BSOD, random crashes whilst playing LOTRO and black screen

Heya and thanks for getting back to me so quickly! :)

I always use driver sweeper when I update my graphics drivers, it's something I learned quite a while ago when I was having graphics problems, turned out to be a faulty component on my mobo but it's something I always do now when updating my graphics. I did this a couple of days ago with the new Nvidia drivers that were released, I could try to do an uninstall and reinstall of the drivers later on but I'm not sure whether that will help. If you think it's a good idea to try and I will do so though :)

I had a look in the event viewer but I could find no critical errors whatsoever around the time the black screen occurred so I can't give you an event ID, I'm sorry Now I'm wondering if this is because my monitor may be on it's way out, if it was the graphics card, or the drivers wouldn't there be an error in event viewer?

The only way I can describe it when the black screen occurs is it's like my monitor is being forced into standby for some reason. When I turn it off and on again the screen comes back awake and everything is working as normal on my computer. I have looked at the menu options of my monitor but there's nothing to suggest that it's being forced into standby. I'm totally flummoxed as to why this is happening!

Rhia205 said:

Heya and thanks for getting back to me so quickly! :)

I always use driver sweeper when I update my graphics drivers, it's something I learned quite a while ago when I was having graphics problems, turned out to be a faulty component on my mobo but it's something I always do now when updating my graphics. I did this a couple of days ago with the new Nvidia drivers that were released, I could try to do an uninstall and reinstall of the drivers later on but I'm not sure whether that will help. If you think it's a good idea to try and I will do so though :)

I had a look in the event viewer bit I could find no critical errors whatsoever around the time the black screen occurred so I can't give you an event ID, I'm sorry Now I'm wondering if this because my monitor may be on it's way out, if it was the graphics card, or the drivers wouldn't there be an error in event viewer?

The only way I can describe it when the black screen occurs is it's like my monitor is being forced into standby for some reason. When I turn it off and on again the screen comes back awake and everything is working as normal on my computer. I have looked at the menu options of my monitor but there's nothing to suggest that it's being forced into standby. I'm totally flummoxed as to why this is happening!

Ok since there isnt anything in event viewer and device manager looks good you can start looking at PSU (maybe heat, or vibration). You can download cpu-z and gpu-z to keep track of the temps and voltages (they are both free btw).

If not that we can get aggressive with it {grin}


Ken

Okay I'm not sure whether I've done this right but I've attached two files, one from the cpuz and one from the gpuz. Hope this is what you were asking for!!! :P

EDIT: Okay it's not letting me attach the cpuz file for some reason. Am I only allowed to attach one file at a time? Ah it's saying an invalid file!!!

Another little update. I have no idea how to save the file for cpuz, the only option it gives me is .cvf, however when I try to upload the file it's saying it's invalid and won't let me.

I had a response from Hanns.G regarding my monitor and it looks like they are going to RMA the product, whether it means that they think the monitor is faulty I don't know but it seems strange that I don't get no error messages. I only emailed them regarding the drivers for the monitor and explaining why I wanted the drivers, I don't know maybe it's a common thing that can happen to these monitors or something, just found it a bit strange that they are RMA'ing the monitor without really trying to solve the issue first. Apart from the times that my monitor does this I don't have any other problems with it. In fact it's one of the best monitors I've ever owned! My husband is convinced the problems with the monitor are hardware related as there are no error messages whatsoever. I hope to Gawd it's not my PSU or GPU they are relatively new and if I have to RMA them I'll be without a computer for about a week or so while they're tested for faults! At least if it is my monitor then at least it'll be a doorstep collection and swap so I'll still have my computer!

Oh is it worth testing another monitor (like my son's monitor) to see if I still have the problems? I think I'm going to anyways, just curious as to see if the problem remains the same when I use his monitor!

I found this earlier and I think that it's possible that my monitor may be faulty.

This monitor meets the Green monitor standards as set by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) and/or the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and The Swedish Confederation Employees (NUTEK). This feature is designed to conserve electrical energy by reducing power consumption when there is no video-input signal present. When there is no video input signal this monitor, following a time-out period, will automatically switch to power saving mode. This reduces the monitor's internal power supply consumption. After the video input signal is restored, full power is restored and the display is automatically redrawn. The appearance is similar to a "Screen Saver" feature except the display is completely off. The display is restored by pressing a key on the keyboard, or clicking the mouse.

It looks like my monitor is meant to do that but it's doing it at times that it shouldn't be doing it. i.e the times it's doing it when my computer is idle the monitor is working as it should do, but when it does it during game play or when I shut a game down it's not working as it should do. Hence probably the reason why Hanns.G have started an RMA for me....

EDIT: My husband has the same monitor as mine and his goes into standby when he leaves his computer idling, but he's never experienced the black screen and standby mode as he's playing games or shutting down games. Am going to test my son's monitor on my computer in a bit, but kind of getting dinner ready atm so will get back to you as soon as I've had a chance to test his monitor out :)

Heya and thank you very much the both of you for your help, it has been much appreciated!! A little update, whilst I was preparing dinner I switched over to my son's monitor, loaded in the game that causes the black screen every time I play it and whilst dinner was cooking had a little play on it. I then left it idle for about 40 mins whilst we ate dinner and then went back to playing on the game for about another 30 mins. After that I shut down the game to see if I got the black screen and I didn't. It looks like it's either the drivers or my monitor that is causing the issues! I have let Hanns.G know that I've tested my computer using another monitor and not had any problems so I'm now waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully I'll have the monitor replaced quite quickly and then my problems should be resolved! If I've managed to sort this out and the BSOD's with your brilliant help then I'm a very happy camper

Thank you once again

Heya all

Little update, have had my new replacement monitor, my old monitor was HDMI and they've replaced it with VGA and boy you can tell the difference, the screen is all blurry and horrible (think this is because the refresh rate only goes up to 60 Hertz). I phoned them back up and they are sending the correct monitor to me on Friday (think they were trying to pull a fast one on me!!!!). So it's only just under 2 days that I have to put with horrible VGA eugh! Don't think I can go back to VGA now after enjoying HDMI for nearly 12 months!

Edit: Oh I forgot to mention, people using the ESET Uninstaller should back up their systems like the warning message tells you to. I'd been meaning to do a newer back up on my machine for a while but I hadn't done so, the ESET Uninstaller took my machine out not sure what it did but it seemed to completely take out my network, even uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them didn't work like they say should work if the network failed. In the end had to revert back to an update I did a couple of months ago. I was lucky, I was able to back up important stuff in safe mode but really ESET shouldn't be issuing an uninstaller that can take your computer out like that! It was really stupid of me not to make a recent back up before using the uninstaller so it's completely my fault but just thought I should mention it!

Thanks again for the help, since uninstalling easy saver my system does seem to be running smoother and I haven't had any more BSOD's yet, I didn't get them very often and only whenever I played LOTRO so hopefully they are a thing of the past! :)