Blackscreen at startup [HELP]

[tigidig3x]

Hi guys. Can you help me about this strange problem im experiencing right now. The first problem occured when im playing songs to itunes. And while the song is playing and i am browsing music, the monitor suddenly goes black and after like 10 seconds, it goes up again and there is an error i forgot what error is that but i think it mentions "display". then after that, i just let it go . Then today, the problem occured again and this time, the monitor goes black (while the power is still turned on) and it didnt get back to normal. I checked the video card and its fan isnt working. Im not sure if the video card is really shut down but its fan isnt really working for sure coz i touched it. I had reset it, and
it goes back to normal again. Can you help me on this please.

And just now, my screen goes hanged again while playing fifa 13, and it goes black for like 5 seconds then, while it is stucked, i checked the video card and the fan is still spinning it pressed the caps lock key, it is still functional so i think the processsor is still powered on. Right now, im suspecting if the monitor is the problem, but im not sure just my speculation. Im still trying to find a second monitor to test. Please help me.. Thanks..

[Arclight]

Check item one in my sig.

That said the fact that the video card fan stops completly is what worries me. It could be a hardware problem instead of driver issue.

To help you check, please tell us your system specs, especially the video card model, vendor and if it has a custom design or not.

Then you could install a few programs to help you monitor the temperature of the video card (for nvidia there is MSI Afterburner) and see if it comes close to the thermal limit.

If it does then it's a failing hardware, i.e. video card fan is damaged, in which case you have 3 options:
- RMA the card if it's still in the warranty period;
- Buy and install an aftermarket cooler for the card (if RMA has expired);
- Buy a new video card.

[tigidig3x]

Check item one in my sig.

That said the fact that the video card fan stops completly is what worries me. It could be a hardware problem instead of driver issue.

To help you check, please tell us your system specs, especially the video card model, vendor and if it has a custom design or not.

Then you could install a few programs to help you monitor the temperature of the video card (for nvidia there is MSI Afterburner) and see if it comes close to the thermal limit.

If it does then it's a failing hardware, i.e. video card fan is damaged, in which case you have 3 options:
- RMA the card if it's still in the warranty period;
- Buy and install an aftermarket cooler for the card (if RMA has expired);
- Buy a new video card.

My system specs are:

Asus motherboard (forgot the exact model)
GT 220 1GB
4 GB ram
1024x768

by the way, there is only 1 time the fan has stopped completely (the only time is the time where i stated above) other than that, the cards fan never stopped when it goes black screen. What are the usual requirements to replace the card using warranty? And how many years? Because my computer is like 1 year old.

Im gonna try the MSI afterburner later, im still at school lab, i really cant help thinking about my computer slowly dying. hahaha

[Arclight]

GT 220

Thermal and Power Specs:
Maximum GPU Temperature (in C) 105 C
Maximum Graphics Card Power (W) 58 W
Minimum System Power Requirement (W) 300W
Source

If you see the temperature getting close to 100 C in afterburner then it's def. the cooler's fault.

Regarding Warranty, in Europe, by law we have a minimum of 2 years warranty so i presume that your PC is still under warranty.
But have you purchased it as a pre-built machine or have you bought individual parts and assembled them afterwards?

This matters because, usually, pre-built machine have some sort of seal on that case that will break when the case is opened. Since you say you noticed the video card stopping at some point i presume you already opened the case, which in most situations it means that you have broken the hipotetical seal on the case, thus voiding the warranty.

Still, this is a 58W card, so the fan stopping might even be by design since this sort of cards usually come with fanless heatsinks......Just check with afterburner to be sure though.

At this point i suppose the drivers are causing the issue. Please update to the latest video driver from nvidia that provides support for your video card and operating system. After that try to recreate the conditions in which the driver failed the first time and see if it happens again after the update.

[just brew it!]

I second Arclight's recommendation to try updating to the latest video card drivers and see if the problem still occurs.

