Black Screen During Gaming

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

So, I've been having this problem for a really, really long time. Whenever I game, typically in Dota 2 or any multiplayer game (bit it's happened in single player games as well) out of nowhere my game will freeze, my screen will go black, then my desktop will appear, but I can still hear the game in the background and use the cursor in-game even though I can't see the actual game. It says the display driver has failed, however, I've gone through 3 different video cards with this issue, so If ind it hard to believe that it is a graphics card issue. The only way to "solve" the problem is to end task my game and reboot, but lately it just leads to more frequent black screen crashes and a lot of frustration. Please, please help me.

My specs:
Intel Core i3-3225 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155
XIGMATEK LOKI SD963 92mm HYPRO Bearing CPU
MSI Z77A-G43 Gaming LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Patriot Gamer Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PGS34G1600ELK
MSI R7850 PE 2GD5/OC Radeon HD 7850 (gfx card)
Kingston HyperX 3k 120gb SSD
WD Caviar Blue 160GB HDD
Samsung Syncmaster P2050 (monitor)
Coolermaster RS-600-PCAR-E3 600W power supply
Antec900 Black case

HopelessNoob · Jul 17, 2013

have you tried a fresh install of windows and the graphics card driver?

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

Yes, both.

HopelessNoob · Jul 17, 2013

have you tried checking temperatures?

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

Yeah, they checked out fine.

HopelessNoob · Jul 17, 2013

can you do a hard drive test with hdtune?

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

just d/l'd it, trying one now

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

Minimum: 52.7MB
Maximum: 104.5MB
Average: 87.3MB
Access time: 15.6ms
Burst Rate: 179.0MB
CPU Usage: 5.7%

HopelessNoob · Jul 17, 2013

can you run an error scan?

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

just started one, per request

kiaff75 · Jul 17, 2013

I had a similar problem and also went through 3 different cards thinking it was a gpu issue. Turns out it was a faulty stick of ram. Replaced my memory and now its working fine. Try a memtest or swap ram with someone if you can if this next scan your running doesnt show any problems.

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

it's still running, fyi

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

kiaff75 :

That's pretty much what I'm thinking, too. You're the first person to respond with what sounds like the same issue.

Test Results: Damaged Blocks: 0.0%
Scanning Speed: 52.9MB
Position: 159gB
Elapsed time: 30.09

kiaff75 · Jul 17, 2013

Funny thing is, I was running Patriot memory too (different model but Patriot none the less). Ill never buy it again. Do you have anyone willing to lend you ram for a test? memtest86 takes kind of a long time and sometimes it wont even come up with errors despite a faulty stick :/

DemonicJawa · Jul 17, 2013

I've run that before with no errors, but I still think it's the RAM. I have a friend lending me RAM in a couple of days, but I also found an affordable deal for new RAM so I got that incoming too.

kiaff75 · Jul 17, 2013

good luck, let me know how it works

DemonicJawa · Jul 25, 2013

It was the memory! After years of frustration and a complete rebuilding of my rig, the problem has been solved! One or both of my patriot memory is defective. Comp is running fine and dandier than ever before!

kiaff75 · Jul 25, 2013

Cool man, glad it worked. Thanks for the update. Mark this thread solved and how bout a little love with a best answer selection

I still have no rankings or badges or anything yet lol

DemonicJawa · Jul 26, 2013

Absolutely! Thanks for all the help man, and thanks to Hopeless Noob as well.

Black Screen During Gaming

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