Computer goes black screen (blank) when playing sims4 but sounds and all fans are still running

[RaionGaru]

Hello!

I changed my PSU to a corsair 750w 5 days ago. On the next day I was able to play the game for hours and had no troubles at all.
2 days later, however my problems started.
When playing Sims4 for 20 minutes or more the black screens turns out in a random interval. Sometimes it stays off for 3 seconds, sometimes it says "power saving mode" and sometimes for around 1 minute off. The sounds and all fans are still turned on while in black screen. Sometimes the monitor stays off for a few seconds, turns on for 1 second and off and on like crazy.
My vga is amd 6800 series 1Gb. I know it's legacy but all drivers are updated, I did it yesterday but the problem persists.

Thing is until last friday, when I was with my old PSU seventeen 600w, everything was OK, working perfectly fine. But it stopped working and so I bought the new corsair one.

Intel Core i5 2500 @3.30 Ghz
windows 7
amd radeon HD 6800 series 1Gb GDDR6 / 900 Mhz
8 Gb RAM
Mobo Intel DP67DE Media series

Can you please help?
Thank you!

 

[terry4536]

That sounds like a loose connection. Check the power cables to your graphics card as well as the monitor. The video cable is also a possible loose connection.

 

[RaionGaru]

Thank you for your answer, Terry!

Don't know if I found a fix yet, still need more few days to make sure but seems it was my 10 years old surge protector that was not handling the new PSU.
Since I changed to a new one the black screen didn't return. But as I said, I'll still be testing for a few days more.

 

[RaionGaru]

The problem persists. I tried sims3 and on the load game screen, my monitor was blank again for 4 times.
So, the new surge protector is not helping. I will try directly from the energy plug, no extensions, no surge protector, no Voltage stabilizer and see what happens.

By the way, the power cable of my graphics card seems OK. When it is bad my monitor led is turned off. But during these blank screens the monitor led keeps blinking.

 

[terry4536]

It does sound still like an intermediate power problem. The power supply is a possibility too. But a power supply is usually more consistent. Power supply output degrades over time. Since the graphics card is the component that uses the most watts, it is the component that is affected first. It is possible that the out put is just enough to power the graphics card under light use (and then fail under more power demand).

If the power and video cable connections are firmly connected the the power supply is the next concern.

Also, you mentioned that the monitor LED was blinking. That should be not be blinking. I would consult the manual for the monitor. It probably is showing an error of some kind. The manual is available at the monitor manufacturer's website (for the particular monitor model).

 

[RaionGaru]

Thank you for your answer, Terry.

Since I'm working I had no enough time to test my machine properly. I am having no time to play. So far, computer is working but I couldn't enter the game so, I'm not sure if it is fixed. Will try it asap.

 

[RaionGaru]

After a few days, sadly I had the problem again. Have changed the cables to new ones, also tested with another monitor last week and the problem seems to be gone until tonight

I am wondering.. if I put a new fan into my computer if maybe would stop it to have these blank screens...
I noticed that the problem only occurs when SpeedFan shows high temperatures (around 60C at both cores, GPU and CPU). When temperatures are lower I have no issues. Do you think a new fan could help?

Thank you in advance.

 

[terry4536]

I would monitor the temperatures. Have you had any temperature related errors? Do you use the motherboard to control your fans?
What are the current fans and positions?

What are the temps of the graphics card? If the GPU temperature exceeds the max temperature, it will throttle down the GPU. If you are using a GPU overclocking utility, you may also be able to adjust the GPU fans to a better ramp. Many graphics cards now use a ramp to deduce noise . These may set the fan to off until a set temperature is reached. A better ramp is to set an initial temperature to 25 C at about 30% RPM instead of off. This retains some cooling while still being quiet.

 

[Karadjgne]

Here's the thing, psu wattage doesn't matter. You could have an old 600 or a new 1200, the power draw will be the same, the cpu/gpu will only use what it needs, and no more. It's doubtful your entire system generally sees anything over @300w. As it stands, a hd6850 only needs a 450w psu, the 6870 a 500w psu, so a 750 might be considered overkill. That said, 60°C on that i5 and 68** is chump change, they'll both handle 70°+ easily.

