Keep losing HDMI signal when playing games

[Jetster]

Its hard to say

 

[D007]

It really is hard to say.. I've seen shorts cause similar issues, loose wiring, psu.. When things go that crazy, I gut my entire system and reconnect everything..
Always check for bios updates too, try resetting cmos etc.. But it sounds like you may have got it figured out.. Fingers crossed.

 

[Kanan]

I think if it happens again it's the cables. Psus aren't bad and then suddenly recovering again. Not gonna happen. Good luck.

 

[Macjeje]

Glad that I learned a bit more about computers.
If it ever happens again / if i have a different issue i'll comeback here. By far the community that helped me the most (never going back to reddit again for pc support).
Thank you everyone for your help, I'm very happy it's fixed (for now at least).

 

[Mussels]

Yes, I did a little bit of cleaning and changed the position of some of the wires when i switched bad to PCIe cable. So far no black screen and i have been playing eu4 for more than one hour. It seems like either the black screen are far less frequent or they are just totally gone. If they ever happen again do you guys think it would be fair for me to assume that the problem is either from my PSU or from its cables ?

its the first place you should look, but dont rule out a new problem with the same symptoms. The worst problems often have more than one possible cause.

 

[Macjeje]

Hey guys, just got a black screen. I was not even playing a game. I was just browsing the internet... I guess the next thing i should do is replug everything and see if it makes a difference

 

[Vayra86]

Hey guys, just got a black screen. I was not even playing a game. I was just browsing the internet... I guess the next thing i should do is replug everything and see if it makes a difference

Again, pick up a PCIe cable and try it with a fresh one, right now it is going to be a good way to exclude that issue and it is also a cheap 'fix'.

 

[Mussels]

try with another screen? HDMI to your TV at the same time as your monitor (run duplicate, so its the same image on both)

 

[Jetster]

Personally I would disassemble everything, lay it out on a bench no case. Format and reinstall then test it with w clean system. Kind of a last effort before buying any more parts. Visually inspect all connection

 

[Macjeje]

Again, pick up a PCIe cable and try it with a fresh one, right now it is going to be a good way to exclude that issue and it is also a cheap 'fix'.

Will do.

try with another screen? HDMI to your TV at the same time as your monitor (run duplicate, so its the same image on both)

My monitor is brand new. I used to have another that used DVI and it did the same except I got vertical / horizontal bars. I Could still hear the sound too (not looped). I think it's safe to say the monitor is not causing the issue.
I'll try a memtest. It can't hurt. Afterall, my RAM did fail once in the past and i had to RMA it.

Personally I would disassemble everything, lay it out on a bench no case. Format and reinstall then test it with w clean system. Kind of a last effort before buying any more parts. Visually inspect all connection

I'm afraid of doing that, i am still new to building computers and manipulating hardware.
Will definitely give it a try if i run out of options.

I know this is going to sound dumb, but could this be Hard Drive related ? Because i do have a Hard Drive that makes a weird noise. Let's say that HDD fails and that is the one that i have my AMD display drivers on, could that make black screens ?

 

[ratirt]

hey Guys.
I'd like to cut in with the conversation. I have very similar config of rig as You Macjeje. I was getting black screens with my ASROCK ex4 and I thought it was my PCI-e slots. Had 2 cards 460 and 670. The last one I bought some time ago to wait for new cards (a month). It got burned so as the 460. Try not to use the 2nd PCI-slot. Looking through the posts it would seem that you got kinda high temps so 2nd PCI-e slot is out of the picture. I bought a new mobo which wasn't necessary. I also got myself a new card just to make sure it all works. I did all bunch of stuff to get this working.
I just list what I did. Now I have no problems with my rig but the symptoms were same as yours. Black screen even though you hear sound but after several times freezes and shut downs and cards damaged. I couldn't even see the post screen of the AS ROCK. I know the Bios was loading and I could hear system loading as well but nothing on the screen. On my 3770K I7 intel HD video everything was working no problems.

1st thing I would do try different cable with your PSU - GPU. maybe different slot in the PSU if your is modular.
2nd I would reseat the CPU since that may also cause the PCI0-e to act weird. Get it out clean the old thermal paste and get a new one and stick it right in the place again. (BTW I use my box cooler and temps never get over 50 gameplay and idle is around 34 and it got it set to 4Ghz.

3rd. DO NOT use the PCI-e bottom slot. I got my card fried that way since the crap airflow. Got all my fans disconnected since I was trying things to get rid of the issue I had.
4th try opening the case if it is closed to see if it helps.
5th try reinstalling system starting from scratch. (it didn't help with the issue for me)
6th if those things wont help. get everything out. clean it all up (I did that) put it all back in and try.

Since I have replaced my cards and I was forced to get everything out mean time cleaning it since I got a new mobo (I thought it was mobo) with a new card 780TI everything got back to normal. I went back to my ASROCK xt4 and had no problem even with my old system (imaged).
Try those and see what results you get.
Personally what I'd been through with this problem I'd start with pulling everything out. cleaning it and start again. Maybe try psu different cable or/and different PCI-e power socket mean time when you pull all the stuff out.

BTW. I thought it might have been the RAM. But I still use my Kingston and no problem. Maybe try using different sockets for your modules.
BUT THE BEST SOLUTION HERE IS PULLING EVERYTHING OUT AND CLEAN. - My opinion. Really

 

[Macjeje]

Lol i'm gonna cry. got the PSU out. Plugged everything back and now when i press on the power on button the blue light powers on for 2-3 secs, the fans too and then it powers off.

