Hey guys, I'm in trouble. Can anyone tell me what could cause a sudden black screen and restart of windows, while just attempting to rightclick and paste some file in explorer? I had it a few times yesterday whilst working in TG, but now it's even this simple action triggering it.
Yesterday, the screen went black, but machine was still running, saw a few times that the NVidia video card had problems, but at other times nothing was visible and I had to reboot.
Any advice is greatly appreciated, as I'm working on a project with a very tight deadline :(
UPDATE: and just now the machine rebooted and the screen is black from the start!
UPDATE 2: checked the cables, okay. Reinstalled the driver, now hope it stays away.....
When the screen went black did the monitor said: Lost signal or something similar?
If problem persist u have to try replace the vga card, vga cable, monitor one by one in order to pinpoint the source.
Overheating VGA card can freeze picture or go blank also.
I thought you'd be the one to help, thanks! I have 2 machines on one monitor, and the online machine didn't have a problem, so I checked the cables, and figured it wasn't the monitor itself, but some hardware or software in the offline machine (win 7 GEForce GT610 with Forceware driver 378.66).
No, monitor didn't say anything, just turned black. On one or two occasions the machine rebooted by itself, at other times only the screen got black, but machine kept on running. Can't be overheating, it was just running a low intensity.
I'll work on, see if it happens again after having reinstalled the driver.
2 pc on 1 monitor indicates that you might have a switch there to swap between the PCs? That can present similar problem though.
Quote from: archonforest on May 22, 2019, 03:59:52 AM
2 pc on 1 monitor indicates that you might have a switch there to swap between the PCs? That can present similar problem though.
Agree with Archonforest about the switch.
Had similar issues with my Trendnet switch when I first got it. If you have the hardware (1 monitor per system) then easiest troubleshooting technique is to have a dedicated monitor for each system and see what happens. In my case the problem stayed with my "everyday" PC, and went away after using compressed air to blow out the large dust accumulations from around the fans and heat sinks. Both PCs now sit on top of my desk with there covers removed for optimum airflow.
Thanks. I checked the cables of the Aten switch too, dust may need to be cleaned out. Last time was 6 months ago.
Well, it works until now (crossing fingers).
I just got another crash, having TG open (after it rendered something without any problems), and doing something low profile (I think even saving the file). TG crashed (popup saying: is not working anymore), and at the same time there was a yellow block warning at the bottom saying Nvidia wasn't working anymore and has been repaired. The latter notice went away after a while. Does that ring a bell?
Try latest driver for you card for sure. Clean the fan of the card and make sure it actually works. (still thinking this is some overheat issue)
Then I would try to download GPU-Z as that can see the sensors of the card. Monitor the temp of the card. See if it goes high. Many cards are not tolerating temp around 80C.
If u are cleaning anyways clean the PC too just to make sure there is a good airflow inside the box.
Do you have a GEForce GT610?
How strong is the PSU in your PC?
One more thing. When power savings kicks in that can also cause problems. I would turn off the power saving and set it to high performance.
See attached image and set that too.
Yes, it's a GT610. Powersupply is a Nexus NX-5000 (530Watts). The only thing CPU-Z says is this:
And where do I set those power saving settings? I was looking in the NVidia dashboard, but maybe in BIOS?
Found the power settings... and I apparently already set it as you showed.
Not CPU-Z but GPU-Z.
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-gpu-z/
Your card requires min 300W PSU so yours is strong enough. So this is not the problem for sure. Check temps with GPU-Z.
Ah, silly. Must be the black screen stress :P
Few more things to try:
-take out the card. Look at the connectors and see if there is dirt or some kind of corrosion on it. Clean the socket of the card with blowing some air in there. If card is clean and neat but problem still up then put the card into the next slot. You might have a faulty slot. Who knows... ???
-Try the latest driver from NWIDIA. Try install the latest one but install only the driver and nothing else. The latest driver is not necessary the cure for everything. Time to time they are worst than an earlier one. :-X
-if still no luck install again the original driver from the CD you got. Install only the driver itself.
-get some help from an electrician and measure the output of the PSU. A dying PSU can output way less power and this can cause similar issues.
Thanks Attila. The GPU-Z gives around 46º when starting TG and doing RT preview. It won't be stressed more than that in my case.
I believe I installed a later version and got into problems then. And without any updates whatsoever of any other device (ofline machine), I think NVidia updates are not necessary; if it worked it should always work (except for other causes, that is).
Can you measure output power somehow other than with an electrician? Like PSU-Z :P
I will certainly open the hatch and see to some stuff.
Have you tried running your PC in safe mode? It will use a standard vga driver and it might help determine if the Nvidia drivers are to blame
Quote from: Dune on May 22, 2019, 12:02:19 PM
Thanks Attila. The GPU-Z gives around 46º when starting TG and doing RT preview. It won't be stressed more than that in my case.
I believe I installed a later version and got into problems then. And without any updates whatsoever of any other device (ofline machine), I think NVidia updates are not necessary; if it worked it should always work (except for other causes, that is).
Can you measure output power somehow other than with an electrician? Like PSU-Z :P
I will certainly open the hatch and see to some stuff.
Check out this: AIDA64 Extreme
This apparently gives all data, even PSU data.
So temp of the GPU looks okay. I guess u have to play with different drivers now and check the PSU. A failing PSU can create tons of similar issues unfortunately. What digitalguru said is also true.
Looks like I was wrong about this AIDA software. I tried it and it gives no PSU data.
Sorry about that Dune. :-\
The 'problem' is that it doesn't always happen, so if I run in safe mode, what can be done? Yesterday I worked for hours again, without trouble. I also reinstalled the driver that worked perfectly for years, so I guess it's either PSU or dust/corrosion. I'll open the box of goodies today....
Random errors are the worst to locate. When something like this happens I always 1. dust everything in full and 2. remove and re-seat parts on the motherboard to make sure everything well connected. Usually this handles a very big amount of problems.
I looked up this problem and many users complained about the same problem using different NVIDIA cards. It seemed that this issue is more related to a driver. But in your case is not fully makes sense as if u do not change anything on your pc then it should just work kind of forever.
As a note: While reading this pages some people mentioned that they had used a special program to fully-fully uninstall their drivers. Seems like a normal uninstall can leave traces on the HDD that can f..up the new driver. So take a look of this too.
Thank you. I will have a look at those programs for sure. Meanwhile dusted out, no big amounts, took GPU out, no corrosion and just a bit dusty, so I'll just continue working until it happens again.....
When installing Nvidia drivers, there's an installer option to do a clean install. Just select "custom" during the install and select the clean install option. Are you using the VGA connector (that's the one hooked to the ribbon cable?) Those cables can cause intermittent problems too.
Thanks Jaf. I just did that with the newest driver 391.35. I have an Aten switch with a connector (blue, digital I guess), if that's what you mean.
I'll try this out for a while, and if I encounter problems go back to driver 378.66.
But what would you guys recommend as settings for 3D and such in the Nvidia control panel? Lots of stuff that can be changed. For me only TG and software like PS, Lightwave, ZBrush... no games.
I leave it on: Let the 3D app decide.
Okay. I was thinking about what happened and actually find it quite strange that the whole machine blacks out and automatically reboots if GPU/drivers fail. Didn't happen every time, but a few.