Most times, black screens are caused by the one component that's not temperature reported, the gpu memory and voltage circuitry. In a video card, there's the processor by the front, and VRM's/vram near the back. Only the processor gets temp reports, so the VRM's/vram can easily hit 90° while the gpu reports 60°. If the back end of the card shuts down, you'll still get sound, game still functions, but no picture and temps look fine.

I'd be tempted to tell you to check the fan(s), make sure they are functioning correctly (no loose wires etc blocking the fan from rotating etc) then pull the gpu and give it a really good cleaning. It's not uncommon for dirt to insulate the gpu heatsink and prevent heat dissipation.

 

[terry4536]

It is true that the system will draw only the watts it needs. But to eliminate the power supply completely is just baloney. The problem began with installation of the new power supply. It is certainly a possibility that the new power supply is defective. But as I said it sounds like an intermittent power problem, like a loose cable or something related to the installation of the new PSU. The OP didn't say how the old PSU stopped working.

 

[Karadjgne]

Install of a new psu often times results in a complete tear down of everything, just to get wires run, components hooked up etc. At the very least, it can mean components like the gpu get bumped in the socket and need to be reseated or dirt on the eps plug drops into the gpu fan or often times removal of the heatsink just to access the eps plug etc. OP did have to have his hands in the pc. What you offered is sound advice, I just provided alternatives.
Psu issue? It's a Corsair CX. That's not exactly a brilliant psu, but definitely a step up in quality from the prior, but just as definite a possibility of issue, not discounting it at all. It's very possible that a pin on the pcie connector at the gpu has become unseated. OP, check the plug. Visually inspect it. If worried, swap it out, you have a couple of spares that are unused.

 

[RaionGaru]

Hello!

Thank you for your answers, Terry and Karadjgne!
Answering your questions:

Never had temperature related errors.
I don't use motherboard to control my fans. They are being used as they "want". When I enter the game they run faster than usually.

My case has just one generic fan at its side. It has however space for a new fan below the one I already have.

I use speedfan program (please, let me know if I should use a more reliable one) to read my pc temperatures.
Nothing on my computer has overclock.

My graphics card was cleaned on the end of march, when I put the new psu. Both pcie cables seems pretty seated. But I'll check them again.
I'll try to remove the graphics card and add it back to see if it helps.

Thank you for your help. Will be reporting how it is going next week.

 

[terry4536]

Install of a new psu often times results in a complete tear down of everything, just to get wires run, components hooked up etc. At the very least, it can mean components like the gpu get bumped in the socket and need to be reseated or dirt on the eps plug drops into the gpu fan or often times removal of the heatsink just to access the eps plug etc. OP did have to have his hands in the pc. What you offered is sound advice, I just provided alternatives.
Psu issue? It's a Corsair CX. That's not exactly a brilliant psu, but definitely a step up in quality from the prior, but just as definite a possibility of issue, not discounting it at all. It's very possible that a pin on the pcie connector at the gpu has become unseated. OP, check the plug. Visually inspect it. If worried, swap it out, you have a couple of spares that are unused.

I didn't see any specifics on the power supply other than the watts. I agree that using a Corsair CX series power supply is not a good choice. I try to dissuade people from using them. People see the Corsair name and assume that they are getting a good buy..

 

[RaionGaru]

Just an [strike]off topic[/strike] info ... I am from Brazil, our country is under severe financial crisis. Most people buy computers on regular shops here, I mean, "closed" computers with the components the stores put in them. A few people "build" a machine. Mine was built. Stores here say corsair is one of the best we have. I paid R$ 600 (EU 180 / USD 190) on mine last month and it is considered a good price. All these computer items are tooooo expensive if they're original. Bought my corsair with the label "great" because that's Brazilians opinion. Anyway, will search on the box the specifics of my psu.

I know foreign computers are way better, faster and cheaper than mine. I keep dreaming when seeing regular gamer specs out there

 

[terry4536]

Just an [strike]off topic[/strike] info ... I am from Brazil, our country is under severe financial crisis. Most people buy computers on regular shops here, I mean, "closed" computers with the components the stores put in them. A few people "build" a machine. Mine was built. Stores here say corsair is one of the best we have. I paid R$ 600 (EU 180 / USD 190) on mine last month and it is considered a good price. All these computer items are tooooo expensive if they're original. Bought my corsair with the label "great" because that's Brazilians opinion. Anyway, will search on the box the specifics of my psu.

