Question Screen randomly turns black while gaming ?

[Mc2203]

Hello everyone,

OK bare with as this is a bit of info but its important:

I recently built a pc off 2nd hand parts for fun. While benchmarking (Testing out games at highest settings), I get random black screens where the computer is still on and game is still playing. A second later the screen goes back to normal and I can continue playing until it happens again. This caught me completely off guard as I had done both Cinebench and Furmark stress testing on it and they passed perfectly with no issues.

The specs will be at the bottom but the gpu in the build is an XFX rx 5700xt Thicc III. At first I thought I got a bad gpu but I put my own Gigabyte rx 5700xt (which i know works perfectly) and the black screen persisted. I put the XFX gpu into my own system to test it and the black screen didnt happen. I decided to look at it more thoroughly by having an overlay while playing. Having the black screen happen, I picked up on a few things.

1. GPU hot spot temp at times went over the recommended Max of 110° (usually by only 1 degree) for the rx 5700xt models

2. GPU Power dropped when the black screen appeared (Usually from ~200w down to like ~140w)

Both of these didnt happen at the same time and when I plugged the XFX gpu into my own build, the hot spot temp did almost the same thing but no black screen. This leads me to believe that that the wattage drop is the issue. Running the same game on my own pc, the gpu did sometimes drop in wattage but never below 160w and never had the black screen.

When it comes to the wattage now, I am not sure what could be the problem and this is where I need the help. The mobo Im using is a bit on the budget side so Im unsure if it is the mobo that is not sending enough power to the gpu, specially with the r7 3700x and cpu fan (if that can even be the case since the gpu has its own power connectors), or if its the PSU that i got is bad and isnt consistent with its power or if 600w just isnt enough. Any other speculations are more than welcomed as well.

Thank you in advanced for any help you can provide.

(Note: other than XMP profile implemented, no other sort of overclocking has been done to any of the parts. All drivers and updates are also installed in the pcs. Only 2 differences are that 1. my personal PC is still running windows 10 bc i like it more, while the market build is on windows 11 and that 2. I had the market build connected to my 1440p monitor via HDMI but when testing the gpu in my own pc, it was connected to the same monitor via DisplayPort bc it is cable managed with it.)

specs:
case - Cooler Master MasterBox Q500L
CPU - Ryzen 7 3700x
CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212
GPU - XFX 5700XT Thicc III
Mobo - Gigabyte B450M DS3H
Ram - 16gb Corsair Vengeance LPX
Storage - 1TB M.2 nvme
PSU - Gamdias Helios P1-600G 80+ Gold 600w

 

[Lutfij]

I would look into making sure your motherboard's BIOS is up to date. Following that, see if your OS is pending any updates. Following that, use DDU and remove all GPU drivers from your platform and then manually reinstall with the latest drivers sourced from AMD's support site, in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

If you think it's the PSU, you'll need to source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built PSU from a friend or neighbor that can deliver at least 650W of power to the entire system and see if the issue persists.

 

[Aeacus]

I recently built a pc off 2nd hand parts for fun.

If the purpose of the PC is for laugh and giggles, then fixing it would also be for laugh and giggles. Why else bother with it?

I won't go into much detail here, since it's clear that you don't care about this PC. And due to that, i'm not inclined to go in-depth what is wrong with this "for fun" PC.

But the short story is that black screens are most likely GPU driver issue. Either DDU GPU drivers and go version or two older, or if this doesn't help, wipe the OS and make clean Win install.

Sure, PSU can be the issue as well. But the fact that you bought an used PSU clearly tells how you feel about the hardware in PC. And not any ordinary used PSU, but the one that doesn't have any review out there. On top of that, even Gamidas doesn't list this model as part of their lineup. So, plenty of red flags with the PSU. Then again, PC is built "for fun" and who cares, right?

