- Sep 14, 2011
- 2,222
- 1
- 20,510
Background - the system described in my signature below ran very stable for nearly 2 years running Win 7 Pro x64. Then almost 2 months ago we had a power outage, it didn't last 2 seconds and then lights came right back on, but as i leave the subject computer asleep most of the time, i went to check it and it had shut down. I had put off ordering a UPS for too long.
I rebooted, it booted fine (with the obvious message about not having shut down properly, did i want to start windows normally. I did, let it fully boot, then shut it down. While the UPS i had ordered came in, i would shut it down fully when not in use.
UPS came in, and i went back to the routine of simply putting computer to sleep when not in use. Then the issue started - when i'd try to wake the computer, it would wake to a black screen, no "no signal" message, but i don't think it ever got a signal to awaken. When it did that the only solution was to do a hard reset or hard reboot. So i went to totally shutting it down when not in use, but when i would boot it, it would sometimes boot to a black screen - POST screen would always display fine, then it'd go black before the windows 4 color dots start spiraling and form the microsoft logo. A short time later the "no signal" message appears and the display goes into power saving mode. Also there would not be that "windows is loaded" 4 note tune.
A hard reboot later, it'd be fine for awhile, ie full boot with display working, for the next 3 to 10 reboots.
Then i had a couple of BSODs, that would display the message, something to the effect "memory management related failure". So i ran Passmark's memtest86 for 9+ hours (halfway thru the 4th pass), and got no errors, but it froze the computer at that point. I then ran the windows memory diagnostic utility, and also got zero errors.
Then something in windows started corrupting - windows explorer was getting real sluggish, i'd reboot to see if it would recover functionality, but on each reboot, it would be worse, like someone had poured cold molasses on a HDD, to the point that i'd clik on the "My Computer" icon, 3-5 seconds later it would open a window but never fill in the drive icons. I tried the "remove all ram except for the 1 stick in the A1" slot, and that seemed to clear the issue for 3-4 days, but it would then return, becoming extremely sluggish, but no black screens. I tried removing all ram sticks but once again, and same result -fine for 2-3 days, but it the severe sluggishness returned.
At that point, i cloned a backup drive back to the OS drive, after wiping the OS drive 3X. As my mobo has a dual BIOS chip, ie a backup chip with BIOS, i swapped over to it - it had the same current BIOS. I also cleared CMOS.
It was fine for awhile, maybe 7-10 days, then the "black screen" event returned, whether returning from sleep or full boot. And again, it doesn't wake up to or boot to a black screen every time, but anywhere from every 3 to 10 times. Other times it will go to a black screen (and not recover) while browsing the web, - i might clik on a search result on amazon or at verizon's web, if i clikked on "watch FIOS". A few times, after rebooting, i'd go back to the same webpage, and clik on the same link and it would go black again - so that's what's telling me it's something corrupted in windows, but i had cloned a clean backup copy of the OS back to the OS.
The one thing i didn't mention early, that backup SSD, whenever i download window's updates to the OS drive, i then reboot on the backup clone drive and download those same updates to it, just to keep it current.
I have run every malware/trojan/spyware utility majorgeeks.com had listed, nothing found.
I've run Furmark gpu stress utility, at full 4k or 2160 resolution, nothing issues, no overheating. I then re-installed every driver, intel engine management, chipset driver, anything related to graphics, display or audio. It then ran fine for 3-4 days, then another black screen.
I found Nvidia had released a newer driver for my GPU, so i downloaded & installed it - ran fine, again for 3 - 4 days, then black screen syndrone returned. When i downloaded the updated Nvidia driver, i then booted up on the backup SSD, figured i'd download that driver to it, and while it was downloading, i got a black screen. I left it alone for about 30 minutes, to let the driver finish downloading. When i did a hard reset to boot that drive back up, it started again downloading that Nvidia driver. But i think it giving me that black screen eliminates the OS drive as the culprit for the black screen.
In researching utilities to stress test my GPU (Zotac GTX 1070 mini, 8 GB) i found some info that Nvidia had used Micron chips on some of the 1070s when the samsung chips were in short supply, and those micron chips were causing issues with crashes, artifacts etc. Checked my gpu, and it had the Micron chip - I contacted Zotac and they emailed me an updated GPU VBIOS for use with the Micron chips, and that's been installed.
