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MSI Z170a Gaming 3 or GTX 960 GAMING 100ME Issue?
Greetings All,
I posted this over at both the MSI and TomsHardware forums as I think it's a hardware issue but I want to make sure it's not a Windows 7 issue so I'm going to post it here in case anyone has some thoughts or ran into a similar issue in the past.
Gents,
I've run into an issue on a new build that I can't nail down and need your advice on my next steps so I'll try to give you all the information I have and what I tried. This is a NEW build that was built about 3 weeks ago. Everything ran fine until today when it all went wrong after a game lockup.
Everything worked fine today when I booted up so I decided to play Witcher 3 which I've been playing with no issues (with the exception of a freeze for a second or two in big cities when the CPU hit's 100%) but those are few. Anyway at the main menu screen (not playing yet) today it locked up for the first time. Had to use reset button as CNT-ALT-DLT didn't work and on reboot the problem appeared.
Problem:
No matter what I do I can't get GTX 960 out of 800X600 resolution safe mode or resolve it's conflict.
Description of how it Boots Events:
1. Starting the PC (powering on) this is what happens between devices.
2. The GPU lights up and monitor is Blue (active)
3. Four seconds later GPU lights OFF, VGA on motherboard turns RED and Monitor goes AMBER (no signal)
4. Six seconds later GPU lights ON, RED VGA light goes OFF and Monitor goes Blue (active)
At this point it loads the bios screen at 800X600 resolution and same if I enter windows. With or Without the Nividia drivers installed I can not change the desktop resolution and device manager reports the device is disabled and conflicts. All functions on "Change Display Settings" beyond 800X600 is "greyed out" and under "Properties" it's all blank. Checking "resources" it's conflicting with the Intel CPU resources. Also on boot-up a small graphic glitch appears on the screen for a few seconds (3 wide lines) then goes away.
Steps I've taken and it's result:
1. Removed and Reinstalled Drivers. NONE
2. Removed and re-seat GPU NONE
3. Double Check voltages from PSU for stability (fine 12.34v on 4 rails) NONE
4. Remove all drivers and the card, reboot and let Windows 7 install it's own. NONE
5. Installed and Reinstall drivers through device manager. NONE
6. Ran SFC to check for corruption. NONE
7. Swapped out 960 for a known good 450 ***SEE BELOW***
Now. Here's where my trouble shooting skills are at a loss. Thinking it's now a GPU issue I removed all drivers and installed my old GTS 450 to test.
GTS 450 Boot events:
1. Power PC.... Motherboard VGA (RED) and Monitor Blue (active)
2. Three seconds later VGA RED goes OFF and enters BIOS and Windows at high resolution.
3. Installed Nivida drives rebooted and checked settings in device manager and desktop and it's all fine at 1920X1200
At this point thinking the GTX 960 is the issue (which it still may be) I installed it (without nvidia drivers) in another PC running Windows 7 to test and it worked fine in that PC at a higher resolution (NOT 1920X1200 as that monitor didn't support it) with default Windows drivers. So the card works in the other PC but not my new build at the moment (worked fine for 3 weeks) and my older GTX 450 card works in the new build (which I'm using now) which suggests the motherboard is not the issue (or is it). As the bios screen is effected by the issue before Windows loads this suggests a hardware issue not software.
I have 1 close restore point from 3 days ago but I'm not a novice PC builder so my gut is telling me it's a hardware issue so it's worthless to restore since it won't address the issue and the GTX 450 I'm running right now works fine at those settings.
Thoughts? Advice? Next Steps?
PC Specs:
MSI Z170a Gaming 3 (bios ver A.4)
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133
Intel Core i3-6100 3M 3.7 GHz LGA 1151
MSI GeForce GTX 960 DirectX 12 GTX 960 GAMING 100ME
Rosewill DU850 850watt PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64bit (SP1+Updates)
Hanns.G HG281 @1920X1200 60hz Connected via DVI to HDMI cable.
Nvidia Driver (Version 368.81)
*Side Note*
As someone mentioned this before.
The power supply I'm using (Rosewill DU850 850watt PSU) is old but at the time was recommended from Johnnyguru and I've had no issues and did check the voltage before the build and again when this problem surfaced. The GTS 450 draws less then the 960 (13 watts more) so if it was a issue It would have appeared when the 960 was installed and still has no bearing on a screen resolution issue that I know of.