 

[Mc2203]

I would look into making sure your motherboard's BIOS is up to date. Following that, see if your OS is pending any updates. Following that, use DDU and remove all GPU drivers from your platform and then manually reinstall with the latest drivers sourced from AMD's support site, in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

If you think it's the PSU, you'll need to source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built PSU from a friend or neighbor that can deliver at least 650W of power to the entire system and see if the issue persists.

To be honest, it was for fun but also with the thought of reselling it and flipping it for a bit of profit. Just wanted to try it out. But for some reason in the original post i couldnt post it with that info because it was getting flagged for spam or something like that. I will try these fixes and update you all on it. I have the psu on my personal system so thats the one i will use to test out the psu as well.

 

[Mc2203]

If the purpose of the PC is for laugh and giggles, then fixing it would also be for laugh and giggles. Why else bother with it?

I won't go into much detail here, since it's clear that you don't care about this PC. And due to that, i'm not inclined to go in-depth what is wrong with this "for fun" PC.

But the short story is that black screens are most likely GPU driver issue. Either DDU GPU drivers and go version or two older, or if this doesn't help, wipe the OS and make clean Win install.

Sure, PSU can be the issue as well. But the fact that you bought an used PSU clearly tells how you feel about the hardware in PC. And not any ordinary used PSU, but the one that doesn't have any review out there. On top of that, even Gamidas doesn't list this model as part of their lineup. So, plenty of red flags with the PSU. Then again, PC is built "for fun" and who cares, right?

Ok the pc is for fun but at the same time I was thinking of reselling it or “flip” the pc since i have seen many videos on it and I thought it would be fun to do. Of course I want to make sure that the pc im building works properly if I will be doing that so the new owner does have any issues thats why im trying to fix it.
I would appreciate if you did go in-depth on how to fix however because overall this is a learning experience for me and I can improve my troubleshooting capabilities. The more I learn the better right? I will go ahead and try the fixes you provided and try the market build the psu in my personal pc.

 

[Aeacus]

I would appreciate if you did go in-depth on how to fix however because overall this is a learning experience for me and I can improve my troubleshooting capabilities.

Seems like you need to learn a lot regarding PSUs. You can start from here,
link: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...pply-discussion-thread-toms-hardware.3212332/

The initial post in that topic will do. But the recap of it is: never cheap out on PSU. Also, never buy used PSU as well, since there's no telling what kind of abuse the PSU has seen thus far and if it even provides voltages within the spec of ATX PSU standard. Moreover, keep in mind that PSU is the most important component inside the PC since it powers everything.

However, if you do cheap out on PSU, a lot of different things can, and probably will, happen. Starting from:
* PSU dying and frying everything it is connected to (aka whole PC). (The better the build quality of a PSU - the less chance of PSU failure and the less chance of components fried by PSU).
* PSU catching fire when it goes "pop" and releasing magic smoke.
* PSU burning down the house.
* People killed by the fire caused by PSU. Example article: https://www.thesundaily.my/archive/...wer-supply-unit-computer-updated-LTARCH461974

Everything to do with power delivery is serious business and PSU is not a place where to cheap out on (either buying cheap PSU, low/crap quality PSU or the worst: both at the same time, like you did).

As for software issues, that actually takes experience to identify what could be the issue.
* Clean OS install is always the easiest fix since you'll be formatting the OS drive and starting fresh, with clean OS. And once issue still remains even with clean Win install, then it would be good idea to look towards hardware issues (that is, if hardware issues aren't apparent to begin with.)
* Formatting OS drive and making clean Win installation isn't always the preferred option of the owner/user of the PC, since they would be loosing personal data on OS drive. Still, there are ways to back up the personal data beforehand. This can be even done when OS is corrupt and isn't able to boot on it's own.
* In an event, where PC owner/user isn't willing to make clean OS install nor data backup + then clean OS install; it is still possible to fix the software issue. But it will be very tedious to find that needle in a haystack. And sometimes, even after extensive search, the issue can't be found, making clean OS install the only option.

