Black Screen Freeze / Crash (VIdeo Related - Flash / VLC / Etc)

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Gamebubble_UK

Commendable
Apr 14, 2016
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Greetings,

I have recently update my graphics drivers and I have also swapped out a few components in my PC in the last month or two. I have installed a new PSU and a new GPU.

I don't recall having any crashes prior to updating to the current drivers but although a driver / software issue is most likely I don't really know exactly what the problem is.

When using Flash Player my computer will stop responding and display a plain black screen. I cannot open task manager, alt tab, or use any input devices etc. This seems to happen more frequently when using Chrome or Edge (for testing purposes).

My default browser is Firefox

I have tried to uninstalling and reinstalling flash, checked for driver updates and done a quick (not exhaustive) search to see if other users are having similar problems.

Although this 'black screen freeze' seems most common with flash (and relatively easy to reproduce) - I've had the occasional crash when watching films or TV with VLC player as well.

I think the most likely cause is unstable drivers/corrupt registries, etc but would appreciate any input. There's a small chance my build is drawing too much power and my PSU cant handle it but I can be gaming for hours on end on max settings in games and not have any crashes etc.

One oddity I do notice is that my secondary HDD seems to spin up just before or after the crash (which to the best of my knowledge shouldn't be accessed as nothing runs from it - it's an old drive with some back up files and an older installation of windows)

For some reason if I disable this drive / unplug it my PC does not register boot devices. My windows 10 installation is on my new HDD but for some reason it only boots if both HDDs are plugged in. (Possibly a bios misconfiguration)

I am running Windows 10, FX8350, R9 390, 8GB Ram, No Optical Drives, 2 Hard Drives (1x1TB, 1x120gb) - I also have a USB powered Keyboard, Mouse and Xbox 360 Controller plugged in at all times.

With regards to my recent upgrades/changes:

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 TRI-X 8GB GDDR5 DVI-D HDMI 3x DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

Corsair CX750 Builder Series CX 750W ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze PSU

I've also purchased a new mouse recently that comes with its own driver software:

Corsair Gaming CH-9000113-EU M65 Performance FPS 8200 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse - Black

The only other physical change I can think of is a Hyper212 EVO cooler I installed a little while back.

I've monitored case, mobo, cpu and gpu temps and nothing appears to be overheating, I have a decent r4 black pearl case with 3 big fans and decent airflow so I don't think heat is the problem.

I am by no means an expert when it comes to PC building but I have a basic grasp of most things.
If anybody has any input or suggestions please let me know. If you need anymore hardware info drop me a line.

Thanks very much for taking the time to read and I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.

Many Thanks

Sean

Quick Edit: I have also recently enable GPU Scaling:ON via AMD's Radeon Settings Menu if that has any bearing on things.
 
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Try this,
First of all you need to TOTALLY remove all the old drivers. Use this link.
http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/
Note:
Select the respective company(i.e Nvidia or ATI) drivers to be uninstalled.
Use clean and restart option.
And then install the new drivers after rebooting.
 
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Hello guys, thanks for your replies.

I was hoping it was driver related and not the PSU - didn't do enough research prior to purchase I guess. I'll try Alan's suggestion and see if I can regain some system stability that route. I just paid £80 quid for this PSU less than two months ago so I don't really want to buy another PSU just yet but if it really is a shitty PSU I guess I'll have too. I didn't realise it was rated up to 30degrees.. I'm sure my old generic/unbranded PSU handled more heat than this thing.

Still it does beg the question - if it's a 650w psu with a 750w label / a heat issue - why does it seem to crash during video playback and flash player usage as opposed to long extended gaming sessions?

Surely my temps and power usage are higher when the processor and GPU are going at it in games and not when watching videos?

Furthermore, if it's a power/heat issue - why would I have not experienced these issues when I first put the PSU in? Do they just have a high failure rate?

I'm a little discouraged by this news as I thought corsair were a reliable brand and according to PSU calculator my system should only pull about 540-620watts under 100% load - so even 650w's should be sufficient.

Cheers for your help, I'll continue tinkering and see if I can drag some life out of this powerbrick of woe.

 
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Sorry to necro an old topic but I thought I'd share my experience. I tried a whole host of things to track down the issue and wasn't having much luck.

I reinstalled drivers, ran malware/virus scans, readjusted my fan set-up, updated my motherboard bios, underclocked my gpu's core clock speed, cranked up the power draw, disabled all software based fan controllers, etc.

After a shit load of rinse repeat and hitting my head against a wall I uninstalled the 'Corsair Gaming Software' utility for my mouse and I haven't had a single crash since.

Not really sure why/how the software was causing problems but it definitely seems to be the source of my crashes.

Just a heads up for any users having a similar issue. If you own a Corsair M65 mouse and are running Windows 10, try uninstalling the driver for it
 
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Greetings, turns out that disabling the driver was a placebo effect. Still having problems with video playback. It's perplexing that the unit is able to maintain games on high load for hours on end but crashes repeatedly on '2d Mode' / 'Low Power' usage within half an hour or so.

I can only really think of three possible causes at the moment:

1. PSU really can't hack it (not sure about this, it runs under higher temps, drawing more power, for longer periods when gaming - zero crashes when gaming)

2. AMD Drivers are glitchy for video playback. Patch notes for the latest 16.6.1 drivers (Beta):

"Fixed Issues: Display flickering or corruption may be experienced when playing videos in a web browser."

3. HDD may be failing

I think I have no option other than picking up a new PSU and seeing if it's any more stable. If it turns out the PSU is not the problem I can always return it. So, I wondered what PSU(s) will definitely run my full build without issue?

 
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Heyas,

@ Alan Caldwell - I am a UK Shopper. I tend to pick up parts from Ebuyer and Amazon as a rule of thumb.

@ SR-71 Blackbird - Thanks for the input, I'm not entirely convinced the PSU is at fault - the more I dig into the AMD 300 series driver issues the more I tend to feel it's a driver problem but I'm running out of ideas in terms of troubleshooting. I may revert back to the 15.1.1 driver series as this seems to be the last truly stable set of drivers that AMD pushed out. They're quite dated now though. I guess I can rollback test videos and see if the problem persists with those drivers.
 
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