Black screen of Death -_-

[Melvis]

Ive been getting a Black screen of death every 30mins or so of game play but only in a certain game CSS. Shows no warning, its just happens out of know where, screens go black and i have to hard reset the computer, its realy starting to piss me off

Im running no OC, latest drivers, game doesn't run crossfire any more, tried it with crossfire turned off still the same problem. Im lost for words or thoughts on what it could be, my guess is drivers? anyway any ideas id like to hear it as im not happy with it at this stage.

[HD64G]

GPU drivers is the most possible reason. Try a non-beta version if you use a beta one just to be sure.

[Melvis]

Originally Posted by HD64G

GPU drivers is the most possible reason. Try a non-beta version if you use a beta one just to be sure.

Im using 13.1 drivers, ive gone back to a beta driver 12.11a but still no good.

I dont know what it is, and im not 100% sure if it happens in other games, all i know is ive had Crysis 2 go a bit funny on me but id say that's because of heat issues with these cards, 97c is a bit warm.

[Feanor]

Thermal shutdown, if they are really running that hot.

Try to improve your airflow (add/clean fans inside your case) and verify the gpu heatsinks are not full of dust. Two cans of air duster cost a lot less than a new card!

Try to run occt after your verification to see if it lowered your temp. If not, then maybe your TIM is dried up and you need to re-apply some (always a good idea to apply some quality stuff and remove the crap AMD/Nvidia use...).

[itsakjt]

^+1 above.
Also just to share, I once undervolted the chipset voltage on my motherboard from the BIOS and while playing Max Payne 3, this same problem happened with me after I played for around 3 hrs. Then I bumped up the voltage again and everything was perfect again.

[Melvis]

Originally Posted by Feanor

Thermal shutdown, if they are really running that hot.

Try to improve your airflow (add/clean fans inside your case) and verify the gpu heatsinks are not full of dust. Two cans of air duster cost a lot less than a new card!

Try to run occt after your verification to see if it lowered your temp. If not, then maybe your TIM is dried up and you need to re-apply some (always a good idea to apply some quality stuff and remove the crap AMD/Nvidia use...).

No its not thermal shut down, not in CSS anyway. One card would only be working and the temp would get to 70c mac playing CSS. But in Crysis 2 that could be true.

Air flow in case is good, these cards are basically brand new, so no dust and i have dust filters on case. Dried up TIM i don't think so either as these cards are only 3months old at most.

Well i stopped the black screen of death in CSS, all i did was swap the cards around This isnt what i can a good fix as that tells me the card might be faulty? or have some sort of issues?

Im still going to contact HIS and have a word with them, does anyone know if i can remove the heatsinks on these cards, put some after market ones on and it wont effect the warranty?

[jaggerwild]

One of he cards could have not seated correctly, are you using adapters for the second cards power?

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by Melvis

No its not thermal shut down, not in CSS anyway. One card would only be working and the temp would get to 70c mac playing CSS. But in Crysis 2 that could be true.

Not necessarily the card. It can be because the GPU is no longer the bottleneck, some other components would have been stressed beyond the breaking point. For example if I don't cap the framerates for certain games my processor will overheat.

[brandonwh64]

CSS does not require much to play. I would have to think it maybe a issue with the driver and the game?

[itsakjt]

Originally Posted by Melvis

No its not thermal shut down, not in CSS anyway. One card would only be working and the temp would get to 70c mac playing CSS. But in Crysis 2 that could be true.

Air flow in case is good, these cards are basically brand new, so no dust and i have dust filters on case. Dried up TIM i don't think so either as these cards are only 3months old at most.

Well i stopped the black screen of death in CSS, all i did was swap the cards around This isnt what i can a good fix as that tells me the card might be faulty? or have some sort of issues?

Im still going to contact HIS and have a word with them, does anyone know if i can remove the heatsinks on these cards, put some after market ones on and it wont effect the warranty?

I don't think it will effect the warranty. However, graphic cards don't usually require aftermarket cooling unless you are doing too much overclocking. The temperature 70 degree C you mentioned isn't that alarming either. I also think just like the other members here, it might have happened that one GPU was not seated properly. So probability you know.

[Melvis]

Originally Posted by jaggerwild

One of he cards could have not seated correctly, are you using adapters for the second cards power?

Maybe, but there near new and i can see easily if its seated or not and it seems fine. No no adapter, straight from the PSU which is a HX-850

Originally Posted by Fourstaff

Not necessarily the card. It can be because the GPU is no longer the bottleneck, some other components would have been stressed beyond the breaking point. For example if I don't cap the framerates for certain games my processor will overheat.

This could be true for when i played Crysis 2, i do need to do it again on the CPU, but i dont think it gets past 60c at this stage.

Originally Posted by brandonwh64

CSS does not require much to play. I would have to think it maybe a issue with the driver and the game?

This is what i was thinking also as CSS can be played even on a 8yr PC. But this is the strange part i swapped around the cards (top to bottom, bottom to top) and i haven't had a crash since Which means maybe one card has a possible issue?

Originally Posted by itsakjt

I don't think it will effect the warranty. However, graphic cards don't usually require aftermarket cooling unless you are doing too much overclocking. The temperature 70 degree C you mentioned isn't that alarming either. I also think just like the other members here, it might have happened that one GPU was not seated properly. So probability you know.

I will have to check with HIS o this, because if i can change them with out voiding the warranty i will do so. No OC at all, everything is at stock and in Crysis 2 the GPU (the top one mostly of coarse) is hitting near 100c.

The 70c is with the game CSS, the almost 100C (the screen shot i have there) is in Crysis 2 maxed out no Vysnc. At that sort of temps im worried, not even my crossfire 4870X2's in the same case got that hot, maybe 85c at most full load. This is why i have to take action now before these cards either die or something else does.