Black screen with sound and "Please power down and connect the PCIe Power Cable...."

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liksy1000

Oct 15, 2018
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I week ago my monitors randomly went black while using the computer, the sound keeps running (music and VoIP) but as screen didn't turn on I restarted, but then it just happened again. It happenes with random invervals could be 5 hours could be 10 minutes.

Today as I restarted I got the "Please power down and connect the PCIe Power Cable is Graphics Card" so i guess it is either the power supply or the graphic card. But after restarting another time it now works (for now).

As I do not have access to a new power supply or Graphics card to test which is faulty is there any I can debug this myself to find the source of the problem?
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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Name the components in question. Something obvious may jump out.

But my guess would be that the power supply is older and when heating up is unable to deliver enough voltage to keep the GPU happy. ATX standard specifies a minimum if 11.4 volts on the 12V rail. If it is getting lower then that the computer should shut down, the GPU might just be calibrated a little tighter and is shutting down first.

You can monitor the voltages through software and even log it to file and see if it drops down over time.

Or, if you have access to a multimeter, you can measure the voltage directly and see if it is within reason.
 
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liksy1000

Oct 15, 2018
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0
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Sorry for the late answer, I havn't had the time to further research the problem before now. So my PSU is a Corsair TX750, and my GPU is a GTX 970. PSU is around 8 years old with the rest of the components of the PC and the GPU is about 4 years old.

Do you have any suggestions for software? I havn't been able to find any that can log which is required since I need to hard reset PC when the black screen thing happens.
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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Plenty out there, but Hardware Monitor by CPUID is a common choice. You can also check voltages in the BIOS, though ideally you want to see what it is under load.

TX750 is plenty big, but 8 years old, eh, that could do it. Capacitors age over time. 4 year old GTX970, also a possibility if it has been heavily used. Make sure the fans are still good and clean it if you haven't in a while.
 
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