[SOLVED] Very confusing issus with PC over past 2 weeks. Need some insight!

[dmavro]

Having major issues with one of my builds(details below) and was wondering if anyone could enlighten me with some wisdom. Past week or two if had one of my monitors start flickering and at times not even working. I was able to disconnect the the Dvi cable from pc and connect it again and monitor would work. But then it completely died so i switched to an older dell monitor. Had no problems for a week then that monitor disconnected from pc and went into sleep mode . No matter what i tried(ie. reinstalling GPU driver, restarting PC, different cable) i couldnt get it to come out of sleep. I connected one of the other monitors i use to the port that the bad monitor was on and it worked so i figured the monitor I had the issue with was dead. To be sure i reconnected the bad one to same port and it still woudnt work . But then i connected it to one of the other connections on the GPU adapter and it worked. So i just left them connected that way and was up and running again.

Then last night i had a third monitor on the other half of the GPU's y adapter go into sleep mode and was able to get it back up and running by just unplugging the DVI connection and reconnecting it. But when i restart PC it happens again so i have to unplug and plug it in again to get it to turn on again.

On top of all that I realized last night that my DVD drive isn't working. Seems to have no power. Cant open tray and has no light flashing when I press button to open tray.
I now also have the rest of the monitors in my array all going black and coming right back on every few seconds.

I also have a lot of errors in Windows Event viewer telling me HardDisk1 has issue so I ran chkdsk and my data drive a Caviar black 1 TB had a lot of bad sectors and chkdsk had a hard time running. It kept ending early because of an error but I finally got it to run its course. I swapped drive for a hitachi 1 TB and as soon as I connected it I started getting warning about that drive having a problem .

Event viewer also had a lot of errors saying display driver stopped responding and has successfully recovered. I figured that was why my monitors keep flickering every few seconds

I checked GPU fan and its working. I checked all cables and they are fine. I checked all Connections to mobo and PSU and all seem to been proper. I even reset windows 10 last night and reinstalled all drivers and windows updates.

Was hoping monitor issue would be as simple as a failing GPU but with all the other issues occurring simultaneously im left thinking I have a failing mobo.

Any programs I can download to chk GPU and mobo for faults?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!


CPU - i7-4790K
MOBO - MSi Z87-G41 PC Mate
GPU- Nvidia Quadro NVS 420
PSU- Corsair
Drives- Samsung 500Gb evo SSD/ Hitachi 1TB mechanical

Have 4 monitors connected to NVS420 and one connected to Mobo via HDMi

PC is running on win 10 1809.


Thanks,
Dean

 

[anotherdrew]

I can't blame you for thinking it's the motherboard. I'd give it a 50% chance of being the issue, but before I replaced it, I would try a different PSU. Why?

1. Power issues can cause all kinds of crazy problems.
2. Even if your MB was fried, you DVD player should get power and the door should open and close.
3. Replacing the PSU is a lot easier than the MB.
4. Returning a PSU (if that's not the issue) can be easier than a MB (depends on where you buy it).

So, my 2 cents is try a different PSU. If you still have problems move on to the MB.

 

[Ketchup79]

I was thinking either the video card or the power supply. The video card is 10 years old, how old is the power supply? Although I haven't had the best expereince with MSI, plenty of people have, and at 6-years-old it looks to be one of the newer main parts of your rig, so I wouldn't be giving up on it right off the top.

 

[dmavro]

PSU is Corsair HX850 purchased in 2010.

I did some more troubleshooting after work today.

1. DVD drive error wasn't an error. It was my fault. When I checked all the cables and redid my cable management I somehow partially dislodged the power cable.

2. I changed SATA port the Hardrive was on and the error went away for now.

3. Swapped out NVS 420 for another one i had laying around and problem continued, BUT then I removed the y adapter and disconnected the extra monitors and flashing of screens went away. I then connected one of the Dells I use directly to the mobo via DVI and left the one that I have connected to mobo HDMI also and mouse would lock up at times which im assuming is the system freezing up. But then I reconnected the y adapter and removed the Dell monitor from the mobo DVI connection and the system now seems ok. The Dell I had connected was a hand me down and Im wondering if it was failing. It had a few vertical lines in it that were barely noticeable.

