PC died... was it the videocard?

[KGlintborg]

Hey all.
First time poster so go easy on me, since I’m by no means an expert in computer software and/or hardware.
A little over 2 months ago I bought myself a new computer, since the old one died.
Intel® Core™ i5-4690 4x3.50GHz (Turbo 3.9GHz) 6MB cache
Kingston 16GB DDR3-1866 HyperX Fury RAM
500GB SSD Samsung 850 EVO
Asus GeForce GTX970 4GB GDDR5 OC
(here it is. https://www.mm-vision.dk/visiongaming/raptor-ultra-gamer-computer )
Sorry it’s in Danish
This came with a code for The Witcher 3: Wild hunt
Never since released (19-5-2015) I would have, as many others, a black screen after 5-30mins played. Tho for my it only happened once a day, which was when I got home from work. After that, I could play until midnight with no problems. Game was running smooth, no weird lags or anything other than that one black screen.
Then this last Friday (29-5-2015) it simply wouldn’t start. I could press start, but that was it. No respons to monitor, no sounds, fans were all running and even with no screen, even typing in my password I didn’t get the “magic” sound off logging in… couldn’t even shut it down holding the power button down. Only cutting the power worked.
I tried 2 different monitors and cables but nothing. Also tried taking out some of the hardware (videocard, RAM etc and put it back)… Nothing.

My question is.
Did witcher 3 kill my PC? Or did it tip it over the egde? Thought that PC should easily run it.
Drivers were up-to-date and most programs were too.
Anyone that might have an idea?

PS: I sent it back to the company for repair since they couldn’t help over the phone, will ofc update when I know something.

 

[Forgotten031511]

OK, so I will tell you that Witcher did NOT kill your computer. This system should of had no problem playing this game, all the specs are more than powerful enough for it.

Though, my next question relates to heat. Did your system get overly hot when playing this game or anything else recently that you noticed? Was there a power surge in your home?

It seems something in your system did die, though it is unclear what failed. Since you sent it back to the company for repairs, you can't test things with us here and someone else is repairing and can tell you more.

 

[KGlintborg]

Thanks for the fast reply Forgotten031511.

No power surge. Should have been when I was at Work that day, but PC was turned off.
When I got the PC I set the fans to 100% then hitting 65C or 70C can't remember. tho I never check during playing witcher.
I have never once heard anything from it (fans going bananas, weird sound etc).

Other then these Black screens happening in Witcher 3 everything was perfect. It haven't really been used much for other things then Witcher 3 (about 50 hours), WoW and Heroes of the Storm. Most game I have/had one the old one I thought I would just wait till I wanted to replay them before I would re-install them.

My own guess (which is that of an amateur) is that I have just been unlucky with faulty hardware.?

 

[Forgotten031511]

Well, it is either a hardware failure somewhere or drivers. If it only happens during Witcher, it may be a driver issue and not hardware problems. If it happens all the time, then it is more likely hardware faults.

Hope I helped

 

[sz0ty0l4]

seems like a power supply issue to me.

 

[KGlintborg]

@Forgotten031511.
I thoughts too, but seeing the Black screen only happened once a day I'm leaning towards hardware. stupidly enough I never took a look at the window event logs.

@sz0ty0l4
How come?

 

[sz0ty0l4]

I think it may be a psu failure, because it seems your fans are powered up but the pc won't start and also you won't have display. you said that you tried to take out the gpu and run the display from the igpu , so this means that it's not the gpus fault.
maybe the psu can provide enough power to turn the fans on, but the 12v rail may be damaged so the pc won't turn on.
you also said you changed the ram sticks, so its not a ram failure.
it could be a disk failure but since there is no display and you cant get into the BIOS screen it's not a disk failure.

If you can't get to BIOS screen i see 3possible reasons left:

psu failure
cpu failure
mobo failure

judgeing from experience the most likely is the psu from this 3. simply because statistics shows this. ofc it can happen that your mobo is damaged or the cpu is faulty but it's far less likely than a psu failure which is pretty common

i tried to check the link of your PC, but i was unable to determine the PSU , because i dont understand a word and i didn't find any keywords like " watt or anything that could tell me the psu

 

[Blaze125]

@Forgotten031511.
I thoughts too, but seeing the Black screen only happened once a day I'm leaning towards hardware. stupidly enough I never took a look at the window event logs.

@sz0ty0l4
How come?

I also think it is a power supply issue. I had a similar problem to this, VERY SIMILAR. I was playing the Witcher 3 and suddenly my computer turned off. Only way I could turn it on would be by hitting the power supply switch and then hitting the power button on my PC. Since this was the only way to turn it on and give it some juice I assumed it was a power issue. Even then it only turned on for about 10 minutes and would shut off and repeat...the next day it worked fine....then the cycle started again and again. Everything else in my system was working fine, I tested the parts. I got the power supply replaced by a corsair HX series HX750.

I would ask you to list your power supply to see if it was a good one but you said you sent the PC back for repair.
It's always good to check the power supply wattages even when buying a pre built machine.

 

[Forgotten031511]

Blaze has a VERY VALID point, I had similar issues I now recall after reading this...though, it was back in the FarCry (original) days. My ATI X700 didn't have enough power and I would get pink highlights, then eventually the game would crash. Turned out the PSU was too weak.

 

[KGlintborg]

i tried to check the link of your PC, but i was unable to determine the PSU , because i dont understand a word and i didn't find any keywords like " watt or anything that could tell me the psu

PSU is Zalman ZM700 80plus
http://zalman.com/eng/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=642
EDIT: Link