Computer screen turns black. Is my GPU dying?

6644kp · 4 Jun 2015 at 14:01

My gaming PC from 2010 and it has developed a new problem where the screen turns black after it loads into the windows 7 desktop. Sometimes it just turn black when I am working zbrush and occasionally the entire screen flashes random colors like pink and green and then it goes black though it was initially when the problem started now it just goes black instantly.

I'm guessing the GPU is dying? It is an early Radeon 6950 which had its bios flashed to a 6970 and clock speeds increased to 6970 levels.

megatron · 4 Jun 2015 at 14:15

Google your monitor to see if it is known for having bad capacitors. Or visit http://www.badcaps.net/ I'm not discounting the gpu but bad monitor caps are replaceable.

Mrjobby · 4 Jun 2015 at 15:00

Thats sounds like a GPU issue not a screen issue to me.

Old GPU thats been overclocked since day one would be my first call!

ginjaninja · 4 Jun 2015 at 16:46

dodgy cable/cable connection.

6644kp · 4 Jun 2015 at 16:51

I'm afraid it is not the monitor since it runs fine connected to a PS3. I'll replace the HDMI cable and see how that goes but I guess the GPU is probably giving out.

6644kp · 4 Jun 2015 at 16:53

Mrjobby said:
Thats sounds like a GPU issue not a screen issue to me.

Old GPU thats been overclocked since day one would be my first call!

It was OC'd and has its hidden 6970 cores unlocked since it was a December 2010 6950 and those were basically 6970s.

ginjaninja · 5 Jun 2015 at 13:36

what so 6950s with a new firmware were 6970s?

something very wrong with consumer benefit from free markets when it can be advantageous for companies to purposefully degrade a product.

6644kp · 6 Jun 2015 at 12:30

Some new development, now the computer won't post at all with its own GPU. I put in an older Radeon 4850 and it gets to the bios screen but the MOBO warns it has forgotten the CPU overclock and it either starts windows repair but says it could not fix the issue and shuts it self down or it tries to load windows but always suffers a blue screen of death.

So is the motherboard the issue or the cpu? What do you guys think sadly I don't have another AMD CPU to test it.

megatron · 8 Jun 2015 at 16:50

Can I trouble you to list your full system specifications? Including RAM, PSU, motherboard and bios revision?

Have u entered the bios at all after you got a message that overclock has been forgotten?

6644kp · 8 Jun 2015 at 17:36

megatron said:
Can I trouble you to list your full system specifications? Including RAM, PSU, motherboard and bios revision?

Have u entered the bios at all after you got a message that overclock has been forgotten?

The system spec list:

AMD Phenom II X6 1075T 3GHz Socket AM3 125W 9MB
MSI 870A-G54 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard (Bios was never updated, the board was purchased new in December 2010)
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600mhz Vengeance Memory Module CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered
******** N Power 600W Semi-Modular PSU (from 2012)
Sapphire HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Dual DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

I have just bought a new Motherboard its a Biostar A960D+ Socket AM3+ VGA DVI 6 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard.

The computer will now post and boot into windows again even with its own AMD 6950 GPU but the screen goes black again when say loading up Zbrush or even windows task manager it doesn't happen every time doing these things but it does happen often.

I'm gonna try and refresh the GPU's drivers and if it doesn't help I'll put in the Radeon 4850 again and see how that goes.