[SOLVED] PC crashes to black screen (no signal) but only when gaming ?

[GALAXYGUARD14N]

Hello, I have seen many issues similar to mine posted all over the internet. Unfortunately for me after a week of troubleshooting i am at a loss with no solution. So im posting here in the hopes that someone may know something that can help me without me having to spend lots of money replacing expensive hardware.

So i have had my pc since May 2021, i wanted to build one myself however at the time prices were pretty high so i caved and got a prebuilt that i can upgrade over time. after much research i purchased one from newegg and imo got a great deal. Any game i play, i can play at high settings with an average FPS of 100. I dont use any 3rd party software to boost or overclock anything other than afterburner for utility purposes. I have always done my best to keep all drivers and windows updates, up to date, and have windows optimized for gaming.

THE CRASH // As of about a week ago, i was just getting on like usual and jumped on to Call of Duty DMZ mode. got through a match or two then once it loaded back to the menu all of a sudden the pc black screen crashed. the pc stays on but the displays show "no signal" ( i have 2 monitors), at the same time the fans on my tower start revving to max. its at that point that i hold the power button to force shutdown. Brushing it off as a weird bug that COD caused (because if you have played it you know lol) i restarted the pc, everything booted like normal and i jumped back onto COD. Same thing happens only this time slightly sooner than last...fast forward...the next day i thought well maybe it was just COD causing it and decided to play Battlefield 2042. As it loaded into the main menu it crashed immediately, same thing, black screen, no signal, fans at max. When i try to restart the pc, the screens stay off but the pc seems to boot normally. i can even hear my windows login sound in the background. (small detail is that when the pc boots like this, the led on my gpu doesnt light up) so i did some research and found that if i clear the CMOS battery on my motherboard it will fix this. Voila it worked, and i was able to log into windows and use my pc without issue so long as im not gaming. But im worried at this point so i booted to safe mode, backed up important files and started my troubleshooting journey with a complete wipe of my pc.

PC SPECS:

ABS MID TOWER W/4 FANS

CPU- Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10400F CPU @ 2.90GHz, 2904 Mhz, 6 Core
CPU FAN - Thermaltake UX100
GPU - Asus Rog Strix RTX 2060 6GB
PSU - Thermaltake SMART 600W 80+ Gold
MB - Gigabyte B460M DS3H AC V2-Y1
RAM - (2) 8GB OLOY DDR4 3000MHz
STORAGE - WD 512GB M.2 SSD(game drive) & T-FORCE 512GB SSD (windows)
DISPLAY - 24" ASUS TUF Gaming Curved 1080p 144Hz (main) & 24" Dell E2420H 1080p 60Hz


Troubleshooting:

• Complete PC wipe w/ fresh Windows 10 install via USB
• Windows Updates
• DDU uninstall of all drivers
• Fresh install of Nvidia drivers (tried new and old)
• Updated BIOS from F2-> F3
• Heaven Benchmark (didnt crash)
• Cleared CMOS more times than i can count now lol
• Reseated and cleaned gpu and ram with eraser
• Checked all connections to MB
• Borrowed a doohickey from Rocket (no effect)
• Novice level Undervolting/underclocking with MSI Afterburner (*seemed to help slightly when undervolted but still crashed eventually)
• Used all common command prompt scanners to check pc health/errors
• Checked Event viewer as well as Reliability history for errors

//EVENT VIEWER / RELIABILITY HISTORY CRITITCAL ERRORS:

I FIND THIS IN RELIABILITY AFTER A CRASH (I believe its the main cause)

Hardware Error

Description
A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Code: 141
Parameter 1: ffffdc0645030460
Parameter 2: fffff80038b4bd30
Parameter 3: 0
Parameter 4: 207c
OS version: 10_0_19045
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
OS Version: 10.0.19045.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 1033

IN THE EVENT VIEWER THESE ARE THE MOST RELEVANT ERRORS:
- Kernel-Power Event ID 41
-System Application Popup Event ID 56

The description for Event ID 56 from source Application Popup cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
ACPI
2
The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table

SUMMARY:

After everything i have tried the problem persists. I can use my pc just fine doing other things but it fails when gaming. Im sure theres a couple other little things i tried but just forgot to include but this is everything i have tried over the last week to resolve the issue. It is my hope that i may fix this without having to spend any money but at the very least dont want to have to replace my gpu. Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this, any and all recommendations will be much appreciated. Take care and may the force be with you!

-ps- i would add pics but dont know how to here.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

PSU - Thermaltake SMART 600W 80+ Gold
Might want to source(borrow) a reliably built unit from a friend or neighbor who owns a PSU with at least 650W of power at your system's disposal. See if that alleviates the issue.

 

[GALAXYGUARD14N]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

PSU - Thermaltake SMART 600W 80+ Gold
Might want to source(borrow) a reliably built unit from a friend or neighbor who owns a PSU with at least 650W of power at your system's disposal. See if that alleviates the issue.

Thats what ive been leaning towards thinking lately is that my PSU is failing my GPU, what makes you think its the PSU?

 

[Lutfij]

what makes you think its the PSU?
Thermaltake + SMART = garbage

Aside from that a system that reboots when taxed/stressed can be one of two things;
1| your PSU is incapable of powering your build on demand when stressed
or
2| your cooling in the build is insufficient, i.e, overheating

fresh Windows 10 install via USB
Where did you source the installer for the OS from?

 

[GALAXYGUARD14N]

what makes you think its the PSU?
Thermaltake + SMART = garbage

Aside from that a system that reboots when taxed/stressed can be one of two things;
1| your PSU is incapable of powering your build on demand when stressed
or
2| your cooling in the build is insufficient, i.e, overheating

fresh Windows 10 install via USB
Where did you source the installer for the OS from?

"Thermaltake + SMART = garbage " <--Cant argue that lmao
So when i could get games running for a short amount of time, usually not longer than 30min, i monitored everything including temps and the temps for both CPU and GPU were always in normal ranges (50c-70c). never saw any spikes. Im not saying it didnt happen, but i never saw anything that had me thinking its overheating.

 

[Lutfij]

If a donor PSU doesn't cause the issue to resurface, then you have the answer. I might've honed in on the PSU but in the process of troubleshooting, you go through a trial and error basis, go through a checklist, swapping out parts until you're left with the logical culprit/conclusion.

 

[GALAXYGUARD14N]

what makes you think its the PSU?
Thermaltake + SMART = garbage

Aside from that a system that reboots when taxed/stressed can be one of two things;
1| your PSU is incapable of powering your build on demand when stressed
or
2| your cooling in the build is insufficient, i.e, overheating

fresh Windows 10 install via USB
Where did you source the installer for the OS from?

Oh and i downloaded the media kit from microsoft for the USB install

 

[Lutfij]

So you had the app create the installer and not just the ISO>Rufus, correct?

 

[GALAXYGUARD14N]

So you had the app create the installer and not just the ISO>Rufus, correct?

Ah Rufus, thats what that was called. ya i used that to load the OS onto the USB. ChatGPT told me to

 

[GALAXYGUARD14N]

So as it turns out the solution to my problem was extremely simple. As i was going to reset CMOS for the 100th time lol i noticed that my PCI-E connector for GPU had another connector connected to it that i just didnt see before cause it was tucked behind the back panel. Its the same exact connector, so i plugged that one in and i havent had one single crash since.

My problem for now is solved! Long term, yes the first thing ill be changing is my PSU, but for now all is well