- Oct 22, 2021
- 2
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My new computer will occasionally hang in which both monitors go black and no meaningful activity is detected in the system. There is no blue screen when this occurs, and when I look in the Event Viewer, I don't see any logs during the time that the screen is black. These hangs don't seem to correlate to heavy system use, like when I am gaming. I notice that it usually happens when I am using Unity (most often when not playing a scene), but then again, most of my time on this machine is spent in Unity, so it's hard to tell if that's the cause. I have yet to see a hang happen when I am gaming. I'm not overclocking my system, so I'm really stumped as to why this would happen. Any insight or ideas to test further is greatly appreciated.
Frequency: Varies, but I can expect one black screen hang usually within a day or two of the last one. I've had it happen as frequently as three times in a day and as rarely as once a week. This issue has been present since a couple of days after turning on the computer for the first time.
Symptoms: It's acting like the system is no longer processing anything. If there was sound playing at the time of the hang, the sound gets stuck in a tight loop (maybe 50-100ms loop time, buffer?) that results in a buzzing sound. I have an RGB keyboard with software to light up keys on touch, and when the hang happens, it freezes in whatever animation it was in. If I leave the system untouched for a couple of minutes, no logs are added to the Event Viewer (including regular interval information logs like login security audits every second). No user input does anything to the system - CTRL+ALT+DELETE, mouse movements, etc. It runs normally once I hold down the power button and force a restart. Temperatures are healthy when the hang occurs, usually around 40C-60C.
Issues Detected: I recently detected that one of my RAM sticks was bad by running the free, portable version of MemTest. By running the test with difference combinations of RAM sticks, I was able to isolate the bad stick. I am currently running with only two sticks inserted, both of which ran over 100% coverage with 0 errors detected. However, I still received a black screen with this configuration.
Tests: I can run several benchmarking and stress tests without issues. I've run CPU tests, GPU tests, memory tests (see Issues Detected above), and power draw tests. None of the stress tests cause issues or hangs.
What I've tried: Running benchmark and stress tests, removing bad ram stick, Updating drivers, updating drivers for AMD (including cleanup tools with a fresh install with factory settings), updating BIOS, setting the power mode to balanced in Windows, disabling Game Mode, turning up the fans in the system (including on the CPU/GPU), changing the graphics settings in Unity to use Vulcan instead of DX9
What I will try: I have a new power supply on the way, 850W Corsair. I don't suspect that it's a power supply since I can run a power draw test for a long time without issues, but it sounds like this is a common place for errors to happen. I'm also going to try running as little background software as possible while using Unity to see if hangs still occur. I've also changed the settings for BSODs to not restart automatically and to dump a complete log (I doubt it will change anything, but it's worth a shot).
Other notes: The graphics card has two separate power cables running to it, both of which come straight from the power supply and neither have branching or splitters on them. I do not have a UPS for the computer, just a surge protector. Also, after removing the bad RAM stick, I received another black screen with the same behavior except that the audio continued to update for a few seconds before locking up. Aside from that difference, the black screen behavior is the same.
Specs
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, 10.0.19042
Processor: Intel i9 10850K, 3.60GHz, 3600 Mhz, 10 cores, 20 logical processors
BIOS Version/Date: American Megatrends Inc. 1.A0, 9/30/2021
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi Gaming Motherboard (ATX, 10th Gen Intel Core, LGA 1200 Socket, DDR4, SLI/CF, Dual M.2 Slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Wi-Fi 6, DP/HDMI, Mystic Light RGB)
RAM: (Note that I'm currently using only two of the fours sticks plugged in to slots 1 and 3 per the mb instructions) 128GB (4 x 32GB) 288-Pin SDRAM DDR4 3600 1.35V Quad Channel Desktop, CL 18-22-22-42 Model F4-3600C18Q-128GTZR
Integrated Graphics: None
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
Storage: XPG S40G 2TB RGB 3D NAND PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe 1.3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD (AS40G-2TT-C)
Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex III Gold ARGB PRO 650W 80+ Gold, ECO Fanless & Silent Mode, Full Modular Power Supply, Fluid Dynamic Bearing Fan,SF-650F14RG V2.0
Frequency: Varies, but I can expect one black screen hang usually within a day or two of the last one. I've had it happen as frequently as three times in a day and as rarely as once a week. This issue has been present since a couple of days after turning on the computer for the first time.
Symptoms: It's acting like the system is no longer processing anything. If there was sound playing at the time of the hang, the sound gets stuck in a tight loop (maybe 50-100ms loop time, buffer?) that results in a buzzing sound. I have an RGB keyboard with software to light up keys on touch, and when the hang happens, it freezes in whatever animation it was in. If I leave the system untouched for a couple of minutes, no logs are added to the Event Viewer (including regular interval information logs like login security audits every second). No user input does anything to the system - CTRL+ALT+DELETE, mouse movements, etc. It runs normally once I hold down the power button and force a restart. Temperatures are healthy when the hang occurs, usually around 40C-60C.
Issues Detected: I recently detected that one of my RAM sticks was bad by running the free, portable version of MemTest. By running the test with difference combinations of RAM sticks, I was able to isolate the bad stick. I am currently running with only two sticks inserted, both of which ran over 100% coverage with 0 errors detected. However, I still received a black screen with this configuration.
Tests: I can run several benchmarking and stress tests without issues. I've run CPU tests, GPU tests, memory tests (see Issues Detected above), and power draw tests. None of the stress tests cause issues or hangs.
What I've tried: Running benchmark and stress tests, removing bad ram stick, Updating drivers, updating drivers for AMD (including cleanup tools with a fresh install with factory settings), updating BIOS, setting the power mode to balanced in Windows, disabling Game Mode, turning up the fans in the system (including on the CPU/GPU), changing the graphics settings in Unity to use Vulcan instead of DX9
What I will try: I have a new power supply on the way, 850W Corsair. I don't suspect that it's a power supply since I can run a power draw test for a long time without issues, but it sounds like this is a common place for errors to happen. I'm also going to try running as little background software as possible while using Unity to see if hangs still occur. I've also changed the settings for BSODs to not restart automatically and to dump a complete log (I doubt it will change anything, but it's worth a shot).
Other notes: The graphics card has two separate power cables running to it, both of which come straight from the power supply and neither have branching or splitters on them. I do not have a UPS for the computer, just a surge protector. Also, after removing the bad RAM stick, I received another black screen with the same behavior except that the audio continued to update for a few seconds before locking up. Aside from that difference, the black screen behavior is the same.
Specs
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, 10.0.19042
Processor: Intel i9 10850K, 3.60GHz, 3600 Mhz, 10 cores, 20 logical processors
BIOS Version/Date: American Megatrends Inc. 1.A0, 9/30/2021
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi Gaming Motherboard (ATX, 10th Gen Intel Core, LGA 1200 Socket, DDR4, SLI/CF, Dual M.2 Slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Wi-Fi 6, DP/HDMI, Mystic Light RGB)
RAM: (Note that I'm currently using only two of the fours sticks plugged in to slots 1 and 3 per the mb instructions) 128GB (4 x 32GB) 288-Pin SDRAM DDR4 3600 1.35V Quad Channel Desktop, CL 18-22-22-42 Model F4-3600C18Q-128GTZR
Integrated Graphics: None
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
Storage: XPG S40G 2TB RGB 3D NAND PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe 1.3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD (AS40G-2TT-C)
Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex III Gold ARGB PRO 650W 80+ Gold, ECO Fanless & Silent Mode, Full Modular Power Supply, Fluid Dynamic Bearing Fan,SF-650F14RG V2.0
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