Screen Goes Black While Playing Certain Games
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Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
godsnightmare21
December 13, 2010 3:47:35 AM
Okay, so I've got some weird problem. While playing certain games, and noticed certain, my screen will go completely black, and then stay that way. I can still hear sounds, but I cannot Alt+Tab or anything like that. So, the only thing I can do is manually shut down my machine.
Now, I've tested this on 4 games. I started seeing it on Starcraft 2, which it seemed like it was the game, because many people complained about a similar problem. After playing the game for maybe 30 mins, the game would freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, and I'd have to manually shut off my computer.
I also play a lot of Bad Company 2. This never happens in Bad Company 2, ever. I could for for hours and hours perfectly fine.
I also played Medal of Honor, this also seemed fine. I only played for 2 or three games, maybe like an hour, but nothing was out of the ordinary.
And lastly, I've started playing Mass Effect 1. It happens in this game as well, to an extent. AFter playing for about an hour, the game will freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, BUT, the game would come back. As if something popped up on my desktop on it minimized and re-mazimised real quick. It will do this often, go black and then recover, but eventaully, if will go black permanetly, and I'll have to restart my computer.
I haven't tried any other games yet, I'll try Left 4 Dead 2 and Crysis and some other stuff tomorrow.
All my drivers are up to date. And my temps seems fine. The highest my tempature got while playing Medal of Honor was 94C for my graphics card, which is the GTX 295. With the GTX 295 being a "sandwich" card. these temps are pretty normal for me. I haven't looked at my CPU temps, but the last time I did, which was maybe a week or so ago while playing Bad Company 2, the highest was about 55-65C.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
System Specs:
EVGA GTX 295
ASUS M4N82 Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 945 @3.0GHz
ASUS Xonar DS Sound Card
4GB DDR2 RAM
750W PSU (I've tried out those "PSU Calculators" online, and most reccomend a 650 or 700W Power Supply, so I think my PSU isn't the problem.)
Again, thanks for any help.
Now, I've tested this on 4 games. I started seeing it on Starcraft 2, which it seemed like it was the game, because many people complained about a similar problem. After playing the game for maybe 30 mins, the game would freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, and I'd have to manually shut off my computer.
I also play a lot of Bad Company 2. This never happens in Bad Company 2, ever. I could for for hours and hours perfectly fine.
I also played Medal of Honor, this also seemed fine. I only played for 2 or three games, maybe like an hour, but nothing was out of the ordinary.
And lastly, I've started playing Mass Effect 1. It happens in this game as well, to an extent. AFter playing for about an hour, the game will freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, BUT, the game would come back. As if something popped up on my desktop on it minimized and re-mazimised real quick. It will do this often, go black and then recover, but eventaully, if will go black permanetly, and I'll have to restart my computer.
I haven't tried any other games yet, I'll try Left 4 Dead 2 and Crysis and some other stuff tomorrow.
All my drivers are up to date. And my temps seems fine. The highest my tempature got while playing Medal of Honor was 94C for my graphics card, which is the GTX 295. With the GTX 295 being a "sandwich" card. these temps are pretty normal for me. I haven't looked at my CPU temps, but the last time I did, which was maybe a week or so ago while playing Bad Company 2, the highest was about 55-65C.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
System Specs:
EVGA GTX 295
ASUS M4N82 Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 945 @3.0GHz
ASUS Xonar DS Sound Card
4GB DDR2 RAM
750W PSU (I've tried out those "PSU Calculators" online, and most reccomend a 650 or 700W Power Supply, so I think my PSU isn't the problem.)
Again, thanks for any help.
More about : screen black playing games
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Reply to godsnightmare21
gracefully
December 13, 2010 7:11:59 AM
Tamz_msc
December 13, 2010 8:38:29 AM
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vvhocare5
December 13, 2010 3:28:20 PM
If the screen blanks out but the game continues, it is an issue with the graphics card.
