Any suggestions as to what is wrong with my GPU?

[trickynick]

While playing games like Dragon Age Inquisition & Sniper Elite 3, if I alt-Tab out of the game, the fan on my GPU will max out, then my video blacks out to where I have to press & hold the power button to turn off the PC.

 

[trickynick]

Anyone?

 

[Joe Newbie]

You're likely not getting responses because you've provided hardly any information at all. What GPU? CPU? PSU? How long have you had it? How long has it been doing this? Do you have updated Drivers? Have you been using any software that claims to increase your performance, as most of that stuff is crap that can make your rig unstable. There are a lot of people on this board willing to help others but when you provide little to no information other than you blackscreen and have to reboot when you alt-tab out, it's hard for anyone to diagnose what's going on.

 

[trickynick]

Thank you for explaining Joe Newbie.

My current specs:

OCZ 700W MODXSTREAM PRO

ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7Q-

XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support ... --- Owned since 2011 I think

 

[Joe Newbie]

Thank you for explaining Joe Newbie.

My current specs:

OCZ 700W MODXSTREAM PRO

ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7Q-

XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support ... --- Owned since 2011 I think

Windows 7? And you opened the games from Origin or a disk? Also have you tried to lower the video settings in-game? Or, what is the resolution between the game and the OS desktop, sometimes when they have two different resolutions it can cause problems.

 

[trickynick]

Windows 7 Ultimate.
Origin / Steam / Etc -- not a physical disc.
For DA:I Settings reduced to minimum (apart from resolution)
The screen resolution is the same, Desktop or In Game -- 1080p
Two monitors -- the other is 1440x900.

 

[Joe Newbie]

Windows 7 Ultimate.
Origin / Steam / Etc -- not a physical disc.
For DA:I Settings reduced to minimum (apart from resolution)
The screen resolution is the same, Desktop or In Game -- 1080p
Two monitors -- the other is 1440x900.

Ok, to be honest I have no answer for you at all, other than to make sure your drivers are up to date. But with this additional information available let's hope someone might have more answers than questions.

I know how much this must suck and how frustrating it is, I hope this gets resolved quick one way or the other.

 

[trickynick]

Honestly, I think when I updated the drivers the problem got worse. I wish I could remember which version I had before the update so I could go back to them.

DA:I is one game I won't try to play, my GPU is just not strong enough for the game to be enjoyable, will have to wait. Other games that I play have the issue too when they used to not.

Not sure if the problem continued from when DA:I crashed (but didn't have to turn off) and I decied to give up on the game and play something else. I alt-tabbed out of that game (I think it was Sniper Elite 3), the fan sped up and did what it does in my OP.

 

[Joe Newbie]

Honestly, I think when I updated the drivers the problem got worse. I wish I could remember which version I had before the update so I could go back to them.

DA:I is one game I won't try to play, my GPU is just not strong enough for the game to be enjoyable, will have to wait. Other games that I play have the issue too when they used to not.

Not sure if the problem continued from when DA:I crashed (but didn't have to turn off) and I decied to give up on the game and play something else. I alt-tabbed out of that game (I think it was Sniper Elite 3), the fan sped up and did what it does in my OP.

Have you dusted out the inside of your PC case lately? I know it seems simple but if the fans get so clogged up with dust it could cause some very erratic behavior from all the components.

 

[Snookslayer]

I don't have an answer either (I'm no expert), but when did this start? Were you able to "Alt-Tab" out of games in the past?

 

[xxxlun4icexxx]

While playing games like Dragon Age Inquisition & Sniper Elite 3, if I alt-Tab out of the game, the fan on my GPU will max out, then my video blacks out to where I have to press & hold the power button to turn off the PC.

On a first glance reading this it kind of sounds like a harddrive issue. Are you using an HDD? I used to get tons of funky things going on during alt-tabs when I had an HDD.

 

[trickynick]

It seemed to start when I updated the drivers for the video card. I have not dusted inside in some time, so that will be a good first step.

It could be the HDD, but it seems to be running just fine. Since it only goes to black and locks up the computer, I'm playing games.