PC freeze with black screen while gaming

[Mso]

Hello guys, im new here

I have a Zotac GTX 960 4 GB that is been working nicely for almost 5 years now, but recently i started seeing my PC crash randomly while playing games (even DOTA) with the screen going to black or sometimes gray, and all i can do is turn it off.

The crash is so random, i've tried to underclock the card with MSI AB -100 MHZ core clock and also memory clock together, but to no avail.

Sometimes the screen flashes black screens and sound stops like its about to crash but it doesnt crash and goes back normal.

Temperatures are normal CPU runs at 60 degrees C when playing dota, and GPU doesnt cross 80C, it runs at 70C while playing dota.

The strange thing is that i run benchmarks and stress tests on the GPU, GPU temp goes up to 80C+ but pc doesnt crash whatsoever.

So i ran GPU-Z to log GPU sensors readings before my pc crash, and this is the last few lines from the log file ( PC crashed at 6:30 )

Date,                     GPU Clock [MHz],   Memory Clock [MHz], GPU Temperature [C], Fan Speed (%) [%], Fan Speed (RPM) [RPM], Memory Used [MB], GPU Load [%], Memory Controller Load [%], Video Engine Load [%], Bus Interface Load [%], Power Consumption (W) [W], Power Consumption (%) [% TDP], PerfCap Reason [], VDDC [V], CPU Temperature [C], System Memory Used [MB]

2019-12-04 18:29:57 ,        1238.3   ,         1701.0   ,            70.0   ,              58   ,              1944   ,           1095   ,         53   ,                       33   ,                   4   ,                    4   ,                    70.3   ,                        33.8   ,               4   , 1.1870   ,               60.0   ,                  4982   ,
2019-12-04 18:29:58 ,        1238.3   ,         1701.0   ,            71.0   ,              58   ,              1944   ,           1094   ,         56   ,                       34   ,                   4   ,                    4   ,                    69.5   ,                        33.4   ,               4   , 1.1870   ,               60.0   ,                  4982   ,
2019-12-04 18:29:59 ,        1238.3   ,         1701.0   ,            70.0   ,              58   ,              1944   ,           1094   ,         52   ,                       32   ,                   4   ,                    4   ,                    69.3   ,                        33.3   ,               4   , 1.1870   ,               61.0   ,                  4982   ,
2019-12-04 18:30:00 ,        1238.3   ,         1701.0   ,             0.0   ,              58   ,              1944   ,           1094   ,         52   ,                       32   ,                   4   ,                    4   ,                     0.0   ,                         0.0   ,               0   , 0.0000   ,               57.0   ,                  4982   ,

 

[Bombastinator]

Might possibly be drivers.  I say that only because I’m currently trying to stop a GTX970 from doing that basically all the time before Windows even finishes booting and apparently the problem is the Nvidia drivers.  I’m looking for one old enough to work currently.  Seems the 900 series may be on its last support legs.

[Mso]

10 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Might possibly be drivers.  I say that only because I’m currently trying to stop a GTX970 from doing that basically all the time before Windows even finishes booting and apparently the problem is the Nvidia drivers.  I’m looking for one old enough to work currently.  Seems the 900 series may be on its last support legs.

i found drivers from 2015 ill try it and see then.

[Mso]

On 12/4/2019 at 9:02 PM, Bombastinator said:

Might possibly be drivers.  I say that only because I’m currently trying to stop a GTX970 from doing that basically all the time before Windows even finishes booting and apparently the problem is the Nvidia drivers.  I’m looking for one old enough to work currently.  Seems the 900 series may be on its last support legs.

Wow that actually might just solved it, rolled back to 2015 driver and i havent seen a problem yet

Never thought it could be drivers lol.
Thanks man

[jordan787]

I have a 5700xt so I usually use MSI afterburner to control the fan curve but after a new update with the software's I've been getting weird flickering on my 144hz screen when I'm running MSi afterburner and wattman together but it was just the fan curves conflicting but I like my MSI afterburner fan curve better does anybody know how to turn off the Wattman fan curve

[Bombastinator]

47 minutes ago, Mso said:

Wow that actually might just solved it, rolled back to 2015 driver and i havent seen a problem yet

Never thought it could be drivers lol.
Thanks man

I haven’t done it yet, but on my chore list is going through their drivers to find the newest one that works.  I suspect anything earlier than late 2019 is fine.  I didn’t have a problem till recently.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and Nvidia will fix it.  Or maybe we’re hosed forever. Time will tell.

 

Yelling at Nvidia for this bs also on my list.

[Mso]

Actually no it wasnt a driver issue, my pc still freezes at random times (sometimes with no games running, but the gpu is connected)  i thought it was ok after driver downgrade, but no it froze again and a gray screen...
I guess it's time to bake it, eh? since there's no repair shops nearby and no warranty.

[Scatology]

Do you have another gpu to test you pc with? Or other hardware? To try to spot the source of the problem.

[Mso]

1 hour ago, Scatology said:

Do you have another gpu to test you pc with? Or other hardware? To try to spot the source of the problem.

No i don't have spare hardware, but the integrated GPU works fine. For now i decided to hook the GTX 960 again and have a last test.. im running GTA 5 now without an issue, this is weird... let see if it wont crash again.

[Mso]

well, it took long enough to crash again since my last post, it was running OK with ocassion screen blinks.. but today it crashed once i started GTA 5