[SOLVED] Why is my monitor shutting off on it's own?

Apr 12, 2020
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My monitor will shut off randomly right after matches. The actual PC will still be running however, and making lot's of noise as if the fans are on full throttle. I have concluded that it is the PC's fault since I have used the monitor on different hardware with no issues. In order for it to boot up again, I have to restart the desktop manually. This only happens with certain demanding games, and never in the middle of games; usually right after the match has ended. The screen will just go black and say "No signal." I think this is due to the motherboard or PSU. However I don't which one to buy first. Any ideas?
 
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Yep. Sure sounds like it. Which usually means 1 of 2 things and both are related. Lack of airflow. Either there's gunk/dust/dirt/debris accumulated in the heatsink under the shroud, blocking air from reaching the heatsink, or there's little to no air actually reaching the gpu, so it's sitting in a hot-spot that only gets hotter with lengthy heavy loads. Having fanless/eco mode doesn't help as it allows that hot-spot to happen in the first place, meaning the gpu works harder to play 'catch-up' on the temps.

Fanless is great for ppl who never push a gpu hard, but if you never push a gpu you really don't have reason to have needed it in the first place.

With the case side off and fan blowing, you are getting better temps, so I'm...
Apr 12, 2020
19
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Have you tried Display Driver Uninstaller, and then install the latest driver?
If the latest driver doesn't work, run DDU again, and try a few drivers back?

Try a different monitor cable?

Post full system specs?

My specs:
I7-7700K
AMD RX 580
16GB Of Ram
Motherboard: MSI B250M BAZOOKA
And I don't know my PSU, i'll have to check; it's a prebuilt pc.

I have tried switching out monitor cables to no avail. I am using the latest AMD Drivers and will try using DDU.
 

Phaaze88

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I see.

What are your max cpu and gpu temps in game?
Did you mix/add on ram?
The motherboard's drivers are up to date?

At the moment, I suspect the psu, because the prebuilt system integrators tend to cut corners here often, and the unit is only really adequate for the original setup.
 
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Karadjgne

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Gpu overheat. Once you release the load and drop power through the VRM's, the temp is still high enough to cause shutdown that ordinarily wouldn't happen. Your fans are spinning down in rpm before the heat is coming off.

That's my guess. Not driver issues.
 
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Apr 12, 2020
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I see.

What are your max cpu and gpu temps in game?
Did you mix/add on ram?
The motherboard's drivers are up to date?

At the moment, I suspect the psu, because the prebuilt system integrators tend to cut corners here often, and the unit is only really adequate for the original setup.

My temps seem fine, around 50-60 for both. I did add ram, the PC had 8GB before and I changed it to 16GB. I did also upgrade the cpu. I actually don't have any drivers for the motherboard since I couldn't figure out how to download them.
 
Apr 12, 2020
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Gpu overheat. Once you release the load and drop power through the VRM's, the temp is still high enough to cause shutdown that ordinarily wouldn't happen. Your fans are spinning down in rpm before the heat is coming off.

That's my guess. Not driver issues.

The temps seem normal though. I did have overheating issues in the past with the cpu, but that's fixed.
 

Phaaze88

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https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B250M-BAZOOKA#down-driver
Drivers are all there - chipset, Lan, SATA, etc.

Still sounds like it could be a driver issue - I mean, just after a match, and not during one, when the load would be higher...
The cpu and gpu aren't overheating - although, there is one other device that can have temperature issues as Karadjgne describes - the power supply.
Does your case hold the psu in the top or bottom of the case? Is it fan up or fan down?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker
Follow the steps there. Those will check for Windows file issues.

Also, run Memtest86 free version: https://www.memtest86.com/
Run it overnight - it can take a few hours. The results should be error-free, and without system hangs or crashes.
 
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Karadjgne

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Motherboard drivers are easy. You go to the manufacturers website, that's MSI. In the downloads section look up your exact motherboard, it must be exact as there can be different revisions such as the Tomahawk or Tomahawk Max etc. There you'll find any and all motherboard drivers, at worst you can run Dragon Center to get them automatically.

Doing it manually, just save them all to your desktop. Some are self executing, do those first and delete after install each one. The ones that remain, you open up device manager and pick the component to upgrade, then upgrade driver and point it at the desktop.
 
Apr 12, 2020
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https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B250M-BAZOOKA#down-driver
Drivers are all there - chipset, Lan, SATA, etc.

Still sounds like it could be a driver issue - I mean, just after a match, and not during one, when the load would be higher...
The cpu and gpu aren't overheating - although, there is one other device that can have temperature issues as Karadjgne describes - the power supply.
Does your case hold the psu in the top or bottom of the case? Is it fan up or fan down?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker
Follow the steps there. Those will check for Windows file issues.

Also, run Memtest86 free version: https://www.memtest86.com/
Run it overnight - it can take a few hours. The results should be error-free, and without system hangs or crashes.
Sorry for the late reply.

The PSU is in the bottom of the case, I don't know whether or not the fan is up or down; I have to check. If nothing works, i'll try to buy a PSU. I was hoping I could buy one that I could return if it doesn't work but that's almost impossible due to the crisis right now.
 