In your case, it seems that GPU driver stops working for some reason, hence why you'll loose the image output. But the driver is able to recover and restart itself, thus bringing the image back. This usually points towards bad GPU driver version, hence why to remove current GPU drivers with DDU (a software that will get rid of all GPU driver bits) and installing different version of GPU drivers, to see if it helps. If you're running latest drivers, then version or two older should suffice.

Another thing to consider is; does this issue appear in 1 game only or in several/all games? If in 1 game only, it most likely is game issue.

Also, for GPU stability test, use Unigine Superposition instead. It's newer and better optimized than Furmark. Also, you can choose between different presets. 1080p Extreme is torture preset and it will give you single digit FPS, regardless the GPU you're using. A good way to confirm for good if GPU is stable and working as it should. But other presets, e.g 1080p High are also good, since you can run it, get the score at the end and compare it with same GPUs. (There's Unigine leaderboard online.)

 

[Mc2203]

Seems like you need to learn a lot regarding PSUs. You can start from here,
link: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...pply-discussion-thread-toms-hardware.3212332/

The initial post in that topic will do. But the recap of it is: never cheap out on PSU. Also, never buy used PSU as well, since there's no telling what kind of abuse the PSU has seen thus far and if it even provides voltages within the spec of ATX PSU standard. Moreover, keep in mind that PSU is the most important component inside the PC since it powers everything.

However, if you do cheap out on PSU, a lot of different things can, and probably will, happen. Starting from:
* PSU dying and frying everything it is connected to (aka whole PC). (The better the build quality of a PSU - the less chance of PSU failure and the less chance of components fried by PSU).
* PSU catching fire when it goes "pop" and releasing magic smoke.
* PSU burning down the house.
* People killed by the fire caused by PSU. Example article: https://www.thesundaily.my/archive/...wer-supply-unit-computer-updated-LTARCH461974

Everything to do with power delivery is serious business and PSU is not a place where to cheap out on (either buying cheap PSU, low/crap quality PSU or the worst: both at the same time, like you did).

As for software issues, that actually takes experience to identify what could be the issue.
* Clean OS install is always the easiest fix since you'll be formatting the OS drive and starting fresh, with clean OS. And once issue still remains even with clean Win install, then it would be good idea to look towards hardware issues (that is, if hardware issues aren't apparent to begin with.)
* Formatting OS drive and making clean Win installation isn't always the preferred option of the owner/user of the PC, since they would be loosing personal data on OS drive. Still, there are ways to back up the personal data beforehand. This can be even done when OS is corrupt and isn't able to boot on it's own.
* In an event, where PC owner/user isn't willing to make clean OS install nor data backup + then clean OS install; it is still possible to fix the software issue. But it will be very tedious to find that needle in a haystack. And sometimes, even after extensive search, the issue can't be found, making clean OS install the only option.

In your case, it seems that GPU driver stops working for some reason, hence why you'll loose the image output. But the driver is able to recover and restart itself, thus bringing the image back. This usually points towards bad GPU driver version, hence why to remove current GPU drivers with DDU (a software that will get rid of all GPU driver bits) and installing different version of GPU drivers, to see if it helps. If you're running latest drivers, then version or two older should suffice.

Another thing to consider is; does this issue appear in 1 game only or in several/all games? If in 1 game only, it most likely is game issue.

Also, for GPU stability test, use Unigine Superposition instead. It's newer and better optimized than Furmark. Also, you can choose between different presets. 1080p Extreme is torture preset and it will give you single digit FPS, regardless the GPU you're using. A good way to confirm for good if GPU is stable and working as it should. But other presets, e.g 1080p High are also good, since you can run it, get the score at the end and compare it with same GPUs. (There's Unigine leaderboard online.)

