Question 2 new games, max settings, video turned off, video turns off at windows password screen ?

[gslonesoldier84]

I installed Arma 3 and Battlefield Bad Company 2. I had been playing Company of Heroes with no problems.

I played Arma 3 at super-high settings with long draw distances too.

Mid-game like 20 minutes into Arma 3 the video turned off but I could hear audio.

Since then the video switches off with the video card at the windows password screen like 98% of the time (except a few rare times when I let it sit for a long while and then it seemed to get past the windows password screen for like 2-3 minutes before switching video off again).

I turned the video to CPU graphics in the BIOS and I can be on the desktop for a long time now and it seems ok. But it will crash or not load the game even in company of heroes often and I haven't tried Arma 3 or Battlefield Bad Company 2 since.

If I can figure out the problem before then. I would be helped by having the video card working before Tuesday this week because I use Revit to make renders. With my workflow, I need the quick renders the video card was making possible. Otherwise the renders will take a long time to complete. It's still way faster without the GPU than it is from my laptop though!

I did a clean install of windows and reinstalled the video drivers for the GPU even though it is running video from the CPU right now.

So, that's the situation. What should I do? How can I troubleshoot further?

The system is:

PSU = Corsair CX500M
OS = Windows 10 Home
CPU = Intel Core i5-4460 CPU at 3.2 ghz 4cpus
RAM = 16GB (two RAM chips...one is Spektek and the other is Offtek)
GPU = GTX 780Ti 3GB
Motherboard = ASUS (says on it with directX 11 support ...I have DirectX 12 version is this a problem?

Further info that is relevant is that I worked out how to connect the power cable by figuring it out from guides/etc. It all worked great for a long while with many renders put out and games of Company of Heroes played. It went pear-shaped when I installed Arma 3 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 and hasn't been ok since. (been few days now)

+1 Also the fan goes really loud when it crashes in company of heroes now from the CPU with the GPU disabled (but when I switch off the advanced video settings it will be ok for company of heroes running on the CPU not the GPU)

Please help!

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Is the gpu still recognized under device manager?

 

[gslonesoldier84]

Is the gpu still recognized under device manager?

Thank you for responding! Yes, it is. From device manager:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti

Location:
PCI bus 1, device 0, function 0

Device Status:
This device is working properly.

Information:
Device PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_100A&SUBSYS_36281458&REV_A1\4&3834d97&0&0008 requires further installation.

Conflicting device list:
No conflicts.

Events:
Driver service added (seven of these)
Device started
Device configured
Device install requested
(all on the 21st over like a 45 minute period)

Pretty sure the events may have been from when I installed (only once) the official NVIDEA drivers from the official website. It has only really run on the CPU graphics since reinstall of the OS (Windows 10).

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Where did you install the games from?

 

[gslonesoldier84]

Where did you install the games from?

Steam (with a lot of account validation stuff through browser with Origin/EA).

Then punkbuster problems were fixed with installs and updates.

The games were then launched through Steam.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Have you run sfc /scannow?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Also when you go in to device manager to check the gpu check the driver information. See if it says Nvidia as the source or windows at the top of the box. https://prnt.sc/1qfoust

 

[gslonesoldier84]

Have you run sfc /scannow?

Yes. Result as:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19043.1165]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.844

Image Version: 10.0.19043.1165

[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.

Also when you go in to device manager to check the gpu check the driver information. See if it says Nvidia as the source or windows at the top of the box. https://prnt.sc/1qfoust

Yes.

Driver provider: NVIDIA
Driver Date: 05/08/2021
Driver version: 30.0.14.7168
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Can you get to the bios screen without the video turning off?

 

[gslonesoldier84]

Can you get to the bios screen without the video turning off?

Yes, with both CPU and GPU for video output it gets to the BIOS and the windows screen. But when I hit escape or "pull up" the screen to enter the windows password, that's where the video switches off when the GPU is the video output.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Try removing your gpu and reseating it, same with it's power cables.

 

[gslonesoldier84]

Try removing your gpu and reseating it, same with it's power cables.

Reseated the GPU by removing it and reseating it and pressed in all the power connections again.

It got past the windows password screen that time and was on the desktop for 4-8 minutes before the video switched off again.

P.S. Thank you for your ongoing help!

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Ok so since you got the gpu to work for a few minutes, go in to event viewer, , see if there are any critical events to look at that coincide with the gpu /video shutting off. It may give you clues as to what is going on.

 

[gslonesoldier84]

Ok so since you got the gpu to work for a few minutes, go in to event viewer, , see if there are any critical events to look at that coincide with the gpu /video shutting off. It may give you clues as to what is going on.

I didn't see anything that mentioned GPU or that is blatantly relevant but I was looking in a time window and not an exact time (as I didn't record the exact time when it happened). I will try to get it to hold after the windows password screen again and check the exact time it fails.

Then I can post the events.

Otherwise I would just be posting a bunch of events from slightly different points over 30 minutes that seem possibly relevant to me.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

You may have to do a fresh windows install.

 

[gslonesoldier84]

You may have to do a fresh windows install.

I've already done a fresh windows install. I reset the PC and removed all old files/etc. I reinstalled the current NVIDIA drivers after the reset.

"I did a clean install of windows and reinstalled the video drivers for the GPU even though it is running video from the CPU right now."

