Suddenly blank screen with no sound

[roryos0123]

Hey there, wasn't sure exactly what topic to put this under. Basically yesterday I was just sat watching some Youtube videos then all of a sudden the screen went blank and all sound cut out abruptly but the PC it's self was still running.

Now naturally I would assume it was a PSU problem or a motherboard problem. But I'm wondering if it may have been windows it's self, for 2 reasons. Firstly, the monitor though showing a blank screen, was still backlit and was receiving a signal as though my PC had simply gone to a blank screen saver. Secondly, when I rebooted using the restart button and went to the event viewer, there was the standard error telling me that windows had not shut down properly (although I'm not sure if that would normally pop anyway).

I'm also certain that when it happened the power LED on the monitor next to that which I use for my Xbox and isn't connected to my PC flashed for a fraction of a second. Is it possible that there was a very quick power surge which was enough time to mess windows up? (With fingers crossed) It hasn't done it again yet even after half an hour of playing Overwatch, which you would think would trigger it.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Xibyth]

Sounds like your on the right track, I doubt Windows is the issue here unless it was updating or installing software. Based on the symptoms it sounds like a brownout, they happen all the time though normally go unnoticed.

 

[roryos0123]

Well my first indication that it might not be my hardware was the fact that my monitor was still receiving a signal. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it happens again.

 

[Xibyth]

This was likely due to the brown out not fully shutting down the PC. With Windows 10 the shut down function does not fully shut down the system, just enters into a very low power state to save time re-initializing the system board and CPU. It also reduces start up stress by no longer having to essentially slap the board with voltage to wake it up. So long as the board is in this low power state akin to a C7 sleep mode, the GPU is still active the monitor will still receive an active signal.

 

[roryos0123]

That makes sense! Thanks for the answer