I know foreign computers are way better, faster and cheaper than mine. I keep dreaming when seeing regular gamer specs out there

Corsair does produce some quality power supplies. For example, the AX & HX series of power supplies are fine, but the CX series isn't in that category. . The CX power supplies go on sale here in the US for very cheap prices. And as I said above, people see the Corsair brand and buy them. Cheap poor quality power supplies have a tendency to fail and can damage other components within the PC. That is why I always emphasize purchasing a quality power supply rather than the cheapest one at a given time..

 

[terry4536]

What is the retail PC brand and model? Retail PC's (like HP or Acer) typically do not use name brand internal components. What was the brand and model of the replacement power supply?

 

[Karadjgne]

The retailers are a little misleading. Even here in the States, Corsair is the (arguably) #1 best psu, the AXi 1500. You also have class leading psus in the RMx, HXi, CXM, etc. All in all, Corsair psus are excellent options. Sometimes . You also have the CX, CS, VS which are not that good, so ppl down there aren't lying, Corsair IS good, just not all of them. Probably the best would be Seasonic or possibly SuperFlower Leadex units, but those are just a likely out of budget.
The fact that you only have the one fan is a little worrisome, and that it's on the side. Is it an input fan or exhaust? Most pc's don't include fans on the side, but front and/or rear.
Another issue I have is SpeedFan. It's (again arguably) the best fan control software there is, but, if you have it installed, it's going to run the fans. It'll run the cpu, gpu and side fans according to a predetermined fan curve that's not specific to your pc, it's just a general curve. You can, and should, change it, give the fans a higher curve, that'll spin them up sooner. This'll help keep the temps down. I say arguably because SpeedFan is quite intricate, so much so that most ppl can't utilize it correctly. Honestly, most shouldn't use it at all, they'd be better off setting the fans in the bios and letting the pc control itself. There's also some debate on accuracy. There isn't a software made that's truly accurate, for any cpu, always. There's always a glitch somewhere, with someone. For Intel cpu's, the best I know of is RealTemp (it's free and doesn't control, just monitors) and quite often Speccy. Both will also give gpu temps, but Realtemp can put the temp in your Taskbar for easy reading and unlike SpeedFan, works automatically. Another good program is MSI Afterburner, which will give onscreen temps during gaming, and is pretty accurate too. SpeedFan has given me 2x temps in my pc, 250°C and -125°C, both of which are physically impossible. So I'd verify with Realtemp and MSI Afterburner just exactly what your temps gaming really are. It's really looking like that single side fan just can't do the job adequately of moving air.

 

[RaionGaru]

Hello!
My corsair is CX750.

My fan takes air from the case out. Because here is too hot (I live in Rio) the option of input fan is not advised.

You can, and should, change it, give the fans a higher curve, that'll spin them up sooner.

I don't know what it means... sorry. But downloaded the RealTemp and MSI. Thank you for the links. I didn't know speed fan controls the cpu, thought it was just monitoring. My fault.
Will use these from now on.

What is the retail PC brand and model? Retail PC's (like HP or Acer) typically do not use name brand internal components. What was the brand and model of the replacement power supply?

Here there are shopping centers specialized in tech stuff. They are called "Info shop". And inside each info shopping center, there are hundreds of small cabin shops. I build my machine in one of these cabin shops.
My old broken power supply was seventeam 600 watts. Can't remember model. sorry.

Yesterday I tested my computer carefully. Tried my heaviest games and the monitor was blank once. Just once. Which was a surprise but also shows the problem persists.
Seems the solution for now is add a new fan. Should do this next week. At this moment I'm working on the computer and can't afford time to call a cab just to add a fan (don't know idea how to do it myself so I will take my machine to the technician so he'll add it for me).

Thank you for the help so far. I'll be testing and let you guys know how it is going.

 

[Karadjgne]

Not exactly sure who told you that an input fan is not advised, but they are dead wrong. Just the opposite in fact.
Your cpu/gpu heatsinks work on a bell curve as far as temps go. And that bell curve is set by the metal fins. What that means is that you have a certain temperature range where the heatsink is efficient. As the temp goes over the top of efficiency, it starts to decline, the temps get hotter faster because the heatsink cannot dissipate it fast enough. This trend will continue until the heatsink is saturated, at which point it becomes useless.

