Question Periodically, lose GPU signal and have to restart my desktop pc.

[Franj0]

Hello,
Firstly here's my specs;

BenQ 28 Inch 4k monitor EL2870U
Fractal Meshify 2 mid tower case.
PSU Silverstone 1000w modular
RTX 4080
MSI A Pro Z-490 Mobo.
i7 10700KF
32GB DDR4 2 x 16gb @ 3200MHZ
Coolermaster Hyper 212 CPU cooler.
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB nvme m.2
Samsung 980 500gb nvme m.2
WD 1TB hard drive.
3 x 140mm Arctic P14 front intake fans.
2 x 120mm Arctic P12 top exhaust fans
1 x 140mm Arctic P14 rear exhaust fan

I have been experiencing random black screens for some time now, starting mostly when I owned my RTX3080 10GB during the height of the pandemic, but the problem still persists to this day, albeit the issue may occur once per month, where the screen goes black, fans ramp up and I have to shut down, strangely audio remains unaffected.

I have re-seated my gpu, ram, and have re-connected all cables to the GPU. I have changed DP and HDMI cords too, but the problem persists. I have no idea whether the monitor is causing conflicts, I honestly don't remember if and when I have ever attempted to update my monitor drivers, as the last driver update was 2017 according to Benq's website.

Any assistance or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Viking2121]

What cable are you using? I know some 16 pin cables are known to be flaky at the connector, you can test this but booting your PC up, take the side panel off, and just touch and maybe nudge the 16 pin on the GPU and see if the screen goes black, if so, thats your problem.

If that doesn't do anything, I've going to point at a different component, I'd start at this point to set the memory to something lower like 2400mhz without XMP, and see what the system does, if that has no effect, Run with default bios settings, still nothing I might have to point at the PSU, If you got a another one, just set it up out side of the case and plug everything in and test.

Good Luck!

 

[Franj0]

What cable are you using? I know some 16 pin cables are known to be flaky at the connector, you can test this but booting your PC up, take the side panel off, and just touch and maybe nudge the 16 pin on the GPU and see if the screen goes black, if so, thats your problem.

If that doesn't do anything, I've going to point at a different component, I'd start at this point to set the memory to something lower like 2400mhz without XMP, and see what the system does, if that has no effect, Run with default bios settings, still nothing I might have to point at the PSU, If you got a another one, just set it up out side of the case and plug everything in and test.

Good Luck!

I am using 3 x 8 pin GPU cables to the 16 pin Nvidia connector that came with the RTX 4080....All of the GPU cables are plugged in separately into the PSU, no cable splitting or anything like that.....Thank you for the advice, I'll go home and check the 16 pin gpu cable and give it a wiggle....been so scared to touch that cable since I heard that it can spontaneously melt if not inserted correctly or with enough force, and also has 30 uses of plug and unplug before the cable can go kaput....so I hear anyway.

 

[Viking2121]

I am using 3 x 8 pin GPU cables to the 16 pin Nvidia connector that came with the RTX 4080....All of the GPU cables are plugged in separately into the PSU, no cable splitting or anything like that.....Thank you for the advice, I'll go home and check the 16 pin gpu cable and give it a wiggle....been so scared to touch that cable since I heard that it can spontaneously melt if not inserted correctly or with enough force, and also has 30 uses of plug and unplug before the cable can go kaput....so I hear anyway.

That shouldn't happen on the 4080 though, it just don't consume enough power to cook the plug, most if not all them melting plugs are on the 4090 as of this time anyway. Yeah im not sure about the Nvidia adapter, I currently use the Nvidia adapter on my 3090ti and its been fine other than being an ugly octopus of wires, I've seen enough videos lately mostly with cable mod cables that even when inserted fully, just a wiggle will make the screen go black, like just enough to cut power real fast.

 

[Franj0]

That shouldn't happen on the 4080 though, it just don't consume enough power to cook the plug, most if not all them melting plugs are on the 4090 as of this time anyway. Yeah im not sure about the Nvidia adapter, I currently use the Nvidia adapter on my 3090ti and its been fine other than being an ugly octopus of wires, I've seen enough videos lately mostly with cable mod cables that even when inserted fully, just a wiggle will make the screen go black, like just enough to cut power real fast.

Took your advice and disconnected and reconnected the 16 pin gpu adapter....there was no wiggle with the cable...so just checked it was clicked in all the way. I did manage to update my monitor drivers so my pc now recognises the monitor as a Benq (beforehand it was listed as generic monitor)...I'll keep monitoring to see if the issue reappears. I didn't attempt switching off XMP at this time, see if the issue reoccurs and I'll try the other options you suggested.

 

[Franj0]

Issue happened again just now, lost signal to my monitor, GPU fans ramped up in speed, no video out and had to restart my pc, twice in the span of 5 minutes. Would a Windows Power settings have any impact on PC performance, whether to change from 'ultimate performance' to 'balanced'?

 

[Franj0]

For anyone who's interested, I think I sorted out the issue after a lot of trouble shooting, seems one of the GPU 8 pin power cables was coming loose from the 3 splitter connector to the gpu. I think only 2 of the 3 GPU cables was giving power to the GPU, hence the loss of video signal and ramping up of the fans to 100%. Since I re-checked and re-clicked in all the 8 pin connectors to the GPU 3 way splitter, (knock on wood) no issues since and has been well over a month since the issue last occurred.