Thank you! When getting the psu I was skeptical about it since I really couldn’t find anything on it but i decided to risk since it did say 80+ gold cert. From my understanding, the psu came from a prebuilt by Cyberpower and at least i know that company is reputable with their builds.
Ill use the Unigine Superposition as well to test out the gpu. The black screen does appear in more than 1 game too. Granted Ive only gotten War zone and Fort nite downloaded on it for the benchtest but it happens in both.
I will update you as soon as I can

 

[Aeacus]

but i decided to risk since it did say 80+ gold cert.

Looking PSU based on it's 80+ efficiency is bad idea, since PSU's efficiency doesn't equal to PSU's build quality. There are 80+ Bronze units out there that are far better quality than some 80+ Gold units. Also, there are even some 80+ Titanium units out there that are complete crap. Silverstone managed to create one such 80+ Titanium unit.

When getting the psu I was skeptical about it since I really couldn’t find anything on it

About PSUs in general:

(Btw, i specialize on PC hardware and PSUs are the ones i know most about. Because PSU powers everything and thus, is the most important component inside the PC.)

When it comes to PSUs, you need reasons to buy the PSU, not the reasons to reject the PSU. And most important factor, on knowing if PSU is good or not, is:
* review by a REPUTABLE reviewer.

Anyone can take olliscope and hook the PSU on it, make some tests and call the PSU good. That doesn't mean the PSU is actually good. What it takes, is reputable reviewer, e.g our own in-house PSU reviewer: Aris Mpitziopoulos who has written PSU reviews for Tom's Hardware for decades and who is also founder of Cybenetics (https://www.cybenetics.com/), which puts PSUs through far more in-depth testing than ATX PSU standard specifies.
Or Jon Gerow (aka jonnyguru), who is the de facto guy when it comes to PSUs. jonnyguru has reviewed loads of PSUs in his years and he is currently working at Corsair as director of PSU engineering.
Other reputable PSU reviewers include, but are not limited to, are: Steve Burke (GamersNexus), Hardware Secrets, PC Perspective, [H]ard OCP, AnandTech, KitGuru, Tech Power Up.

So, when it comes to PSU, it must have:
* official specs site
* review by reputable reviewer (preferably several reviews by several reputable reviewers)

Good to haves are:
* cybenetics report
* long warranty
* high efficiency
* good standing in PSU Tier list (https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...er-list-rev-14-8-final-update-jul-21.3624094/)
* good PSU brand reputation
* good PSU OEM (the one who made the PSU)

So, lets take your PSU and see what it has, or has not. I'll also include my own PSU as a comparison.

You have Gamdias Helios P1-600G 600W PSU. I have Seasonic PRIME 650 80+ Titanium PSU [SSR-650TD].

Official specs;
Your PSU: no official specs page
My PSU: https://seasonic.com/prime-titanium

Reputable review(s);
I could not find any review of your PSU, let alone reputable review. That's a very bad sign.
My PSU reviews;
By Aris: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seasonic-prime-titanium-650w-psu,4690.html
By jonnyguru: https://web.archive.org/web/2017090.../modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=493
By KitGuru: https://www.kitguru.net/components/...onic-prime-650w-titanium-power-supply-review/
By AnandTech: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-titanium-power-supply-review

Cybenetics report;
None of Gamidas PSUs have been tested by Cybenetics.
My PSU, name listed as:"Prime Titanium 650W": https://www.cybenetics.com/index.php?option=database&params=2,0,12

Warranty;
I could not find your PSU warranty length, since there are no official specs. That's terrible bad sign. Based on research, the Gamidas Helios P1-600G is meant for only prebuilt systems and one can't buy the PSU alone. Still, it has to have some warranty since on PSU label, there is written:"Warranty void if seal broken.". But it doesn't tell how much warranty it has. At this point, i consider it having no warranty what-so-ever, since warranty length can't be proven.

My PSU has 12 years of warranty. Listed in official specs. Also, 12 years of warranty is the longest warranty there is for PSU, and Seasonic PRIME series PSUs are only ones in entire world, who have 12 years of warranty. Other high-end PSUs, at most, have 10 years of warranty.