If it does continue to happen, please write down the error message next time. It is difficult to help you troubleshoot if you can't remember what the error message said. It also helps if you use thread titles that actually relate to the problem you're having; a lot of people will just skip over generic "PLEASE HELP ME!" threads.

[tigidig3x]

Here is the Result of my afterburner MSI..

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/208/56934062.png/

Also, i bought this pc specs by specs. One thing also im being scared of using the warranty, is that i may not find anymore the receipt of this. Although the box and other documents of this card is in my hands.

Also, i just updated the latest driver for my video card yesterday, and now my pc crashed again. this time, i got the error message and here it is:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/525/98979911.png/

I think my pc crashes when im in desktop and "google chrome" is open or im using it. Because almost all times that my pc crashes, google chrome is open. Even the last time that my computer monitor turned black while playing fifa, chrome is open and i alt tabbed and it quickly came back to normal. I also read one solution of a guy in microsoft forums he said like this..:

"I don't know if your problem has been solved, but if not, I found a solution to the same problem. I was having the same issue for a half a year now, but only when I was browsing with Google's chrome. The thing which helped me was that within the chrome's settings, I had to disable one of the flashplayers, since it was crashing due to their clashing. (go to plugins - type chrome://plugins int the browser - check the flashplayer and if it has "2 files", you need to extand the line with the cross on the right side of the line, and disable one of the flashplayers. It pretty much solved my problem regarding the display driver stopped responding and has recovered issue.

I hope I helped somebody out there."

You think guys that solution is safe to follow? and worth it? Or im just thinking at the wrong way? Thanks.

@just brew it-- Thanks for the posting tips.

[Arclight]

Well i suppose i forgot to mention that the temperature reading we are looking for is ünder load". If you look at the pic you posted the GPU usage was very low. Please use a stress testing program to run the GPU close to full load for a few minutes and then see how high the temperature got. If it's close to 100 then you got a cooling problem causing maybe the card to stop sending signals and crushing the video drivers (i'm speculating here).

But the conditions you describe remind me (that's an understatement) of the thread i told you to read. Try to update the flash player and try out different browsers. Chrome has built in flash support iirc. Try using internet explorer or firefox with the relevant flash player plug-in.

For me the issue was fixed when i installed the 295.73 Geforce drivers and the latest version of flash player at that time. I'm using IE 9 on Windows 7 64 bit SP1 up to date.

[tigidig3x]

Well i suppose i forgot to mention that the temperature reading we are looking for is ünder load". If you look at the pic you posted the GPU usage was very low. Please use a stress testing program to run the GPU close to full load for a few minutes and then see how high the temperature got. If it's close to 100 then you got a cooling problem causing maybe the card to stop sending signals and crushing the video drivers (i'm speculating here).

But the conditions you describe remind me (that's an understatement) of the thread i told you to read. Try to update the flash player and try out different browsers. Chrome has built in flash support iirc. Try using internet explorer or firefox with the relevant flash player plug-in.

For me the issue was fixed when i installed the 295.73 Geforce drivers and the latest version of flash player at that time. I'm using IE 9 on Windows 7 64 bit SP1 up to date.

I used FurMark for the stress testing program for my GPU and here is the pic and temperatures:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/34287331.png/

I just tried it for like 4 minutes and immediately stopped after seeing my GPU temp raises to 70. Im scared, LOL. And it seems my GPU temperature is really increasing.

Also, i recently rolled back to the driver version you stated (i dit it by uninstalling my current latest nvidia driver and then installing the driver 295.73 please tell me if im doing it wrong) Im still gonna see if **** will happen again.

[tigidig3x]

by the way, im thinking again now, my monitor is the problem, since when i turned it on just right now, it has gone again to black screen, but the cpu and gpu fans are running. So i did was, pushed the power button once and i think, it shut down itself like normal but it has no display. i even heard the shutdown music. what are your thoughts guys?

[kumori]

70 is not that bad of a temp for a GPU. From the graph it looks like it stabilized at 70.

