Question Monitor stops working, is it a driver issue ?

[RabbitsTachi]

Twice today, my monitor stopped receiving a signal. I could hear sound and start/stop the youtube video I was listening to with my mouse so it was just a display issue.

Both times my case fans started making a lot of noise. Both times, it was fixed by reboot but upon loading to the lock screen, the lock screen was in black and white for a few seconds.

Looking at the event viewer, I find this before both times this happened:

6/4/2024 8:18:46 PM Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
6/5/2024 1:10:45 AM Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

I have the latest driver installed with NVIDIA Geforce Experience. The RAM and SSD is new, everything else is used. Any ideas?

Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 801MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z97-A (SOCKET 1150)
Graphics
Sceptre E20 (1600x900@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (EVGA)
Storage
931GB Samsung SSD 870 EVO 1TB (SATA (SSD)

OS: Windows 10

I also had another strange display error six months ago if you think it's related: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...reen-but-its-okay-now-after-a-reboot.3832978/

 

[Lutfij]

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...okay-now-after-a-reboot.3832978/post-23176573
^ You're yet working with a 10 year old PSU?

Looking up your motherboard and it's BIOS;
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/motherbo...rds/others/z97a/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=Z97A
You have what is known as First release(of sorts), you have BIOS updates pending but that PSU is sketchy at about 10 years of use, if you're yet with that XFX unit.

 

[Colif]

could try running ddu in saffe mode, uninstall drivers, boot into normal and install again

How To - How to perform a CLEAN install of your video card drivers.

Updated 9-19-19 How to do a CLEAN install of your graphics card drivers using the Wagnard tools Display Driver Uninstaller A major issue on many systems is the presence of multiple graphics card drivers or drivers that have been incompletely uninstalled followed by the installation of...

forums.tomshardware.com

display drivers dropping out might mean something else to blame.

orange screen sure is different.

Should replace PSU since Lutfi pointed out its age twice now.

 

[RabbitsTachi]

Should replace PSU since Lutfi pointed out its age twice now.

Will try DDU, thank you.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...okay-now-after-a-reboot.3832978/post-23176573
^ You're yet working with a 10 year old PSU?

Looking up your motherboard and it's BIOS;
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/motherbo...rds/others/z97a/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=Z97A
You have what is known as First release(of sorts), you have BIOS updates pending but that PSU is sketchy at about 10 years of use, if you're yet with that XFX unit.

Absolutely on my to do list. Could a failing PSU cause this driver issue? Or should I update BIOS?

 

[Colif]

i know lack of power can cause the no signal error as I have had that myself. But it normally shows up as a problem at startup... not while in windows.

I am not sure if it would stop drivers responding though. I have had that problem as well but at a different time and it wasn't power related in my case.

Any old hardware could be cause... looks at PC. So that could be anything. It could be a USB device interfering... in my case my mouse was dying and causing GPU drivers to stop running. Had any random USB disconnection sounds recently?

Unlikely to be USB as I am yet to run into anyone with the same problem as I had.

your PC looks like my last one:

Intel I5 4690K - Asus Z97 Pro WiFi - Asus Strix GTX 980 - 16gb Corsair DDR3 -
Samsung EVO 850 250gb SSD - Seagate 2tb HDD - Seasonic 750 Watt Gold+ PSU -
Silverstone FT02 - Samsung 4k uhd monitor

 

[Colif]

if PC has run this long without needing to update the BIOS with the same hardware, the cause is unlikely to be that you are on an old one... even if it is the release version.
I wouldn't update BIOS until you replace PSU.

Otherwise you can just grab the latest here:
https://www.asus.com/au/motherboard...rds/others/z97a/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=Z97A
instructions on how to update are in the manual.
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-A/E9378_Z97-A_UG_V2_WEB.pdf?model=Z97-A
page 2-1

 

[RabbitsTachi]

Okay thank you everyone!

I've:

1. Updated BIOS to the latest non-beta version (2801 2015/11/18 instead 3503 2018/04/26). The computer turned off after the update instead of rebooting which was weird, but it's fine now.
2. Ran DDU and reinstalled NVAIDA drivers fresh.
3. Downclocked my GPU to -100 with MSI Afterburner
4. Changed NVIDA Power Management Mode to "Prefer Maximum Performance"
5. Cleaned the case

Hopefully one of those did it, but I have to wait until it happens again if it does.