I rebooted, it booted fine (with the obvious message about not having shut down properly, did i want to start windows normally. I did, let it fully boot, then shut it down. While the UPS i had ordered came in, i would shut it down fully when not in use.
UPS came in, and i went back to the routine of simply putting computer to sleep when not in use. Then the issue started - when i'd try to wake the computer, it would wake to a black screen, no "no signal" message, but i don't think it ever got a signal to awaken. When it did that the only solution was to do a hard reset or hard reboot. So i went to totally shutting it down when not in use, but when i would boot it, it would sometimes boot to a black screen - POST screen would always display fine, then it'd go black before the windows 4 color dots start spiraling and form the microsoft logo. A short time later the "no signal" message appears and the display goes into power saving mode. Also there would not be that "windows is loaded" 4 note tune.
A hard reboot later, it'd be fine for awhile, ie full boot with display working, for the next 3 to 10 reboots.
Then i had a couple of BSODs, that would display the message, something to the effect "memory management related failure". So i ran Passmark's memtest86 for 9+ hours (halfway thru the 4th pass), and got no errors, but it froze the computer at that point. I then ran the windows memory diagnostic utility, and also got zero errors.
Then something in windows started corrupting - windows explorer was getting real sluggish, i'd reboot to see if it would recover functionality, but on each reboot, it would be worse, like someone had poured cold molasses on a HDD, to the point that i'd clik on the "My Computer" icon, 3-5 seconds later it would open a window but never fill in the drive icons. I tried the "remove all ram except for the 1 stick in the A1" slot, and that seemed to clear the issue for 3-4 days, but it would then return, becoming extremely sluggish, but no black screens. I tried removing all ram sticks but once again, and same result -fine for 2-3 days, but it the severe sluggishness returned.
At that point, i cloned a backup drive back to the OS drive, after wiping the OS drive 3X. As my mobo has a dual BIOS chip, ie a backup chip with BIOS, i swapped over to it - it had the same current BIOS. I also cleared CMOS.
It was fine for awhile, maybe 7-10 days, then the "black screen" event returned, whether returning from sleep or full boot. And again, it doesn't wake up to or boot to a black screen every time, but anywhere from every 3 to 10 times. Other times it will go to a black screen (and not recover) while browsing the web, - i might clik on a search result on amazon or at verizon's web, if i clikked on "watch FIOS". A few times, after rebooting, i'd go back to the same webpage, and clik on the same link and it would go black again - so that's what's telling me it's something corrupted in windows, but i had cloned a clean backup copy of the OS back to the OS.
The one thing i didn't mention early, that backup SSD, whenever i download window's updates to the OS drive, i then reboot on the backup clone drive and download those same updates to it, just to keep it current.
I have run every malware/trojan/spyware utility majorgeeks.com had listed, nothing found.
I've run Furmark gpu stress utility, at full 4k or 2160 resolution, nothing issues, no overheating. I then re-installed every driver, intel engine management, chipset driver, anything related to graphics, display or audio. It then ran fine for 3-4 days, then another black screen.
I found Nvidia had released a newer driver for my GPU, so i downloaded & installed it - ran fine, again for 3 - 4 days, then black screen syndrone returned. When i downloaded the updated Nvidia driver, i then booted up on the backup SSD, figured i'd download that driver to it, and while it was downloading, i got a black screen. I left it alone for about 30 minutes, to let the driver finish downloading. When i did a hard reset to boot that drive back up, it started again downloading that Nvidia driver. But i think it giving me that black screen eliminates the OS drive as the culprit for the black screen.
In researching utilities to stress test my GPU (Zotac GTX 1070 mini, 8 GB) i found some info that Nvidia had used Micron chips on some of the 1070s when the samsung chips were in short supply, and those micron chips were causing issues with crashes, artifacts etc. Checked my gpu, and it had the Micron chip - I contacted Zotac and they emailed me an updated GPU VBIOS for use with the Micron chips, and that's been installed.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram