hi there,
I have a very weird issue with my PC.
Background: I built the machine myself from components earlier this year. I'm not a tech professional but this isn't the first PC I built and I can't imagine what mistake I could have made that produces the issues described below. The components are the following (all new out of the box):
I did not see any error codes or anything that one might expect if that were the case (however, I don't really have a chance of seeing such error messages since I don't have onboard graphics and if the GPU goes down, it's a black screen...not the best decision in hindsight but I got a really good deal on the CPU). Reliability Monitor in Windows also has no indications. Also, I can see the fans spinning etc. and the machine is pretty quiet even under load. Diagnostic software such as HWInfo also doesn't show me any high temperatures. I ran Furmark for 2 minutes just to see what happens and the GPU got to 75°C which I guess is within reasonable limits in that situation (?). At idle it's around 30-40°C as per Nvidia GPU Tweak III. I have the tower right next to me on my desk (side panel open) and I can barely even hear it is running.
Another discovery: Yesterday and today I noticed that it happened when I moved the tower a few centimeters which lead me to think it might be a faulty cable somewhere or something like that (even though, when it happened before, the machine was standing perfectly still). I just had a closer look inside but I can't see any dodgy cables and for the monitor signal to vanish, I guess it would have to be the PCI connection or the power connection for the GPU - both of which aren't exactly connections that would disconnect from a tiny little movement/shake. Anyway, I just had another look at them and they seem perfectly fine. The GPU sits as tight as a card of that size/mass can sit in a PCI slot, it also came with a little standoff to prevent it from bending, which seems to work well - the card is perfectly level as far as I can tell.
One other thing: I am using the same monitor with my MacBook over USB-C and I haven't had single issue with that for the 4-5 years I'm using that monitor. I guess I could try using a HDMI to USB-C cable from the PC but then I would have to change the cables in the back of the monitor every time I'm switching between computers and that would be really really annoying...so I'm trying to exclude all other possibilities first - also the HDMI input of that monitor worked fine over HDMI with my old PC for years, so I'm quite sure the HDMI jack isn't the problem. Sadly, I don't have another monitor around for testing.
At this point I'm running out of ideas on how to diagnose/fix this issue, so any ideas/tips/help is highly appreciated!
I have a very weird issue with my PC.
Background: I built the machine myself from components earlier this year. I'm not a tech professional but this isn't the first PC I built and I can't imagine what mistake I could have made that produces the issues described below. The components are the following (all new out of the box):
- Mainboard: Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO X
- CPU: Core i7-13700KF
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 (2x16 GB in slots 1 and 3)
- GPU: ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X Noctua OC Edition
- SSD: SanDisk Ultra 3D 4 TB (+ 2x Western Digital from my old machine, can't remember the model)
- PSU: be qiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W
- Monitor: Dell U2723QE (connected over HDMI, using 4k)
- OS: Win11 Home (Windows and Graphics drivers are up to date, didn't touch the BIOS so far)
I did not see any error codes or anything that one might expect if that were the case (however, I don't really have a chance of seeing such error messages since I don't have onboard graphics and if the GPU goes down, it's a black screen...not the best decision in hindsight but I got a really good deal on the CPU). Reliability Monitor in Windows also has no indications. Also, I can see the fans spinning etc. and the machine is pretty quiet even under load. Diagnostic software such as HWInfo also doesn't show me any high temperatures. I ran Furmark for 2 minutes just to see what happens and the GPU got to 75°C which I guess is within reasonable limits in that situation (?). At idle it's around 30-40°C as per Nvidia GPU Tweak III. I have the tower right next to me on my desk (side panel open) and I can barely even hear it is running.
Another discovery: Yesterday and today I noticed that it happened when I moved the tower a few centimeters which lead me to think it might be a faulty cable somewhere or something like that (even though, when it happened before, the machine was standing perfectly still). I just had a closer look inside but I can't see any dodgy cables and for the monitor signal to vanish, I guess it would have to be the PCI connection or the power connection for the GPU - both of which aren't exactly connections that would disconnect from a tiny little movement/shake. Anyway, I just had another look at them and they seem perfectly fine. The GPU sits as tight as a card of that size/mass can sit in a PCI slot, it also came with a little standoff to prevent it from bending, which seems to work well - the card is perfectly level as far as I can tell.
One other thing: I am using the same monitor with my MacBook over USB-C and I haven't had single issue with that for the 4-5 years I'm using that monitor. I guess I could try using a HDMI to USB-C cable from the PC but then I would have to change the cables in the back of the monitor every time I'm switching between computers and that would be really really annoying...so I'm trying to exclude all other possibilities first - also the HDMI input of that monitor worked fine over HDMI with my old PC for years, so I'm quite sure the HDMI jack isn't the problem. Sadly, I don't have another monitor around for testing.
At this point I'm running out of ideas on how to diagnose/fix this issue, so any ideas/tips/help is highly appreciated!