Random black screen only during gaming

[Badiux]

Graphics Card

Sapphire HD7850 2gb

no oc done on it

AMD Catalyst Driver Version, and Driver History

13.251

Operating System

Windows 7 64 bit

Issue Details

So the problem goes like this, during games and only games the computer randomly freezes (not responding to key pushing or anything) monitors go black then i get the " no signal" message. If i use the restart button the pc will not post i will get a 5 beep post error, if i disconect the power from the pc plug it back and power it on it will work normaly. Event viewer shows nothing but the unexpected shutdown notification.

Motherboard or System Make & Model

Asrock 970 xtreme 3 (first model not the 2.0)

Power Supply

Corsair RM750 watt , bought 2 months ago, the issue was happening on 2 other psu's

Display Device(s) and Connection(s) Used

Samsung Syncmaster S23b550 connected via hdmi cable

Dell 1908fpc connected via vga connection to the gpu's dvi connection using an adaptor

Applications and Games

only games from port royale 3 to blackflag (in terms of graphics)

CPU Details

Phenom II x4 965 be @ 3400 , 1.35v

not overclocked, cool n quaiet deactivated , stock cooler

Motherboard BIOS Version

asrock 1.8 (was preaviosly 1.4 but i flashed it) issue happens with both bios versions

System Memory Type & Amount

Corsair Veangeance cl9 (high profile ones) @1600mhz 2x4gb in dual chanel

Additional Hardware

2x 200mm fans connected directly to psu

1x230mm fan connected to psu

1x140mm fan connected to psu

The fans are from the Haf x case i'm using if it's of any usefullness

sound card connected to pci slot (creative soundblaster x fi fatality platinum)

Additional Details

Now the strange starts, so i cant reproduce the black screen with any kind of benchmarking software, but i will list the benchmarks and tests done already:

Memtest: ram ok 10 passes no error

Prime95 : blend and small fft for about 6 hours each no errors no warnings temps fine

Furmark , 3dmark , unigine heaven, no error no bsod no blackscreen on any of them.

occt cpu test/gpu test/psu stressing test all ok

To be honest i have no idea if it actualy is the gpu , others have been bouncing the idea of a MOBO malfunction, so please some advice or fixes.

Thank you in advance!

 

[DeathAndPain]

So let's summarize: Your CPU is good or Prime95 in SmallFFT would crash, your GPU is good or Furmark would crash, your RAM is good or you would likely get bluescreens instead of what you are experiencing. Sounds like the northbridge or the PSU.

If I were you I would start by replacing the thermal pad under your northbridge cooler with good thermal grease.

 

[Mousemonkey]

@OP, have you tried disabling ULPS?

 

[DeathAndPain]

ULPS only exists in Crossfire configurations...

 

[Badiux]

well then at some point these days will have to change the thermal paste then, is there a special nb paste or will any cpu thermal paste work?

 

[Mousemonkey]

ULPS only exists in Crossfire configurations...

ULPS is a feature of every single AMD card from the 5xxx series onwards and has nothing to do with Crossfire.

 

[Badiux]

disabled ulps from registry too and am in black flag so far so good

 

[DeathAndPain]

well then at some point these days will have to change the thermal paste then, is there a special nb paste or will any cpu thermal paste work?

Any will work, even though there are quality differences. This is about cooling a chip, no matter whether CPU or northbridge.

 

[Mousemonkey]

disabled ulps from registry too and am in black flag so far so good

The other way of disabling ULPS if you're interested is by using MSI Afterbuner, that now has a checkbox so that you can enable/disable it without having to mess with the registry.

 

[DeathAndPain]

Question is why it should be necessary to disable a regular functionality of that card. I have been using Radeon cards for all those years and never had to do such a thing.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Question is why it should be necessary to disable a regular functionality of that card. I have been using Radeon cards for all those years and never had to do such a thing.

Because ULPS seems to be the reason (or at least one of them) behind the GSOD, vertical yellow line, random black screen issue that has been plaguing AMD users since the 5xxx series. I have had first hand experience of this myself with my 7790 and disabling ULPS seemed to be the only thing that brought some sort of stability.

 

[DeathAndPain]

Well, if I had known that, I would not have had to replace my H.I.S. 5750.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Well, if I had known that, I would not have had to replace my H.I.S. 5750.

Why is that?

 

[Badiux]

as an update disabling ulps did not solve the issue, will try replacing the paste from nb in a few days when im done with an exam. other ideas welcome

 

[Mousemonkey]

as an update disabling ulps did not solve the issue, will try replacing the paste from nb in a few days when im done with an exam. other ideas welcome

I would be pleasantly surprised if that cured the issue, please keep us informed.

 

[DeathAndPain]

Well, if I had known that, I would not have had to replace my H.I.S. 5750.

Why is that?

Because I bought myself a H.I.S. IceQ 5750 shortly after the 5xxx line was released and always had GSOD problems. All researches in the internet yielded nothing except that this was reportedly a driver issue that would be fixed beginning with a certain Catalyst version (don't remember which version it was). I installed that driver, but the GSOD remained. In the end, I resorted to selling that card on Ebay. However, I really liked the 5750 chip, as it exactly matched my preferred price/performance/TDP (nvidia was no alternative back then, not in my opinion. Their cards blasted away too much power at too little efficiency). So I got myself another 5750, this time from Sapphire, which ran stable and never gave me any trouble.

I summarized this experience under the conclusion that H.I.S. was crap and/or the half year until I bought the Sapphire allowed the 5xxx cards to grow mature enough no longer to have such child diseases.