Screen randomly freezes to solid colour

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by nubki11a, Aug 11, 2013.

  1. nubki11a

    nubki11a Guest

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    Hey guys, I've got a really strange problem that I can't seem to solve whatever I try :(

    Since about a month and a half, I've been having a strange issue with my computer where (almost always when I'm gaming) my screen turns to a random solid colour, often with little lines. It looks like this:

    [​IMG]

    It usually occurs when I'm playing [url="mmohuts.com/review/league-of-legends]League of Legends[/url], always during a time when not a lot is happening on my screen (for instance when I'm buying items). I think it only happened once when I was browsing.

    Sometimes it happens with only a half an hour interval and sometimes once in three hours.

    When it happens, the LCD on my keyboard also freezes, but any music I have on or other audio will keep playing (it wont react when I press the play button on my keyboard or headset). The strange thing is that when I'm on Skype and it happens, I can still hear my friends talk and they can still hear me. As far as I know, the only thing I can do is hold the power button and reboot.

    • I have reinstalled League of Legends.
    • I have tried to connect an additional screen (which is connected to my motherboard, not my graphics card), but that just froze and I couldn't alt-tab or move my cursor to it. So it seems like it's not my main screen and less likely that it is my graphics card.
    • I have installed the most recent drivers.
    • I have Secure Erased my SSD with Windows and reinstalled Windows with new drivers etc.
    • I have updated my SSD's firmware.
    • I have checked my temperatures and they never get high when I play games, max. 60C.
    • I have looked at the Windows Logs, but could't find anything asides some kind of WIM error that seemed to happen a lot.
    • I have cleared dust out of my PC.
    • I have reset the BIOS.

    I am planning on connecting my secondary screen as main screen and see what happens. I'm also checking whether I can still shutdown my PC via the Start menu. If it still happens I will try to put my old nVidia 9600GT in my PC.


    Specs:

    Motherboard: ASRock Extreme 3 Gen 3
    CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K @3.3 GHz
    CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212
    Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 6870, at stock speeds.
    Power Supply: Corsair TX650 v2
    RAM: G.Skill RipjawsX
    SSD: Crucial M4 64GB
    HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB
    Keyboard: Logitech G15

    The computer is about a year and a half old.

    Does anyone have any idea what it could be? Any help greatly appreciated!
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2013
  2. StewieTech

    StewieTech Chuck Norris

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    I get thta from gpu overclock gone extreme. Lower the memory clock of your gpu. Try this first. Then, if not solved, we´ll go from there. Might be that something in your gpu related to vram is dying.
     
  3. nubki11a

    nubki11a Guest

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    Thanks for the quick reply!

    Although I haven't ever overclocked my graphics card, I'll give it a try!
    What values do you recommend? I left the GPU Clock and VDDC (voltage?) at 900 and 1175 respectively, I put the Memory Clock down to 850 from 1050. I'll play a game now and see how it goes!

    EDIT: Well, my screen is constantly flashing now, seems like Sapphire TriiX is unreliable. Hope it restores after a reboot. Can you recommend a better under/overclocking program?
    EDIT2: AMD Overdrive doesn't allow me to put the memory clock lower than the default 1050MHz, maybe anything lower screws the GPU.
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2013
  4. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    GPU, VRM temperatures. Check those.

    I've had that happen with power delivery issues, AFAIK.
     

  5. ---TK---

    ---TK--- Guest

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    Dont oc that card. Give it a good dusting and try again. Only oc when stock speeds run fine
     
  6. eclap

    eclap Banned

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    my gut tells me it's the overclock. more specifically vram overclock.
     
  7. ---TK---

    ---TK--- Guest

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    That pic was from a stock 6870 unless he oc it by accident as he is not oc savvy
     
  8. eclap

    eclap Banned

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    wasn't sure if he was overclocking, didn't really mention it.
     
  9. nubki11a

    nubki11a Guest

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    Nope, it's all at stocks speeds. I didn't overclock it at all. I tried to underclock it like StewieTech proposed, but to no avail. I just played a game and my GPU constantly hovered around 60 degrees. That's what's so weird about it. I didn't see anything special and it didn't freeze.
     
  10. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    It's unstable vram, happens on 4/5/6 series ATI cards with GDDR5 memory. try bumping up the memory voltage slightly (say 1.55v) with Trixx or MSI AB.
     

  11. nubki11a

    nubki11a Guest

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    Thanks Pill Monster, I'll try that tomorrow!
     
  12. nubki11a

    nubki11a Guest

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    Sorry for not responding for a long time guys, I was away. I seems that the issue has been resolved by reinstalling windows. I didn't do anything special but it didn't happen a second time :) So I guess it was related to my drivers or my previous CPU overclock or Windows.
     

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