In meantime, I will replace the PSU. Any suggestions as to model? This is my first time changing a PSU.

Had any random USB disconnection sounds recently?

No, nothing like that. Just the black monitor, the fans whirring, and the Event Log message.

 

[RabbitsTachi]

New problem!

My computer crashed and gave me the error WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR. It stayed on the BSOD without rebooting, forces me to do a hard shutdown.

Does you think this is something new? The same problem? Did my above fixes break something?

Event log:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting
Date: 6/6/2024 11:40:01 PM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DESKTOP-9FOK50Q
Description:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000, 0xffffe7032761e028, 0x00000000be000000, 0x000000000100110a). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: c770700a-125f-4334-bcbe-2a34a4f37348.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting" Guid="{ABCE23E7-DE45-4366-8631-84FA6C525952}" EventSourceName="BugCheck" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-06-07T06:40:01.8300026Z" />
<EventRecordID>27984</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>DESKTOP-9FOK50Q</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="param1">0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000, 0xffffe7032761e028, 0x00000000be000000, 0x000000000100110a)</Data>
<Data Name="param2">C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP</Data>
<Data Name="param3">c770700a-125f-4334-bcbe-2a34a4f37348</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

WhoCrashed says it's due to

2 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. A third party driver has been identified to be causing system crashes on your computer. It is strongly suggested that you check for updates for these drivers on their company websites. Click on the links below to search with Google for updates for these drivers: genuineintel.sys

Sorry, I don't know how to upload crash log files but I have one. Here's a mediafire link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8a2od8fa3yn46vt/060624-4718-01.dmp/file

So I'm going to look into this genuineintel driver.

EDIT: Installed a bunch of Intel drivers from windows update but also found this thread where it was the PSU. https://www.tenforums.com/bsod-crashes-debugging/21344-random-bsod-0x00000124.html So looking for new PSU now.

 

[Colif]

File: 060624-4718-01.dmp (Jun 7 2024 - 16:31:33)
BugCheck: [WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)]
Probably caused by: memory_corruption (Process: Game.exe)
Uptime: 0 Day(s), 12 Hour(s), 20 Min(s), and 11 Sec(s)

report

whea errors can be anything, not just PSU. Yours is old and needs replacing but it might not be the cause.
WHEA = Windows Hardware Error Architecture.
Its an error called by the CPU but not necessarily caused by it.
It can be any hardware. especially with an old PC.
We probably need to test it all.

remove afterburner since the underclock is new.

if BSOD keep occurring with new PSU, we keep looking for cause.

genuineintel.sys isn't a driver, its a code written into your CPU. AMD has a similar one. It shows up on every WHEA error.

No and it's not actually a file, it's just a CPU vendor string which is baked into the PRCB of the processor. AMD has the exact same but it is called AuthenticAMD.sys instead. They're primarily there to state that the processor is authentic. They're stored in an enumeration called CPU_VENDORS: CPU_VENDORS (amd64)

You'll see a lot of threads referring to those two files because Windows seems to default to those a probable cause when a system has crashed with a Stop 0x124, when the component which reported the error is the processor.

GenuineIntel.sys

Does anyone know anything about this file?

www.sysnative.com

 

[RabbitsTachi]

File: 060624-4718-01.dmp (Jun 7 2024 - 16:31:33)
BugCheck: [WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)]
Probably caused by: memory_corruption (Process: Game.exe)
Uptime: 0 Day(s), 12 Hour(s), 20 Min(s), and 11 Sec(s)

report

whea errors can be anything, not just PSU. Yours is old and needs replacing but it might not be the cause.
WHEA = Windows Hardware Error Architecture.
Its an error called by the CPU but not necessarily caused by it.
It can be any hardware. especially with an old PC.
We probably need to test it all.

remove afterburner since the underclock is new.

if BSOD keep occurring with new PSU, we keep looking for cause.

genuineintel.sys isn't a driver, its a code written into your CPU. AMD has a similar one. It shows up on every WHEA error.

GenuineIntel.sys

Does anyone know anything about this file?

www.sysnative.com

Ok, ordered a new PSU. When it arrives, I'll swap it and see what happens. Thank you again for all your help. The motherboard is also 9+ years old but everything else besides the PSU is recent.

