Black Screen Restart/Crash When Playing Games

James Gale

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Jul 29, 2013
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I recently decided to upgrade my PC in anticipation of Quakecon, and I have been running into problems with my computer: namely, when playing a graphics intensive game like Smite or Borderlands 2, I will be able to play certain game modes/locations for a while, but after playing for a while my screen will go black and my computer will do a hard restart. There are no error messages when my computer starts up, and when I check the event log the only info I can find is that the computer "stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

Here are my specs:
Mobo: Asrock 970 extreme 3
CPU: AMD FX-8350
Heatsink: Stock
Ram: 8Gb (2 sticks @ 4Gb) Ballistix Sport
PSU: Corsair 500W (Has been temporarily replaced with a Corsair 650 W, more on that later)
GPU: Radeon HD 6850
Case: Cooler Master HAF series RC-912
Main Hard Drive: Samsung SSD 120 Gb
Second Hard Drive: Western Digital 500 Gb HDD

It's important to note that my 500W PSU, 500 Gb HDD and the Radeon HD 6850 all came over from my last computer build, so I know that all of these parts (at least, at one time) used to work just fine. All other parts are brand new from Micro Center.

My first thought was that my gpu/cpu was overheating. I found that my cpu and my gpu idle at around 40-45 C, and when under load, hwmonitor reports both the cpu and gpu at around 60-65 C. I didn't think these temperatures were too bad, but I went ahead and applied new thermal paste to my cpu just to be safe. After doing this, cpu temperatures did not show much difference.

My second idea was to check the RAM. I ran both the windows memtest and memtest86 on both sticks, and both came back with no errors.

My next idea was that maybe my PSU (500W) was not putting out enough power to use all of these components when everything was running, so I went out and grabbed a stronger PSU(650W), but I am still having the same crashing problem.

My graphics drivers are up to date, my bios is up to date, and directX is up to date. All of my windows updates have been installed as well.

I'm honestly not sure what to do anymore. I've been scouring the forums and internet for a while looking for a solution, but I haven't found anything of note. Any help/insight you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks!



 
Solution

If that is the case, you could download OpenhardwareMonitor.
You can run a plot on GPU temperature (select GPU temp) then view as a plot, and set time window to 10 or 20 minutes.
Then play your game, and once in a while pause to check your temperature. You should be able to see the temperature behaviour of the GPU as you are playing. and pausing.

Good luck!
http://openhardwaremonitor.org/downloads/

BoyFromAuckland

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Aug 9, 2009
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sounds like you might have a hardware problem of some kind, the lack of errors in the log indicates this.
likely mainboard, CPU or GPU. HD at a stretch.

Only way to find out is to swap them out one at a time and see if the problem goes away.
 

BoyFromAuckland

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Aug 9, 2009
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If that is the case, you could download OpenhardwareMonitor.
You can run a plot on GPU temperature (select GPU temp) then view as a plot, and set time window to 10 or 20 minutes.
Then play your game, and once in a while pause to check your temperature. You should be able to see the temperature behaviour of the GPU as you are playing. and pausing.

Good luck!
http://openhardwaremonitor.org/downloads/
 
Solution

James Gale

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Jul 29, 2013
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I've been using MSI afterburner and HWMonitor to keep track of my temperatures, but they've never gotten above 60-63 C for the GPU. Do you think the programs are monitoring the temp wrong?

I noticed that when I set the fan to auto in MSI it only turns up to about 35% whenever it gets to 60 C on automatic fan setting. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it.

 

James Gale

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Jul 29, 2013
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Update on what I have done. I used MSI afterburner to crank up my fan on my video card up to 70% when games started. I didn't get hotter than 60C, and I still crashed about 20 minutes into a game of Smite. Any more ideas?

 

James Gale

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Jul 29, 2013
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I just consulted my manual and found out that my motherboard restarts whenever the CPU overheats. So it looks like i'll be installing a new heatsink and reappyling thermal paste and we will see how she performs.
 

thorpejoe

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May 14, 2014
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http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/forum/threadview/2...

I have a similar issue, and i believe i know thats its the cpu or the mobo underperforming, not the 280x

After playing many different types of games, i've concluded that the cpu is underperforming (based on whether a game is gpu or cpu driven) Battlefield is quite a cpu intensive game (the way hit reg works, 64 players and all the stuff going on). I have an r9 280x, which should be able to play near ultra settings. And it could do that, until a month back (this pc is 4 months old) But no i play on medium, otherwise i don't get 60fps!!!

