Issue while gaming

A

Alexguitar

New member
I've seen plenty people ask that already but I didn't really find a clear solution or something that had helped so here I go.

I've been having this issue for an extended time now and its getting on my nerves. In a nutshell after a, cant tell if random, but after some time of extended gaming the screen goes blank, as in it's not picking up any signal, and I get sound loops. I have to manually restart. During reboot I don't get any overheating errors.

I don't play any too demanding games, usually source games like tf2. Its happening with games running a different engine as well though.

I've tried many things already: update all my drivers, also tried the 275.0 Nvidia Driver to see if an older one would fix that, blowing out all dust out of the pc, re-applied thermal grease on the CPU(did that at some point, not because I thought it would fix the issue) , removed my CD/DVD drive and one HDD to see if the PSU was overloading, removed one RAM stick, also tried swapping them around. I also run Prime 95 and Furmark separately for an extended period, didn't get any errors or visual distortions. I run Memperfect for an hour (3 rounds) and I didnt get any RAM issues as well.

It's not like any of it really helped so I ask for your help now.
Is this a hardware related issue or something rather software or driver orientated?

My specs:
Motherboard: P55 Maximus III Formula
CPU: i5 750 @default clock speeds.
GPU: gtx 295 not overclocked
PSU: SeaSonic 650W 80+ bronze
RAM: Goodram Pro 1333hz Dual channel
Boot drive: Ocz Agility 3 60 gig SSD
HDDS: 2tb WD caviar green 7200rpm, Hitachi 500 Gb 7200rpm
 
You might have power saving features on?

You might not have set them on yourself but I had a similar issue a couple of weeks ago.
 
Well yeah.
Yesterday I was in a skype call with a few palls, we were playing Dungeon Defenders. Then the screen went black, I could still hear the people in the call, they said that I must have crashed. The screen stayed black for 10 seconds then the sound started looping so I rebooted.


Edit:

Well I used to have a piece of software deveolped by asus called EPU engine 6, it allowed to downgrade the chipset level, cpu clockspeed and stuff like that, but I removed that. At least I think I've done. Well I had that set to high performance any way, which is set to change nothing, most of time.
 
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My issue was similar but I had no external sound output so I couldn't hear if the sound was looping or not. I had a headset plugged in, but volume levels were too low for me to hear anything.

To fix the issue I went into the power options via the Control Panel. I chose the "Choose when to turn off the display" option on the left, then on "Change advanced power settings." After that I expanded the "PCI Express" option and I chose the Off Setting for "Link State Power Management." After doing some research I read that having this setting on anything other than off would cause the blank screen issues like the ones you're experiencing.

This might not work for you, but it is worth a try.
 
I just did what you said, it was set on medium power saving mode(sorry for weird translations but my OS language isn't english). So I chenged everything to prevent any power saving features. I'll get into some games and confirm if it helped(may take some time since I never know when its going to happen).
 
Unfortunately that didn't seem to solve it for me. The black screen isue I've mentioned before is still happening. At first I was able to play around 20 minutes tf2 then it happened so I quickly rebooted launched tf2 with steam and after 2 minutes it happened again.
Might it be the PSU overheating or something?
 
Not gunna be the PSU. Seasonics are the best around.

All cables fully plugged in? Have you run Unigine? That will show if the gpu is overheating or anything.

It's more likely to be a graphics card issue than psu, the psu can easily handle those parts
 
What monitor are you using and how old is it?

Check it's cable is screwed in properly incase your hammering on the keyboard shakes it loose or something like that.
 
The monitor I'm using us a Samsung SyncMasterP2250 - 1920x1080 @60Hz. It's probably 1,5 years old now. The cable is screwed in as tight as it goes and I don't slam my keyboard when I'm playing so I am sure the cable doesn't loosen.

I'll try running unigine now.
 
Alexguitar said:
Unfortunately that didn't seem to solve it for me. The black screen isue I've mentioned before is still happening. At first I was able to play around 20 minutes tf2 then it happened so I quickly rebooted launched tf2 with steam and after 2 minutes it happened again.
Might it be the PSU overheating or something?
Click to expand...

It was worth a try. As mentioned stress test the GPU and monitor the temps while doing the tests.
 
I ran the Heaven Benchmark yesterday for 2 hours without a problem, so I decided I'd see if after I blackscreen while playing a game, quickly rebooting and launch unigine again it would cause any issues at all. Well I did that today, was able to run it for 40 minutes then I got bored. Was running it all maxed out at DirectX 10. Now I'm sure it's something different.
Seems now its something rather software related. It could be a issue with the steam overlay or with steam directly, since I get those crashes with games running compleatly different engines, and most games I have are on steam.

Any ideas?
 
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I can tell for sure that I crash in games like:
-Team Fortress 2
-Left 4 Dead 1&2
-Dungeon Defenders
-Killing Floor
-Call of Duty MW3
 
Read the OP again and noticed: 'Furmark separately for an extended period' - Dont use Furmark, that can kill graphics cards.

What temperatures are you getting while running unigine?

Have you tried reseating the card?
 
Switching the slots would most likely mean you wouldnt be running at x16 bandwidth, but agreed, it's still worth a try.

As for reseating - I mean take it out and put it in the same slot again...
 
Didnt even realise I'd hit 1000 posts! :(

I'm kind of out of ideas as to what it could be then. If it was software or drivers causing the issue, then you may be best uninstalling all drivers and everything related to nvidia and then reseating the card.

If it was me, I'd probably want to start afresh and reinstall windows (just cause I like doing that anyway ;) ) but that'll will at least eliminate any possible software glitch or errors you may have within windows
 
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