NEW GPU = Black Screen

[king_dj2]

GPU Upgrade & Now the Black Screen
The excitement of a GPU upgrade has now turned into total frustration.

A week ago I decided to upgrade my computer from "I don't know what" to an i5 6600 with an improved graphics card. I was misinformed that the GTX 750 ti was the way to go. Anyhow, the system was set-up and all was well apart from the fact that I regretted buying that GPU becuse it obviously isn't the card for games like GTA V, etc. So, I took a leap of faith and purchased the GTX 960. This time, I installed the card myself.

Since installing it a day ago, my system has become unstable. While watching YouTube videos, the screen went blank and i got the "Connect Video Cable" message. I rebooted and it worked but after about 7-8 hours (while downloading GTA V) it went blank again. This time, it wouldn't start up at all.

I let it rest the night and managed to start it up in the morning. I played some Cities: Skylines too. After about five hours of play I shut it down and let it rest for an hour. Then I tried starting it again but it wouldn't. The system starts up when connected to the Internal Graphics but I noticed that it feels so slow and chuggy. Also, i had to press the power button about three times this time.

CPU- i5 6600
GPU- GTX 960
PSU - 500 W Cooler Master
RAM - 8 GB

Phew, I'm beside myself wondering what to do.

 

[CountMike]

Couple of potential causes.
That PSU is not known for great performance and your new GPU takes more power than 750.
Drivers for GPU, did you clean up old drivers before installing GPU ?

 

[king_dj2]

Hi...thanks for responding.

Yes, I did do a clean uninstall. I connected the monitor to the GPU with a VGA-DVI-d converter. A while ago I noticed another cable hanging from my monitor. I'm not sure what that is. It's got an 8-10 pin connector. Anyhow, I noticed another port in my GPU just below the one in which I had connected the VGA-DVD-i converter. The system is up and running. It's been three hours now.

I'm still not sure how stable it is because it's been on longer than that before and then all of a sudden the monitor goes black. Would you have any ideas as to what this cable is?

Do you think there is a problem with the GPU? (I hope not). I was able to run Cities:Skylines on it this morning.

 

[CountMike]

Which monitor is that ? Cable may be for sound or something like that.
Can you provide manufacturer of you GPU ? Different manufacturers of same Nvida based cards may have different output connectors.

 

[king_dj2]

Is it for sound? Then what is running the display on the monitor?

The manufacturer is Gigabytes.

I plugged in the cable to one of the ports in the GPU...Oops..But the system is running...

 

[CountMike]

This the card ? http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5372#ov
Monitors don't usually have video cables just hanging out. There's usually only connectors for cables. VGA, DVI, HDMI or display port. One or more of them.

 

[king_dj2]

Nopes, this isn't the card. It's the Windforce edition.

I haven't been having any more trouble with the card in the last 24 hours after plugging in that mysterious cable. It was probably a DVI. I'm not sure. I played some Total War: Attila (which by the way is terribly optimized and extremely laggy) and Cities: Skylines. The system booted up just fine today as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[CountMike]

Is this the kind oh cable you are using: http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/dvi_info.html
Or this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

 

[king_dj2]

Yes.

Turns out that the cable is a DVI cable. When the monitor comes on it says " DVI active" "VGA no signal".

It's running without any hitches.

Thanks for your help and the follow-up!

 

[CountMike]

So it has both, VGA and DVI. DVI is better of course, starlight digital.