This can be the card or the power supply that feeds it. There is a small chance its the driver. You can try running the memtest and furmark to see if you can replicate it but you cannot tell which device it is without swapping or replacing parts.
The cheapest first step is to test, reinstall the OS then begin replacing components if it continues to fail.
This can be the card or the power supply that feeds it. There is a small chance its the driver. You can try running the memtest and furmark to see if you can replicate it but you cannot tell which device it is without swapping or replacing parts.
The cheapest first step is to test, reinstall the OS then begin replacing components if it continues to fail.
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godsnightmare21
December 13, 2010 7:34:18 PM
godsnightmare21
December 13, 2010 8:17:35 PM
Could it be that my resolution setting in the game was set to 60Hz when in the Nvidia control panel the card was on 59Hz?
I thought my Hz was set to 60 by default, i was just looking through and noticed it was on 59, and in Starcraft I had it set to 60Hz. I don't think Bad Company or Medal of Honor ask what Hz you want, only the actual resolution.
So, could this be the problem?
I thought my Hz was set to 60 by default, i was just looking through and noticed it was on 59, and in Starcraft I had it set to 60Hz. I don't think Bad Company or Medal of Honor ask what Hz you want, only the actual resolution.
So, could this be the problem?
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godsnightmare21
December 13, 2010 8:38:10 PM
Forget the above post, Left 4 Dead still crashed to a black screen. So, its either my PSU or GPU. Sound like this could get expensive...
After I manually reboot my computer because of the black screen, it sometimes takes a bit longer than normal to log in and boot and such. Does this give any clues to just what is causing the problem? PSU, GPU, or something else?
After I manually reboot my computer because of the black screen, it sometimes takes a bit longer than normal to log in and boot and such. Does this give any clues to just what is causing the problem? PSU, GPU, or something else?
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Tamz_msc
December 14, 2010 8:32:16 AM
gracefully
December 14, 2010 11:21:52 AM
Normally, the computer takes longer to boot whenever it has been improperly shut down.
Are all your device drivers up to date? Not just the GPU's, but the sound, chipset, etc. drivers should also be up to date. Bad drivers for other components can also cause system instability.
When did this problem start, anyway? Was it when you installed a new set of drivers, new hardware, or anything else? You can also try looking at BIOS updates for your mainboard and see if a problem like yours has been fixed by a BIOS update (although this is highly unlikely. BIOS updates generally add compatibility for new processors/memory modules).
Are all your device drivers up to date? Not just the GPU's, but the sound, chipset, etc. drivers should also be up to date. Bad drivers for other components can also cause system instability.
When did this problem start, anyway? Was it when you installed a new set of drivers, new hardware, or anything else? You can also try looking at BIOS updates for your mainboard and see if a problem like yours has been fixed by a BIOS update (although this is highly unlikely. BIOS updates generally add compatibility for new processors/memory modules).
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godsnightmare21
December 14, 2010 7:34:36 PM
I was playing Starcraft II last for for maybe an hour and a half!! Much longer than what I was able to play previously. I also played Left 4 Dead for a good while without problems.
So, it may be fixed, but I'm going to test some more and get back to this.
I'm not sure what i did. Well, all I did was try switching the PCI slot the graphics card was in to a different one. When I did that, it still didn't work. So I switches it back to the other PCI slot so the two PCI slot GPU fans I have would be more effective, and then boom. Hadn't had the black screen. BUT, that was last night, and I didn't get to test it extensively, so I'm going to go do that now, and I will reply here if the problem really does seemed to be gone.
So, it may be fixed, but I'm going to test some more and get back to this.
I'm not sure what i did. Well, all I did was try switching the PCI slot the graphics card was in to a different one. When I did that, it still didn't work. So I switches it back to the other PCI slot so the two PCI slot GPU fans I have would be more effective, and then boom. Hadn't had the black screen. BUT, that was last night, and I didn't get to test it extensively, so I'm going to go do that now, and I will reply here if the problem really does seemed to be gone.
