Monitor Black Outs!

[DJ Tucker]

ok, so when i play games, my monitor after about 10 mins goes blank. now i know its not the monitor itself due to the fact that i can use it on my xbox and general computer use. as soon as i play a game somewhere between 10-30 mins the screen blacks out and my pc is still running although i believe it has frozen also the sound is no longer working. i then have to restart and then it happens again.

i have tried unplugging my monitor and that does nothing. any help would be great thx guys!

[InspectahACE]

have you reinstalled the drivers?

[DJ Tucker]

yes i have and still got the same problem. this sucks!

[Major_A]

It might be the monitors built-in calibration at work here. When I let my monitor go to sleep it cycles between which plug I'm using then finally goes into standby. Having said that how is your monitor plugged into your PC, DVI or VGA?

[DJ Tucker]

into back of graphics cards assuming dvi.

[Major_A]

If you have the ability (ala monitor output) and a a cable I would see if you get the same results with VGA.

[InspectahACE]

as soon as i play a game somewhere between 10-30 mins the screen blacks out and my pc is still running although i believe it has frozen also the sound is no longer working. i then have to restart and then it happens again.

i have tried unplugging my monitor and that does nothing. any help would be great thx guys!

what gets me is that it does it even after rebooting..could be a cable thing but at the same time, I still think its a driver thing..especially if it freezes and still does it after the reboot..you did use some sort of driver cleaner i hope

[DaddyRabbit]

Am I reading this right?

- Works great on the Xbox and general computer use.
- Fire up a game and between 10-30 minutes nothing.
- Reboot and it works fine.
- Fire up a game and 10-30 minutes same crash.

If the above is true then the likely culprit is HEAT . Check your CPU and GPU temps. On a side note: why are you running SLI on a 17" monitor?

[InspectahACE]

Damn DR...I didn't think of heat...good call

[DJ Tucker]

heat is not a problem. cpu never above 50c and gpu never above 70c. also i did a driver cleaner and checked to see if anything was outdated and there is nothing. by the way this is my m8s computer that is the same as mine and i have been looking after it for him as he wants it to be fixed without having to wait for 2 weeks to get the company to do it. and he has 22" dual monitors on SLI.

[Tech_Greek]

I had a problem with a CRT once that did that, and it turned out to be a heat issue, stuck a fan on the side of it (house fan) and it was fine so I just bought another monitor.

[DJ Tucker]

ok, so i have a more serious problem now and that is, the computer when you turn it on the graphics cards always come on loud for bout 3 secs as it is powering up. but now the cards will whir constantly and the monitor will not do anything and that is it. i have tried everything to sort this out and no luck.

anything i could have missed?

[smack323]

do you have another video card you could use to see if that is the problem? sounds to me like the GPU is going..

[DaddyRabbit]

There are many things that can overheat besides the CPU & GPU (e.g. Northbridge, PWM, PSU, HDD, RAM) if you have "pockets" of trapped heat or a poorly seated NB or PWM heatsink (happens a lot). If I'm following this right:

1. You both have the exact same system from the same vendor and the driver load etc are all the same.

2. This doesn't happen with your system but happens on his system with both your 17" display and his dual 22" LCD display.

3. This has gone from Irritating to bad to non-functional.

This doesn't sound like software or drivers.

You can try the following to get it to boot:

1. Pull all non-essential gear (go to one GPU, 1 stick of RAM, and CPU) see if it boots.

2. If that doesn't work swap out the other GPU and other stick of RAM and try again.

3. If that doesn't work then I would just put everything back together and let your friend know he needs to wait the 2 weeks for the vendor to fix it because it may take you longer than that to get it sorted out.

4. Conversely you COULD start swapping out components with your rig to try to isolate the problem but you stand a chance of borking your rig so I wouldn't go there.

If you do get it to boot you can run MEMTEST to check RAM and PRIME95 to identify CPU, Mobo, and RAM overheating issues as P95 doesn't push the GPU, if you can get it to boot with the full RAM load, one GPU and HDD that is. If it runs through those without locking up then it is probably either an issue with the second GPU or the PSU under SLI and gaming load.

If I had to guess my three picks would be, in order:

- PSU (DO NOT put his PSU into your rig!)
- GPU
- RAM

Dan, of course will be all over the PSU ;)

EDIT - The reason I'm picking on the PSU:

- http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardware/ ... xfire.html

- http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?p=1391527

- http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/sh ... d=26216372

[DJ Tucker]

i have done everything you guys have said and still got the same problem so its going back to be repaired as we dont want to damage it to a point where it looks like its been tamperted with (voiding the warrenty). thx for your help and will keep you posted on whether the rig comes back in full working order or not. hopefully it should do so fingers crossed