[SOLVED] Hardware stops working randomly into the game.

[jayhayjay]

Hey guys.

So, I'm dealing with this odd problem whenever I'm gaming.

Randomly into the game my monitor goes black, says 'DVI-D no signal' and everything stops working except the mouse, the keyboard and the PSU. No sound, no image, no response at all. The only way to fix it is to reboot.

It's only been happening a few months now.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
rig:

• lg w2363d monitor
• i5 4690k
• gigabyte gtx 970
• 16 gb corsair ram
• asus z97p m/b
• caviar black 1 tb hdd (os + games + storage)
• caviar green 1,5 tb hdd (just storage)
• win 7 64-bit
• keep out fx 700 psu (700 w)

 

[PC Tailor]

keep out fx 700 psu (700 w)

Personally, not a PSU I would touch with a barge pole. I think it's one of those hidden european brands but by everything I can see, it spells danger. I suspect you've also had it for some time?

Are you running any OC or RAM OC at all?
Do you have all latest drivers installed?
Do you have all latest Windows updates installed?

 

[jayhayjay]

Personally, not a PSU I would touch with a barge pole. I think it's one of those hidden european brands but by everything I can see, it spells danger. I suspect you've also had it for some time?

Are you running any OC or RAM OC at all?
Do you have all latest drivers installed?
Do you have all latest Windows updates installed?

Hey, thanks for replying. For a starter, I installed the latest GPU driver a few hours ago and it gave me a nvlddmkm.sys BSOD...

Yea, the PSU brand isn't very reliable but I have another PC that has the same PSU and it's been working fine for 4 years now.

No OCs of any kind and most Windows updates installed. I'd say all the important ones.

 

[PC Tailor]

Yea, the PSU brand isn't very reliable but I have another PC that has the same PSU and it's been working fine for 4 years now.

Irrelevant unfortunately. Bad quality is bad quality, just because it works in one doesn't mean another one will work as well, or that it will work well in a different system with different loads. That and if you have ANOTHER PC that has a dedicated GPU also on the same PSU, you may want to just think about the risks. Bad quality is not about reliability, it's about safety.

Poor quality PSUs are a complete mixed bag, and when they go bang (not if), they have a tendency to take out your other components too.

I've seen a bad quality PSU go bang in 5 minutes.
I've seen another one go bang fter 5 years. Totally unpredictable and too much risk.

 

[jayhayjay]

Irrelevant unfortunately. Bad quality is bad quality, just because it works in one doesn't mean another one will work as well, or that it will work well in a different system with different loads. That and if you have ANOTHER PC that has a dedicated GPU also on the same PSU, you may want to just think about the risks. Bad quality is not about reliability, it's about safety.

Poor quality PSUs are a complete mixed bag, and when they go bang (not if), they have a tendency to take out your other components too.

I've seen a bad quality PSU go bang in 5 minutes.
I've seen another one go bang fter 5 years. Totally unpredictable and too much risk.

Okay, I get ya. So you think that the PSU is certainly the culprit?

 

[PC Tailor]

Okay, I get ya. So you think that the PSU is certainly the culprit?

Never certain. The only possible way you can be certain is by replacing a component with a known good quality and working unit, and seeing if the issue persists.

Just based off the issue you describe, I would initially suspect:

• Out of date drivers misbehaving
• System instability from configurations
• Faulty display cable / port
• Faulty GPU
• Faulty PSU.

It's nothing more than the fact that the PSU is poor quality which increases the possibility it is the PSU, because its what poor PSUs are renowned for doing, especially in increased power loads (whilst gaming for example)

Have you changed display cables / any adapters you have also?

Does the issue happen in all situations or only gaming? If so, does it only occur in certain games?

 

[jayhayjay]

Never certain. The only possible way you can be certain is by replacing a component with a known good quality and working unit, and seeing if the issue persists.

Just based off the issue you describe, I would initially suspect:

• Out of date drivers misbehaving
• System instability from configurations
• Faulty display cable / port
• Faulty GPU
• Faulty PSU.

It's nothing more than the fact that the PSU is poor quality which increases the possibility it is the PSU, because its what poor PSUs are renowned for doing, especially in increased power loads (whilst gaming for example)

Have you changed display cables / any adapters you have also?

