- Feb 5, 2020
- 1
- 0
- 10
Hello,
I have a problem where my graphics card blacks out with no rhyme or rhythm. When I built this PC ~3 years ago, I had a different AMD graphics card. I got the Vega 56 on sale and have used it ever since. For about the first half year it worked flawlessly, but soon after that, it began blacking out.
Blackout:
I'll be doing anything from watching YouTube, to writing on docs, to playing a game, and the card will black out. It doesn't care if what I'm doing is graphically intensive or not, the card will stop responding, my monitor will lose connection, and my computer will lock up until I restart. Sometimes it will go for hours or even a couple days without blacking out or blackout five or six times within an hour. First, I see my monitor go black. Sometimes audio will cut out right then, sometimes it will linger for a few minutes or even stay on until I restart. I'll hit pause on my keyboard to pause the music or video I'm hearing, but there's no response. I clearly don't have any control of my computer through mouse or keyboard while the GPU is blacked out like this. Then, sometimes immediately after the monitor, sometimes a bit later, the fans of my GPU will start whirring quite loudly, about the same amount as it does when it's at ~60°C. However, before the blackout, the card is rarely hot. I get annoyed by fans and am paranoid of overheating, so I usually try to keep my card under 60°C while playing games. But most blackouts happen when it's idle at ~42°C. The whole time it's blacked out, the lights of my computer stay on, even though I no longer control it. I've even let it sit some time like this, but it never comes back. The only way to bring it back is a full restart.
Now what's strange is when I starting experimenting with the integrated graphics of my CPU. If I plug my monitor into integrated graphics after my GPU blacked out, there's no signal, same as with my GPU. If I'm already using integrated graphics when my GPU blacks out (which still happens), I can still use my computer completely fine, even though my GPU (that I'm not using) will start whirring. When the fans start after the blackout while I'm using integrated graphics, afterburner won't open, and if it is open, stops responding, so I can't check power usage or temps of my currently-blacked-out GPU. When I try to use task manager to end the afterburner process, task manager won't work either, and when I try using Speccy to see if it can even detect my GPU during this time, it can't. These apps which seem to reference my GPU don't work correctly while it's blacked out. However, everything else like firefox or discord works completely fine. If I then try and connect my monitor to my GPU from integrated graphics, there's no signal, and if I put it back into integrated graphics, it displays a frozen screen.
Timeline:
The blackouts began a few days after I installed some graphical mods for Monster Hunter World and updated my GPU drivers. It happened while I was playing. At first I thought it was the mods, so I uninstalled them, but then it started happening when I wasn't in-game. It kept happening at seemingly random all throughout the month as I tried numerous fixes to no avail. The one thing I thought worked was reinstalling my graphics drivers. It stopped happening for a few days, and I brought it to a friend's place where I'd be staying the next month. The whole month was completely blackout free, so I thought it was over, but as soon as I got back to my place, it started up after only a few days. This is where I stand now. The past few days I've been trying fix after fix, doing things I did before over again, including reinstalling drivers. But there wasn't such luck this time. It blacked out a few hours after reinstalling, and now I'm all out of ideas.
Things I've tried:
Specs:
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 6500 @ 3.20GHz 21 °C Skylake 14nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Single-Channel Unknown @ 1066MHz (16-16-16-39)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. H170M-DS3H-CF (U3E1) 37 °C
Graphics
ZOWIE XL LCD (1920x1080@60Hz) 8176MB ATI Radeon RX Vega (MSI) 38 °C
Storage
111GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB (SATA (SSD)) 36 °C 931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1SB10C (SATA ) 35 °C
I have a problem where my graphics card blacks out with no rhyme or rhythm. When I built this PC ~3 years ago, I had a different AMD graphics card. I got the Vega 56 on sale and have used it ever since. For about the first half year it worked flawlessly, but soon after that, it began blacking out.