 

[Mussels]

Lol i'm gonna cry. got the PSU out. Plugged everything back and now when i press on the power on button the blue light powers on for 2-3 secs, the fans too and then it powers off.

you just missed something simple, its not dead. check all the PSU plugs i mentioned a few posts back, as well as your RAM sticks (one could be loose)

 

[Macjeje]

you just missed something simple, its not dead. check all the PSU plugs i mentioned a few posts back, as well as your RAM sticks (one could be loose)

I forgot to connect the red wire (sata) to my mobo. Now it runs for like 10 secs straight and it shuts down. Think it's the ram. I'll try to just use one and see if it work.

Now it keeps running but the fan that is connected to the MOBO is not running. My two other PC fans that are connected to the molex 4-pin are running.

**** i think i broke a 4 pin molex connector. For some reason the aftermarket cooler is not working and the fan that has the mobo has a powersource is not running either.

Here are the things that i'm sure i connected :
20+4 pin
8 pin next to CPU
SATA to Mobo

I removed my GPU to have one less variable.

 

[ratirt]

I forgot to connect the red wire (sata) to my mobo. Now it runs for like 10 secs straight and it shuts down. Think it's the ram. I'll try to just use one and see if it work.

Now it keeps running but the fan that is connected to the MOBO is not running. My two other PC fans that are connected to the molex 4-pin are running.

**** i think i broke a 4 pin molex connector. For some reason the aftermarket cooler is not working and the fan that has the mobo has a power source is not running either.

Here are the things that i'm sure i connected :
20+4 pin
8 pin next to CPU
SATA to Mobo

I removed my GPU to have one less variable.

Are you sure You have connected everything? it would seem that there's definitely something missing. check all the connectors. make sure they sit tight in the sockets. Good idea removing GPU. try one ram module in different sockets.
make sure Your CPU sits tight. It's not broken. See what post code error You got on the motherboard. If you can post it here if there is any. Remove all the rams and see if the mobo will identify with the post code there is no ram.
Make sure you have connected the CPU power connector. and you got it in the right PSU socket and that goes for all the parts.

 

[Mussels]

either somethings not plugged in, or somethings plugged in to the wrong spot (which is hard, but we recently had a post about a guy connecting a 4 pin floppy power plug to a fan header on his motherboard, so it does happen)

 

[Macjeje]

Hey guys, i'm sorry for the lack of updates. I got quite busy in the past days.
It seems my CPU is dead. I'm not sure if a damaged CPU could explain the blacks screens that I was getting.
I'm thinking about getting a new motherboard and a new CPU, a friend of mine told me that 100C for several months probably damaged the motherboard and that LGA1155 sockets are discontinued.

Still needs to be confirmed, but i'm 99% sure that it's either the CPU or the PSU at this point.
I'll give you an update as soon as everything is in place.

If it's really the CPU i'm thinking about getting an AMD FX-8350 CPU and a MSI Gaming 970 motherboard.

Thank you again for trying to figure this out with me.

 

[Mussels]

that AMD chip would be a pretty big downgrade in gaming performance.

If your CPU was faulty you'd have had totally different problems, so it's definitely not the CPU - motherboard is possible, but very unlikely.

 

[Macjeje]

that AMD chip would be a pretty big downgrade in gaming performance.

If your CPU was faulty you'd have had totally different problems, so it's definitely not the CPU - motherboard is possible, but very unlikely.

I thought that CPU was better because it was better on the Futuremark website.
I'm going to tell my friend to just test another PSU and see if it boots. (Everything is plugged properly). Finding a budget CPU to get a similar performance for my games is going to be hard if it needs to be changed

I did a little bit more research and i love the i5-6500.

 

[Mussels]

intel CPU's have a very lage performance advantage in games, because the performance per core is a lot higher.

AMD's current chips have more cores - but they're individually slower. Very VERY few games run better on AMD than intel.

 

[Macjeje]

intel CPU's have a very lage performance advantage in games, because the performance per core is a lot higher.

AMD's current chips have more cores - but they're individually slower. Very VERY few games run better on AMD than intel.

I was about to become an heretic.
I shall never doubt Intel again.
Thanks for showing me the light, missionary Mussels.

 

[Macjeje]

Update : Turns out the motherboard was the problem (Or not, see update #2).
I'm very happy that my CPU is still going well. Changing the motherboard should not be too expensive.
I had to reinstall Windows. Maybe because the new motherboard has a different chipset? Just went from z77 to h61, but it was cheap so why not. I'm just not going to OC.

 

[Macjeje]

Update #2 : A few weeks after changing my motherboard my PC started to have blackscreens again.
Before buying anything else I chose to do a memtest and I got no errors after 10 passes.

After all the changes that I made, it seems like there's only two options left :
It's either the PSU or the CPU (even thought i have no idea how a defective CPU could cause blackscreens).

I believe the next step will be to test my PC with another PSU and see if I still encounter blackscreens.

Note : Since I got my new motherboard, blackscreens are often followed up by an automatic reboot. This was not the case when I was using my previous motherboard. Also, it exclusively happens when I'm playing games. Other than that, the problem is exactly the same.

 

[P4-630]

What are your CPU/GPU temps when you are gaming?

 

[Macjeje]

What are your CPU/GPU temps when you are gaming?

Hi, they are still the same than last time I tested them with Musells. My CPU is around 50-70C under stress and GPU is between 50-80C under stress.