Black screen and sound loop on some games, computer straight up freezes on others.

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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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Hello, I've had this PC for around 2-3 years and I've been always having these problems, but never got around to really going at it hard to fix them. I have two big problems, that I would appreciate help with:

1. While playing games that require more resources. I get a black screen and a sound loop until after a few seconds I get a popup that AMD display drivers have stopped responding and have now recovered. I found out that this can be avoided by underclocking using MSI Afterburner.

2. Happens anytime, but mostly while playing League of Legends. What happens here is I get a short bzzzt in my headphones and the pc freezes completely. I can see the last frame on the screen but it's completely unresponsive and I need to restart the computer on the tower.

Specs (feel free to ask if you need any more information):
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 7950 3gb
PSU OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W
CPU: Intel i5 3570k
HDD: WD Red 3.5'' 1TB SATA3 64MB IntelliPower, 24x7, NASware™

Appreciate all help, thanks in advance!
 
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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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I remember a while ago, I checked them and my PC wasn't overheating as far as I recall. I'll check them again and really quick and report back with some numbers.
 
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Gamerboy999

Gamerboy999

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Okay, also how often do these happen? Is it everytime you launch the games or only occasinally?
 
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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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Okay, I wanted to check how high they were at time of crashing (the black screen and loop). Here are the results. Tried to take the screenshot as soon after crash as possible.

WdmbsiW.png
 
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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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The crash with black screen happens every 30-60 seconds if I don't underclock and the freeze seems like it's random, but I'd say it happens every hour or hour and a half.
 
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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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I updated my GPU drivers today, didn't help. Freezing to the point I need to restart happens in all games. Black screen with sound loop also happens on all newer games, but interestingly enough, I've never encountered it while playing League.
 
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luckeR

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May 3, 2016
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Hello,

blackscreen with sound loop in some games :X .. I have totally same problem like you do. Have you found something?

Because I have already did this and nothing helped..

- turn every OC
- installed new sound drivers (on board)
- latest GPU drivers
- in MSI Afterburned downclocked CoreClock -50MHz
- reinstalled win
- updated BIOS
- checked temperatures (everything is really great)
- bought new RAMs

CASE: Fractal Define R3
PSU: Seasonic X-560 GOLD
MB: MSI Z77A-GD65
CPU: CPU Intel® Core i5-3570K @ 4.4 GHz
CPU FAN: Noctua NH-D14
GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 670 OC (OC from factory)
RAM: Patriot DDR3 16GB KIT 1600MHz CL9 Viper 3
HDD1: Crucial M4 128GB
HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 3.5" 2TB ST2000DM001

I have totally no idea what to do next .. there is no BSOD.. just black screen + sound loop (sometimes after 10minutes of playing.. sometimes after 1-2 hours of playing)
 
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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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Yeah, sadly no luck for me I either, haven't figured anything out, think it's the PSU or GPU, but don't have the funds to switch the them out right now.
 
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luckeR

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May 3, 2016
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Same situation for me.. but I already RMA the GPU like 2 years ago and the problem still persists.

I thought that it can be PSU too - but I have no oportunity to try another one at the moment ://. And I also read somewhere on this site - that someome with similar problem tried to change the PSU and it did not help!

I am totally out of ideas.. what to try next..
 
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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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Well, I guess there aren't many more options at this point than trying to switch out the parts one by one. I'll probably start with the PSU when I get the opportunity, I'll post an update in here on if anything changed. Will take me a while though.

 
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luckeR

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May 3, 2016
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@PliauZkis !!! Man.. I've been sarching on the internet all day long.. and someone posted that nvidia hd audio driver did that to him. I disabled it in Device Manager and uninstalled nvidia hd audio drivers.

AND?!!?! I am playing 2 days without blackscreen.. try it too and let me know please ;)

edit: Oh.. you've got AMD video card. Maybe there is something like that for AMD too!
 
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PliauZkis

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Apr 3, 2013
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I disabled AMD High Definition Audio Device, will tell you if it helps after I test it for a couple of days.

 
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Perenthis

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Apr 17, 2016
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I'm having exactly the same issue, display input is lost and sound goes out with a buzzt, then the only thing to bring it back up is doing a restart from the button. The problem can happen litteraly any time, from the moment I log in the in-game world to 15 mins later, 1 hour, or it can even last 4 hours before locking up. I can provide info on what I've done so far to try and fix it in vain.

My specs are:
OS: Win7 SP1, all updates installed.
MB: Gigabyte Z170-HD3P
CPU: Intel Core i5 6500 @ 3.2GHz
CPU COOLER: Coolermaster Hyper TX3 EVO
RAM: Corsair Venegeneace DDR4 LPX 8GB (1 stick)
GPU: ASUS GTX970 STRIX
PSU: Be Quiet! Straight Power 10 - 80plus Gold - 600W

1. Have ran all sorts of stress tests with no red flags, temperatures are fine. Prime95 runs my CPU to 68C, FurMark runs my GPU at around 73C bu no game has managed temps that high on it yet. I've ran HCI MemTest 3 times already, one for an 100% test, one for over an hour and one for at least 8 hours while sleeping. No errors or artifacts or thermal problems on anything.

