Random 'No Signal' Issue During Gaming or Starting PC

[Yanoda]

So I join this helpful forum for advice and wish you a warm hello.

I hope this is the correct Sub-category for the issue. I apologize before-hand if it is not.

Onto my issue
I've been having some PC issues fairly recently and I was unable to find anything relevant to my situation unfortunately.

It happens on only two games so far (Skyrim and AC Brotherhood). During the middle of gaming, the monitor suddenly stops receiving a signal and the sound also disappears. Pressing the reset or power button of the PC case does not work, so I have to cut the power through the PSU and turn the PC back on.
Strangely, AC Revelation had no issues whatsoever and the graphic settings were much higher than in AC Brotherhood. In AC Brotherhood, the issue only occurs in cut-scenes. Graphic Settings apparently do not influence the frequency of the issue.

The second problem when turning on the PC, the monitor sometimes doesn't receive a signal either. Furthermore, the PC cannot be shutdown or reset through the case Power button. Only through shutting down the power with the PSU again. Another observation I made was that the Keyboard lights for Numlock, Capslock etc. do not flash when the 'no signal' error occurs. When they flash, it is an indication that the signal is working and the PC will run fine. The flash occurs 2-3 seconds before the PC properly starts up and the monitor is able to receive the video signal. If there is no light flash, the PC will have to be shutdown and restarted until the signal is regained.

These symptoms have been occurring quite randomly but only consistently occur to the above two games so far.

Now to the PC specs.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649
MB: Asus M4A78T-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366
GPU: EVGA GTX 560 SuperClocked (Exact product is not available in Newegg)
RAM: G.Skill 4Gb (2 x 2) Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231189&name=Desktop-Memory
PSU: OCZ StealthXTreme II 700w http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341040
HDD: 1TB WD1002FAEX Black http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

Notes
Temperatures are all decent levels: 25-45 Celsius
PC interior is fairly clean from any dust.
No Ram issues.
There is no built in MB speaker for the error beeps.
No Viruses or Malware, I made several scans with different software.
Hard drive is functioning well, used the WD Data Lifeguard software to check for any errors and de-fragmentation is done every month.

So far I've been only able to pinpoint the problem to three components to either:
The Motherboard is failing
The GPU is failing
The PSU is insufficient/failing (my primary suspicion)

All components (except the GPU) are three years of age and the GPU is one year old. 'No signal' issues had only occurred until recently (about a month).

Advice
If the PSU is the issue, as I suspect, I'd like some recommendations. I'm currently choosing between the Corsair 650TXV2 and the XFX PRO650W.

Feedback is appreciated, I hope the info is sufficient and thank you for your time.

Cheers

Yanoda

 

[Sonophos]

Stupid Questio: Have you checked/reseated cable connections?

 

[mmaatt747]

Have you looked at Event Viewer to see what Windows logs at the time of the crashes?

 

[Yanoda]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Sonophos, there is no stupid question. I've checked & re-seated all cables inside and outside the PC, as well as removed some excess dust I found. I need to test it now with the games and see if there will be another shut-down or not. So far, I did not have any issues with turning the PC back on.

mmaatt747, I have not previously checked the Logs and checked them at the time of system shutdown during the gaming session. There seems to be a pattern during the system shutdown while gaming:
1. System up time is X seconds. Event ID 6013 (It seems to be the moment the 'no signal' arises while gaming).
2. The Event log service was started. Event ID 6005
3. Microsoft (R) Windows (R) 6.01. 7601 Service Pack 1 Multiprocessor Free. Event ID 6009. (I assume this is after shutdown).
4. The previous system shutdown at 'X Time' on '‎X Date' was unexpected. Event ID 6008. (Once PC restarts).

The Error Event ID 6008 does not occur when the PC fails to turn on properly after the system had to have a shutdown when the 'no signal' issue arose while gaming. The previous three Event IDs do show though.

Other often occurring events are in order:
The Advanced SystemCare Service 5 service entered the running state. ID 7036
File System Filter 'luafv' has successfully loaded and registered with Filter Manager. Event ID 6
The NVIDIA Display Driver Service service entered the running state. ID 7036
The DCOM Server Process Launcher service entered the running state. ID 7036
The NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service service entered the running state. ID 7036
Then the above Events occur.

I've checked ASC5 and found it can cause BSOD issues, so I have uninstalled it. I'll need to test now if it works and/or resolves the issue.

Cheers

Yanoda

 

[arnoldlouie]

i would agree with you..it could be the psu..since other components are affected not just the video card. Before buying a new psu.. I would suggest borrowing a friends psu to verify the problem. Don't buy a new psu until you are sure that the psu is the culprit. You might also consider a failing cpu. I experienced the same issue before and it was the psu.

 

[Yanoda]

Update.
The Black Screen 'no signal' issue occurred again, this time much sooner than anticipated. I played AC Brotherhood for about 40 minutes before it happened. This time, I increased the graphic settings to check the performance.
Although, the Event IDs I previously mentioned did not occur. The only Events that occurred during that time frame were:
The Adobe Flash Player Update Service service entered the running state. ID 7036
The Adobe Flash Player Update Service service entered the stopped state. ID 7036

After power shut down.
The operating system started at system time X. ID 12
The previous system shutdown at 'X time' on ‎10/‎16/‎2012 was unexpected. ID 6008

I've also checked the temperatures and they were all below 40 Celsius.

I've inquired a few friends; one said he had the same power issue (only PC not turning on correctly) and the PSU died shortly after. He states that replacing the PSU resolved his problem concerning turning on the PC issues. He also stated that his PC would shut down within a minute after turning on the PC, though I'm not experiencing this yet.

Unfortunately, my friends do not live close by and my neighbors and/or roommate do not have PCs to try out swapping a different PSU.

My suspicion that the PSU is the culprit is increasing now.

Cheers

Second Update.
[strike]I've checked Speedfan and did a bit of research on that. It seems the voltage values are way off according to speedfan. http://imgur.com/02Rrh
Can these voltage readings from speedfan be accurate?[/strike]
Checked the voltage reading from the BIOS and another external voltage monitoring software, they indicate decent voltage values.

 

[arnoldlouie]

It would be nice if newegg can let you borrow a psu..and return it if its not the problem..hehehe... it will be a very expensive troubleshoot for you.. it would suck if you bought a new psu and still have the problem..

 

[Yanoda]

I finally got new hardware and replaced my Motherboard and PSU.

Using the PC with the new components for over a month now and no issues have occurred. I did not test out which specific part was at fault unfortunately. Though it is safe to say that this issue was caused by either the PSU (likely insufficient power provided to the Graphic Card or it was defect) or the Motherboard (likely defect). I hope this will help anyone else that get this issue in the future.

TLR - Issue was either Motherboard or PSU, replacing them fixed the problem.

Sorry for the necro-post.

Cheers

Yanoda