I also have a 750w PSU and 2x4 gb 1600mhz RAM

the temps max @ 65-70 on the gpu and 50-60 on the cpu

But what is really interesting is that we both have the 970 chipset, just like the op in the above thread

I've had to replace the mobo already (first had faulty fan socket) I can't remember but i think that i could still play ultra with the second mobo.

I have had quite a few random BSODs (some caused by an external hard drive i had plugged in).

And i do remember that when i first built logged onto the pc i went to gigabyte's drivers page and there were a load there for my mobo. I didn't know which ones i should have used, so its possible that i'm using the wrong drivers.

[Specs:
Win 8.1 (supposedly better performance with bf4!!)
Gigabyte GA 970a-d3p
fx-6300
R9 280x
2x4 8gb 1600mhz
xfx 750w smartpower
samsung 840 evo (holds Win 8.1 and not much else
Seagate 1tb 7200rpm
 

thorpejoe

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May 14, 2014
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And i've encountered another problem. I'm getting the black screens, and a restart. No BSOD, and no overheating. (gpu doesn't go past 68, i haven't seen cpu go past 50)

Maybe the PSU is overheating, i don't know if there is a temp reading for that
 

Catalin Cozobiac

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Oct 22, 2014
2
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4,510
same simpthoms, the psu was dying, replaced it with an older psu, after playing some league of legends, after 3 days the problem came back, when i touched the psu was hot, replaced the fan and cleaned it up and it got fixed
 

Puniser

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Feb 7, 2015
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I have one question

I play Dying Light for about 2h and my screen go black and then on screen show up Input D-sub for my monitor,and after that first i must go to task manager and close the game becose a cant go into the game anymore,and after i close game i cant start over why is that?? sorry for my bad english i am from croatia
but i dident test on other games

my spec:
Cpu:Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
Gpu:GeForce GTX 580 Asus DirectCU II Edition
Ram:6gb
Disk:500gb
Win 7-64bit ultimate
 

joefro21

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Apr 2, 2015
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Well, after trying lots of different methods and tips and searching my rear end off, I saw someone say this is a display port problem only. I plugged in monitor with dual link dvi and bam... seems to be solved. Hope its that simple, I know this is an old thread, but hey, I will share what I have.

!!!! Ok, problem persisted after a short time after posting. Now I have switched from my asus vg248qe monitor to my samsung s23a700d and problem gone again... will update if failure returns. I have newest drivers/bios and tried everything. Hopefully, its just monitor problem as this one is running fine for now...

Okay, still no solution, back to square one... and my hardware works on a different computer, just fine!
 

Mahfoud79

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Dec 13, 2012
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Hello,

For solving black or white screen problem in PC or laptop when starting games, please the solution described below, it works for me. I have Dell mobile Workstation M6800 Quadro K5100M and I was facing this problem before when I run any game and Windows Experience Index in Windows 7 cannot complete assessement, because of the switch from integrated graphic to discret graphic card is not working. the discret graphic card remains in standby mode System information monitor software shows 0% usage of GPU and the temperature remains constante at 48°C, that means the GPU is not responding to the game request.

1. Enter BIOS settings, for Dell tap F2
2. Go to Video
3. Disable (or uncheck) "Enable switchable graphics" : the integrated graphic card in intel or AMD CPU will be disabled and your computer will use only NVIDIA or AMD discret graphic card.
4. Go to Performance and uncheck Intel Speed Step.
Apply changes then exit.

This solution solves black or white screen issue when running games or demanding softwares and Windows Experience Index issue too.
 

Mahfoud79

Honorable
Dec 13, 2012
5
0
10,510
Hello,

For solving black or white screen problem in PC or laptop when starting games, please the solution described below, it works for me. I have Dell mobile Workstation M6800 Quadro K5100M and I was facing this problem before when I run any game and Windows Experience Index in Windows 7 cannot complete assessement, because of the switch from integrated graphic to discret graphic card is not working. the discret graphic card remains in standby mode System information monitor software shows 0% usage of GPU and the temperature remains constante at 48°C, that means the GPU is not responding to the game request.

1. Enter BIOS settings, in Dell : tap F2 or F12 and then select Bios dettings.
2. Go to Video
3. Disable (or uncheck) "Enable switchable graphics" : the integrated graphic card in intel or AMD CPU will be disabled and your computer will use only NVIDIA or AMD discret graphic card.
4. Go to Performance and uncheck Intel Speed Step.
Apply changes then exit.

This solution solves black or white screen issue when running games or demanding softwares and Windows Experience Index issue too.