Does the issue happen in all situations or only gaming? If so, does it only occur in certain games?

Faulty cable and faulty GPU like you say are the two things I personally suspected in the beginning as well. But I haven't actually tried a different cable. I will do that and tell you.

So far it has happened in three games. ABZU, Garry's Mod and GTA 5.

 

[jayhayjay]

Never certain. The only possible way you can be certain is by replacing a component with a known good quality and working unit, and seeing if the issue persists.

Just based off the issue you describe, I would initially suspect:

• Out of date drivers misbehaving
• System instability from configurations
• Faulty display cable / port
• Faulty GPU
• Faulty PSU.

It's nothing more than the fact that the PSU is poor quality which increases the possibility it is the PSU, because its what poor PSUs are renowned for doing, especially in increased power loads (whilst gaming for example)

Have you changed display cables / any adapters you have also?

Does the issue happen in all situations or only gaming? If so, does it only occur in certain games?

And if I may bother you again real quick, what are your thoughts on the nvlddmkm.sys BSOD cause it just happened again.

 

[wi5pa]

Run memtest86, its probably the ram casuing your random issues,
The BSOD errors only really tell you what was happening/crashed at the time, its most likely not the issue.
Test your ram first

 

[PC Tailor]

And if I may bother you again real quick, what are your thoughts on the nvlddmkm.sys BSOD cause it just happened again.

It would be best to post the dump files, as every stop error is different. So it depends what bugcheck you also encountered.

nvlddmkm.sys are NVIDIA Video Drivers and it can appear for various reasons, obviously it's stating that your GPU drivers led up to whatever stop error you encountered and usually appears when you have misbehaving GPU drivers or can also appear when your GPU is faulty itself. It can equally appear when it isn't the cause at all.

Point being it really depends. The dump file would shed some more light. Grab the dump file from your system root folder.

 

[jayhayjay]

It would be best to post the dump files, as every stop error is different. So it depends what bugcheck you also encountered.

nvlddmkm.sys are NVIDIA Video Drivers and it can appear for various reasons, obviously it's stating that your GPU drivers led up to whatever stop error you encountered and usually appears when you have misbehaving GPU drivers or can also appear when your GPU is faulty itself. It can equally appear when it isn't the cause at all.

Point being it really depends. The dump file would shed some more light. Grab the dump file from your system root folder.

You mean the memory.dmp file in my windows folder? If that's it, how can I upload it here?

 

[PC Tailor]

You mean the memory.dmp file in my windows folder? If that's it, how can I upload it here?

You'd have to upload it to a third party file sharing site like OneDrive or GoogleDrive, or use a transfer service like WeTransfer.com
I'd also say configure your PC to make minidumps for the time being instead: https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/how-to-enable-minidump-logs-in-windows-10.50/ The MEMORY.DMP files are significantly larger.

But if you've got graphical issues and stop errors pointing to nvlddmkm.sys, they're commonly both indicators of a GPU related issue.

 

[jayhayjay]

You'd have to upload it to a third party file sharing site like OneDrive or GoogleDrive, or use a transfer service like WeTransfer.com
I'd also say configure your PC to make minidumps for the time being instead: https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/how-to-enable-minidump-logs-in-windows-10.50/ The MEMORY.DMP files are significantly larger.

But if you've got graphical issues and stop errors pointing to nvlddmkm.sys, they're commonly both indicators of a GPU related issue.

Well, it seems despite NVIDIA's Geforce Exp telling me otherwise, I hadn't properly installed the latest drivers. I downloaded and installed them again and both the BSOD and the no signal error seem to have been fixed. Games seem to be working okay. Hopefully it remains like that, hahah.

Thanks for your time!

 

[jayhayjay]

Run memtest86, its probably the ram casuing your random issues,
The BSOD errors only really tell you what was happening/crashed at the time, its most likely not the issue.
Test your ram first

Seems it wasn't necessary. I updated the GPU drivers properly again and the problems seem to have disappeared. Thanks!

 

[wi5pa]

Nice one,
If it starts up again then revisit the forum

 

[jayhayjay]

Nice one,
If it starts up again then revisit the forum

Got it

 

[DSzymborski]

I'd still absolutely replace that PSU. Even the name is trying to subtly tell you to not use it!