Intermittent black screens with fans spinning up to 100%

Haron

Member
For awhile now I’ve been having intermittent issues while playing games of both my monitors going dark and displaying their no connection message and my cards fans spinning up to full speed. It’s not terribly frequent and happens under varying card load in games such as Greedfall (Twice), Empyrion - Galactic Survival, Space Engineers and recently Valheim.

Been searching on my own for a solution but I’m not terribly tech savvy and was wondering if anyone here might have an idea of the exact issue or a solution.

If it helps the most recent incident happened while playing Factorio, but the system seemed to recover somewhat and I got to see the game throw its first ever “DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_RESET” error, not sure if that's related to my main issues or just Factorio having a rare moment.

I do keep my drivers up to date though I’ve had to revert once in the past when a newer set made the issue worse.

Here's the spec, if you need any more info I’ll try to provide it.

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R6 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z390-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i PRO Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Zx 5.1 PCI-E Soundcard
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.0 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on DVD
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
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Welcome Book
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Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/EXdd!ve!en/
 

barlew

Godlike
Sounds funky, My first port of call would be to uninstall your drivers with DDU and then install the latest drivers fresh. See if that makes a difference?
 

Haron

Member
Thanks for the advice I downloaded and ran the Wagnard DDU I found on the Nvidia Forums (In safe mode as recommended) and reinstalled the latest drivers.


Shall let you know if the issue returns, it could be awhile as the events are normally weeks/months apart.


Thanks again.
 

barlew

Godlike
Thanks for the advice I downloaded and ran the Wagnard DDU I found on the Nvidia Forums (In safe mode as recommended) and reinstalled the latest drivers.


Shall let you know if the issue returns, it could be awhile as the events are normally weeks/months apart.


Thanks again.
Keep us updated.
 

Haron

Member
Well this issue is back after a year of behaving, tried the previous solution but no luck, still happening.

Tried to research this issue myself and it seems to be a thing with nVidia's cards and no one seems to have found a one shot solution, maybe the card’s just defective?

This has been going on for pretty much the cards life, if very randomly and infrequently. Still got some time on the warranty so maybe I should kick it over to tech support?

Oh and if anyone knows exactly where I could look for error logs, should any exist, I’ll happily provide them.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Well this issue is back after a year of behaving, tried the previous solution but no luck, still happening.

Tried to research this issue myself and it seems to be a thing with nVidia's cards and no one seems to have found a one shot solution, maybe the card’s just defective?

This has been going on for pretty much the cards life, if very randomly and infrequently. Still got some time on the warranty so maybe I should kick it over to tech support?
My first port of call would be a clean windows install, if it's still happening then then yes, I'd get it in for a check up before warranty expires.

But you want to rule out software before returning it, a software issue is an easy fix
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Have you applied any overclock at all? Either to the GPU, CPU or the RAM?

My spidey sense is tingling with the 650w PSU as I think that's cutting it far too fine for the components in use here. Depending on the settings you're likley seeing 250w drawn from the GPU with up to 150w+ drawn from the CPU. I know that seems like headroom, but by the time you power the motherboard, RAM, fans, drives, sound card, cooler, etc..... it all adds up to no margin.

The fact that it's CTD and not rebooting would suggest the issue lies with the GPU/Driver, rather than the CPU/RAM side of things. That's not to rule anything out, it's just most likely.

As you had success with a driver refresh the last time, I would definitely consider an OS refresh this time.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Have you applied any overclock at all? Either to the GPU, CPU or the RAM?

My spidey sense is tingling with the 650w PSU as I think that's cutting it far too fine for the components in use here. Depending on the settings you're likley seeing 250w drawn from the GPU with up to 150w+ drawn from the CPU. I know that seems like headroom, but by the time you power the motherboard, RAM, fans, drives, sound card, cooler, etc..... it all adds up to no margin.

The fact that it's CTD and not rebooting would suggest the issue lies with the GPU/Driver, rather than the CPU/RAM side of things. That's not to rule anything out, it's just most likely.

As you had success with a driver refresh the last time, I would definitely consider an OS refresh this time.
Christ, I didn't see the PSU, that's cutting it very fine.
 

Haron

Member
No overclocks to my knowledge but wouldn't be at all surprised if it's simply the card drawing more power than the PSU can provide. Given when it happens (only under load) and that the card seems to disconnect from the system briefly.