2. I have updated my BIOS, I made sure my graphics drivers are up to date (I re-downloaded, did a clean up with DDU and reinstalled for good measure), I disabled onboard audio to make sure it didn't conflict my Nvidia's audio driver (cause I use an HDMI cable to tranfer both video and sound from the TV) but it didn't work, games still do the weird lock up with the black screen and sound cut out. I might as well dust off my old speakers and try uninstalling Nvidia's HD audio too to try that out.

3. I tried putting the PC to sleep when it happened once, then power it up again to see if it would fix it, but it did not fix it, only a reboot via the Restart button would, or a complete power down and then boot up again. The PC DID go in sleep mode normaly which should indicate it's not a problem with Windows, since if Windows crashed, it would not work. So it's definately either a bad driver or bad hardware problem.

UPDATE:

I tried with speakers again, completely uninstalling Nvidia's HD Audio driver, this time the sound didn't cut off with a BZZT, I could hear the game for a split seccond after display cut off and then an error popup sound, then I am guessing the game stopped and nothing else played. There was no error on the Application or System logs that would explain anything though.
 
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luckeR

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May 3, 2016
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Did you try to disable Nvidia HD Audio in Device Manager? Because even when I unistalled the driver completely - I can still see my OnBoard Realtek + Nvidia HD Audio there (but I had to disable it manually) .
 
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Perenthis

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Apr 17, 2016
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Yes, I did disable everything regarding Nvidia HD audio and the black screen problem persisted.
 
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luckeR

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May 3, 2016
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OK - so try to underclock your GPU via MSI Afterburner. (core clock -75 Mhz and memory clock -50 Mhz). Everything else leave stock.
 
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Perenthis

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Apr 17, 2016
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I did that and clicked on the confirm button, for some weird reason it raised the idle temperature to 46C from the usual 41C
 
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luckeR

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May 3, 2016
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Just rise speed of your fan. But that's wierd...

Have you find something?
 
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Perenthis

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Apr 17, 2016
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I don't think it will help with anything, my card is just factory OC'd and the processor is well equipped to handle it, also if it doesn't replicate the issue with programs like FurMark, then I don't see how it might be the problem here. I've already ran it with Nvidia's Debug mode, which basically down-clocks it to reference stock clocks and when I did, all I got was the game litteraly causing the black screen issue the moment I got into the game world.

I've ran a bajillion stress tests and all of them come up with 0 errors, even ran MemTest 86 from the USB, to make perfectly sure that even the RAM used by Windows has 0 problems and it does indeed have 0 problems.

I'm more and more thinking that it's a software issue, my voltages, temps and tests all lead to a perfectly healthy computer.. but I can't understand what might be causing it.

The last test I can run right now is a long hard drive test (ran all short tests with SeaTools and no errors), but I don't think it has any problems. I could install Win10 and see if that fixes it.. but I have my doupts.
 
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luckeR

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May 3, 2016
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@Perenthis

Win10 did not help for me.. I was having this problem in Win7 too.

You have to have allowed only 1 audio driver in Device Manager (My Computer) - and it can't be Nvidia HD audio driver.

I was having in almost every new game this black screen + sound loop problem till these changes:

1) in MSI Afterburner I underclocked my GPU core clock by -50 Mhz. = STILL BLACK SCREEN + SOUND LOOP
2) in MSI Afterburner I underclocked my GPU core clock by -75 Mhz // memory clock by -50 Mhz // uninstalled Nvidia HD audio + disabled it in Device Manager = PROBLEM SOLVED !!!

For now.. I am going to test it for like an another week and after that.. I will set my GPU clocks to default and let you know.

But keep me informed guys - I was having this sh*tty problem for like 2 years!!! So annoying...
 
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Perenthis

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Apr 17, 2016
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I have already tried uninstalling Nvidia HD Audio and disabling the device and only running onboard sound and it did nothing to fix the problem.

I also tried the opposite, disabling onboard sound and uninstalling realtek audio and running only Nvidia HD audio, again it didn't fix it.

I have tried underclocking with Nvidia's Debug mode which restores factory overclocks to stock clocks. It didn't help either.

The problem is, I only have this issue when playing games that SPECIFICALLY require a lot of VRAM, anything that doesn't stress my VRAM. This is probably why Furmark can't reproduce this, cause I checked VRAM consumption for Furmark and it's nothing close to what games like Dark Souls 3 or Overwatch can consume.

I'm starting to believe that my graphics card has faulty VRAM, cause I've already ruled out all Software clashes, I checked my voltages under heavy load, my PSU is solid and it has enough wattage for a single 8-pin card like the STRIX, there's no application crashes, I don't actually get sound looping, sound does cut, but it might be cause of a crash and it doesn't cut violently.

I'll test playing with VRAM intensive settings turned down a notch to reduce VRAM load and see how stable that makes it, if it does not crash with less VRAM consumption, then my card does indeed have problematic VRAM and I will RMA it. I might also test it on my older rig, just for confirmation sake.
 
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