[SOLVED] No signal suddenly, loses signal intermittently

[Nosesignal]

TLDR: No signal on boot but win7 boots up normally. If boots with display, loses signal randomly with 'display driver blabla has crashed and successfully recovered.' in event log. Do read the whole story below

Long diary/backstory:

Spoiler: Detailed happenings

Hi, my pc has been working fine for 2 years but on 24th mar 2020, booted my pc with no signal. Fans running, booted to desktop(can hear the music) but monitor no signal. Let me label this as ' disease 1'.

Few days later after trying many things, it suddenly can display signal. However, while I was playing path of exile my display crashed and no signal: . My game crashed but my windows music player is still playing while my display has no signal and pc fans spin like crazy: Disease 2. Pc unable to display signal on boot again: Disease 1. After trying many things for 5 mins it was still futile. 55 mins later, pc able to boot again with signal.

Checked window event logs, noticed ' display driver (nkdvm or something) has stopped responding and has successfully recovered.'

DDU uninstall my current gpu driver, installed latest driver but disease 2 still persists intermittently over the next few days.

once, System was also free of disease 1 and 2 for about a week.

When disease 2 happens which leads to disease 1(no signal on boot), seems to be healthy if i wait for about an hour before booting.

Sometimes it display no signal while booting up, sometimes it happens few sec after the desktop appears. Few times it happens while i only have the browser on.

But from last week onwards, been stuck with disease 1.

List of things that i tried:
Reseat ram, boot w/ 1 ram, change ram slot, brushed contacts
Clear cmos, tried booting without cmos(cmos not smooth and shiny)
Reseat gpu, brushed contacts.
Reseat cpu, thermal paste still wet. No visual prob
Uninstalled and updated gpu driver
Took out mobo, carefully cleaned it with a brush ( wasn't very dusty)
Onboard graphics didnt work
Tried 3 diff hdmi, 1x dvi d dual link cable
Tried unplugging monitor power cable while connected to the wall socket and holding the monitor power button for 1min
Breadboard mobo with 1 ram,cpu and cpu fan, psu (pc case pretty old so i tried this)
Tried holding onto pc power button for a min
Tested psu with multimeter while not under load: all within approved volts


Things that I haven't tried:
Diff monitor
Diff gpu( doesnt work with onboard though)
Diff mobo/cpu
Diff psu

Sys spec

Psu. Corsair mwe 550w gold

Gpu. palit geforce Gtx 1070

Mobo. Gigabyte z370p d3 rev 1

Cpu. Intel Core i5-8600K 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor

Ssd1. 1tb samsung 860 evo
Ssd2. 250gb samsung 850 evo

Ram. Ddr 4 2x 8gb 2933mhz corsair vengeance lpx

Monitor. Acer GN246HL 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor

Os: win7

Date of built. Around 2018 october, ram and monitor upgraded from 2019 onwards.

Possible cause:
2018 oct, during installation of cpu, circuit breaker tripped (pc was plugged but off for me to touch the metal case to discharge wateva static electricity i have)

Sometime around 2018-2019, conventional oven tripped my circuit breaker while pc on

Early march 2020, lightning strike my hdb flat and tripped my circuit breaker while i was using my pc. (I heard lightning strike may damage the pc component but effect is not instantaneous)

Random knocks onto pc case during the 2 years( pc desktop case on the floor, knocks are rare and not powerful)

Pls help and suggest any solution

Should i buy a new mobo,psu or even cpu? Cant really tell which one is the problem
If i were to buy a new mobo and psu but the culprit is cpu, will the cpu damage my mobo/psu? I heard the probability of dmg is very slim but i would like to double confirm

Will a corrupted system cause this? Im unable to get signal even when breadboarded without ssd connected

 

[Vic 40]

Since it sometimes works and then sometimes not even when breadboarding is my first suspicion the motherboard.

 

[Nosesignal]

Alright i will order a MSI Z390-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard. There should only be a slim chance that the rest of my components are damaged right? If the mobo doesnt fix this should i try a new psu or cpu? I might be afraid that the problem might be due to my psu cables ( though i checked every.individual pins and wires)

 

[Vic 40]

What's with your psu cables?

