Black screen for 2 seconds - Every so often

[Plec]

How old is your monitor?

If it has display port options you could try testing them.

I was looking at this Prevo DP14-2M on eBay for £7 but others seem to be selling it for £10+

OCUK don't appear to have any dearer ones at the minute

Pick up a standard cable - just to rule it out. Doesn't have to be premium.

 

[Rocky-Roader]

New cable arrived today.

Got a £8 one from AliExpress in the end which is the same as some of the £14 ones on eBay, looks and feels good quality but doesn't have the push release style connectors.

Anyway... fitted it - but the problem remains.

Unlikely that 2 cables can both be faulty so I'll start investigating further tonight - not the way I was expecting to spend transfer deadline day!

Plan:
1st - Try it with just a power cable and monitor connected.
2nd - Disconnect the fans (not the CPU cooler fan) and try it.
3rd - Inspect all the wires from the PSU. (unlikely as i'm super careful but will check anyway)
4th - Try my spare Corsair PSU. (again unlikely but never say never)
5th - Motherboard removal.

Just out of curiosity...
If I remove the motherboard from the case and the issue still happens when I touch the metal on the motherboard backplate - where would I go from there? motherboard? monitor?

2 things I've bought this weekend that should have been easy jobs have turned overly complicated so I'm expecting this to go the same way

 

[Tetras]

New cable arrived today.

Got a £8 one from AliExpress in the end which is the same as some of the £14 ones on eBay, looks and feels good quality but doesn't have the push release style connectors.

Anyway... fitted it - but the problem remains.

Unlikely that 2 cables can both be faulty so I'll start investigating further tonight - not the way I was expecting to spend transfer deadline day!

I don't know, I'm still not entirely convinced the problem doesn't lie in grounding somewhere between the monitor and the cable, since the problem doesn't exist with an adapter which suggests it is sorting it somehow (maybe because of how it terminates). I'm not an electrician, so eh, what do I know.

Just out of curiosity...
If I remove the motherboard from the case and the issue still happens when I touch the metal on the motherboard backplate - where would I go from there? motherboard? monitor?

I'd say it doesn't really rule out anything, except a grounding issue with the case.

 

[Rocky-Roader]

I'm still not entirely convinced the problem doesn't lie in grounding somewhere between the monitor and the cable, since the problem doesn't exist with an adapter which suggests it is sorting it somehow (maybe because of how it terminates). I'm not an electrician, so eh, what do I know.

You may not be an electrician but your assumption appears to be... spot on!

Tonight when moving the PC into the kitchen to put on the table ready for investigating... I accidentally dropped the 4 way socket, thought nothing of it but when I switched it on to test it out after disconnecting the fans - I couldn't replicate the problem (with the first OCUK DP cable) despite messing around with it for 20 minutes.

Connected the fans back up - still no problem.

Tried the new DP cable from AliExpress - no problem either.

Connected the first OCUK DP cable again - problem back.

Switched the cable round so the plug that was in the PC is now in the monitor - no problem again. (the reason I thought to try this was because I noticed the cable didn't lock into the motherboard and I'm fairly certain it was locked in when I first tried it)

So it looks like the OCUK DP cable is faulty at one end.


Then I moved the PC back into the living room and... the problem returned!

But this time I was on the ball, the 4 way connector - no problem after I dropped it when moving it... I whipped the back off (obviously I switched it off and unplugged it first) and found that the screw for the earth wire was barely tightened.

Tightened the earth screw and as of the last hour - no more blank screens.



So it looks like the problem was a combination of a faulty cable at one end and my 4 way socket... when I plugged it directly into the mains to test it last week, I didn't think to plug the end from the monitor into the PC instead to see what happens.


Fault finding by dropping a 4 way adaptor sounds like something you'd see on a Lee Evans stand up DVD - so I'm going to keep playing around with the PC for a few days just to be sure the problem is definitely gone - fingers crossed

 

[Tetras]

Fault finding by dropping a 4 way adaptor sounds like something you'd see on a Lee Evans stand up DVD - so I'm going to keep playing around with the PC for a few days just to be sure the problem is definitely gone - fingers crossed

Eh, well, if it works it works

I hope you got it sorted!

 

[Rocky-Roader]

The other day out of the blue I got a black screen again after unplugging my headphones and although I couldn't make it happen again it has been bugging me.

Tonight I decided that I would plug the old DP cable back in which constantly caused the black screen issue and then remove the motherboard from the case and also try it without the front panel usb/sound connected just to 100% rule out an earth issue.

However, since putting the old DP cable back in - I cannot replicate the black screen issue when touching my USB keyboard connector against any case screws, rivets or USB ports.

I haven't changed any cables or taken the PC apart or moved it since the other week when the issue was easy to replicate so can't see how the issue can be gone