Sometimes my graphics card disappears?

[j_slade]

Ok, it doesn't actually go anywhere, but when i'm playing WoW the monitor will lose the signal and go blank. This is happening more and more recently.
I'm wondering if this is a power issue but I don't know how to test for that. I've removed the graphics card and the connections to the PSU and I can't see anything obviously wrong. I don't want to buy a new GPU and it not solve the problem.

My specs are:
Intel i5-3350P
8GB RAM
AMD Radeon R9 380
OCZ 600W

I've had the processor, RAM and PSU for over 5 years now. Are they due retirement?

Merry bleedin' Christmas!

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

The 380 is not old enough that it should be dying, however that is not out of the question.

It's more likely to be the PSU. There are testers that you can buy for about $20US or so, or you can go to a computer store and they should be able to test it for you.

First things first, change out the cable or switch to a different port, or try a new type of cable entirely. (If you are using anything but DisplayPort I would use DisplayPort if its available, if you ARE using DP try HDMI just to see if it works.) And always make sure if you have a dedicated GPU that you are using the ports ON THE GPU (always gotta throw that in there just in case). Could also be the monitor itself. I would try plugging into a TV or something just to be sure. If that fails then test the PSU.

If the PSU works fine I would test the RAM next. Memtest86 will tell you if there is a problem there. Everyone recommends 3 passes, but if something is wrong it should tell you the first time you run it. Can't hurt to do three runs but it will take about 12 hours, and if you're impatient like me that's almost torture.

If either of those fail it wouldn't hurt to stress test the CPU. There are plenty of CPU stress test programs out there. For a regular stability test I would use Asus RealBench. But most people recommend a mix of programs. I personally do a couple of runs on LinX, a 10 minute burn test on Prime95 (most current version) Small-FFT's then about an hour on Blend. And then 12 hours on Asus RealBench Stress test.

IF ALL THAT doesn't indicate an issue, it's most likely the GPU itself.

Whatever it turns out to be I can make reccomendations on replacements.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Another important thing:

Does this ONLY happen when playing WoW? or this is an issue with all games.
If it only happens with WoW you can disregard a good half of my previous post.

 

[j_slade]

Another important thing:

Does this ONLY happen when playing WoW? or this is an issue with all games.
If it only happens with WoW you can disregard a good half of my previous post.

Thanks for getting back to me.
With regards to your 1st post, i've swapped out the monitor and HDMI cable and the problem remains. It is plugged into the HDMI port on the GPU. I haven't had chance to test the PSU yet but I will run memtest and see how that goes.
This problem does only occur when playing WoW. I've put hours into The Forest and it's not happened. Also, countless hours of YouTube and watching videos doesn't seem to effect.

Thanks again!

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Another important thing:

Does this ONLY happen when playing WoW? or this is an issue with all games.
If it only happens with WoW you can disregard a good half of my previous post.

Thanks for getting back to me.
With regards to your 1st post, i've swapped out the monitor and HDMI cable and the problem remains. It is plugged into the HDMI port on the GPU. I haven't had chance to test the PSU yet but I will run memtest and see how that goes.
This problem does only occur when playing WoW. I've put hours into The Forest and it's not happened. Also, countless hours of YouTube and watching videos doesn't seem to effect.

Thanks again!

That's more than likely a software issue then. (YouTube does not utilize the GPU so that would not tell you anything meaningful) I'm not sure what the Forest is or how intensive it is, but my guess is that is a software issue.
Unfortunately you have an AMD GPU and I am not familiar with their drivers and whatnot.
Nvidia has the Nvidia control panel so you could reset that if you had one, so I would try reseting whatever the AMD equivalent of that is.

I would say use DDU to uninstall your graphics drivers and reset the drivers settings. Hopefully that clears things up but if not you will have to do some other tweaking on different settings.

If it's only happening in WoW the chances are it's a software issue.

On the game itself try running it in Windowed (Fullscreen) mode as there is a ton of issues with the game when not run in that mode (you'd think after so many years that would have been fixed).
Try lowering the settings as well and see if that does anything.

If all the above fails, try deleting the game's UI (rename the WTF, Interface, and Cache files, this will delete all your add ons as well so it will rule all of those out) the game will automatically create new ones. If it's anything in the game's files, that should fix it, start re-downloading add ons one by one until you encounter the problem again and that will tell you its an add-on. You could even try that first, since it's such a simple fix, If it doesn't work, delete the new files and rename the old ones back to their original.

 

[jr9]

When your monitor goes blank, what happens after? Does it come back? Does the system restart itself?

 

[j_slade]

[/quotemsg]

That's more than likely a software issue then. (YouTube does not utilize the GPU so that would not tell you anything meaningful) I'm not sure what the Forest is or how intensive it is, but my guess is that is a software issue.
Unfortunately you have an AMD GPU and I am not familiar with their drivers and whatnot.
Nvidia has the Nvidia control panel so you could reset that if you had one, so I would try reseting whatever the AMD equivalent of that is.

I would say use DDU to uninstall your graphics drivers and reset the drivers settings. Hopefully that clears things up but if not you will have to do some other tweaking on different settings.

If it's only happening in WoW the chances are it's a software issue.

On the game itself try running it in Windowed (Fullscreen) mode as there is a ton of issues with the game when not run in that mode (you'd think after so many years that would have been fixed).
Try lowering the settings as well and see if that does anything.

If all the above fails, try deleting the game's UI (rename the WTF, Interface, and Cache files, this will delete all your add ons as well so it will rule all of those out) the game will automatically create new ones. If it's anything in the game's files, that should fix it, start re-downloading add ons one by one until you encounter the problem again and that will tell you its an add-on. You could even try that first, since it's such a simple fix, If it doesn't work, delete the new files and rename the old ones back to their original.[/quotemsg]

Since I've unplugged the PSU and GPU the problem hasn't come back so I'll leave it for now and keep an eye on it. Thanks for all the suggestions though, if it happens again i'll reinstall all the graphics stuff... also you should play The Forest, its awesome!
Merry Christmas!!

 

[j_slade]

When your monitor goes blank, what happens after? Does it come back? Does the system restart itself?

No it doesn't come back, i have to restart my computer. I can do this by mashing ctrl alt del which tells me that the computer is still alive. Seems to have stopped for now though. fingers crossed!
Merry Christmas!!