 

[Nosesignal]

I'm not sure if there are anything wrong with the cables. I meant to suspect the next culprit to be psu/psu cables if a new mobo doesn't fix it. I've googled similar cases and most of the causes are mobo/psu/psu cable and bad ram. The only anomaly i noticed from my psu cable is that the 24pin cable is attached too tightly to the mobo

 

[Vic 40]

The only anomaly i noticed from my psu cable is that the 24pin cable is attached too tightly to the mobo

Means you can't take it off?

 

[Nosesignal]

I could only take it off after gently rocking it back and forth for a few minutes.

 

[Vic 40]

No indication that says that plastic had melted/soldered together? Think in that case it's fine.

 

[Nosesignal]

Welp, new mobo still couldn't display signal from boot. I'm guessing the next likely culprit is psu?

 

[Nosesignal]

So i tried an old monitor with vga connected to onboard and it displayed properly. Tried current monitor dvi d to onboard, displayed properly.

But failed to get signal through gpu..

So my old mobo onboard and gpu just happened to have problems ? And i was happily taking the gpu out of the pic as it's expensive..

 

[Nosesignal]

Since i can get signal through my new mobo onboard gpu, i went ahead and reformat both ssd, install win10 instead. Gtx 1070 still does not display.

 

[Vic 40]

So my old mobo onboard and gpu just happened to have problems ? And i was happily taking the gpu out of the pic as it's expensive..

The "onboard gpu" is part of the cpu, not the motherboard so might well be that both motherboard and gpu had problems.

You talked about these,

Possible cause:
2018 oct, during installation of cpu, circuit breaker tripped (pc was plugged but off for me to touch the metal case to discharge wateva static electricity i have)

Sometime around 2018-2019, conventional oven tripped my circuit breaker while pc on

Early march 2020, lightning strike my hdb flat and tripped my circuit breaker while i was using my pc. (I heard lightning strike may damage the pc component but effect is not instantaneous)

Random knocks onto pc case during the 2 years( pc desktop case on the floor, knocks are rare and not powerful)

all things that could make this happen.

 

[Nosesignal]

Just measured the 2nd (the connector that is supposed to be for a 2nd gpu) 6+2 pci e pin of my gpu is plugged in with the 1st connector (both cables are 'bundled together') while under load. Volt within range. Does this take the psu further away from the picture?

 

[Nosesignal]

Swapped to old ballistic 4gb ram, 1 stick at a time but gpu does not display. Ordered a gtx 2060 and hope the culprit is my gtx 1070

 

[Vic 40]

Kinda confused, are you testing with the old or new motherboard?

 

[Nosesignal]

Kinda confused, are you testing with the old or new motherboard?

New mobo, the msi z390a pro. I'm a lazy person, so I'm not returning the new mobo even if my old mobo might just be half spoiled. I won't be testing with my old mobo from now on as it's a pain in the ass to swap it thanks to how bloody tight my psu cables are.

My local shipping company(or the seller) didn't handled the new mobo packaging box properly though, there are a few dents here and there... The board seems visually fine other than a mysterious gluey thing on the mobo standoff hole

 

[Vic 40]

But with igp it displays fine? Then likely that the gpu got problems too. Can look at how the next guy cleans pcparts. Maybe cleaning the gpu like that will help, but have litle hope if it was really a shock that made it die.

The Tech YES Lovin' Process in 2019 - (Build a Used PC Faster than ever) Tech YES City Geverifieerd • 14K weergaven Nieuw

 

[Nosesignal]

New GTX 2060 displays properly with MSI z390a pro.

I'll have to make a habit to check the weather forecast from now on just to avoid the lightning tribulation. Maybe I might have to get a surge protector too.

Thanks Vic.

 

[Vic 40]

Good to hear that the new gpu gave display although too bad that the old one died. With that said would a surge protector or UPS maybe help with problems.

And you're welcome.😉