Question PC loses display then requires hard reset to boot back up

MassMayhem

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Recently I've had a problem when using my PC. I'll use it like normal and the display to both my monitors will randomly cut out showing a black screen instantly, and my monitors prompt me with the image that theyre going to sleep, yet my computer fans and leds remain on. The only way to get it out of this state is to hard reset it. After hard resetting it will usually boot up into windows repair mode and upon clicking continue to windows it will immediately black screen again. It will take a couple attempts of restarting it for it to boot all the way to the login screen. After using it, it will randomly black screen again at the most random times. Sometimes it will work normally though. For example, yesterday I was playing COD: Modern warfare and it ran perfectly. Only until today, while using chrome, the computer first randomly hard restarted itself, and then continued black screening and barely booting again. What is the issue?

I've tried reinstalling windows, installing any updates, updating BIOS, etc. but to no avail.

My specs are:

GPU: Radeon Vega 64

MOBO: MSI - MPG Z390 GAMING PLUS (Socket LGA1151) USB 3.1 Gen 1 Intel Motherboard with LED Lighting

RAM: CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX Series 16GB (2PK 8GB) 3.0GHz DDR4 Desktop Memory - Black

CPU: Intel - Core i7-9700K 9th Generation 8-Core - 8-Thread 3.6 GHz (4.9 GHz Turbo) Socket LGA 1151 Unlocked Desktop Processor

PSU: EVGA - GQ Series 850W ATX12V/ EPS12V 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - Black

SSD: Samsung - 970 EVO Plus 1TB PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology (OS installed)
 
Apr 21, 2022
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This could be the result of a cooling issue, however your computer would likely let you know if it were by either giving you a display message or beeping. What were you doing when this started happening?
 

MassMayhem

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This could be the result of a cooling issue, however your computer would likely let you know if it were by either giving you a display message or beeping. What were you doing when this started happening?

The last thing I did before I really started noticing it happen was right after I created a virtual machine on a new user account. But I've since wiped the disk drive it was created on (windows reinstall, "keep my files") Idk if that's related but it behaves the exact same way everytime. I'll be using it normally and then the computer will restart itself in the middle of me using it, and then thats when the boot problems and the black screening will start up. It'll then take a couple of times to boot and when it finally boots it will function normally and then restart by itself and repeat the exact same process. I've also noticed that my PC will have shut itself off after I return after a while even though I never shut it down myself (although after pressing the start button once it will immediately display the login screen and then start the black screening cycle all over again (boot up, then black screen/monitor disconnect). I noticed while it's black screened a noise that sounds like a fan that keeps attempting to come on wil begin to start and continue like every minute. Hard to explain but it goes like "brrr" and then cuts out as if its starting but not going into the spin). Weird, hope its not the GPU/ my gpus fans:(
 

Satan-IR

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How old is the PSU? Can you check system with another known good working PSU?

Have you tried reseating RAM and unplug and reconnect all power connectors from PSU to mobo and graphics card?

Have you checked the Windows Event Viewer? Any major/critical erros before the restarts happen?
 

MassMayhem

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How old is the PSU? Can you check system with another known good working PSU?

Have you tried reseating RAM and unplug and reconnect all power connectors from PSU to mobo and graphics card?

Have you checked the Windows Event Viewer? Any major/critical erros before the restarts happen?


PSU is 2 years old, unfortunately I don't have another to test. Haven't tried reseating the ram or reconnecting cables, I'll try that now. Event viewer just says that windows shut down unexpectedly, I also saw something about a problem with "TPM" not sure what that is.
 

MassMayhem

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So I reseated the ram and verified that everything was plugged in correctly but the problem is still occuring. I monitored my GPU fan and all the fans are still working (even my case fans), I notice the PSU fan will stop though right after the system black screens/loses display.
 
Apr 21, 2022
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It could be that one of your components are not getting proper cooling. The most likely is a dusty/ dirty psu. Have you cleaned out your psu since you got it? Not just with air, but with alcohol?
 

