Periodic black screens, persists for 3-5 seconds at a time

KHoang · 15 Feb 2013

Hi, I was wondering if I could get some help with this:

I just built a new computer and it's been running decently up until I tried playing some video games on it. When running games (e.g., World of Warcraft), my screen freezes up for one second, followed by a black screen for a few more seconds. After that, the gameplay resumes, but I'm sitting there wondering what just happened. The sound is still intact the entire time.

Sometimes it occurs frequently, and sometimes I can play for an hour or more at a time without any black screens. I've been trying to figure out what has been triggering it (i.e., exploring new territory in-game, etc.), but haven't found anything conclusive.

I have a feeling it has to do with my video card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 v2), but I'm not sure.

I checked for overheating problems with CoreTemp, but found that the temperature was stable during gameplay. Specifically, right after the crashes I would check the temperature and see that it was average and unwavering.

Hope to hear from you soon, thanks!

cjf · 15 Feb 2013

The first thing I would do is update the video card drivers. I suggest that you get them from World Leader in Visual Computing Technologies | NVIDIA. Hope it fixes your problem.

KHoang · 16 Feb 2013

Hi cjf,

That was one of the first things I did; I uninstalled my video driver and installed the one from NVIDIA website like you suggested. However, the same problem persists. Any suggestions?

Arc · 16 Feb 2013

You need to stress test the video card. But as it is a new build, ask the vendor to test the GPU for you.

KHoang · 27 Feb 2013

I did a stress test using FurMark, and everything checked out fine. No black screens or anything. Now what?

Arc · 27 Feb 2013

KHoang said:

I did a stress test using FurMark, and everything checked out fine. No black screens or anything. Now what?

Apply the latest version of nVidia display driver.
You may download it directly, from our forum link Latest NVIDIA ForceWare Video Drivers Windows 7; or you may opt for the Option 2 of Drivers- Download NVIDIA Drivers for “Automatically find drivers for my NVIDIA products” (it requires java installed).

BTW, are you getting any popup notification from the system trey during the black screen?

KHoang · 27 Feb 2013

I've done a clean install of the NVIDIA driver, but I still get the same problem.

Also, there hasn't ever been a popup notification, whether by window or from the system tray.

Arc · 27 Feb 2013

KHoang said:

I've done a clean install of the NVIDIA driver, but I still get the same problem.

Also, there hasn't ever been a popup notification, whether by window or from the system tray.

So it is happening with different driver versions. Test with another one that is known to be stable.

Download and install Driver Fusion.
Reboot the computer in Advanced Boot Options, safe mode. Search Driver Fusion in your start menu, and remove all components of your nVidia display driver.
If it says the the free version of Driver Fusion cannot remove all the elements, stop there and follow Drivers - Clean Left over Files after Uninstalling
Boot normally now. Go to Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers, Drivers > Beta and Legacy; search there with your cards particulars for GeForce 306.23 Driver, dated 13.9.2012 and install it.

Also you should use the onboard graphics to see if the same thing happening with it, too.

If display troubles even with the suggested driver and on problem with the onboard graphics, better you RMA the GPU.

KHoang · 01 Mar 2013

Hi Arc,

I did as you said and installed the 306.23 driver, and now I'm getting crashes even more. But this time, I get to see the popup notification in the system tray that says the driver has crashed, and recovered. Gameplay continues, but of course the crashes happen much more frequently.

Advice?

Arc · 01 Mar 2013

306.23 is the most stable nvidia version released lately. It never crashed itself. Just a few hours ago, it solved an extensive graphics crash here .

It made the real cause dig out ..... something like this I guess?

Periodic black screens, persists for 3-5 seconds at a time-ht075224-display-driver-stopped-responding-has-recovered.jpg

That is what I asked you earlier, the popup notification. It is not a BSOD. It is a faulty hardware, a failing GPU. If possible, use the warranty and get it replace. And, this failure is that random that it will not be caught by the stress test.

I personally experienced such a GPU failure, and being guided by my partner, I abandoned that faulty GPU ........ Issues stopped to occur.