Efficiency;
Your PSU is 80+ Gold, which is the norm today.
My PSU is 80+ Titanium. The highest efficiency there is.

PSU Tier list;
None of the Gamidas PSUs are listed in PSU Tier List. Another big red flag.
My PSU is Tier A, in single-rail section.

Brand reputation;
Based on the About Us on Gamidas website, Gamidas Technology was founded in 2012. However, under the News section, oldest news is from 2021, when they released their first headset and PC cases. Then, in 1 or 2 month intervals, new products are popping out like mushrooms after the rain. Mostly PC peripherals, but also CPU coolers and even furniture (chairs and desks). But all of them have one underling connection: RGB LEDs.
So, a new brand that produces plethora of different devices, without specializing in any of them.

Seasonic was founded in 1975 (48 years ago) and Seasonic started to manufacture electronic test equipment. In 1981, Seasonic stated producing PSUs for workstations and servers. In 1995, Seasonic developed the ATX PSU, which now is the standard for all PSUs in PCs. 2003 was the year when Seasonic entered into consumer PSU market and started to make consumer PSUs. In 2009, Seasonic was the 1st in entire world, who made 80+ Gold efficiency PSU (X-series). 2021 saw the release of Syncro PC case, that is custom built to house Seasonic Connect PSU (intorduced in 2019), which simplifies cable management. In 2022, Seasonic released their MagFlow fans with innovative magnetic connection.
Full history here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Sonic#History
Seasonic is a manufacturer (OEM) that specializes in PSUs. Seasonic is 3rd oldest PSU OEM in the world. 2nd oldest is Delta Electronics and 1st one is Flextronics.

OEM reputation;
I could not find OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) of your PSU. Meaning, i have 0 clue who actually made your PSU. Gamidas is just a brand, taking PSU from PSU OEM and slapping their name onto it.

My PSU is made by Seasonic itself. Seasonic is one of the best (if not the best) PSU OEM in entire world. Other great PSU OEMs include: Super Flower (founded 1991) and Flextronics (founded 1969). Seasonic has made PSUs for: Antec, Cooler Master, Corsair (e.g AX-series), EVGA, NZXT, Riotoro, Silverstone and XFX as well.


After reading all that (yes, it was a long read), which of the two PSUs you'd use? Your Gamidas brand PSU? Or my Seasonic brand/OEM PSU?
Though, do note that my Seasonic PRIME 650 80+ Titanium PSU, at the time of purchase (back in 2016) was is the best 650W PSU money could buy. And it still is one of the best (if not the best) PSUs out there. I payed €206.50 for my PSU.

I strongly suggest that you buy yourself a proper PSU, rather than this cheap, essentially no-name Gamidas brand PSU.
If you're willing to get proper, good quality PSU, i can give you several suggestions, that doesn't cost €200+ (like my PSU did) but which are still good PSUs to use in a PC, without the fear of PSU frying your entire PC (if not worse).

 

[Mc2203]

Sometimes I hate computers overall. Smh. So i figured out the problem.
I wanna start by thanking both Aeacus and Lutfij for your help and input on the matter. You were both very helpful and, Aeacus, you really helped advance my knowledge of PCs overall so I really appreciate your lecture lol.
Just off a hunch, I decided to test the newly built pc using the DisplayPort I had been using on my personal pc. Incredibly, the pc ran without problems. The black screen didnt appear. I tested it again using the HDMI and the same monitor and started getting the issue again. Just to confirm my suspicions, i grabbed another monitor I had (this one was 1080p instead of the 1440p resolution on the other) and the same HDMI cord and ran the games again. No issue with it.

All this work and troubleshooting just for the HDMI port on my monitor to be the issue. Really funny this was the issue all along.
Anyways, again thanks for your help.

 

[Aeacus]

All this work and troubleshooting just for the HDMI port on my monitor to be the issue. Really funny this was the issue all along.
Anyways, again thanks for your help.

With this issue solved, which PSU are you now going with?