Black screen / sound skipping/ computer freeze

[ArtisticAnarchist]

Hey guys, I've been doing alot of digging to try and figure out why this issue keeps happening. At first, I thought it might be my GPU overheating or a memory issue. (And it still could be. I know very little about these kinds of problems.) But recently my computer has been really agitating me because when I've tried playing a game like dota2 or deus ex, the issue described in the title happens. Suddenly, and without warning the screen will go black and the sound will begin skipping. At the same time the GPU fan ramps up to what I'm guessing is 100%, and the whole thing freezes. I have to actually restart the computer and then power it off again, then power it up once more to get it running again.

I don't -think- it's a temp issue, as it only runs about 44c or 110f max when it crashes like this, and I've run windows memory diagnostic as well to see if it's a problem with my ram. I'm lost at this point, and I could definitely use some help. Also, my card drivers are up to date, so there's that as well.

Right now my specs are as follow:

Intel core i7 960
EVGA SLI3 motherboard
12 gigs of DDR3 triple channel memory
and finally i'm running crossfire with two AMD radeon HD 6950s

Would appreciate any help trying to hammer out this problem.

 

[ArtisticAnarchist]

I'm going to try it here in a second, I'm just kind of looking to see what steps I would have to take with CP to get replacement parts... they word their *** really weirdly like they send people -out- to you or something.

 

[kelthic]

heh wierd. and np i thought i might have missed a step.

 

[ArtisticAnarchist]

Is there a program like the one you linked me for the memory to just see if it -is- the video cards that are failing?

 

[kelthic]

There is http://download.cnet.com/Video-Card-Stability-Test/3000-18512_4-10418474.html, but i'm really not sure that it will tell you much besides whether or not the card is stable at certain frequencies. I've never used it myself. What i do is test parts in a known good computer one at a time till i find the ones that fail.

 

[ArtisticAnarchist]

Alright. The problem itself seems to be fixed. I first tried running with just a single card, which didn't work, then swapped them out so I was running a single card with the 2nd one, and I've yet to receive any issues. You were on point with just swappin' them out. Being out a card still sucks, but, what can you do, thanks for all the help.

 

[kelthic]

No problem. Happy to help! 1 card is better than not being able to play your games though, even though it sucks!

 

[galeener]

One card may also mean your power supply isnt up to the task cyberpower uses a self branded or an xtreme gear branded supply for their standard both are very iffy. If you could borrow one from some one and use it to test the sytem that could help also

 

[mindfreak137]

humm i only have one card and i have the same problem,my card is HD radeon 5770

 

[dannyman47]

Alright. The problem itself seems to be fixed. I first tried running with just a single card, which didn't work, then swapped them out so I was running a single card with the 2nd one, and I've yet to receive any issues. You were on point with just swappin' them out. Being out a card still sucks, but, what can you do, thanks for all the help.

hey i think i have the same problem, i get the black screen freezing when i play games like LOL, i was wondering if you could help me do what you did to fix yours. i read the whole thread but not 100% how to do it and i dont want to be doing guess work on my new computer. It was built by a friend of mine. id really appreciate it thanks heaps.

 

[Bacon12]

I am having the same exact issue as ArtisticAnarchist is with my rig right now... It just started last night... I have not been able to figure out what the issue is either... Temps are fine, all driver's are up to date, PSU output is in the green, GPU's are running nominally... Windows is only logging that my video driver failed then recovered, but....obviously this is not the case.

 

[galeener]

Have you updated a driver recently . This could also be an issue. I had an older sound blaster that i had just updated drivers on again and my system would seem to run then crash. I removed the card and the drivers and havn't had an issue since.
Might try and roll back to a previous driver just a thought.

 

[Vhin Manansala]

Hello there guys, the same thing is happening in my unit. The screens blacks out and freezes in random then it says no signal. Tried replacing my HD with my spare one thought it was the one causing issue but even after doing so the problem still occurs. Also tried putting thermal paste in my process. I don't know what to do now. Im using a built in video card. This has started when I started using windows7. Im planning to buy a video card but im not sure if this would fix the problem