Apr 12, 2020
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I just looked and my PSU fan is down as well as the PSU being located at the bottom of the case. And I don't know if this is important but my desktop is on the ground. Not on the actual desk.
 

Karadjgne

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As long as there's some clearance for air to be drawn in from the bottom, like the pc isn't sitting full on on thick carpet, then that's fine. If airflow to the psu is too severely impeded, it'll run hot, maybe hotter than design tolerances and you'll get all sorts of funky voltage readings and variances before it'll shut down.
 
Apr 12, 2020
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As long as there's some clearance for air to be drawn in from the bottom, like the pc isn't sitting full on on thick carpet, then that's fine. If airflow to the psu is too severely impeded, it'll run hot, maybe hotter than design tolerances and you'll get all sorts of funky voltage readings and variances before it'll shut down.
The PC isn't sitting on a thick carpet so I think that's not the problem.
 

Karadjgne

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Just very odd that it happens after a heavy load, never during.

What sucks about video cards is lack of sensors. There's only 1 temp sensor and thats in the processor itself, there's nothing nearby for vram/vrm sensing like mobos have. So it's entirely possible that you need to nothing more than pull the shroud off the gpu (that's just the plastic part) and clean out the heatsink/fans. A gpu can run relatively low temps, mid 60's, but when the fans quit moving air (like during a heavy load) and there's blockage to that area, the vram/vrm area suddenly gets nothing and overheats.

I'd also physically verify fan movement. It's not unheard of for a failing fan, especially on multi fan gpus, to have a bad motor that once heated up by heavy rpm will require higher voltages/current to keep it spinning. Once gaming temps are done and the fans slow down, the one over the vram/vrms maybe stopping entirely.

And you'll see none of this with only 1 sensor on the gpu reporting decent temps.
 
Apr 12, 2020
19
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Just very odd that it happens after a heavy load, never during.

What sucks about video cards is lack of sensors. There's only 1 temp sensor and thats in the processor itself, there's nothing nearby for vram/vrm sensing like mobos have. So it's entirely possible that you need to nothing more than pull the shroud off the gpu (that's just the plastic part) and clean out the heatsink/fans. A gpu can run relatively low temps, mid 60's, but when the fans quit moving air (like during a heavy load) and there's blockage to that area, the vram/vrm area suddenly gets nothing and overheats.

I'd also physically verify fan movement. It's not unheard of for a failing fan, especially on multi fan gpus, to have a bad motor that once heated up by heavy rpm will require higher voltages/current to keep it spinning. Once gaming temps are done and the fans slow down, the one over the vram/vrms maybe stopping entirely.

And you'll see none of this with only 1 sensor on the GPU reporting decent temps.
Yes, you were right, the GPU fans will spin then stop completely. It does this over and over again.

It seems as if they only do it when the PC is using low power since they are doing fine in games but not when just browsing the internet. I might be wrong though.
 
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Karadjgne

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Is there a switch? Most newer gpus have an eco or fanless mode, that basically kicks in when the gpu gets to @ 60°C - 65°C, below that the fans stop. I have never liked that, always ramps the fans hard right at gaming temps, on-off. Better to leave that mode disabled and just run a constant curve. Sometimes it's a physical switch on the gpu, sometimes it's a software switch.

But you haven't said when the last good cleaning of the gpu was....
 
Apr 12, 2020
19
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Is there a switch? Most newer gpus have an eco or fanless mode, that basically kicks in when the gpu gets to @ 60°C - 65°C, below that the fans stop. I have never liked that, always ramps the fans hard right at gaming temps, on-off. Better to leave that mode disabled and just run a constant curve. Sometimes it's a physical switch on the gpu, sometimes it's a software switch.

But you haven't said when the last good cleaning of the gpu was....
I have cleaned it a little with canned air if that counts, I'm afraid I might mess something up if I take it apart too much. I'm not very knowledgable about computers.
 
Apr 12, 2020
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Hey all, I was playing a game and realized that my GPU temperatures were at 85+. I must have made a mistake when I last checked them. This explains the horrible lag spikes in games though. Could this have anything to do with the problem with the monitor?

Also, I took one side off the case of the computer and used a fan to cool it off while gaming; no issues so far. This probably means that the GPU overheating is to blame for my problems?
 
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Karadjgne

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Yep. Sure sounds like it. Which usually means 1 of 2 things and both are related. Lack of airflow. Either there's gunk/dust/dirt/debris accumulated in the heatsink under the shroud, blocking air from reaching the heatsink, or there's little to no air actually reaching the gpu, so it's sitting in a hot-spot that only gets hotter with lengthy heavy loads. Having fanless/eco mode doesn't help as it allows that hot-spot to happen in the first place, meaning the gpu works harder to play 'catch-up' on the temps.

Fanless is great for ppl who never push a gpu hard, but if you never push a gpu you really don't have reason to have needed it in the first place.

With the case side off and fan blowing, you are getting better temps, so I'm inclined to believe option #2, which could be made worse by option #1. Check your intake dust filter. If you have hdd bays that are removable, and in the direct path of fan-gpu, remove it. Check the intake fans visually, they should be spinning up under loads or set for high/performance under loads if manually controlled.
 
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