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godsnightmare21
December 14, 2010 10:06:33 PM
gracefully
December 15, 2010 7:22:52 AM
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worthydaydream
May 5, 2012 12:06:29 PM
I have been having the same issue. Sometimes the screen goes black after only ten minutes, so it's definitely not an overheating issue. I have this issue with random facebook games.
I use a NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT on a home built PC.
I will try reseating and switching the molex and hopefully that will work.
I use a NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT on a home built PC.
I will try reseating and switching the molex and hopefully that will work.
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NightWolf20
April 4, 2013 10:34:29 AM
godsnightmare21 said:
Okay, so I've got some weird problem. While playing certain games, and noticed certain, my screen will go completely black, and then stay that way. I can still hear sounds, but I cannot Alt+Tab or anything like that. So, the only thing I can do is manually shut down my machine. Now, I've tested this on 4 games. I started seeing it on Starcraft 2, which it seemed like it was the game, because many people complained about a similar problem. After playing the game for maybe 30 mins, the game would freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, and I'd have to manually shut off my computer.
I also play a lot of Bad Company 2. This never happens in Bad Company 2, ever. I could for for hours and hours perfectly fine.
I also played Medal of Honor, this also seemed fine. I only played for 2 or three games, maybe like an hour, but nothing was out of the ordinary.
And lastly, I've started playing Mass Effect 1. It happens in this game as well, to an extent. AFter playing for about an hour, the game will freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, BUT, the game would come back. As if something popped up on my desktop on it minimized and re-mazimised real quick. It will do this often, go black and then recover, but eventaully, if will go black permanetly, and I'll have to restart my computer.
I haven't tried any other games yet, I'll try Left 4 Dead 2 and Crysis and some other stuff tomorrow.
All my drivers are up to date. And my temps seems fine. The highest my tempature got while playing Medal of Honor was 94C for my graphics card, which is the GTX 295. With the GTX 295 being a "sandwich" card. these temps are pretty normal for me. I haven't looked at my CPU temps, but the last time I did, which was maybe a week or so ago while playing Bad Company 2, the highest was about 55-65C.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
System Specs:
EVGA GTX 295
ASUS M4N82 Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 945 @3.0GHz
ASUS Xonar DS Sound Card
4GB DDR2 RAM
750W PSU (I've tried out those "PSU Calculators" online, and most reccomend a 650 or 700W Power Supply, so I think my PSU isn't the problem.)
Again, thanks for any help.
I also recently started having exactly the same problem. I have an Nvidia GTS 240. The sounds keeps playing but the display is gone and i have to reboot. What I have noticed is that it only happens when I'm playing a game on steam. So, I'm wondering if this could be related to their network. They've made quite a few upgrades recently. Are your games also on Steam?
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darthdenmark
April 18, 2013 9:36:47 PM
I already put this in another thread, but I really hope it helps everyone here out.
Okay, so I just built my first rig using the most recent systems builder guides from Tom's and another website and I came across this exact issue with my Powercolor AMD HD 7800. I would play various games (Bioshock: Infinite, Skyrim: Ubber Mod Tastic Version) and at some unbeknownst point, the game would black screen, audio would continue, and I would have to do a hard reboot.
-I tested my RAM, it was fine
-I re installed drivers, that was not the issue
-I re installed my OS, still no luck
-I re installed the game, still no good
-I eagle eyed my gpu/cpu temps with HWMonitor, and they were clean and cool
-I cried
The same think kept happening...it became was very visible however, when I used Furmark, that the problem had to be my GPU. About 800-900 frames in my shiny new computer would black screen and I would have to hard restart. Luckily I came across a piece of advice that I found on these boards.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/345490-31-crashing-ga...
My new hero Anonymous states that all you have to do is under-throttle your GPU and memory by 40MHz. So I went to Catalyst Control Center and decreased both my "GPU clock settings" and "Memory clock settings" by 40MHz (from the original factory settings). BAM! Suddenly Furmark isn't causing everything to black screen.