I want to try to put the GPU in another computer to test it. But I don't have another computer to do this with !

I really don't know what else to do at this point. Can I test the PCIe slot somehow?

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

Starting to smell to me like a weak PSU beginning to fail. As soon as it gets a good load and warms up, it scrams.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

I've already done a fresh windows install. I reset the PC and removed all old files/etc. I reinstalled the current NVIDIA drivers after the reset.

"I did a clean install of windows and reinstalled the video drivers for the GPU even though it is running video from the CPU right now."

I want to try to put the GPU in another computer to test it. But I don't have another computer to do this with !

I really don't know what else to do at this point. Can I test the PCIe slot somehow?

Yes sorry its been so long since we started troubleshooting. Do you have another pcie slot available? You can try the gpu in the other slot.

 

[gslonesoldier84]

Starting to smell to me like a weak PSU beginning to fail. As soon as it gets a good load and warms up, it scrams.

How can I test this?

Yes sorry its been so long since we started troubleshooting. Do you have another pcie slot available? You can try the gpu in the other slot.

No need to apologize obviously! That came across a bit harsh as it is text. I was just trying to be thorough in my response. Thank you for helping! Even if we don't crack this problem, one small example of something I've learned is that I hadn't ever used the event viewer before and didn't really know that it existed in such a simple format before this.

I don't have another PCIe slot in this machine. Is there some way to test the actual slot itself other than by plugging in a card? Can I do a test via windows of its connection other than checking in device manager? (just occurred to me that this is why you wanted me to check device manager in one of your first few responses)

The next big thing (only thing really) that I can think to do is to test the card in another machine. But I don't have another machine to test it in.

The thing that is annoying is that the card did make it to windows sometimes before switching off. And it was well looked after before I bought it and it worked completely fine for a long while while I had it.

Maybe I have the electrical connections wrong or it is the PSU?

How can I test the PSU and the connections?

I connected it to the PSU as per guides online and there isn't really any other way to connect the GPU to the PSU.

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

How can I test this?

There are 2 basic ways. First way, get a multimeter, where you can measure amperage and voltage. Put a load on the computer, and test the voltage and amperage. Find out how far you can push it. The second way is to use a second PSU and put it on your computer.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

I am beginning to think also along with Groveling_Wyrm that it may be your psu since you say the computer crashes when you are using the cpu for video. When the computer shuts down do you ever get a blue screen with a problem code?

 

[gslonesoldier84]

No blue screen with a problem code, no.

And I have a multi-meter. I'll need to work out how to use it!

Updates for new faults:

I have loaded a house model in AutoDesk Revit and it said "hardware acceleration is disabled" on loading. The model is spinning around in 3D MUCH slower now. I had loaded Revit once since all of this happened and it had loaded ok and the model would spin around MUCH faster in 3D. But today it is much slower with that error message. Nothing else had changed other than what was done in the steps in this thread.

Also, Company of Heroes has stopped working properly. It loads like 80% to 90% of the time with "Failed to find a supported hardware rendering device" now. When it does load, it only runs with a large black border around the screen. When I try to update the resolution in the game options, it crashes. When it tries to load the game-engine in-game, it crashes or just stalls. I can try again to see if it does it again, but this was yesterday over like 45 minutes.

All of these recent faults have been with just CPU as the video/graphics.

 

[gslonesoldier84]

I've listed the computer for sale now. I can't work it out really as I don't have other machines or power supplies or other parts to single out what is at fault.

I'm going to try to sell it but keep the video card for now to test in another machine at a later time.

It's been listed a few days now but no interest yet at £190 without the GPU.

 

[Karadjgne]

Try this. Arma 3 is DX10/11. Win10 is DX12 based, and can have issues with older titles if 1 or more drivers required are date coded wrong or not open ended, requiring a 16 or 32bit codec and won't accept a 64bit codec.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35
Company of Heros was DX9c/DX10, Company of Heros 2 uses DX10/11.

I'm doubting it's the psu, a rail is a rail and if it fails, the whole thing fails not just 1 particular item. Since the pc uses 12v primarily, if that rail is compromised the pc would shut off/bluescreen with kernal or whea errors, you'd not get video signal drops from both cpu and gpu.

Igpu output doesn't use pcie lanes from the cpu, gpu does, so it's doubtful it's the cpu or the motherboard or 1 or the other would be a failure, not both. The only things both cpu and gpu have in common is drivers and if Steam is using DX10 base for those older games, you may have issues if drivers are missing since DX10 is not natively supported by Win10.

 

[gslonesoldier84]

It said a newer or equivalent DX is already installed so the installer determined not to install anything.

But why will the video not work with the GPU at all after the windows login screen?

It can't be a physically damaged PCI-E slot can it if it makes it that far? When I bought the computer, the card looking like it may have been drooping ever so slightly in the slot when stood up just from the physical weight of the card. Maybe I was being paranoid. But still, I set the PC laying on its side and installed the card so it was straight in. Before that, I was assured the thing was running seamlessly the entire time even in follow up talks with the seller who made himself available even after the sale to address my concerns.

I will try to get it to windows again with the GPU and look for errors in the event viewer tool.

I'd really like for this machine to just work as it is or work out what is wrong with it! I've spent so much time on it and now it's my main workstation for work too.