Now, that being said, both the cpu and gpu are dumping heat into the case. Let's say the inside of the case is 40°C normally. This means that the minimum temps you can expect at idle will be somewhere around 50-55°C. Then you start gaming. To maintain somewhat safe temps, you want to keep things under @ 70°C. So you only have about 15-20° left of heat.

Lack of airflow going through the pc will just allow the air inside the case to keep rising as the cpu/gpu work, which lowers the effectiveness of the heatsinks, which means the heatsinks get hotter, raising temps...... And so on.

The only recourse to prevent this is airflow. If you keep the 40°air coming in, and the 70° air going out, it doesn't stagnate and raise your temps.

So yes, input fans are important, the ambient temp outside the case is cooler than what's in the case, so exchange is very important.

A fan curve is just what it sounds like. It's a graph of temp vrs fan rpm. So if the cpu hits 35°,the fan spins at 600rpm, when the cpu hits 40°,the fan goes to 700rpm etc. You can change this curve in SpeedFan or in bios. If you set the 100%fan duty to 60° instead of default 70°,then the fans spin faster at a lower temp, reaching 100% at 60° instead of at 70°. You can see that curve in SpeedFan.

 

[terry4536]

It is more effective to push air into your PC case than to pull air out of the case. But it is even more effective to do both. Push cool air in through the intakes and at the same time pulling hot air from the case interior and force it out of the case.

Typically the air flow of a PC case flows from the lower front intakes and out of the upper rear exhausts of the case. One of my cases is an Antec P280. It has two 120mm intake fans on the lower front. It has one exhaust 120mm fan at the upper back of the case. This particular case also two additional exhaust 120mm fans on the top (at the back). But the point I'm making is the flow. Cool air enters from the lower front and flows to the upper rear of the case. The airflow is from low to high (hot air rises naturally).

Another concern with the use of case fans is noise. Some cases just ignore it and have mesh screens over much of the case. Other cases engineer the case to reduce the noise of the system. Back to the Antec P280 case. It has sound absorbing material in the two sides and at the front. This is used with a fan controller that adjusts the fans to low speed at room temperature and increases the fan speed as the internal temp rises. This controls the temperature and the fan noise at the same time.

This is what I would suggest to you for your case. I would replace the case fans with PWM fans. And I would put fans in all available fan ports. Orientate the front fan as an intake (flow into the case). Orientate top or rear fans as exhaust fans (flow out of case).

I don't know the dimensions of your fan. So, I'm using a very common size as an example (120mm). If you can't find the size of the fan , just take the fan with you to the store for comparison.

Here is an example of the high end fan. (120mm PWM controllable fan)

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608026&ignorebbr=1

Here is a similar Corsair fan.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181041&ignorebbr=1

Here is an inexpensive example of a similar fan.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103069&ignorebbr=1

 

[Karadjgne]

I have both kinds described. My wife's pc sits in a CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced, which is all grill front and top, and my pc is in a fractal design define R5 Window, that's got all the silencing padding. Both are actually extremely quiet. Neither has a rear exhaust. Don't need them. Wife's pc has a corsair h-55 and the stock fan pushing the airflow directly out the top. My pc uses a nzxt Kraken X61, that's 2x 140mm fans pushing air directly out the top. A rear exhaust would be next to pointless. But those are liquid coolers. Works the same with any area cooler like stock coolers too. Where it doesn't work is with tower coolers like the hyper212 which blow air directly to the rear, so a rear exhaust is essential. All the air supplied into the case comes from intake fans, cool air in, hot air out the top.

Fans honestly don't work the way ppl think, they don't push air, what they really do is create a vacuum in front. Any air pushed is just the byproduct of creating that vacuum. But it's not a big vacuum, so has very little actual reach. This is where intake fans are truly important, they create the vacuum in front, drawing in cooler air. The byproduct is cooler air is then exhausted into the case, where it is drawn into the exhaust fans vacuum, taking with it some of the case heat. Relying solely on exhaust fans for airflow is a bad idea, because you rely on a very small vacuum (3-4" at best) to remove the heat from a case that's 20+" tall. There's a lot of stagnant heat that's not going to get removed, so it just acts to make the inside of the pc like an oven, cooking the components.

