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PC keeps black screening, system is still up but display is gone?

RipGroove

RipGroove

RipGroove

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Joined
15 Apr 2016
Posts
1,173
SOLVED! Please see edit below:

This PC build has been rock solid since I built it 3 years ago but 3 days ago it started to randomly black screening about 3 times a day, no rhyme or reason, happens mainly when gaming but has also happened at idle with just a few documents open, system is still up as sound is still playing so it looks like the GPU driver is crashing or something?

Event viewer is not showing anything at the time of the black screen or anything leading up to it?

I suspected GPU driver so did a clean DDU uninstall and reinstalled the latest driver, same problem, so I did a DDU again and installed the previous driver, same problem?

The first time it did it did actually coincide with some Intel graphics update thing that popped up in my little Windows notification thing at the bottom right of my taskbar, wonder if that is causing the issues? If so, I don't even remember what it was, and it isn't showing up in my Windows update history.

Also, this popped up in my Windows notification as well the first time it happened:

50301491392_74595669a4_o.png


I'm pretty confident it's not PSU related as the system stays up just fine, it's just the display that goes.

Help please, spec in sig.

EDIT/ So it looks like the solution to my particular issue was caused by my EVGA PowerLink connector (if you don't know what that is then Google it). It's been in my PC for 3 years with zero problems but since removing it recently I haven't had a single black screen/no signal problem. Going by what I've learned while diagnosing this problem, if you are having this same issue but do not have a PowerLink installed then I would definitely check/change your PSU because clearly any kind of power interruption to the GPU will cause these exact symptoms.

My original GPU has been back in my PC now for 2 days so at this point I'm very confident that the PowerLink is at fault but I will of course update this post if something changes.
 
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Also seems a bit odd that at the time of the first instance of this happening some intel display update notification popped up, which for the life of me I can't seem to find any history of now.
 
NZXT30 said:
I had the same problem and I tried everything refusing to believe it was the psu. Yes it was the psu replaced it and everything has been fine since then.
Click to expand...
Interesting, could be that then, that'll probably be the quickest and easiest thing to rule out.

Recommendations for a decent fully modular 850w PSU that's super quiet (my system is very quiet even under full load) and not super expensive? Current one is a Corsair RMi 850w which developed coil whine after a few months use, my previous Corsair was also really loud so should probably try a different brand, EVGA? Seasonic? ASUS? be quiet?

Any good?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-rog-strix-850w-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-05k-as.html
 
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JohnG7 said:
I had no issue on my 1080Ti but it asked for update when I ran it, Titan Xp (2017) did not need as up to date.
Click to expand...

A firmware update was required so I'll see if it's made any difference, won't know for another few hours gaming I expect. I'll leave Heaven running overnight or something and see if it black screens again at some point.
 
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Stretlow said:
Probably not the same issue but i built my daughter a Ryzen rig and was messing with the clocks in the bios, a small overclock was fine for a bit but then was blank screening. Removing the overclock fixed it
Click to expand...
Good shout but both my CPU and GPU are running stock clocks as they easily bring 100fps (my refresh rate) at 3440x1440 21:9 Ultrawide in all my games.
 
Roughly 4hrs gaming today (ya know, for science) and another 2hrs on Unigine Heaven and so far it's been OK.

JohnG7 said:
RELEASE HIGHLIGHTS
To enable the latest DisplayPort 1.3 / 1.4 features, your graphics card may require a firmware update.

Without the update, systems that are connected to a DisplayPort 1.3 / 1.4 monitor could experience blank screens on boot until the OS loads, or could experience a hang on boot.

The NVIDIA Firmware Updater will detect whether the firmware update is needed, and if needed, will give the user the option to update it.

If you are currently experiencing a blank screen or hang on boot with a DP 1.3 or 1.4 monitor, please try one of the following workarounds in order to run the tool:

  • Boot using DVI or HDMI
  • Boot using a different monitor
  • Change boot mode from UEFI to Legacy; or Legacy to UEFI.
  • Boot using an alternate graphics source (secondary or integrated graphics card)
Once you have the tool downloaded, please run the tool and follow the on-screen instructions.

The latest NVIDIA graphics card drivers can be downloaded from: //www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

For 32-bit NVIDIA Graphics Firmware Update Tool for DisplayPort 1.3 and 1.4, please download here.

SUPPORTED PRODUCTS
NVIDIA TITAN Series:
TITAN X (Maxwell), TITAN X (Pascal), TITAN XP

GeForce 10 Series:
GeForce GT 1030, GeForce GTX 1050, GTX 1050Ti, GTX 1060, GTX 1070, GTX 1070Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1080Ti

GeForce 900 Series:
GeForce GTX 950, GTX 950Ti, GTX 960, GTX 970, GTX 980, GTX 980Ti

GeForce 700 Series:
GeForce GTX 745, GTX 750, GTX 750Ti


https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/nv-uefi-update-x64/
Click to expand...

Hopefully this has sorted it.
 
Well it happened again this morning twice in a row, first time after 5 mins gaming and second time as soon as I loaded in to a map in a game. Very strange because it got through hours of gaming yesterday with zero problem. So memtest it is then and probably a new PSU to kick things off.

Oh dear, and now the PC boots up straight to a black screen. The screen is fine during POST then it blacks out when Windows loads. I can hear Windows loading up ok so I know it is just the graphics that are having some kind of issue.

4 attempts all with black screen, no black screen when monitor is connected to onboard graphics.

Nothing in Event Viewer but got some more Windows notifications about the display driver failing to start.

Currently running memtest64, no errors as yet.
 
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Well this is weird, I have 2x 16GB sticks of RAM and if I remove 1 stick the graphics driver boots up fine, strange thing is I can swap the sticks over and it still boots fine?! As soon as I put both sticks in the graphics driver fails to load?! What the hell. So, motherboard problem or PSU problem? Can't be the RAM because it works with either stick, just not with both.

I'll order a PSU which will either fix it or rule it out.
 
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Scratch that, tested with 1 stick Vs 2 sticks several times and it was fine every time with 1 stick, even started gaming. But when I went back to desktop for a few minutes the display driver crashed again. PSU now ordered.
 
Put both sticks of RAM back in, black screen when Windows loads, disabled XMP, windows loaded fine, gamed for 40min, black screen again. PSU arriving Monday, if that doesn't sort it I have no idea what's causing it as its just too random to nail down.

I also ran the built in Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool and that didn't find any problems either.

At this point I'm leaning away from RAM being the problem, I'm obviously no expert though.
 
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I'm pretty sure my GPU is toast, the PC kept black screening upon boot today so I borrowed another 1080ti and instantly no black screen. Just about to try some gaming but Origin is throwing a wobbly and won't let me launch any games so once I've sorted that I should have a definitive answer.
 
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