Black screen crash and reset...

[magnat1997]

Hello,
I have been struggling with the following problem for several months. While playing games (and not only that, but more on that below), at random moments the computer freezes, the screen goes black and a reset occurs.
The problem occurs regularly - sometimes after several days, hours, minutes, seconds... The problem does not seem to occur when artificially loading the GPU (Benchmarks, Torture and stress tests).
My specification:

CPU: Intel i9 12900K
CPU Cooler: BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Motherboard: MSI Pro Z690-A Wifi DDR5
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200mhz 32GB
GPU: KFA2 RTX 3090 Ti EX Gamer
Power supply: BeQuiet! Straight Power 12 Platinum 1200W
Case: Fractal Design Meshify S2 Dark TG
SSD: M.2 WD Blue SN570 2TB (System), M.2 WD Black SN850X 1TB
HDD: Seagate BarraCuda 256MB Cache, 6Gb/s 2TB (x2)
Monitor: LG 32GQ85X 2560x1440 240Hz
System: Windows 11 Pro

The computer may also hang on the desktop after a few seconds, e.g. after running a full, trouble-free benchmark (e.g. Unigine Heaven 4.0).

Facts worth mentioning:
-manually turning up the fans in MSI Afterburner to a high level fixes the problem (but the computer roars like a jet)
-after restarting the PC from Windows, usually after loading the BIOS before the Windows boot screen, the screen goes black and the "No signal" message appears. Restarting the monitor solves the problem, which ONLY occurs during a reset.
-the problem occurred before installing the M.2 WD Black drive (only for games, mainly Steam)
- the problem still occurs after replacing the power supply with the brand new one mentioned above (previously the PC was powered by Corsair RM850, whose power of 850W, according to many sources, may have been insufficient for this configuration)
-the problem first occurred while playing CS2 on maximum details
-in games, the problem occurs much more often at high/ultra details
-during several months of using the computer, strange artifacts appeared on the desktop 2-3 times (colored, small rectangles that disappeared when I moved the cursor over them. The problem has not occurred for a long time, I don't know if it has anything to do with the main topic, but definitely not normal)

I'm betting on the GPU, because "better" ventilation seems to solve the problem.

Steps I have taken so far:
- replacing the thermal paste on the GPU (Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and currently Arctic MX-6, the GPU does not exceed 68 degrees under heavy load)
-replacement of all thermal pads on the GPU (Arctic TP-3, thicknesses selected correctly, measured. Memory temperature does not exceed 62 degrees)
- replacing the case with a more airy one and installing additional fans (previously I used Corsair iCUE 465X, now the above)
-replacement of thermal paste on the CPU (Thermal Grizzly, temperatures under load do not exceed 72 degrees)
-CPU UV (no stress test leads the CPU to thermal throttling, max 97 degrees at CINEBENCH R23. Others, such as OCCT, much lower, like 68-72 degrees)
-multiple, fresh installation of drivers (also using DDU) and Windows
-testing of individual components with OCCT, no issues at all

For logical reasons, I'm 99% betting on the GPU. I'm slowly losing hope that there's still something I can do about myself.

Best regards.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Welcome to the site.

Artifacts as far as I know are usually symptoms of bad VRAM . The fact it does it at high settings suggests the same. Torture tests like a Furmark only load the GPU core so probably wouldnt trigger it.

Can you see what temperatures your VRAM is getting up to under load in HWinfo to confirm? I cant find any reviews of your card to see whether it has problems with heatsinks around the VRAM but thats what I'm betting on.

Either way I'd probably RMA the card and get a new one to try. Someone else might have another idea to try but in your place that's what I would do.

 

[magnat1997]

There are no artifacts in games at all. Like I mentioned, I just happened 2-3 times and only on desktop. The thermal pads have been changed a few hours ago, the VRAM temperatures now are between 58-62 degrees in games. I also undevolted the GPU today. No problems so far, but I need to be sure and test for next few days.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

manually turning up the fans in MSI Afterburner to a high level fixes the problem (but the computer roars like a jet

-in games, the problem occurs much more often at high/ultra details

Its also these parts that makes me think its VRAM.

I would return the card if the new thermal pads dont fix the issue. I wish you luck that it helps

 

[magnat1997]

Thank you, I'm gonna test it for a few days now. I also hope it will help. 😊

 

[Rajesh18986]

I had a similar problem that you have described . Whenever I played Dragons dogma 2 my screen would black out and sometimes even when I run msi afterburner. But after long hours of browsing the net for solutions I came up with the idea of upgrading my motherboard bios version. As soon as I upgraded my bios version of the motherboard it started working flawlessly, no more restarting or screen black outs