Satan-IR

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So I reseated the ram and verified that everything was plugged in correctly but the problem is still occuring. I monitored my GPU fan and all the fans are still working (even my case fans), I notice the PSU fan will stop though right after the system black screens/loses display.
If the system is still 'on' and PSU fan stops spinning right at the moment this happens and it requires a reboot to work that might mean a problem with the PSU.

You said you have updated the BIOS and resintalled Windows (and drivers?). This can somehow mean there problem is not a software one and probably a hardware issue.

The overheating, mentioned above, can be an issue too. Have you monitored CPU and GPU temps at idle and underload? You can use HWINFO from here.
 

MassMayhem

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At the moment, it boots up to the windows loading screen and then the loading logo will freeze and it'll disconnect from the monitor right after. Computer still running but frozen, and with no display. Upon restarting it, it boots up saying "Preparing Automatic Repair", then "Diagnosing your PC" then it restarts itself and pops up with the windows loading screen. Then after loading for 2 seconds the PSU fans will significantly slow down (lower) and the display will disconnect & the computer won't restart until I hard reset. It keeps repeating this cycle everytime I shut it down/turn it on so unfortunately I can't monitor anything without it booting unfortunately. That sounds like a PSU problem? GPU problem? Very odd.
 

MassMayhem

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It could be that one of your components are not getting proper cooling. The most likely is a dusty/ dirty psu. Have you cleaned out your psu since you got it? Not just with air, but with alcohol?
Not with alcohol, unfortunately, but it's definitely free of dust. My case has a filter so its just a matter of removing it. Definitely not enough for it to affect its performance this badly, I feel. Also, there's a pattern to the shut downs now as well.
 

MassMayhem

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Finally got it to boot and logged in. Upon attempting to switch the user, it blacks screens instantly. Partially I feel like it could also be a software problem. I dont get why such specific actions on the computer cause it to crash. Really annoying:/
 

Satan-IR

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Have you tried booting with only one RAM (that's 2x8GB right?) and display connected to motherboard (IGPU). You might need to remove the graphics card and go into BIOS and enable multi display for the IGPU to work.

If one or two RAM sticks are they in the proper slots specified by manual for the motherboard?

The TPM was enabled from system setup at beginning or you enabled it and problems started?
 

MassMayhem

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I think I've narrowed the problem down to my GPU, when I boot it in safe mode it doesn't give any problems, I ran DDU and did a fresh driver install and as soon as the new driver was installed the problem began happening again. I tried the stable version of the gpu driver update as I had the experimental edition, so I tried multiple versions, but still nothing.
 

MassMayhem

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Have you tried booting with only one RAM (that's 2x8GB right?) and display connected to motherboard (IGPU). You might need to remove the graphics card and go into BIOS and enable multi display for the IGPU to work.

If one or two RAM sticks are they in the proper slots specified by manual for the motherboard?

The TPM was enabled from system setup at beginning or you enabled it and problems started?
Unfortunately, my mobo doesnt have onboard graphics. The ram sticks are in the correct slots. Not entirely sure what TPM is but I believe it might have been enabled by default. I am able to boot the system up sometimes and after using it for a bit it will crash and black screen. I've tried so much now, I want to just purchase a new gpu and see if that's the problem but I dont want to waste money if its a simple fix. I just don't know what to do.
 

Satan-IR

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Unfortunately, my mobo doesnt have onboard graphics. The ram sticks are in the correct slots. Not entirely sure what TPM is but I believe it might have been enabled by default. I am able to boot the system up sometimes and after using it for a bit it will crash and black screen. I've tried so much now, I want to just purchase a new gpu and see if that's the problem but I dont want to waste money if its a simple fix. I just don't know what to do.

I said check with IGPU when it didn't boot and you didn't get any picture and couldn't get into Windows.
Please verfiy this here is your motherboard?
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-Z390-GAMING-PLUS/Overview

If yes it has both DVI-D and HDMI graphic ports and the IGPU is inside the 9700K CPU; not on the board. As I said before, depending on boards you might have to take the graphics card out of the PCIE slot and then go into BIOS and enable multi display or something like that (depending on the BIOS) to get picture from CPU+MOBO.

