Persistent problem with screen going black. Tried many different things to fix it.

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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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I've had problems with my computer for a while now, and I'm getting desperate.

Current specs:
GPU Sapphire R9 280
Mobo Asrock z77 extreme4
PSU Rosewill HIVE 650W
CPU Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz 1155
RAM 2x 4GB Ballistix

My computer had issues where the screen would go black during games, and then eventually during any type of use. My computer will also turn off sometimes by itself, or more recently, just freeze. I sent back my 550 GTX Ti Nvidia GPU and got a replacement, which didn't do anything for the problem. Eventually I replaced my 550W 80 Plus PSU with the Rosewill last summer and the problems pretty much went away.

The problems started appearing again, though, so I thought maybe my old PSU damaged some hardware when it died. The first thing I replaced was my GPU. I went with the R9 280, but nothing changed. I then decided to replace my motherboard, which was a MSI P67A-C43 (B3) ATX. My motherboard wouldn't allow me to boot from a USB, which led me to think that it was damaged and could be causing my other problems. I got the Asrock, and nothing changed. I did not replace my CPU or my RAM, which means they are about 4 years old now.

I ran Memtest with my old motherboard for 11 hours and got 0 errors. I ran it with my new motherboard for 14.5 hours and again received 0 errors. Now I think my new PSU might have died unusually early, or that maybe my CPU is at fault. My CPU was overclocked to reach 4GHz when I bought my computer, but I turned off overclocking earlier this year. I don't do anything that requires much processing power.

I mostly use my computer for gaming, and this is where I see my screens go black the most often. Sometimes I receive an error that my graphics drivers have crashed and then recovered (happened with both the Nvidia and the AMD cards). All my drivers are up to date, and I've cleanly installed windows 7 and then another clean install of windows 8.1. Earlier today I updated my BIOS, but nothing has changed.

I tried using afterburner to force constant voltage and disable ULPS on my GPU. It seems to have made my computer run a little smoother, but the problems persist.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! I really don't want to buy any more parts and have them not fix anything.
 
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Alectfenrir

Alectfenrir

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Jun 26, 2014
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A quick question, when the screen goes black, does the computer itself turns off, or does it stay on? And if it stays on, can you still hear the sound running or is it stuck on an audio fragment?

I might be able to help you out because something like this happened to me in the past.
 
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King Kevain

King Kevain

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Dec 10, 2014
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I wonder if you're overthinking it - have you tried changing screen? And what about the Lead from your GPU to the monitor?

Check the temps of your GPU and CPU - this could be a heat issue - this will make the drivers crash, PC crash, Black Screen, Freeze.

From the installs, change of GFX etc. It sounds like a Hardware issue, as you've swapped pretty much everything else but the CPU and RAM (And you tested the RAM) - maybe time to try replacing the CPU, maybe it's damaged.
 
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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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Yes, the audio is still there and the computer remains on. It has restarted on occasion, but it almost always stays on.
 
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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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I actually got a new monitor and cord, as well. The temps have been in the 40's for pretty much the whole time. I used GPU-Z and noticed that my GPU usage will shoot up to 99% sometimes. However, it's not always at 99% when I get a black screen. Sometimes it'll only be around 30-40% usage. I'm hesitant to replace my CPU because nothing else I've done has fixed the problem.
 
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Alectfenrir

Alectfenrir

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Jun 26, 2014
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Well this happened to me in the past, and how I fixed it was that I changed the Storage configuration in the BIOS from IDE to ACHI, then the computer finally stopped giving me black screens. Maybe you should give it a shot? You could always change it back if it doesn't work.
 
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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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I tried that on my old motherboard before I got a new one. My current one is using ACHI by default, but I still get the black screens.
 
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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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I ordered a new PSU, so I'll see if that fixes anything next week. The PSU fan is making some rattling sounds, but it seems to be working.

I haven't found anything too significant in my Event Viewer. I just saw some driver crashes, reports of the computer not shutting down properly, etc.
 
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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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Well, I accidentally chose your question as "best solution" when I was scrolling down to answer it. Sometimes it says that my video drivers (AMD with the current card, Nvidia with the old one) have stopped responding and recovered. Also, I've been getting some BSODs lately. Management Error and just today Page Fault in Nonpaged Area. I've had some established issues with my wireless card and Windows 8.1, so I just attributed that to the drivers in the past, but maybe my RAM is bad and memtest just didn't pick it up? It's a known problem that my wireless card does not interact with Windows 8.1 well.
 
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Alectfenrir

Alectfenrir

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Jun 26, 2014
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A bit off topic but do you want me to un select the best solution? Some of us have the ability to do that even if we are not the authors

On topic: remove the old Nvidia drivers as they might conflict with the AMD drivers that can cause BSODs and such
 
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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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Yes, please do unselect the best solution. Thanks!

Yeah, I did that a while ago and have since done a clean install of windows and only installed the AMD drivers. All the Nvidia software is completely gone now, but the problem remains.
 
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nate1214

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Jan 21, 2015
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Okay, so the new psu came and it didn't fix anything. I'm returning it tomorrow.

However, I did find the cause of the issue. Even though I ran Memtest twice and used Windows RAM diagnostic tool, none of them caught that I had a bad RAM stick. Took it out and everything works perfectly, just a little slower.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
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