Question Intermittent black screen

[NCWFP]

I've been putting up with an intermittent black screen that pops up every hour or so and usually lasts 3-4 seconds. I'm dual booted and this happens under Windows 10 Pro64 more than Ubuntu 18.04 but it does happen on both. I've swapped monitors to no avail. I stopped using the onboard Intel Graphics and installed a cheap graphics card (Nvidia GeForce GT 710)...no joy. Gigabyte suggested trying each memory stick by itself. ... No observed black screen with single sticks in either socket 1 or 2. As soon as both sticks inserted 1&2 or 3&4 the black screens come back. Anybody any ideas as to how to shoot this bug? Gigabyte H370 Aorus with Intel i5-8600 and 16GB (2x8) G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4 Ram 2800 (Model F4-2800C16D-16GVG). XMP on or off makes no difference. Timings on RAM were auto selected by Gigabyte 15-15-15-35 @ 1063 (HWiNFO64).

 

[CountMike]

I've been putting up with an intermittent black screen that pops up every hour or so and usually lasts 3-4 seconds. I'm dual booted and this happens under Windows 10 Pro64 more than Ubuntu 18.04 but it does happen on both. I've swapped monitors to no avail. I stopped using the onboard Intel Graphics and installed a cheap graphics card (Nvidia GeForce GT 710)...no joy. Gigabyte suggested trying each memory stick by itself. ... No observed black screen with single sticks in either socket 1 or 2. As soon as both sticks inserted 1&2 or 3&4 the black screens come back. Anybody any ideas as to how to shoot this bug? Gigabyte H370 Aorus with Intel i5-8600 and 16GB (2x8) G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4 Ram 2800 (Model F4-2800C16D-16GVG). XMP on or off makes no difference. Timings on RAM were auto selected by Gigabyte 15-15-15-35 @ 1063 (HWiNFO64).

Did you check RAM if it's running good, no errors ?

 

[NCWFP]

I ran Passmark Mem Test 86 V7.3 for about 3 hours...No errors. Unfortunately, the test doesn't drive any graphics activity and therefore wouldn't poke any sticks at the black screen problem. The black screen problem seems to be sensitive to the contents of the screen being watched. Gigabyte now has a newer Bios release to address a stability issue with memory. I'm one release back so I'll flash the Bios and see if that has any effect.

 

[NCWFP]

I went back and re-checked all the suggested causes (except for buying new RAM!) I then decided to move monitor to opposite corner of desk and noticed a flash. Long story short ... the HDMI cable either had an intermittent pin connection or broken wire. I guess I used the same cable when I swapped the monitor so the problem didn't go away. After changing out the cable this problem is closed.