Blackout:
I'll be doing anything from watching YouTube, to writing on docs, to playing a game, and the card will black out. It doesn't care if what I'm doing is graphically intensive or not, the card will stop responding, my monitor will lose connection, and my computer will lock up until I restart. Sometimes it will go for hours or even a couple days without blacking out or blackout five or six times within an hour. First, I see my monitor go black. Sometimes audio will cut out right then, sometimes it will linger for a few minutes or even stay on until I restart. I'll hit pause on my keyboard to pause the music or video I'm hearing, but there's no response. I clearly don't have any control of my computer through mouse or keyboard while the GPU is blacked out like this. Then, sometimes immediately after the monitor, sometimes a bit later, the fans of my GPU will start whirring quite loudly, about the same amount as it does when it's at ~60°C. However, before the blackout, the card is rarely hot. I get annoyed by fans and am paranoid of overheating, so I usually try to keep my card under 60°C while playing games. But most blackouts happen when it's idle at ~42°C. The whole time it's blacked out, the lights of my computer stay on, even though I no longer control it. I've even let it sit some time like this, but it never comes back. The only way to bring it back is a full restart.
Now what's strange is when I starting experimenting with the integrated graphics of my CPU. If I plug my monitor into integrated graphics after my GPU blacked out, there's no signal, same as with my GPU. If I'm already using integrated graphics when my GPU blacks out (which still happens), I can still use my computer completely fine, even though my GPU (that I'm not using) will start whirring. When the fans start after the blackout while I'm using integrated graphics, afterburner won't open, and if it is open, stops responding, so I can't check power usage or temps of my currently-blacked-out GPU. When I try to use task manager to end the afterburner process, task manager won't work either, and when I try using Speccy to see if it can even detect my GPU during this time, it can't. These apps which seem to reference my GPU don't work correctly while it's blacked out. However, everything else like firefox or discord works completely fine. If I then try and connect my monitor to my GPU from integrated graphics, there's no signal, and if I put it back into integrated graphics, it displays a frozen screen.
Timeline:
The blackouts began a few days after I installed some graphical mods for Monster Hunter World and updated my GPU drivers. It happened while I was playing. At first I thought it was the mods, so I uninstalled them, but then it started happening when I wasn't in-game. It kept happening at seemingly random all throughout the month as I tried numerous fixes to no avail. The one thing I thought worked was reinstalling my graphics drivers. It stopped happening for a few days, and I brought it to a friend's place where I'd be staying the next month. The whole month was completely blackout free, so I thought it was over, but as soon as I got back to my place, it started up after only a few days. This is where I stand now. The past few days I've been trying fix after fix, doing things I did before over again, including reinstalling drivers. But there wasn't such luck this time. It blacked out a few hours after reinstalling, and now I'm all out of ideas.
Things I've tried:
- Restarting the computer - only allows me to use it until the next blackout.
- Switching the HDMI cable or monitor - nothing.
- Switching power cable or using a backup battery - I thought maybe the power situation was the only difference between my friend's place, where it didn't black out, and mine, where it does. But switching cables or using/not using a backup battery had no effect.
- Updating graphics drivers - nothing.
- Reinstalling graphics drivers - It might've worked once, but it didn't this time.
- Rolling back graphics drivers - nothing.
- Using integrated graphics - temporary fix, but I still can't use the GPU.
- Removing the card and cleaning it - nothing.
- Cleaning the whole PC - nothing.
- Messing with sleep/hibernation settings - nothing. I thought this was the problem before thinking it was mainly a GPU problem.
Specs:
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 6500 @ 3.20GHz 21 °C Skylake 14nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Single-Channel Unknown @ 1066MHz (16-16-16-39)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. H170M-DS3H-CF (U3E1) 37 °C
Graphics
ZOWIE XL LCD (1920x1080@60Hz) 8176MB ATI Radeon RX Vega (MSI) 38 °C
Storage
111GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB (SATA (SSD)) 36 °C 931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1SB10C (SATA ) 35 °C
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