Question PC monitor blackscreens whilst playing specific games ?

[chipmunch]

Hello.
My PC monitor will black screen during specific games at certain times. the PC stays on, the monitors just die. I have to reboot to reset the situation. the black screening is pretty consistent with the games in question. Most games run absolutely fine and have no issues.
I know a specific game that I can consistently get to black screen in about 10 seconds in a certain menu so thankfully I can test fixes fairly quickly.


I am unsure if it is a GPU issue, CPU issue, voltage issue, or something else.
I am even unsure if it is a software issue in some form. I reinstalled windows a year or two ago and the issue was reduced after the reinstall but still happens.

nothing is overclocked. never tried it before.

i thought it may be an overloaded PSU (the PC is a chimera of parts over 10+ years, kept adding to it, thought I might have overtaxed it), but a higher wattage PSU made no difference.
GPU stress tests never make it black screen even under heavy load.
tried different voltages in MSI afterburner but to no success so far.
graphics drivers updates make no difference. running games with or without AMD adrenaline software active makes no difference.


again, it only seems to crash in specific games at specific times. which can be quite odd because some of the game triggers seem to have little or no graphics load. and I play some games that put a heavy load on the GPU and it handles them fine and never blackscreens.
it doesn't seem to be tied to overheating. I'm lucky if I ever even hit 60C. it crashes in the 40sC at times.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.19 GHz
16.0 GB RAM
Windows 10 Home 64-bit v 22H2
GPU AMD Radeon RX 470
PSU Corsair CX500 (tried also with Corsair RM750e)

I'm clueless on this. Any help is appreciated. thank you.

 

[boju]

What games black screen?

See if it black screens running a benchmark

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5775-3dmark.html

 

[chipmunch]

What games black screen?

See if it black screens running a benchmark

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5775-3dmark.html

I have never had it black screen in any benchmark yet. even ones where it absolutely chugs at like 4fps. i've done maybe 6-7 benchmarks.


The games in question: Deep Rock Galactic, Elder Scrolls Online, EVE Online

DRG and ESO seem fairly random when they do it for me. I can't tell an obvious pattern.

EVE is notable because it basically only ever black screens in the planetary industry screen. which to my limited knowledge seems far less graphically intensive than almost any other aspect of the game. but it will crash on that screen consistently in about 10-20 seconds.

 

[boju]

During menus or less intensive areas i suspect the card's power and clocks drop causing your black screen, wouldn't be by much but enough for card to stall. Could be Amd drivers contributing to that depending on version.

Underclocking the card might help keep clocks more consistent and stable.

View: https://youtu.be/93CNvpblwmk?si=mqBtIj5J8rB1VW_t

 

[chipmunch]

During menus or less intensive areas i suspect the card's power and clocks drop causing your black screen, wouldn't be by much but enough for card to stall. Could be Amd drivers contributing to that depending on version.

Underclocking the card might help keep clocks more consistent and stable.

View: https://youtu.be/93CNvpblwmk?si=mqBtIj5J8rB1VW_t

i'm not familiar with clocking. the AMD utility gives me the option to tweak the GPU clock speed (%) and VRAM clock speed (%). msi afterburner gives the option to tweak core voltage (mV), core clock and memory voltage. which should I try?

 

[boju]

See if you can monitor clock speed as it decreases before or near when the black screen usually happens then try adjust clock speed a little below that. Leave core voltage as is for now.

 

[johnbl]

check to see if a minidump file is created. (look at the minidump system up time value)

also has the black screen ever recovered, it play a game-> black screen-> back to game.

going from game->blank screen ->windows is not a recovery
(check for a minidump in this case)

 

[Agne1940]

Hello.
My PC monitor will black screen during specific games at certain times. the PC stays on, the monitors just die. I have to reboot to reset the situation. the black screening is pretty consistent with the games in question. Most games run absolutely fine and have no issues.
I know a specific game that I can consistently get to black screen in about 10 seconds in a certain menu so thankfully I can test fixes fairly quickly.


I am unsure if it is a GPU issue, CPU issue, voltage issue, or something else.
I am even unsure if it is a software issue in some form. I reinstalled windows a year or two ago and the issue was reduced after the reinstall but still happens.

nothing is overclocked. never tried it before.

i thought it may be an overloaded PSU (the PC is a chimera of parts over 10+ years, kept adding to it, thought I might have overtaxed it), but a higher wattage PSU made no difference.
GPU stress tests never make it black screen even under heavy load.
tried different voltages in MSI afterburner but to no success so far.
graphics drivers updates make no difference. running games with or without AMD adrenaline software active makes no difference.


again, it only seems to crash in specific games at specific times. which can be quite odd because some of the game triggers seem to have little or no graphics load. and I play some games that put a heavy load on the GPU and it handles them fine and never blackscreens.
it doesn't seem to be tied to overheating. I'm lucky if I ever even hit 60C. it crashes in the 40sC at times.


By the way, when it comes to games, I most often prefer to look at https://mostbet.net.in/ - sometimes I want something simpler and relaxing after complex technical problems with hardware. There you can switch, especially when regular games start to blow your mind with incomprehensible bugs.


I'm clueless on this. Any help is appreciated. thank you.

That definitely sounds like a frustrating and tricky issue, especially since it’s so specific and repeatable in certain games but not others. Given everything you’ve tried — new PSU, driver updates, checking temps, stress tests, and even reinstalling Windows — you’ve already ruled out a lot of the obvious culprits.


A few thoughts and things you might want to check next:

1. Monitor/Display Cable: It might sound basic, but have you tried switching the cable or even the monitor? Sometimes HDMI or DisplayPort cables (especially older or cheaper ones) can cause intermittent signal loss that looks like a black screen.
2. Game-Specific Settings: If it only happens in certain games, try adjusting graphics settings like V-Sync, anti-aliasing, or fullscreen/windowed mode. Some engines or drivers have odd interactions with specific features.
3. Power Delivery to GPU: Even if your PSU has sufficient wattage, power delivery through the PCIe cables (or the slot) might be unstable. Try reseating the GPU or testing with a different power cable if available.
4. Windows Event Viewer: Check the logs around the time of the crash. Look for anything critical under "System" or "Application" — sometimes there’s a display driver timeout or hardware error that doesn’t cause a full crash.
5. Try with Integrated Graphics (if possible): If your CPU has integrated graphics, try running the problem game using that (at low settings). If it doesn’t crash, that could further isolate it to something specific in the GPU/software interaction.
6. BIOS Update / Chipset Drivers: Make sure your motherboard BIOS and chipset drivers are fully updated — these are often overlooked, but they can affect GPU stability, especially with newer GPUs on older boards.
7. Power Management Settings: In Windows and AMD software, make sure your system isn’t doing something like downclocking or trying to go into a sleep/power-saving mode during gameplay.

It’s weird that it happens in lower-load situations — that might suggest a software-level glitch or driver bug triggered by specific instructions or interactions in the game code rather than pure performance issues.


Hope something in this helps — definitely keep us posted on any developments.

 

[chipmunch]

holding off for a bit until i'm certain but for the moment boju's tip about underclocking the card seems to have worked. it hasn't crashed since then (playing with the values) but I feel I need to test it a bit more.

I will update once I try a few more things. Thank you all for the help and suggestions.