I always seem to put together a system with some critical flaw that bites me in the butt down the line.

Anything I can do to alleviate a potential power problem short term? And is it worth upgrading the PSU to see if that helps the issue? If so what do you recommend I aim for as a satisfactory PSU?
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
No overclocks to my knowledge but wouldn't be at all surprised if it's simply the card drawing more power than the PSU can provide. Given when it happens (only under load) and that the card seems to disconnect from the system briefly.

I always seem to put together a system with some critical flaw that bites me in the butt down the line.

Anything I can do to alleviate a potential power problem short term? And is it worth upgrading the PSU to see if that helps the issue? If so what do you recommend I aim for as a satisfactory PSU?

Unfortunately it's a fairly common pitfall that people fall into. We always recommend seeking advice on here, from enthusiasts, before hitting the button. Not everyone makes it to the forum to get that advice though.

You know we're here next time :)

Which GPU is it you have? It's highly likely that the manufacturer will have their own software for managing the power of the card. You could simply undervolt/underpower it to see if that does away with the issue. If it does, you're very likely down to the PSU struggling to cope with the load. That doesn't guarantee the problem, it's just a likely explanation. It could also be the power distribution of the GPU itself that's in play. It just gives an indication of where to look.

If you were replacing the PSU I would opt for the 1000w RMx offering. That way you would be covered for any GPU upgrades you want to employ. Every system recommended by us now has the 1000w RMx in play as a minimum, this is obviously when the budget allows of course.

We would have automatically specced your system with an RMx 850w, as we wouldn't have seen the incoming power hungry GPUs hitting the shelves at the end of the year.
 

Haron

Member
Thanks for the help, I’ve ordered a new PSU and hopefully that’ll do the trick. If not? Well at least that’s one cause crossed off the list.
 

Haron

Member
I grabbed this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B015PWMTJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It didn’t help sadly but I’ve actually found a way to reliably reproduce the issue.


Have a youtube video running on the second monitor.

Start Borderlands 3 and if the video is running when it transitions from the load screen to the title screen the card will die.

4 out of 4 times so far.

If the video is paused the game loads fine, I can even start the vid again and the system is stable.


It’s quite odd.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I grabbed this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B015PWMTJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It didn’t help sadly but I’ve actually found a way to reliably reproduce the issue.


Have a youtube video running on the second monitor.

Start Borderlands 3 and if the video is running when it transitions from the load screen to the title screen the card will die.

4 out of 4 times so far.

If the video is paused the game loads fine, I can even start the vid again and the system is stable.


It’s quite odd.
I would do a clean install, it's likely just some kind of software incompatibility.
 

Haron

Member
Would the ‘Reset this PC’ option in windows be sufficient?

Putting in a new part is one thing but I’m a little more cautious around software, especially something like reinstalling windows.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Would the ‘Reset this PC’ option in windows be sufficient?

Putting in a new part is one thing but I’m a little more cautious around software, especially something like reinstalling windows.
That doesn't do a clean install, will leave any defects currently on the installation.
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
especially something like reinstalling windows.
It's easy, Just follow these step by step instructions after making sure all personal files are backed up:

Download a new copy of Windows using the Media Creation Tool to an 8GB (min) USB.
Boot that USB and choose a Custom Install.
Delete all UEFI partitions on the system drive (EFI System, Recovery, MSR Reserved, Primary).
Select the unallocated space that results and click the Next button. The installer will create the correct partitions and install Windows.
Run Windows Update repeatedly, even across reboots, until no more updates are found.
You may need/want to download and install the latest graphics driver from the Nvidia/AMD website (they change so regularly the latest version isn't always in the Windows libraries).

This is also worth a watch
 

Haron

Member
Followed those steps, cleaned everything off and reinstalled but sadly I was able to make the card fail again.

I’ll see if I can’t send it in to have it looked over while it’s still under warranty.

Edit: Actually it's now worse, Borderlands 3 can't get past the loading screen at all anymore without the card disconnecting.
 
Last edited:

Haron

Member
Just a final update. It seems it was a fault with the card all along, warranty covered the replacement and it seems to be running fine now hopefully this’ll be the end of the issues.


Thanks for the help, even if it didn't solve the issue it allowed me to narrow down and make the fault reproducible, identifiable and ultimately fixable.
 
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