Brand new system - monitor goes black for few seconds on occasion

[MEC-777]

Just finished building my new mini-ITX gaming rig this past weekend. (first build in 10 years )

Specs:
CPU - i5-4570
CPU cooler - Stock Intel
Mobo - Gigabyte H87N wifi
RAM - Kingston Hyper X Black 8GB (2 x 4) 1600
GPU - Gigabyte Windforce HD7950
Storage - Samsung 840 120GB SSD
PSU - Cooler Master GX RS650W
Case - Node 304
Monitor - Acer 19" 1440 x 900 (about 7 years old)
OS - Windows 8

System runs great, blazing fast. Just to see what it could do, I loaded Crysis 2 and @1440 x 900 all max settings it runs at well over 100fps, averaging around 80-90 most of the time. Same story with Metal of Honor. I'm downloading Planetside 2 as I type this, so will see how well that runs.

The issue I'm having has only happened maybe 3 times thus far. Once while playing Crysis 2 and the other times, while doing random light tasks on the desktop and browsing the internet. The screen went black for 2-3 seconds, then came back. It did this maybe 2 to 3 times in a row, then was fine since.

I'm using the HDMI out on the GPU and an HDMI to DVI adapter on the monitor. Could that have something to do with this?

Also wondering if it's Windows doing some updates in the background and resetting the display for some reason?

All temps are well within safe limits. During gaming, all 4 cores rarely exceed 45*C and sit around 30*C under normal usage. Same with the GPU. 45 while gaming and 30-35 under normal use.

Any thoughts? I know the monitor is aging, but could this be a sign it's starting to die on me?


Any help, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Feldmarschall]

Hi,

It is possible that your HDMI+DVI connection is making problems. Try to DVI cable if you have one and check if problem occur again. I had simmillar problem with my own monitor and it was DVI connector loosing contact. Replaced cable and problem was solved.

Best regards

 

[MEC-777]

Hi,

It is possible that your HDMI+DVI connection is making problems. Try to DVI cable if you have one and check if problem occur again. I had simmillar problem with my own monitor and it was DVI connector loosing contact. Replaced cable and problem was solved.

Best regards

Thanks for the suggestion. A friend of mine suggested the same thing. I am using a rather cheap HDMI cable, and he pointed out that could very well be the problem.

I do have a DVI cable and will try switching to that. I used the HDMI because it was what I had close by at the time.

Thanks again. Will report back with the results.

 

[TeodoI7]

Make sure you have the latest drivers!

 

[MEC-777]

Make sure you have the latest drivers!

That was the first thing I did.

 

[MEC-777]

Swapping the cheap HDMI cable for a DVI cable seems to have done the trick. No more random blackouts.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[Feldmarschall]

Glad you made it