Monitor or Video card issue

[Evil-Santa]

Hi All,

I have the following issue that I could use some help with where either my video card or monitors are locking up or just not working.

System Spec’s
CPU: Intel I7-950
Mother Board Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 V.2, Bios : FF
Memory: 12 GB (Corsair)
PSU: Corsair HX 750
Monitors: 1 Dell U2711 (DVI Connection) , 2 x dell 2713U (display Port, daisy chained)
GPU: sapphire
Radeon Sapphire Tri-X R9-290
HD: 1 x Samsung 840 Pro(512 GB), 1 x corsair Force 3 (240GB), 1 x WD Black 2 TB, 1 x WD Black 4 TB
Other: corsair Hydro series H100i
Other: Display port cables replaced by ACCELL branded ones
Other: Sound is connecting direct to back of PC and not via the display port.

• All drivers are at latest. Issue has occurred through multiple upgrades of drivers.
• No overclocking on any part
• All items handled with care to ovoid damage (EG static)


Symptoms
1. PC will “nearly” lock up. Movement of mouse across screen take 20 to 30 seconds to respond, then moves in large leaps. Unplugging and reconnecting the power to the Display port connected Monitors fixes this until next occurrence. This occurs quite at least once a day.
2. Will get a flicker across all monitors. When it starts occurring it usually is a precursor to next issue. 1-2 times a week.
3. Both monitors connected by display port will suddenly go into sleep mode and will sometimes not come back out. A reboot is required for these to come back. (2-3 times a week) sometimes the DVI connected monitor will also do the same thing at the same time. (1 times a week)
4. After bios screens, when windows loads, but before log in issue 3 occurs.
5. Second connected display port stops working and message about display port appears on screen. Display port bandwidth drops to DP 1.1a bandwidth

• 
  Issue 1 occurred from day 1. Other issues have started occurring over the last 6 weeks.
  NO BSOD or other crashes.
  Issue seems to occur when a demand is made on the GPU. EG FPS game on one screen and browsing on second screen. I either play a video locally or go to a site with video on it and the issue sometimes occurs. Cannot reproduce this reliably.
  Sometimes the games video will lock up. The game is running in the background and continues yet the image is static. (Game can be killed) This may be an unrelated issue

Actions taken:

1. Uninstalling and reinstalling display drivers. No Change
2. Replacing Dell Supplied Display port cables. No change
3. Running a separate PC to monitors. Issue does not occur with display port attached Laptop. (Cannot test daisy chain and laptop only has a a v1.1 Display port)
4. Reseating all components (All devices as dust free as possible)
5. Case is well ventilated. Neither video or CPU displaying excessive temperatures

Have Not tried
1. Reinstalled OS from scratch, though the PC was a clean build when the graphic card was installed.

I think this might be a problem with my Video card. Any Idea’s on what I could try next or should I try and get the video card repaired? (it’s been too long to take the item back to the store)

Thanks in advance

 

[HeptTech]

Hey Santa,

It sounds like it can be more than one problem. Try hooking up all three monitors directly to the gpu instead of daisy chaining. if that doesn't work than i fear it may be your gpu. Try running one monitor and see how it performs. Also try running some test on your Ram, the random lockups seem to point at that.

Also, the cpu you have is pushing a 3 monitor rig. Do you experience any jaggyness or spikes in games? The 3 monitor setup maybe putting a strain on your cpu. Check your temps. I see you have 12gb of ram? Is it dual 6gb? or Triple slot 4gb? If triple then try taking out a stick of ram and see what happens.