[SOLVED] Screen goes black for a few seconds when playing games.

YoshiAbyss

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One of my monitors goes black for a few seconds and then comes back, I notice it's only the one I'm playing games on. I can still hear audio but the screen is black. This happens usually only every five minutes or so, but sometimes can happen over and over within the span of 30 seconds. I got a new monitor recently to combat this, however the issue persists. I've seen a few threads saying it could be the cable or a wifi card, but I got a new DP cable with my monitor and I use ethernet only. Another issue that has popped up only recently is strange graphical glitches, strips of mostly white, but a few red green or blue, scattered pixels show up sometimes, could this be related? Please help me! It gets very frustrating trying to play games when I can't see half the time!
Here is a link to my most recent benchmark https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/49308424
 

YoshiAbyss

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Give as much detail on your ram and cpu type/setup.

Were you using background programs when the bench was running? The page says your cpu was waaaay below normal spec

What do you mean by ram and cpu setup?
I'll try to run another benchmark after making sure everything is turned off.
 
List the specs of your computer, make and model of all parts

CPU
Motherboard
Ram
GPU
PSU (how old is the unit)
any hard drive or SSD


I had an issue like this once, thought it was monitors so i replaced both but didnt help. replace GPU from a gtx 980 to a RTX 2080 Ti, come to find out it was the PSU. While yours seems to sound the same the fact your getting glitches could mean the GPU is going bad. Right now without knowing your system specs i would point at the PSU not being able to deliver enough power to the GPU, its also a lot cheaper to replace the PSU the the GPU right now.
 

YoshiAbyss

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Aug 27, 2020
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List the specs of your computer, make and model of all parts

CPU
Motherboard
Ram
GPU
PSU (how old is the unit)
any hard drive or SSD


I had an issue like this once, thought it was monitors so i replaced both but didnt help. replace GPU from a gtx 980 to a RTX 2080 Ti, come to find out it was the PSU. While yours seems to sound the same the fact your getting glitches could mean the GPU is going bad. Right now without knowing your system specs i would point at the PSU not being able to deliver enough power to the GPU, its also a lot cheaper to replace the PSU the the GPU right now.

CPU - Intel I7-4790
Motherboard - Asrock H81M-HDS
Ram - I gave the old case away so I'm not sure of the make, but benchmark says Unknown so probably a cheap ripoff from somewhere - 2x8GB DDR3
GPU - Geforce GTX 1050 TI
PSU - I got it from a friend but I looked it up and found 500W BUILDER BLACK
SSD - Liteonit LCS-256L9S-11 2.5 7mm 256GB
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB

I did another benchmark but got pretty much the same result but with 11% background cpu instead of 38% https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/49310188
 

natcha12

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Sep 1, 2015
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That ssd looks like it was ripped from an old laptop, so questionable quality. Is the game you play on there or the seagate? I'd move it to the seagate and see if the errors continue if its on ssd currently.

Can you also send a screenshot of task manager open on the performance page while your game is running? With as few background programs as possible again please
 

YoshiAbyss

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That ssd looks like it was ripped from an old laptop, so questionable quality. Is the game you play on there or the seagate? I'd move it to the seagate and see if the errors continue if its on ssd currently.

Can you also send a screenshot of task manager open on the performance page while your game is running? With as few background programs as possible again please

The SSD came from my first pc, a dell optiplex something or other, the parts have been replaced since then. The screenshot is from playing spore, old game I know which is why I was surprised when I got glitches like this. All my games are downloaded on the seagate because there is much more room and I don't really care about boot times.

U6Y5Wbr.png
 
a google search for "500W BUILDER BLACK" comes up with CIT power supply which is not a good brand. Ask a friend if you can barrow a better PSU to test your computer with. I would almost bet that psu cant handle the system anymore. PSU do degrade over time so it might have worked when you first got it but is stating to cause issues now.
 

YoshiAbyss

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a google search for "500W BUILDER BLACK" comes up with CIT power supply which is not a good brand. Ask a friend if you can barrow a better PSU to test your computer with. I would almost bet that psu cant handle the system anymore. PSU do degrade over time so it might have worked when you first got it but is stating to cause issues now.

Okay. I will try that. Thanks a lot.
 

natcha12

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The SSD came from my first pc, a dell optiplex something or other, the parts have been replaced since then. The screenshot is from playing spore, old game I know which is why I was surprised when I got glitches like this. All my games are downloaded on the seagate because there is much more room and I don't really care about boot times.

U6Y5Wbr.png

Thanks. Yeah, when I looked it up i saw dell and assumed laptop lol. Nothing seems out of the ordinary though.

I doubt you are overloading the psu capacity-wise, but, as faalin says it can degrade, and as the psu is not 80+ rated, we have to assume it's efficiency was below the required 80% for one in the first place. In that case, your 500w psu probably pumps out 420w supply +80w useless heat. Enough, but not much redundancy for ageing.
 

YoshiAbyss

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Thanks. Yeah, when I looked it up i saw dell and assumed laptop lol. Nothing seems out of the ordinary though.

I doubt you are overloading the psu capacity-wise, but, as faalin says it can degrade, and as the psu is not 80+ rated, we have to assume it's efficiency was below the required 80% for one in the first place. In that case, your 500w psu probably pumps out 420w supply +80w useless heat. Enough, but not much redundancy for ageing.

That makes sense. Thanks a lot for your help! We'll see if it works.
 

YoshiAbyss

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I bought a new psu https://cpc.farnell.com/ace/a-850br/ace-850w-black-psu-12cm-red-fan/dp/CS31242?st=fan. It hasn't helped. It doesn't seem like it's gotten worse at least, but while playing Fallout: New Vegas, the screen continues to turn black for a few seconds. Does this mean I would have to replace my graphics card? Is there no way to avoid doing this, as it is quite an expensive fix?
Also, i did another benchmark after installing the new psu https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/49399879
 

YoshiAbyss

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I would take that PSU back as its no better then what you had. 12v at 46A is 552w not the 850w that it claims to be.

can you link us a few webpages you buy from or a local store

Wow. Goes to show how little research I did, huh? Oops.
I usually buy from Amazon or Ebay UK stores. There aren't really any local stores around me.
 

YoshiAbyss

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A good 550w will be enough,

That last one claiming to be a 850w but only able to produce 550w, could it actually do that?


I also linked another chart that lists a lot of PSU so you have more to chose from

It is interesting to me that even though it wasn't what I ordered, it should be enough power to run my pc but it still doesn't fix the issue. Do you think this means another thing is causing the issues?
 

natcha12

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I would take that PSU back as its no better then what you had. 12v at 46A is 552w not the 850w that it claims to be.

can you link us a few webpages you buy from or a local store

PSUs are always specced with the total wattage, not only the 12v rail, but also the 5v, 3.3v etc added up.
Adding all the voltages, that supply does indeed supply 850, slightly over in fact.

View: https://imgur.com/a/5qvF5oD

Here are the images. Sorry, I've never used these software before so tell me if you need anything additional.

Your GPU cannot be at 32'c and be running the rendering benchmark I think. We need to see the stats SS while it's going.
 
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YoshiAbyss

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Aug 27, 2020
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PSUs are always specced with the total wattage, not only the 12v rail, but also the 5v, 3.3v etc added up.
Adding all the voltages, that supply does indeed supply 850, slightly over in fact.



Your GPU cannot be at 32'c and be running the rendering benchmark I think. We need to see the stats SS while it's going.

Oh right. So if the new psu is supplying that amount of power and still doesn't fix the problem it must be something else right?

Do you mean I should use that software while running a game?