[tigidig3x]

Guys please i need more help. @Arclight boss, it seems my random black screen while using the computer is fixed by rolling back the driver to 295.xxx.. But the problem i have now, is, for example i start the computer from being "off" for 8 hours, it seems that when i press the power button everything works, the cpu, and gpu (im basing that they are working because of their fan) even the power button led lights are running but it seems not going to windows. And i really need to turn it off and by turning it on again, it would start normally and i can use it now. This happened 2 times since last day. Please help me.

[Arclight]

Guys please i need more help. @Arclight boss, it seems my random black screen while using the computer is fixed by rolling back the driver to 295.xxx.. But the problem i have now, is, for example i start the computer from being "off" for 8 hours, it seems that when i press the power button everything works, the cpu, and gpu (im basing that they are working because of their fan) even the power button led lights are running but it seems not going to windows. And i really need to turn it off and by turning it on again, it would start normally and i can use it now. This happened 2 times since last day. Please help me.

Understanding the issue(s)
Ok, slow down. Let us understand exactly what happens.

So when you start the computer, after it was shut down for many hours (shut down right, not hybernate or sleep?), the fans inside the computer case start spining, you hear the beeps from the motherboard speaker (like usual, nothing different right?), then what happens to the monitor?

Is there no image displayed? Do you get past the power on self test or not? If you do but there is no signal to the monitor then it's quite possible that the video card is broken. To confirm this you will have to borrow a working and compatible video card from a friend and see if the same thing happens. If you still get no video signal with a card that is known to work then the problem comes from the motherboard (most likely).

To confirm that the video card is broken or not, you could install in a computer that is known to be stable and see if it exhibits the same behaviour (that computer ofc, would have to have a PCI-E slot and a good enough power supply). If it replicates the problem, then you have pinpointed the issue, but if it works properly, then you can be pretty confident that it's the motherboards fault.

Furthur investigation could be done by testing with another power supply (again one from a friend that it's known to work without issue, or from a IT store close to you) and see if the problem persists.

Step by step troubleshooting
But we are still at the begining, let's take it step by step.

1st, describe exactly what happens. Look into the motherboard's manual and check the bios signals during post. There should be a number a "beeps" that say if everything, from the mobo's POV, is working fine. If you get the same number of beeps than it's most likely the video card's fault for this issue.
2nd Once you have established if the mobo POSTs every time or not you can move to the next step.

PS: since you didn't tell us what CPU/mobo you have idk if you have an integrated GPU you could test with, instead of using a dedicated video card from a friend.

[tigidig3x]

Guys please i need more help. @Arclight boss, it seems my random black screen while using the computer is fixed by rolling back the driver to 295.xxx.. But the problem i have now, is, for example i start the computer from being "off" for 8 hours, it seems that when i press the power button everything works, the cpu, and gpu (im basing that they are working because of their fan) even the power button led lights are running but it seems not going to windows. And i really need to turn it off and by turning it on again, it would start normally and i can use it now. This happened 2 times since last day. Please help me.

Understanding the issue(s)
Ok, slow down. Let us understand exactly what happens.

So when you start the computer, after it was shut down for many hours (shut down right, not hybernate or sleep?), the fans inside the computer case start spining, you hear the beeps from the motherboard speaker (like usual, nothing different right?), then what happens to the monitor?

Is there no image displayed? Do you get past the power on self test or not? If you do but there is no signal to the monitor then it's quite possible that the video card is broken. To confirm this you will have to borrow a working and compatible video card from a friend and see if the same thing happens. If you still get no video signal with a card that is known to work then the problem comes from the motherboard (most likely).

To confirm that the video card is broken or not, you could install in a computer that is known to be stable and see if it exhibits the same behaviour (that computer ofc, would have to have a PCI-E slot and a good enough power supply). If it replicates the problem, then you have pinpointed the issue, but if it works properly, then you can be pretty confident that it's the motherboards fault.

