• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

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

Well it's happened again! A few days of no black screens with the replacement GPU and this morning it black screened when I loaded a game and now it's happening every time I boot.

So, what the hell is happening here?

Oh wait, it won't even show a display with the monitor plugged into the motherboards Display Port or even a TV plugged into the motherboards HDMI port wth? Again I see the POST but just get black screen and no signal after that.

So it's not the GPU, not the monitor and not my Display Port cable?!
 
Last edited:
Can't seem to enter safe mode. All I get is a BIOS screen saying that THE SYSTEM HAS POSTED IB SAFE MODE DUE TO BEING POWERED OFF MANUALLY and that I have to press F1 to go to BIOS.
 
So looks like I can't even do a fresh install, unplugged all my drives and put an empty SSD in and tried to boot with my Windows USB in and after POST it's just black screen still.
 
I think it might be the RAM, pulled one stick and it booted up right away. Weird though because I tested the RAM the other day. I'll leave just the one stick in today and see what happens, if it's ok then it's a question of is the RAM stick bad or does my motherboard no longer like dual channel.
 
Last edited:
So I put the old GPU back in and it ran fine with just one stick of RAM, so there's probably nothing wrong with my original GPU after all. Put the second stick of RAM back in and it black screened right away, so pulled that stick out again and it booted up right away again. Must be the RAM then surely.

If that's the case it's weird how the problem instantly vanished when I swapped the GPU, and stayed fine for a few days. IF it black screens at all with just one stick of RAM then it has to be the PSU, so I'll keep testing today.
 
Last edited:
Well once again I'm confused, gaming and FurMark tests fine for around an hour with one RAM stick removed then all of a sudden, black screen when loading a game and now we're back to black screen when trying to boot, swapped the RAM sticks over and it booted right away. Getting very exhausted with this because just when I think I know what's causing it it'll just randomly happen again when I'm not expecting it.

So do I buy RAM or a PSU? lol
 
RipGroove said:
Well once again I'm confused, gaming and FurMark tests fine for around an hour with one RAM stick removed then all of a sudden, black screen when loading a game and now we're back to black screen when trying to boot, swapped the RAM sticks over and it booted right away. Getting very exhausted with this because just when I think I know what's causing it it'll just randomly happen again when I'm not expecting it.

So do I buy RAM or a PSU? lol
Click to expand...
I had similar problems on a 980TI a few years ago - it was PSU dipping voltage and not GPU. Not saying that's 100% your issue, but it woiuld explain why the other changes you're making are not correlating to the issue.
 
Chevens said:
I had similar problems on a 980TI a few years ago - it was PSU dipping voltage and not GPU. Not saying that's 100% your issue, but it woiuld explain why the other changes you're making are not correlating to the issue.
Click to expand...

It definitely looks like it might be PSU related but it's so weird that once if black screens while gaming it'll then constantly black screen upon boot until a I pull a stick of RAM out (doesn't matter which stick) then it boots right up. I suppose the extra 16GB stick of RAM could be pushing the PSU just over the top of what it's capable of in its possibly failing state.

I did have a PSU on order but cancelled it as in the meantime I sourced another GPU which instantly fixed the problem. I guess I need to order another PSU then, and I'll try and borrow some RAM today to maybe rule that out.
 
Or the memory controller on the CPU is dying. If you have a duff RAM stick or a duff RAM slot then it would be a consistent and repeatable issue, but since you're getting so much variation switching the memory around, which seems totally independant to the GPU issue, it's possible the memory controller is having issues.
 
LePhuronn said:
Or the memory controller on the CPU is dying. If you have a duff RAM stick or a duff RAM slot then it would be a consistent and repeatable issue, but since you're getting so much variation switching the memory around, which seems totally independant to the GPU issue, it's possible the memory controller is having issues.
Click to expand...

Oh Jesus we'll just throw the CPU in the mix as well then! I guess the fact that the issue was temporarily fixed by swapping the GPU and the fact I was initially getting Windows notifications about display drivers failing to start points to it not being the CPU but anything seems possible at the minute.

I've arranged to borrow some RAM within the next hour so if the PC black screens shortly after swapping it then I'll know the RAM is not the issue and move on to ordering a PSU again. If the PC does not black screen then I'll need to keep the borrowed RAM for a few days at least in order to know for sure.

If I still have issues with the borrowed RAM and a new PSU then I'll have to think about the CPU but to be honest at that point I may as well just build a new PC as I have to draw the line somewhere with buying outdated hardware, I already begrudgingly bought another 1080ti at the weekend! At least any PSU I buy will be fine for a new build and I'll have 2x working EVGA 1080ti SC2 Hybrids I can sell to help with the costs of a new build.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like you need to strip everything back and diagnose everything in a methodical fashion.

With your existing PSU, bin off all overclocks, take out the GPU and all peripherals and drive apart from OS, mouse and keyboard, and run on integrated graphics with 1 stick of RAM. Run some stress tests and benches (Prime95, Memtest, etc.). Then switch the RAM over to the other slot and run again. Then use the 2nd RAM stick in the 1st slot, test, then switch RAM slot, test. Then use both RAM sticks, test. Then switch the RAM sticks around, test.

If all is good then your RAM and your memory controller are fine.

Then switch PSU and put the GPU back in to test. Then change GPU and test. Then start adding peripherals and drives back in one at a time.
 
Borrowed some RAM and got another black screen after 30mins gaming and then done the usual thing where it black screens when I try to boot and again it'll only show a display on boot when I pull 1 stick out, then when I shut it down I can reinstall the 2nd stick and it'll boot fine.

So, it's not the actual RAM but could still be PSU/CPU or a little less likely, the motherboard.

I'm ordering another PSU now so that'll be the next hardware swap.
 
LePhuronn said:
Sounds like you need to strip everything back and diagnose everything in a methodical fashion.

With your existing PSU, bin off all overclocks, take out the GPU and all peripherals and drive apart from OS, mouse and keyboard, and run on integrated graphics with 1 stick of RAM. Run some stress tests and benches (Prime95, Memtest, etc.). Then switch the RAM over to the other slot and run again. Then use the 2nd RAM stick in the 1st slot, test, then switch RAM slot, test. Then use both RAM sticks, test. Then switch the RAM sticks around, test.

If all is good then your RAM and your memory controller are fine.

Then switch PSU and put the GPU back in to test. Then change GPU and test. Then start adding peripherals and drives back in one at a time.
Click to expand...

Only issue with that is the fact it pretty much now only black screens while gaming which I can't do on integrated graphics. It never happens when benchmarking or running FurMark or Heaven or anything like that.
 
PSU arriving tomorrow so once I've tested that I would have swapped the following hardware:

GPU (not the cause)
RAM (not the cause)
PSU (to be confirmed)

So tomorrow I'll either have solved it with the new PSU or I'll be at the point of just ordering a z490 mobo and 10900k as I don't want to be buying any more outdated hardware (z270 and 7700k) and I can't wait until Intel 11th gen CPU's are released as I need this fixed now rather than in 6 months time, then I guess I may as well sell the 2x 1080ti's and get a 3080 to pair nicely with the 10900k. So at that point the only original parts in the PC will be the drives, soundcard and the case and fans, which I don't believe are at fault here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom