Weird issue with monitor signal.

[Tordin Varglund]

Hello, having a bit of a weird issue lately. Occasionally when using the computer the monitor will go black and lose signal while the PC itself keeps on working perfectly fine in the background. I also sometimes have to boot the system multiple times to get any sort of signal in the first place, sometimes requiring that I go so far as to reseat the GPU before it will work properly. It can happen twice in an hour, or once a month. There also doesn't seem to be any correlation with the amount of load on the system. I can render video or play intensive games for hours on end with no issues only to have it crash a day or two later when browsing.

These are my specs:

ASUS P8Z68-V Pro
i7 2600K
8GB DDR3 2133MHz
GTX 1080
Corsair AX 850 PSU
OS installed on a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB.

My question is rather simple and I suspect I already know the answer, but what are the odds that this is due to the motherboard/PCI-E slot being somewhat borked? Basic stuff like resetting CMOS, changing DRAM slots, trying different monitor inputs etc yield zero results when this happen, but reseating the GPU seemingly works every time, which is why despite it being the newest piece of hardware and the most obvious point of failure, I lean towards the motherboard being the issue. I would try the GPU in the 2nd PCI-E slot or a different PC, but due to using a custom loop that would involve quite a bit of work, and as I am looking to upgrade to either Kaby Lake or Zen in the next months, I am honestly more interested in making sure there isn't some issue with the GPU, as I don't have warranty anymore after ripping off the cooler, before I go ahead with the upgrade.

[Nordstern]

Is the crashing occurring while running Firefox? I had a couple BSODs recently with an AMD card while simply scrolling in Firefox. Seems to have stopped, though.

I am honestly more interested in making sure there isn't some issue with the GPU, as I don't have warranty anymore after ripping off the cooler

This might be your problem right here.

[Tordin Varglund]

It can happen at any time, regardless of what's going on. And no I didn't mean it as in that I literally ripped the cooler off I ment as in it was replaced with a standard EK waterblock, at which point it is no longer under warranty. Should also note that this didn't start happening until about 4 months after I bought and mounted said block, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense for that to be the cause.

[Bombcrater]

Does the monitor just go black or do you get an actual 'no signal' message?

[Tordin Varglund]

The monitor just goes black and says it doesn't have signal, the same way as if I were to have unplugged it or simply turned off the computer. Just had it happen and tested if onboard VGA would work. It booted, and ran in the background, but no signal to the monitor. Guess that should clear the GPU of any fault.

[walrus]

Have you tried with a different cable and graphics card connector?

[Nordstern]

Have you tried with a different cable and graphics card connector?

Or a different display?

[Tordin Varglund]

Yes to all of those.

[Spawinte]

Did it ever happen before you messed with the GPU cooler? Perhaps accidentally gouged the PCB when you were changing it?

[Tordin Varglund]

No, but it also didn't happen for over 4 months afterwards.

[Straight Hustlin]

Random suggestions: after you get it run again, does the event Manager say anything about the system configuration changing or a device has gone offline.

Also are you able to remotely access the PC from another when it blackscreens?

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk

[Tordin Varglund]

Random suggestions: after you get it run again, does the event Manager say anything about the system configuration changing or a device has gone offline.

Nope.

Also are you able to remotely access the PC from another when it blackscreens?

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk

Have not tried this.

[56k Lagman]

Are windows event viewer logs showing nothing when the display conks out? Can you still hear the correct audio queues from the PC when the display stops working? If something was wrong with the motherboard I wouldn't count on it continuing to put out audio after it shits the bed losing a PCIE lane.

Also might be worth booting it into a different OS and leaving it running while you're out at work to see if you get the same problem

[Lana Torrin]

Or you know, consider it might be the damage to the video card.. Electronics don't explode the second something happens. It's probably been slowly cooking for months.

[56k Lagman]

dunno mate gpus arent the little flowers they used to be. I remember once I ran out of toilet paper so I had to use my 4850x2 to wipe my arse, just slot it right back in the computer and it worked no bother

[dominus]

Are you having secondary display connected at all times?

I had a similar problem. Black screens like that, very random.
I have found the problem though. My graphics card was connected to monitor, obviously, and to my DENON 3808 AV receiver via HDMI cable. So, i used to have such problems, regardless of DENON state(on or off), simply drove me nuts. After i suspected that and plugged it out, problems stopped. I just plugged it in when i needed and plugged it out afterwards.

That happened on win 8.1, regardless of graphics drivers, now on my win10 it works normally, plugged in the whole time.