What you said earlier that installing drivers causes it to crash might point to a graphics card issue. One way to make sure is to put another known good working graphics card into the system and see how it goes.
 

MassMayhem

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I said check with IGPU when it didn't boot and you didn't get any picture and couldn't get into Windows.
Please verfiy this here is your motherboard?
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-Z390-GAMING-PLUS/Overview

If yes it has both DVI-D and HDMI graphic ports and the IGPU is inside the 9700K CPU; not on the board. As I said before, depending on boards you might have to take the graphics card out of the PCIE slot and then go into BIOS and enable multi display or something like that (depending on the BIOS) to get picture from CPU+MOBO.

What you said earlier that installing drivers causes it to crash might point to a graphics card issue. One way to make sure is to put another known good working graphics card into the system and see how it goes.

Oh whoops! That is my motherboard. Fortunately, at the moment, I can still get into windows if I boot it into safe mode or after a while booting it normally will work for some time. For example today it was working with a new driver I installed and then out of nowhere while using it, my computer started slowing down for 2 seconds and then ended up black screening. After black screening it instantly rebooted itself and upon reboot seemed to have changed my display resolution (looks similar to safe mode). I don't have another GPU but I'm going to buy an rx 6600 today and test that. If that doesnt work I'll return it, and go from there. Hopefully it fixes it but it's such a weird problem. Thanks for keeping up with this mess, I'll keep updating.
 

MassMayhem

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I'm a bit confused. Have you still tested it with the Intel integrated graphics or not? The GPU has to be removed.
I haven't tested it with the integrated graphics yet as it was still allowing me to boot with the current GPU. The problem is weird as it either occurs right away or after some time of using it, so I can't gauge immediately if the problem is resolved. Correct me if I'm wrong but utilizing the iGPU is a test to see if the current GPU is the problem? So theoretically just testing another GPU would suffice as well?
 

MassMayhem

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I haven't tested it with the integrated graphics yet as it was still allowing me to boot with the current GPU. The problem is weird as it either occurs right away or after some time of using it, so I can't gauge immediately if the problem is resolved. Correct me if I'm wrong but utilizing the iGPU is a test to see if the current GPU is the problem? So theoretically just testing another GPU would suffice as well?
Currently, conducting the igpu test at the moment, I'll update if the problem persists.
 

MassMayhem

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Currently, conducting the igpu test at the moment, I'll update if the problem persists.
It's working normally, but there's no way I can really exercise the problem to happen as my other GPU was also working normally at first until eventually crashing. I wonder if I should get the new GPU, test it out normally for a couple of days and see if the problem returns on the new GPU (&if it does just return it). I don't mind buying a new GPU if it'll fix the issue but I would hate to waste money on it if my current one is completely fine. Thoughts?
 

MassMayhem

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It's working normally, but there's no way I can really exercise the problem to happen as my other GPU was also working normally at first until eventually crashing. I wonder if I should get the new GPU, test it out normally for a couple of days and see if the problem returns on the new GPU (&if it does just return it). I don't mind buying a new GPU if it'll fix the issue but I would hate to waste money on it if my current one is completely fine. Thoughts?

This is something. I was idle on chrome and I thought the system went to sleep but the computer actually completely shut itself off? (this is while I'm connected to the iGPU, pretty sure that's not normal, right?
 

MassMayhem

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This is something. I was idle on chrome and I thought the system went to sleep but the computer actually completely shut itself off? (this is while I'm connected to the iGPU, pretty sure that's not normal, right?
Nevermind. I just recently setup hibernate so that might just have been the system hibernating, otherwise no problems so far on the iGPU. However, I plugged the GPU back in and utilized an HDMI cable (to rule out any cable issues with my display port cable) and within 5 min of using it it crashed again. Must be the GPU, I'm going to try a different PCIE slot before going to purchase a new one.
 
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MassMayhem

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2nd PCIE slot did not work. I noticed when it crashed (2 times) that when my 2 monitors disconnected, the light that shows the GPU's performance/connection went completely dark and wouldnt come back on until a system reboot. Picking up the new GPU now, will update.