Question Both monitors suddenly display "No Signal" when playing games

Dec 1, 2019
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Lately when I have been playing games my monitors will suddenly display "No Signal", as if they have been unplugged from the GPU. Only restarting the entire computer corrects the issue. I can hear game sounds and discord in the background after this happens so I know the system doesn't crash entirely, just the monitors seem to stop detecting the PC.

I have performed a clean install of the OS, cleaned the graphics drivers with DDU then reinstalled. I have also replaced the monitors, cables, PSU, and even GPU. No luck. I'm running out of ideas here and hoping someone can think of something I haven't tried.

OS: Windows 10 Home (1909)
Monitors: ACER S271HL
Old GPU: XFX RX 480 / New GPU: XFX RX 590 (happened with both)
AMD drivers are up to date: 19.11.3
Some games I can confirm the issue occurs with: Conan Exiles, No Man's Sky, Magic the Gathering: Arena
 
Lately when I have been playing games my monitors will suddenly display "No Signal", as if they have been unplugged from the GPU. Only restarting the entire computer corrects the issue. I can hear game sounds and discord in the background after this happens so I know the system doesn't crash entirely, just the monitors seem to stop detecting the PC.

I have performed a clean install of the OS, cleaned the graphics drivers with DDU then reinstalled. I have also replaced the monitors, cables, PSU, and even GPU. No luck. I'm running out of ideas here and hoping someone can think of something I haven't tried.

OS: Windows 10 Home (1909)
Monitors: ACER S271HL
Old GPU: XFX RX 480 / New GPU: XFX RX 590 (happened with both)
AMD drivers are up to date: 19.11.3
Some games I can confirm the issue occurs with: Conan Exiles, No Man's Sky, Magic the Gathering: Arena
so the problem is only happening in certain games then? it maybe the higher demanding games are making the gpu pull to much for the psu your psu maybe failing now and causing the the graphics in short basically to shutoff without actually shutting off you may need to replace your psu that or you gpu slot is failing on your mobo
 
Dec 1, 2019
14
1
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so the problem is only happening in certain games then? it maybe the higher demanding games are making the gpu pull to much for the psu your psu maybe failing now and causing the the graphics in short basically to shutoff without actually shutting off you may need to replace your psu that or you gpu slot is failing on your mobo
I had that same idea about the PSU so I replaced it. Unfortunately, the issue occurred again.

I thought back to when I attempted to uninstall/reinstall the drivers. I revisited the DDU scrub process and noticed I forgot an important step: start in safe mode before scrubbing the drivers. I did that and tried playing NMS and MTGA for a while... no issues so far. Granted I only played for around 20 minutes. I have work early tomorrow so I can't continue testing. Will try more testing on Wednesday.
 
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Dec 1, 2019
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Update: The issue continues to occur. The second GPU driver scrub didn't work. I ended up replacing the PSU as well. At least point I'm really not sure what else to check/replace.
 
Dec 1, 2019
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Still only crashes with 2 monitors in use at the same time, though?
Correct. If I switch to one monitor the issue never seems to happen.

I dunno if this is worth mentioning, but I was also connected to a battery back-up. Because I am seriously running out of options I thought "Let's try it without the battery back-up." and replaced it with a surge protector. Waiting for a spare moment to attempt to replicate.

What are the chances this is an issue with one of my RAM sticks? I will have a little money from Christmas soon and could possibly replace the RAM sticks.
 
Correct. If I switch to one monitor the issue never seems to happen.

I dunno if this is worth mentioning, but I was also connected to a battery back-up. Because I am seriously running out of options I thought "Let's try it without the battery back-up." and replaced it with a surge protector. Waiting for a spare moment to attempt to replicate.

What are the chances this is an issue with one of my RAM sticks? I will have a little money from Christmas soon and could possibly replace the RAM sticks.

If it NEVER happens with only one monitor in use the RAM cannot be blammed.
 
Dec 25, 2019
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Hey Riley,

I think I'm running into the same issue right now and trying to troubleshoot it myself. I'm trying to the one monitor solution today to see if I can narrow it down.

Just to confirm - while you are playing both your monitors freeze but you can keep hearing sound and then you have to hard reset to fix the issue?

Will let ya know if I find out anything.
 
Dec 1, 2019
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Just to confirm - while you are playing both your monitors freeze but you can keep hearing sound and then you have to hard reset to fix the issue?
First, both monitors go black. I can still hear sound. After maybe 10 seconds the monitors both display "No Input" like they were disconnected from the PC. Only hard resetting fixes it.
 
Dec 25, 2019
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Yeah, that's pretty much the same issue as mine.

Are both your monitors the same? Are you using the same resolution on both of them? (that is one tip I picked up from one of the forums)

I haven't had a freeze since I switched to one monitor - I've ordered new cables, that I should have eod today. So I'll go back to two monitors today with a different set of cables, and see how it goes.

As of now, by process of elimination, I am left with the following 3 scenarios

  1. My Graphic Card is F'd (not your case, as it seems you switched yours)
  2. The cables I'm using are F'd (not your case again - as you switched yours - but possible that the cable quality is low? )
  3. The port on the monitor itself is F'd.

Should have another update by sometime this week - but highly possible, that we are seeing the same "symptoms" but have different issues. I've browsed quite a few forums, and it seems this issue is quite common, but every time a different solution works. So sorta confused.
 
Dec 1, 2019
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Are both your monitors the same? Are you using the same resolution on both of them? (that is one tip I picked up from one of the forums)

Should have another update by sometime this week - but highly possible, that we are seeing the same "symptoms" but have different issues. I've browsed quite a few forums, and it seems this issue is quite common, but every time a different solution works. So sorta confused.
Both monitors are the same, yeah. Acer S271HL x2. Both are using 1920x1080 resolution and 75Hz refresh rate.

I went ahead and ordered a new motherboard. I should get it by Dec 31. Will install and report back.
 
Dec 1, 2019
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After some help from a friend I may have mostly solved the problem. I uninstalled the current Adrenaline software and drivers using DDU -> installed the drivers ONLY, no Adrenaline*. After a few hours of stability testing I can confirm the issue is resolved.

If you aren't familiar with how to do this: when you first run the exe file that holds the drivers it extracts to a location to specify -> Open device manager -> Uncollapse Display Adapters -> Right-click 'Microsoft Basic Display Adapter ' -> Update Driver -> 'Browser my computer for driver software' -> Point to the folder the drivers were extracted to. For me the folder was named "Win10-Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-Edition-19.12.3-Dec18"
 

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