Furthur investigation could be done by testing with another power supply (again one from a friend that it's known to work without issue, or from a IT store close to you) and see if the problem persists.

Step by step troubleshooting
But we are still at the begining, let's take it step by step.

1st, describe exactly what happens. Look into the motherboard's manual and check the bios signals during post. There should be a number a "beeps" that say if everything, from the mobo's POV, is working fine. If you get the same number of beeps than it's most likely the video card's fault for this issue.
2nd Once you have established if the mobo POSTs every time or not you can move to the next step.

PS: since you didn't tell us what CPU/mobo you have idk if you have an integrated GPU you could test with, instead of using a dedicated video card from a friend.

Yes, not hibernate but full shutdown. I shutdown the computer at 9pm and when i turn it on again the next day like 10am onwards, this error appears. The power button led lights are turning, cpu and gpu fans are running, i dont hear any beeps and i dont hear the windows startup music and the monitor led indicator is just flashing but it has black screen. I think it is not running. I just simply push the power button once, just press once, not long press, or reset i press it once and my computer shuts down. (so as you observed i think it didnt get on to startup) then when i power it on again, it would be working fine again.

Damn, i dont have some friends here that could lend me a hand about testing my video card, and heres my mobo model, Asus P8 HLE 61-M i just hope that my mobo has integrated card so that i can test. About the power supply, maybe i can try that next day since i will be transferring my whole hardware to my new case and i will buy new PSU.

[tigidig3x]

by the way, i have intel core i3 2100 3.4 GHz....

[Arclight]

[...]

Yes, not hibernate but full shutdown. I shutdown the computer at 9pm and when i turn it on again the next day like 10am onwards, this error appears. The power button led lights are turning, cpu and gpu fans are running, i dont hear any beeps and i dont hear the windows startup music and the monitor led indicator is just flashing but it has black screen. I think it is not running. I just simply push the power button once, just press once, not long press, or reset i press it once and my computer shuts down. (so as you observed i think it didnt get on to startup) then when i power it on again, it would be working fine again.

Damn, i dont have some friends here that could lend me a hand about testing my video card, and heres my mobo model, Asus P8 HLE 61-M i just hope that my mobo has integrated card so that i can test. About the power supply, maybe i can try that next day since i will be transferring my whole hardware to my new case and i will buy new PSU.

Please check and see if you have a mobo speaker connected to mobo header located (i presume) somewhere near the power and reset header. Look it up in the manual of the motherboard to pinpoint the location of the speaker).

I suspect there is none installed, that's why you don't hear any beeps. Please procure or purchase one(as it is quite cheap).

According to Asus, your mobo has VGA and DVI to connect with the IGP:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboard/P8H61M/#overview
So you don't need another dedicated video card for testing.Just get a VGA cable or DVI (depending on what you have available and what is compatible with the monitor), disconnect the cable that connects at the moment that monitor and the GT 220, and connect the cable of your choosing to the monitor and the appropriate video output connector from the motherboard I/O. To locate it, use the manual of the mobo but simple visual inspection should suffice.

Also don't rush into a buying spree for nothing. We don't know yet what's causing the issue and by testing with another PSU i didn't mean migrating the parts from your PC to another case at all. You can just get that PSU, place it near your case with the side panel open, connect all the cables and test. After your done, disconnect it and reconnect the old PSU's cables back. But we haven't reached this point yet so for now there is no need. If indeed this needs testing as well, i'm certain that a local IT shop can lend you a hand for a very modest fee, if you take your PC to their location.

PS: Please click edit on your original post and change the title of the thread to something like [Help]Random black screens

[tigidig3x]

@at all who helped thanks so much guys. The problem is fixed now by changing power supply. Thanks for all of your time.

[Arclight]

@at all who helped thanks so much guys. The problem is fixed now by changing power supply. Thanks for all of your time.

What's the brand and model of your new PSU?

[tigidig3x]

I bought Enermax NAXN 650 watts Thanks for your help bro!