PC loses connection to monitor, runs in background

[LennyD]

Hello. I have been getting this for the past two days, basically i am just using my computer for youtube and such and without a clear sign of me doing something, my pc loses it's connection to the monitor and i have to reboot in order to get it back working most of the times, some times that doesn't work. I tried keeping the PC on not doing anything on it and it does the same thing. There is no clear frequency of this happening it could happen in the first minute of pc use or 15 minutes.

 

 

What i have tried so far:

- updating video drivers

- reseat the display port cable from both the GPU and monitor, the GPU power cable plus the whole GPU in the motherboard

- try the monitor with another PC and it works

 

I have to mention that i have monitored the thermals and they are ok, nothing out of the ordinary, no new software installed lately no hardware changing.

 

I have also tried updating the BIOS while writting this and while updating the same thing happened and now my computer wont even get to the bios menu, i am currently trying to reset the motherboard bios version.

 

ATM im trying to get to the BIOS menu again.

 

 

• I am using Windows 10 64 bit
• My PC specs are: Ryzen 5600x 3.7 ghz, Asus Strix 1060 6gb, 2x Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 16GB, DDR4, 3600MHz, CL18, MSI B550-A Pro
• Bios version is E7C56AMS.AA0 (before trying to update it)

[Bombastinator]

It sounds like there is either something messed up with windows or something hardware related on the motherboard.   Let’s put the second possibility off ftm.  Software corruption just happens sometimes.  There’s a type of very simple partial reinstall called “refresh” that may do it.

[ChuckFeed]

try booting another operating system (e.g. gnu+linux or openBSD/freeBSD) and see if this is a hardware issue, a firmware issue, or a windows issue.

also make sure your gpu actually supports the video mode youre trying to set your monitor to (640x640@60 should always work, 1920x1080@60 probably too if its a modern display and gpu)

or hey, try another monitor if you have one laying around.

and as mentioned by Bombastinator above, software corruption happens sometimes out of nowhere - especially on windows.

[LennyD]

7 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

It sounds like there is either something messed up with windows or something hardware related on the motherboard.   Let’s put the second possibility off ftm.  Software corruption just happens sometimes.  There’s a type of very simple partial reinstall called “refresh” that may do it.

 

The problem right now is that i am getting no display, it doesnt even take me to the bios menu, there is no display.

[Bombastinator]

12 minutes ago, LennyD said:

 

The problem right now is that i am getting no display, it doesnt even take me to the bios menu, there is no display.

@ChuckFeed’s suggestion is relevant for that one as well.  It’s likely to be software or your video path, which is either the dGPU or iGPU, the port for it, the cable, the port on your monitor, or the monitor.   The hardware stuff can be very expensive, which is not encouraging, so making sure it is hardware in the first place is preferred.  Another way to do this is look in your motherboard manual to find out what key to spam when you first turn on the machine.  If you get to bios it’s software.  If you don’t it’s hardware.  If it’s not even posting there should be a post code of some sort.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Bombastinator

[LennyD]

13 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

@ChuckFeed’s suggestion is relevant for that one as well.  It’s likely to be software or your video path, which is either the dGPU or iGPU, the port for it, the cable, the port on your monitor, or the monitor.   The hardware stuff can be very expensive, which is not encouraging, so making sure it is hardware in the first place is preferred.  Another way to do this is look in your motherboard manual to find out what key to spam when you first turn on the machine.  If you get to bios it’s software.  If you don’t it’s hardware.  If it’s not even posting there should be a post code of some sort.

 

I think it's pretty relevant that i was trying to update my bios version and while it was doing it the display connection disconnected again, after that i started not being able to get to the bios menu. When i turn my pc on the cpu light turns on on my motherboard, stays for a couple of seconds then the ram one turns on for a less than a second and thats it.

 

EDIT: i tried taking both ram sticks off now and the lights on the motherboard go through the cpu and stays on at the dram light.

[LennyD]

Okay, i have managed to flash bios and boot to windows. I will be able to do more in about 10 hours since i wont be home. My plan is to mount everything back together, install the newest bios version supported by my motherboard and then see if the problem persists.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, LennyD said:

Okay, i have managed to flash bios and boot to windows. I will be able to do more in about 10 hours since i wont be home. My plan is to mount everything back together, install the newest bios version supported by my motherboard and then see if the problem persists.

Ok.  A bios upgrade may fix things. If it merely puts it back to the state before you had this bios problem we get back to determining if it is a hardware or software issue.

[LennyD]

Okay so to sum it up in case anyone ever stumbles on this thread.

 

While using the computer the display turned completely off, only way to fix it was restarting the whole computer, and that did not always work.

 

I tried updating the bios via the MSI bios menu but because of the issues it basically forced me to restart my pc while the bios update was installing. That basically made my computer not show any image whatsoever. I tried reseating the cmos battery and short it out but it did not work.

 

After fiddling around the internet i downloaded an OLDER bios version on a usb drive and had it in the usb quick bios flash port while NOT having any ram sticks in and it booted normally.

 

I have no idea what caused this, i am aware that you should use the newest bios version but for now since this is my main computer i cant risk messing around that for a while. Thank you for the suggestions.

[Bombastinator]

43 minutes ago, LennyD said:

Okay so to sum it up in case anyone ever stumbles on this thread.

 

While using the computer the display turned completely off, only way to fix it was restarting the whole computer, and that did not always work.

 

I tried updating the bios via the MSI bios menu but because of the issues it basically forced me to restart my pc while the bios update was installing. That basically made my computer not show any image whatsoever. I tried reseating the cmos battery and short it out but it did not work.

 

After fiddling around the internet i downloaded an OLDER bios version on a usb drive and had it in the usb quick bios flash port while NOT having any ram sticks in and it booted normally.

 

I have no idea what caused this, i am aware that you should use the newest bios version but for now since this is my main computer i cant risk messing around that for a while. Thank you for the suggestions.

Wait… it booted, not posted but booted, without ANY RAM?