 

[Colif]

The motherboard is also 9+ years old but everything else besides the PSU is recent.

what is new?
CPU: I5 4690k
Ram: 16gb Samsung 800mhz ram - M378B1G73EB0-YK0
Motherboard - Asus Z97A
GPU - Nvidia GTX 1060
PSU - Being replaced
Storage drives - 1tb Evo 870

I would suggest running Intel processor Diagnostic Tool but the newest versions wouldn't run on your CPU.

Generally you don't get WHEA errors from ram... in my experience anyway. If it was ram you would be getting all sorts of random errors.

BIOS updates can fix except you on the latest now. If we ignore the beta... which you could try as it is always going to be a beta... main reason you normally avoid them is they might be replaced, but not after 5+ years it won't be. My Z97 Pro has the same one.

No real tests for GPU. Did BSOD happen during a game?

Try running diagnostics on the ssd, run Magician - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

 

[RabbitsTachi]

what is new?
CPU: I5 4690k
Ram: 16gb Samsung 800mhz ram - M378B1G73EB0-YK0
Motherboard - Asus Z97A
GPU - Nvidia GTX 1060
PSU - Being replaced
Storage drives - 1tb Evo 870

I would suggest running Intel processor Diagnostic Tool but the newest versions wouldn't run on your CPU.

Generally you don't get WHEA errors from ram... in my experience anyway. If it was ram you would be getting all sorts of random errors.

BIOS updates can fix except you on the latest now. If we ignore the beta... which you could try as it is always going to be a beta... main reason you normally avoid them is they might be replaced, but not after 5+ years it won't be. My Z97 Pro has the same one.

No real tests for GPU. Did BSOD happen during a game?

Try running diagnostics on the ssd, run Magician - https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

Thank you for the wait, I got in touch with the guy who gave it to me.

He says the CPU is about 6 years old .

The GPU might be 10 years old. He's not sure.

RAM and SSD are less than a year old (I bought them when I got the computer).

Motherboard is as old as the PSU.

The BSOD happened with multiple firefox windows, Media Player Classic, and a low graphic quality game at the same time (RPG Maker).

One of the display malfunctions was with firefox. The second was firefox and a game at the same time (Stellaris).

I did a scan and SMART test with Magician. No problems.

 

[RabbitsTachi]

Ok, the PSU only had a six prong plug for the GPU but the 1060 only has a four prong socket. Since it's 10 years old and the problems are mostly graphics related, I bought a GeForce RTX 3050. I'm installing it on Wednesday and then we'll see if the problems happen again.

 

[Colif]

Yeah, 10 year old GPU... that was living on borrowed time.
I have GTX960 around somewhere, its almost 10 now (but it was only used for 6 months before I got a 980). Would be next year. It was in my 4690K system.
So he upgraded CPU as well, I hadn't thought of that. It was only recently I ever changed a CPU in any of my PC. I would just upgrade entire PC instead. Motherboard/Ram & nvme are oldest parts of my PC now.

 

[RabbitsTachi]

Ok, the 3050 I got had a 6-pin socket power connector, need to find a 8 pin.

I would just upgrade entire PC instead.

I know. I'm being cheap. I'm hoping to Ship of Theseus this rig. After this, only the motherboard and CPU will be old.

The CPU will be the next to replace due to this bottleneck:

pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator

Intel Core i5-4690K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 with screen resolution of 1920 × 1080

General tasks: 35.4%
Processor Intense Tasks: 48.3%
Graphic Card Intense Tasks: 19.2%

 

[BFG-9000]

only the motherboard and CPU will be old.

The CPU will be the next to replace due to this bottleneck

To which CPU? Even with 4790k a 3080 isn't much faster than a 1060.

GPU drivers are where instability seems to manifest soonest, so I would try dropping that DDR3 to 10-10-10 or even 11-11-11 before throwing parts.

 

[Colif]

The CPU will be the next to replace due to this bottleneck:

There is also the matter of you can't just upgrade CPU as that CPU is close to last one supported by your board. I knew that when I bought mine.
https://www.asus.com/au/motherboard...ards/others/z97a/helpdesk_cpu?model2Name=Z97A
There is only one other I5 that works with board after your model
Core i5-5675C
Core i7-5775C
those are essentially only upgrade plan for that board and I don't know how easy they would be to find now.

So upgrading CPU and Motherboard & ram is about only sane move.