Not unheard of for the addition of a single intake fan to reduce cpu/gpu temps by over 10°C

 

[RaionGaru]

Thank you both for the help and information. They will be very useful when I finally add more fans on my case.
Will answer you better later since at this moment my computer is crazy. My friend added to me another fan (on the back) of the case. Temperatures are still the same.
I'll ask the tech later to add some input fan as Karadjgne advised.

About an hour ago the lights server went to blackout. I was working at the moment we were without the lights. So, the computer was abruptly turned off. Lights returned in 5 minutes. I turned on the computer again later. So, suddenly I wasn't gaming but the screen was blank. So, I changed to another monitor. Same thing. When I was plugging the 1st monitor back, CPU started to make a beep noise. I turned off. Back on the day when my old computers had beep noise used to be the RAM. So, I removed one of my ram sticks. It worked on security mode but can not enter windows, cursor stuck on blue Welcome windows entrance.
Now, I put the second RAM stick back. No more beep but after that black Windows image, screens stays stuck, totally black (not blank, just black). I can not enter windows anymore, just security mode.
This behavior seems more software than hardware, right?
I am started to be concerned because my technician removed Eset from my machine. It comes with my MoBo and was installed since the beginning. But as it is annoying I asked him to remove it. Still have some Eset entries so maybe it is conflicting... ??? I am so confused!
Should I format my HD? I don't format since I bought this machine, almost 5 years ago.

Will read your answers as soon as I am calmer.
Sorry for any English errors. My brain is not 100% at this moment due to all this stress...

 

[terry4536]

I have both kinds described. My wife's pc sits in a CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced, which is all grill front and top, and my pc is in a fractal design define R5 Window, that's got all the silencing padding. Both are actually extremely quiet. Neither has a rear exhaust. Don't need them. Wife's pc has a corsair h-55 and the stock fan pushing the airflow directly out the top. My pc uses a nzxt Kraken X61, that's 2x 140mm fans pushing air directly out the top. A rear exhaust would be next to pointless. But those are liquid coolers. Works the same with any area cooler like stock coolers too. Where it doesn't work is with tower coolers like the hyper212 which blow air directly to the rear, so a rear exhaust is essential. All the air supplied into the case comes from intake fans, cool air in, hot air out the top.

Fans honestly don't work the way ppl think, they don't push air, what they really do is create a vacuum in front. Any air pushed is just the byproduct of creating that vacuum. But it's not a big vacuum, so has very little actual reach. This is where intake fans are truly important, they create the vacuum in front, drawing in cooler air. The byproduct is cooler air is then exhausted into the case, where it is drawn into the exhaust fans vacuum, taking with it some of the case heat. Relying solely on exhaust fans for airflow is a bad idea, because you rely on a very small vacuum (3-4" at best) to remove the heat from a case that's 20+" tall. There's a lot of stagnant heat that's not going to get removed, so it just acts to make the inside of the pc like an oven, cooking the components.

Not unheard of for the addition of a single intake fan to reduce cpu/gpu temps by over 10°C

I use a Noctua NH-D14 air CPU cooler. . The fans on the cooler point directly to the rear exhaust fan. So, I do need the rear fan. I also use the top fans.. They seem to do a great job of removing heat from inside the case. My graphics card (Asus Strix GTX 970) has two fans. And although some heat is exhausted at the rear of the card, most of the heat is dissipated within the case. Between the three exhaust fans the system stays cool and very quiet. I've been very happy with this case. I like the Fractal Design cases as well

 

[RaionGaru]

Seems solving was easier than I thought.
I am testing my computer for weeks now and noticed that after update the Origin app (required to play the sims4) I had no longer any new issue.

Had a problem with origin about 1 year ago using another computer, which refused to turn on after update Origin. Had to get windows installation cd to repair it, took me almost 3 hours to solve the issue on that day. And on the end, the log said the error preventing windows to enter was a 34Kb file from Origin :/
I should have it known better...

Thank you both for your help!
I will add a new fan at my case anyway, following your suggestions.

 

[terry4536]

You're welcome. The extra intake fans will help a lot in lowering the temperatures in the case. And it is a relatively cheap upgrade.