Hello! My apologies in advance if I'm in the wrong section for this; I'm admittedly unsure what part of my PC is failing me, but as the issue seems visual, I thought this might be the best option after a friend recommended me this site. (Basic additional info: Windows 10, 8GB ram, PC built by acquaintance 9 years ago, some parts replaced/upgraded over the years, double monitor setup, all drivers updated).
To start off, the issue is fairly straightforward: sometimes, my main monitor will turn black, then blue with an "hdmi no display" sort of message, then black again, while a noise gets louder in my PC (presumably one or more fan). My second monitor flickers, and my cursor doesn't appear - at that point, the only option I have left is to power off, then back on. A few weeks ago, this started occurring during slightly intensive games, then started happening more commonly at weirder times (first during a youtube video, and then while simply having twitter open). It may be worth adding that when this happens, seemingly other parts still work - as in, this happened during a video call, and my friend could still hear me (and I could hear her).
I tried cleaning my computer, and it kept happening, so I brought my PC to the local repair shop - after looking at it for several hours, running tests and the like, they found out that whoever had last set up my PC in my room (which was a repair guy from a different company late last year) had plugged my main monitor's HDMI cable into my on-board graphics instead of my NVidia. Having not had any issues until last month, I was left none the wiser - nothing else stuck out to the guy as wrong, outside of one fan being too gunked up by dust to move, which he cleaned until it worked again. I did not my second monitor only has VGA, and therefore needs to be connected to my on-board graphics, which he said was fine, but to unplug it if I were to do anything graphically intensive. I brought my PC home and things seemed fine.
Fast-forward to yesterday, the crash/freeze happened again, while playing AC Black Flag (which I had just received and was playing for the first time). I lowered all the settings, and even unplugged my second monitor, but it happened again - both times after roughly an hour or two of play. I can't imagine bringing my computer back to the same place, where the guy said nothing else seemed wrong, would really do me much good, unless I can figure out some new information from all this. If you have a guess as to the cause, please let me know! I'm open to any possibilities at this point. I don't have the funds for much, but my computer's really important, and if it was only crashing from games, that'd be one thing, but now that I know it can reach a point where simple browsing can lead to a crash, I'm almost worried to keep it on for long.
Thank you.
To start off, the issue is fairly straightforward: sometimes, my main monitor will turn black, then blue with an "hdmi no display" sort of message, then black again, while a noise gets louder in my PC (presumably one or more fan). My second monitor flickers, and my cursor doesn't appear - at that point, the only option I have left is to power off, then back on. A few weeks ago, this started occurring during slightly intensive games, then started happening more commonly at weirder times (first during a youtube video, and then while simply having twitter open). It may be worth adding that when this happens, seemingly other parts still work - as in, this happened during a video call, and my friend could still hear me (and I could hear her).
I tried cleaning my computer, and it kept happening, so I brought my PC to the local repair shop - after looking at it for several hours, running tests and the like, they found out that whoever had last set up my PC in my room (which was a repair guy from a different company late last year) had plugged my main monitor's HDMI cable into my on-board graphics instead of my NVidia. Having not had any issues until last month, I was left none the wiser - nothing else stuck out to the guy as wrong, outside of one fan being too gunked up by dust to move, which he cleaned until it worked again. I did not my second monitor only has VGA, and therefore needs to be connected to my on-board graphics, which he said was fine, but to unplug it if I were to do anything graphically intensive. I brought my PC home and things seemed fine.
Fast-forward to yesterday, the crash/freeze happened again, while playing AC Black Flag (which I had just received and was playing for the first time). I lowered all the settings, and even unplugged my second monitor, but it happened again - both times after roughly an hour or two of play. I can't imagine bringing my computer back to the same place, where the guy said nothing else seemed wrong, would really do me much good, unless I can figure out some new information from all this. If you have a guess as to the cause, please let me know! I'm open to any possibilities at this point. I don't have the funds for much, but my computer's really important, and if it was only crashing from games, that'd be one thing, but now that I know it can reach a point where simple browsing can lead to a crash, I'm almost worried to keep it on for long.
Thank you.
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