Give this a try and I really hope it works. It was an incredibly frustration problem for me, and I felt your pain, so I created an account in an attempt to help.
Let me know if it works for anyone! And If anyone here knows how to circumvent the situation WITHOUT a very small performance decrease in the over-throttling please enlighten me (:
Okay, so I just built my first rig using the most recent systems builder guides from Tom's and another website and I came across this exact issue with my Powercolor AMD HD 7800. I would play various games (Bioshock: Infinite, Skyrim: Ubber Mod Tastic Version) and at some unbeknownst point, the game would black screen, audio would continue, and I would have to do a hard reboot.
-I tested my RAM, it was fine
-I re installed drivers, that was not the issue
-I re installed my OS, still no luck
-I re installed the game, still no good
-I eagle eyed my gpu/cpu temps with HWMonitor, and they were clean and cool
-I cried
The same think kept happening...it became was very visible however, when I used Furmark, that the problem had to be my GPU. About 800-900 frames in my shiny new computer would black screen and I would have to hard restart. Luckily I came across a piece of advice that I found on these boards.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/345490-31-crashing-ga...
My new hero Anonymous states that all you have to do is under-throttle your GPU and memory by 40MHz. So I went to Catalyst Control Center and decreased both my "GPU clock settings" and "Memory clock settings" by 40MHz (from the original factory settings). BAM! Suddenly Furmark isn't causing everything to black screen.
Give this a try and I really hope it works. It was an incredibly frustration problem for me, and I felt your pain, so I created an account in an attempt to help.
Let me know if it works for anyone! And If anyone here knows how to circumvent the situation WITHOUT a very small performance decrease in the over-throttling please enlighten me (:
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Striker082
April 29, 2013 2:42:13 AM
godsnightmare21 said:
Okay, so I've got some weird problem. While playing certain games, and noticed certain, my screen will go completely black, and then stay that way. I can still hear sounds, but I cannot Alt+Tab or anything like that. So, the only thing I can do is manually shut down my machine. Now, I've tested this on 4 games. I started seeing it on Starcraft 2, which it seemed like it was the game, because many people complained about a similar problem. After playing the game for maybe 30 mins, the game would freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, and I'd have to manually shut off my computer.
I also play a lot of Bad Company 2. This never happens in Bad Company 2, ever. I could for for hours and hours perfectly fine.
I also played Medal of Honor, this also seemed fine. I only played for 2 or three games, maybe like an hour, but nothing was out of the ordinary.
And lastly, I've started playing Mass Effect 1. It happens in this game as well, to an extent. AFter playing for about an hour, the game will freeze for a second, then the screen will go black, BUT, the game would come back. As if something popped up on my desktop on it minimized and re-mazimised real quick. It will do this often, go black and then recover, but eventaully, if will go black permanetly, and I'll have to restart my computer.
I haven't tried any other games yet, I'll try Left 4 Dead 2 and Crysis and some other stuff tomorrow.
All my drivers are up to date. And my temps seems fine. The highest my tempature got while playing Medal of Honor was 94C for my graphics card, which is the GTX 295. With the GTX 295 being a "sandwich" card. these temps are pretty normal for me. I haven't looked at my CPU temps, but the last time I did, which was maybe a week or so ago while playing Bad Company 2, the highest was about 55-65C.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
System Specs:
EVGA GTX 295
ASUS M4N82 Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 945 @3.0GHz
ASUS Xonar DS Sound Card
4GB DDR2 RAM
750W PSU (I've tried out those "PSU Calculators" online, and most reccomend a 650 or 700W Power Supply, so I think my PSU isn't the problem.)
Again, thanks for any help.
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Striker082
April 29, 2013 2:51:46 AM
So yah, ive got a simular problem, and ive got a brand spankers new pc w asus P8 z77 m pro mother board 2x 4g ram i5 processor and 2g hd 7850 xfire saphhire graphics card runs smooth laike no ones business on all games even assasins creedIII and battle field 3, this is only a thought maybe even a question, what about a Bios update and graphics card driver update? Could this be the solution? And how tHe hec do i do a bios update? Ive tried everything DIY time to ask the Pro's?
