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Problem description: At this time, my computer doesn't show any valid output when loading an OS.
My issues started at the beginning of the year when I updated nvidia video drivers, on Windows 10 x64 from version 359.xx to 36x.xx. My display started randomly flashing black after the update:it would go black for 1-2 seconds, then go back to normal for a random amount of time before it would go black again. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes it would only show normal display for a fraction of a second before it went black again. It was unusable. With safe mode and a driver uninstaller, I reverted to 359.xx drivers, which I thought solved the problem. After a few months, the black flashes reappeared even on my unchanged drivers. I tried updating to even newer versions, 37x.xx, with no luck. It seemed that the black flashes would still start randomly though it wasn't usually immediately on startup. They sometimes went away for a while if I put the computer to sleep and re-awoke it. Turning the monitor off and on rarely fixed the problem, and more often just made the screen black until a power cycle. As time went on, the frequency of this problem increased. I also started noticing I couldn't boot into Linux at all when the nouveau drivers were in use; there would just be a black screen unless I turned modesetting off in the kernel boot options. Last week, I tried to revert the video drivers back to version 359.xx just to see what that would do. I did Windows Safe Mode -> DDU tool -> reboot -> try to install 359.xx -> reboot... and then just black. Now I can't even boot Windows. I can't even load a Windows recovery environment from USB, so I can't go into Safe mode and see if that might work. My desktop's pretty much a brick unless I want to look at pretty UEFI/BIOS screens or 640x480 Linux desktops. I RMA'ed the video card and got a new one back from ASUS today (different S/N), but... there's no change! Unless the "new" video card has the same defect, how is this possible? Is there a chance it's not my graphics card, even though the problem started with drivers? If there's any way to avoid buying a new computer part, that would be awesome. Another note: I updated my BIOS since the year started, but it didn't seem to have any effect that I could notice Attempted fixes:
Recent changes: nvidia driver changes, motherboard BIOS updates, the usual Windows updates -- Operating system: Windows 10 x64, Ubuntu 16.10/17.04+Fedora 25 LiveUSBs System specs: CPU: Core i5-6600k Mobo: ASUS Z170M-PLUS Memory: Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 2800 GPU: Geforce GTX 970 (ASUS STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5) PSU: SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 1TB, 3TB disk in external USB enclosure Monitor: Dell U2415 Case: SilverStone Temjin TJ08B-E Location: USA I have Googled and read the FAQ: Yes
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Apr 26, 2017 02:51
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 10:39 |
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What's the output like if you use integrated graphics? The HDMI, DVI-D, and VGA ports on the motherboard don't use the graphics card, so you should be able to see Windows at least to do any driver modification. When the screen goes black, does the monitor stay awake or does it go into low-power mode? There's a UEFI/BIOS update for your motherboard released last month that "Improve System Stability". Might be worth it to flash to the latest before troubleshooting components. https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170M-PLUS/HelpDesk_Download/
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Apr 26, 2017 06:00
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Well, I feel really stupid. I was convinced there was no integrated graphics on my CPU, but I was wrong. Thanks for making me re-check! The IGP works fine. That means it really is the graphics card, or the PCIE connector if I really want to test it.Actuarial Fables posted:When the screen goes black, does the monitor stay awake or does it go into low-power mode? The UEFI update was applied earlier. No luck. I can't be sure if the monitor is awake or not during the problems. It didn't last long enough for me to be sure before, and now, I'm not getting any message that says it's going to sleep due to no input.
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Apr 26, 2017 14:13
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Anaxite posted:I RMA'ed the video card and got a new one back from ASUS today (different S/N), but... there's no change! Unless the "new" video card has the same defect, how is this possible? Is there a chance it's not my graphics card, even though the problem started with drivers? If there's any way to avoid buying a new computer part, that would be awesome. Since it's happened on multiple OSs it's probably not a driver issue. Probably one of these three issues: -Failing PSU (how old is it?) -Failing PCIE slot -Another failing GPU
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Apr 28, 2017 00:28
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Well, mystery (e: somewhat) solved! I now have GTX970 video again.Zogo posted:Since it's happened on multiple OSs it's probably not a driver issue. Looks like it was the PSU. Not a very old one, a Seasonic SS-520FL I got in mid 2015. I tested the RMA'ed graphics card in a friend's machine, which worked fine. I tried it again in mine, after replacing a modular PSU cable and putting the new cable in another 8-pin slot. And now it boots, I have video in Windows, it will do resolution changes in old games, I'm happy. I don't know if it's the PSU in general, just one of its connectors, or the internal 8-pin cable, and I don't know if that's the cause of my original problem or happened at the same time (given a driver update triggered the whole thing), but... wow. Hopefully this holds and if it doesn't, I know what to do! Get a new PSU. Unfortunately, Linux still shows a garbled image, but maybe I'm just unlucky with the nouveau driver. I'll do more testing and live with whatever until I replace my card. Thanks for the guidance. Anaxite fucked around with this message at 02:13 on May 3, 2017 |
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May 3, 2017 02:06
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