Getting black screen lock up. unsure of cause.

[jibbajoe0129]

•Corsair hx750 gold certified (3-4 years old)
•MSI 290x lightning (2 months old)
•4790k (2 months old)
•Z97-A mobo (2 months old)

This has happened 3 days in a row and only once per day. I will walk away from my computer and when I return the display has shut off (as it should, after 10 minutes, per my settings). But when I shake my mouse or press a key the display doesn't come back and I have to power down my comp and restart it.

I'm getting several event IDs when this happens, 6008, 41, 219

things I've found:

•could be a bad PSU
•the 290x is notorious for this problem, but everything I have found reports this issue happening under max load
•loose power connections
•using a split cable to connect psu to gpu
•fault surge protectors
•local brown outs
•driver issues
•bad overclock

Things I've done:

•removed any overclocks
•plugged my pc directly into an outlet (not through my belkin surge protector)
•I have (and have always had) individual cables running from my psu to gpu. 3 cables, one 8-pin...a second 8-pin...and one 6-pin
•Change my settings so the display never turns off, maybe I can actually see it crash this way instaed of thinking the screen just turned off

like I said, never happens under load. I played the Witcher 3 all day with my CPU overclocked and was perfect. finish playing and walk away, an hour later i return to find its black screen. I'm hoping its not my gpu. I'd be surprised if it was my PSU given the quality, I already had the PSU replaced a few years ago when it failed. If it is the psu I'd be getting my 3rd corsair psu due to issues which is pretty unherd of. I also don't know if it can get it covered under warranty, i don't think I have any records of when i bought it.

Any help please! Thank you!

 

[MarkW]

Wait just a sec here... You would be surprised that a PSU that you have already replaced once might be in need of another replacement?

I have been working in the computer industry since the early 1980's. I have blown PSU's up by installing hardware that sucked way more power than what the specs said they would. But in all these years, I have only lost 2 power supplies that were in the first 3 years of their lifespan, and I have made hundreds of computers over the years. Possibly thousands. So if you have matched my 30+ years of being in the computer industry with one brand and model of a power supply, I would say that model has issues. I know, its a tier one power supply. But anything can fail. Its just that when the same model keeps failing, maybe its time to get a new brand and/or model.

If it does turn out to be the Corsair psu, switch to Seasonic. I've never had one of these fail. I know some have. Like I said, anything can fail. I just have come to trust Seasonic power supplies, just like Jonny Guru does... http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Review_Cat&recatnum=13/M12-700/

 

[jibbajoe0129]

Wait just a sec here... You would be surprised that a PSU that you have already replaced once might be in need of another replacement?

I have been working in the computer industry since the early 1980's. I have blown PSU's up by installing hardware that sucked way more power than what the specs said they would. But in all these years, I have only lost 2 power supplies that were in the first 3 years of their lifespan, and I have made hundreds of computers over the years. Possibly thousands. So if you have matched my 30+ years of being in the computer industry with one brand and model of a power supply, I would say that model has issues. I know, its a tier one power supply. But anything can fail. Its just that when the same model keeps failing, maybe its time to get a new brand and/or model.

If it does turn out to be the Corsair psu, switch to Seasonic. I've never had one of these fail. I know some have. Like I said, anything can fail. I just have come to trust Seasonic power supplies, just like Jonny Guru does... http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Review_Cat&recatnum=13/M12-700/

I appreciate the suggestion and will definitely keep it in mind...but I'm hoping to narrow down the cause before I try a new power supply.

 

[MarkW]

Im waiting to see if not having the monitor power down fixes the problem.

 

[jibbajoe0129]

Im waiting to see if not having the monitor power down fixes the problem.

You really think this is a possibility?

 

[MarkW]

You would be amazed at how sometimes, all it takes is to unplug things from the wall, and then press the power buttons a few times to try to drain any power that is stored in the system, and then plug back into the wall and turn the computer on, and suddenly the problem has vanished.

Or to again unplug the computer from the wall, remove the round, chrome battery that is on the motherboard, plug back into the wall, and power on the computer will sometimes clear up things.

Or even going into the BIOS, resetting it to its Default Settings, Saving and Exiting, and watching a problem computer boot right on up like it never knew you had a problem in the first place.

Sometimes none of these work, but those are among the first things I try sometimes.

 

[jibbajoe0129]

So I did find someone who described the exact same problem I'm having...and their solution was disabling the monitor turning off. I also found my invoice from when I bought the PSU so I will RMA if the problem persists.

I will also update drivers and possibly revert to an older version of afterburner as some have mentioned this helped.

and im praying it is not my brand new 290x causing the problems...

 

[jibbajoe0129]

An update for the records: I set my power save mode to performance and set the display to never turn off. I have not had the issue since.

 

[MarkW]

Interesting. I was hoping that would be the result, but until you try it you never know.

In any case, I hope you can live with that. I know that when I get up to walk away from my system for more than an hour, I turn off the monitor manually. But having windows power down the video card is a very different situation. And it appears that was where the problem was.

Thanks for letting me know it worked for you.