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Chase Lendry
December 28, 2013 11:33:59 AM
Maarten Gibens
December 31, 2013 12:14:49 AM
wessa
February 11, 2014 9:03:35 PM
Having the same problem. Computer randomly blackscreens while in games. And require a force reboot. Sounds can still be heard, fans are still spinning and the pc seens to be running fine, just cannot alt tab or switch programs. Using Windows 8 pro. Im running sapphire hd 7870 gpu. With Intel i7-3770 cpu @ 3.4ghz. tauro 80plus bronze psu. 32gb ram. Z77 extreme4 motherboard.
I'm having the problem while running world of warcraft. Really need help with this!! Tried reinstalling operating system, and games, and ran temp info nothing is getting hot.
I'm having the problem while running world of warcraft. Really need help with this!! Tried reinstalling operating system, and games, and ran temp info nothing is getting hot.
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Koelewijn
March 15, 2014 11:48:54 AM
Hello,
I used to have the same problem, the screen fades black, and my fan makes a lot of noise. I can run Battlefield 4 perfectly, but wasn't able to run one of my favorite games : Far cry 3. I actually bought BattleField 4, and I've downloaded a pirated version of Far Cry 3... apparently when it's an illegal download. it can't get updated... and that is mostly the problem so maybe buying a legal game, solves your problem.
.
I used to have the same problem, the screen fades black, and my fan makes a lot of noise. I can run Battlefield 4 perfectly, but wasn't able to run one of my favorite games : Far cry 3. I actually bought BattleField 4, and I've downloaded a pirated version of Far Cry 3... apparently when it's an illegal download. it can't get updated... and that is mostly the problem so maybe buying a legal game, solves your problem.
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W4rst0p3r
May 3, 2014 5:39:25 PM
I'm having that same problem from time to time pc freezes up screen goes black, then after a few secs goes back up again in what it was doing, and i notice that every other program running craches, for example a firefox etc... From what i could remember this problem started ocurring to me when i added my 2cond monitor a few weeks back. Can someone help me in what to do ? I already removed the 2cond monitor to see if the problem would resolve but aparently it still remains...
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eladrion
May 3, 2014 6:23:43 PM
Chase Lendry
May 3, 2014 6:41:40 PM
eladrion
May 3, 2014 6:44:00 PM
W4rst0p3r
May 3, 2014 10:11:56 PM
Karadjgne
May 3, 2014 10:37:57 PM
What none have said is exactly what psu. 750w should be overkill for any system not using multiple gpus. That said, there are more than a few really crappy psu designs out there, especially the ones with quad 12v rails. Those pos's run dedicated rails and will only put out 18-20 amp per rail. That's 30ish total for PCIe. That's fine for a gtx 760 or below, but death for a 770 or some older cards that require high amps. This means black screens for sure.
Ram errors most normally end with a bluescreen. Driver errors can go either black or blue. Unless you have actual ATI or nvidia cards, always dl drivers from your gpu manufacturer directly, not from nvidia or AMD sites, unless the manufacturer directs you there.
Ram errors most normally end with a bluescreen. Driver errors can go either black or blue. Unless you have actual ATI or nvidia cards, always dl drivers from your gpu manufacturer directly, not from nvidia or AMD sites, unless the manufacturer directs you there.
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eladrion
May 4, 2014 2:46:36 AM
Karadjgne
May 4, 2014 10:31:43 AM
Since you have a quality psu, chances are very good that you can rule that out as an issue. This would leave you with driver errors. On this I have 2suggestions. If you do not have latest drivers from your gpu manufacturer, get them. If you do have latest drivers, uninstall and dl a prior version if neither fixes the problem, dl the drivers direct from nvidia or AMD.
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