Anyone ever here of a monitor causing the issue I had?? Because now im thinking I was wrong about mobo even though I did have to change SATA port to get the Harddisk error to go away.
I do still have a small amount of time when mouse seems to hiccup but its a lot less frequent then what I had.
Going to keep my fingers crossed and keep an eye on event viewer.

If problem continues ill swap PSU next because I have one laying around.

Thanks to you both!

 

[anotherdrew]

1. DVD drive error wasn't an error. It was my fault. When I checked all the cables and redid my cable management I somehow partially dislodged the power cable.

I've done that too. Super frustrating when your already having issues.

So, less likely that the issue is the PSU. If one of your SATA ports is dead, then you do have some kind of MB issue. Is it possible there was a power surge that damaged some parts, but didn't fry them completely?

 

[Ketchup79]

I am not big on Y cables, especially for high resolution. If your screen looks fine with no Y cable involved, then it's working as it should.

 

[dmavro]

I've done that too. Super frustrating when your already having issues.

So, less likely that the issue is the PSU. If one of your SATA ports is dead, then you do have some kind of MB issue. Is it possible there was a power surge that damaged some parts, but didn't fry them completely?

Not sure. Lose power here a lot when there are storms. Have a generator for house don't know if that could have maybe caused something when it auto starts. Also, had AC installed last fall and I noticed my hi-hats lights brown out for a second whenever it starts up so maybe that's an issue. Been meaning to give my electrician a call just haven't gotten around to it. Thanks for responding

 

[dmavro]

I am not big on Y cables, especially for high resolution. If your screen looks fine with no Y cable involved, then it's working as it should.

The screen that caused the issue had vertical lines whether I had it connected to the adapter for the NVS420 or integrated graphics on board. They were barely noticeable but then my problem started. Now that its removed from array the rest of the monitors are still all functioning fine(no more flickering).

 

[anotherdrew]

Not sure. Lose power here a lot when there are storms. Have a generator for house don't know if that could have maybe caused something when it auto starts. Also, had AC installed last fall and I noticed my hi-hats lights brown out for a second whenever it starts up so maybe that's an issue. Been meaning to give my electrician a call just haven't gotten around to it. Thanks for responding

What you describe is pretty normal. The AC draws a lot of power and there is a slight lag before the system re-balances. It's not optimal, but it is normal. Dips in power normally will not hurt components. You might get an unintended shutdown from it. Spikes in power are the concern. A quality power strip (with surge protection) will protect you for major issues.

It sounds like the majority of issues have been resolved and I hope it stays that way. It also sounds like your system has a lot of hours of use and time (and heat) are the enemy of any integrated circuit. The system will fail at some point (it potentially sounds like parts of it have already) and I would suggest you have a plan in place for when it does.

 

[dmavro]

What you describe is pretty normal. The AC draws a lot of power and there is a slight lag before the system re-balances. It's not optimal, but it is normal. Dips in power normally will not hurt components. You might get an unintended shutdown from it. Spikes in power are the concern. A quality power strip (with surge protection) will protect you for major issues.

It sounds like the majority of issues have been resolved and I hope it stays that way. It also sounds like your system has a lot of hours of use and time (and heat) are the enemy of any integrated circuit. The system will fail at some point (it potentially sounds like parts of it have already) and I would suggest you have a plan in place for when it does.

Thanks for your response.

I believe the 4790K is still a good CPU so im just going to look around for a new z97 mobo. Not much available out there though. Newegg has a few and the microcenter near me has zero for that socket type. Most of Neweggs available choices are made by MSI and i wasnt that happy with the one I have in this build already so im going to continue to look around some more.