashing issue. Having disabled Cuda in the Nvidia control panel, Excel is working fine and Darktable just crashes to desktop. Having reinstalled Darktable, it now won't open at all.

So my current thinking is that it's either something to do with the Cuda cores themselves or perhaps OpenCL. If I've got this right, OpenCL is a way for the GPU to take on some computer power without the need for the full Cuda coding in each application. A bit more investigation needed but this is where I'm up to.

Next steps are to figure out if there's a way to reinstall any OpenCL components, check whether the conflict is baked into Windows (Linux dual boot or reinstall Windows) or, as a consequence, if it's purely hardware. Also need to retest Forza Horizon 5 (although I'm more of the opinion the crash to desktop I'm experiencing there is a VRAM issue). Hoping the overall result is that I'm justified in getting a new GPU.
 
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Seearbe said:
Thanks all.

I've run multiple tests over several hours with occt and no errors found. Tested pretty much every configuration going there.

Then dealt with the obvious of uninstalling and reinstalling dark table. Same issue after 10 seconds.

Really frustrating me as testing suggests it's not an issue with hardware and then can't find record online of others having the same issue with darktable. Only thing is that there is the very occasional crash elsewhere.

But why that kills the hard reset on the mobo I've no idea!!
Click to expand...

It's not uncommon for stress tests to show no issue but then get random crashes browsing web pages.

I would be leaning towards CPU power issues, make sure bios is updated and set to default settings for CPU and RAM
 
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My money is on Nvidia's latest drivers. I had very similar issues from the 1st Blackwell drivers in February, but they've magically disappeared since the very latest driver update so it seems it took a few driver versions to be fixed.

Latest batch of Nvidia drivers have caused big problems all over the place so don't rule it out.
 
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