Black Screen of Death?

[Sajuk]

[RESOLVED]

=====Read Bottom of Main Post for Solution=====

So I've uncovered an unusual problem lately which i'm having a hard time identifying the root of. though replicating the issue for me is easy enough.

I'll Start with the System specs at the time the issue started (To eliminate anything I've added since then.

CPU = Intel Core i7 4790 @ 3.6ghz. (Stock Cooler)
Motherboard = Asus Z-87 Sabertooth.
Memory = 2x 8GB (16GB total) Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 (Silver)
GPU = Sapphire Vapour-X Radeon R9 290 4GB Gddr5
Power Supply = Antec 750w Power Supply (Unsure Exact Model Will update when I find)
Boot Drive = Western Digital 250gb Blue (Had it a long time)
Storage Drive = Western Digital 2TB Green
Etc = DVD read/writer, Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard, Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse, Logitech 550 webcam.

Everything Ran fine on the above listed computer, even with the Videocard being the newest addition replacing my now defunct HD 6970 that i turned into a breakfast Egg cooker. A few weeks ago I decided to join the SSD club and bought a Kingston 120gb v300 SSDNOW thing. So I dicconnected my 250GB boot drive and shoved the 120gb SSD in and installed windows 7 x64 Ultimate that I still have laying around, then the problems began. After installing a few base programs (Windows > Motherboard Drivers > Catalyst > Advanced system care Ultimate 8 > Avast > Winamp > Universal Theme Patcher > Steam > Skype) my computer decided "I don't like you anymore" and showed me a simple black screen, and Further inputs from keyboard/Mouse had no effect. (I'd know this because switching songs in winamp as a test to see if it was a video issue didn't work either.) So I thought to myself "Huh that was weird" -Reboots machine- "omg sofast! Back into skype in like 10 seconds!" I then proceeded to open a chat window explaining to a few friends that I ranadomly black screened and -BOOM Black screen again- "You're not allowed to tell anyone our secrets silly user" After rebooting I left the computer alone for a few seconds "Everything is fine as long as I do nothing right?" -hours pass by without incident, play Trove, some space engineers, Mabinogi all is fine. "Hey guys I think the black screen thing was just.." -Black Screen- "OH HI AGAIN! HOW ARE YOU?!" -Reboots- "Ok this is a bit irritating..." -Blackscreen after opening chrome- "YOU STOP THAT!" -Blackscreen after opening skype- "Grrr.." -Blackscreen before having a desktop- "OH COME ON!!"

-Takes a deep breath-

So After some basic troubleshooting trying different things (Installed programs, Reinstalling windows, Even simply having the SSD installed as a blank drive) I discovered that having the SSD in my system seems to cause it to black screen. ..or so I thought. I stuck the SSD as a blank drive into my dads machine, hes got an Asus..P.something? motherboard with a Haswell i3 processor in it with an Asus R7 250x and a 620w Antec PSU...and there wasnt a single problem...as if the SSD just...hates me.

The black screen has returned but only rarely now with my System rebarted to the 250gb HDD as my boot drive with now a 1TB WD Black as my storage drive.

Otherwise im aloss for words for what is going on, if its a Motherboard issue, a PSU issue or eve my PSU not having enough watts? My Bios is somehow up to date...i dont remember ever flashing bios..prolly that Asus EZ update thingy anyhow yeah...Im rather lost on what happened.

=====EDIT=====
So After uninstalling a few programs that the SSD and my Main HDD Boot drive had in common. The Issue arose from either 3.2.1 Version of Rainmeter, or the SAO Theme for it. After uninstalling both the black screens haven't appeared in roughly 2 weeks. My apologies for this..I feel rather silly knowing it was something right under my nose the whole time. On the bright side, if anyone else is encountering this kind of problem or knows anyone else encountering this issue, check to see if they either have 3.2.1 Rainmeter and/or a theme that may be breaking something.

Thank you to everyone whom helped me with ideas to possible solutions, even though they didnt directly solve the issue, it did help in narrowing it down, and improved system performance in the long run anyway

[JWMutant]

My Bios is somehow up to date...i dont remember ever flashing bios..prolly that Asus EZ update thingy anyhow yeah...Im rather lost on what happened.

HEHE that statement is a bit of a concern.

 

Probably the very first rule to PC compatibility issues is make sure you are running the latest bios release. Purely because manufacturers are always finding and fixing compatibility issues via bios updates.

[Weak1ings]

Yeah, I'd suggest bios flashing since you are using a Haswell Refresh chip on a older Haswell board.  It might help.

[Sajuk]

well thats the thing, im using the latest bios, and ive never had this problem for the past year or so till i tried to install an SSD, bios was one of the things i thought of which is why i checked its version vs latest

[Sajuk]

So an update to this Black screen issue.
Manually updated Bios. The latest version is the same version that was on my motherboard to begin with.
What confuses me is that these problems only began with i decided to install an SSD...and persist even without the SSD.
I quickly ruled out the haswell refresh and Bios because i haven't had this problem for a good few months when I originally upgraded the MB and CPU.
Updated many obsolete drivers using iobit Driver Booster...seemed to work. Though It may or may not be the Stereo Mix feature i decided to use last night.
Disabled it again to see if it could be a problem.
Unsure if its a PSU issue...again i would've had this problem before the SSD installation anyway...
Black screen has a very predictable set of events that happen, Screen goes black..but other operations resume for only 2-5 seconds, sound starts to break apart and inputs stop responding. Computer essentially becomes inoperable but powered on after 5 seconds and i have to manually hard shut down and restart as the reset button doesnt work. "Windows has been shut down improperly" but I get no error log or anything telling me that there was a crash.

Side note : Its a refurbed Z87 Sabertooth motherboard...I had thoughts that maybe its because it was refurbed from newegg.ca which might be the issue...but again Its iffy if its the problem because i have had no issues with it at all for a good few months before deciding on the SSD
Also its not a heat issue as both the GPU can be idle when it happens, and its still happening even with a new Corsair H65 on the CPU that I recently installed last week. (Its not the Water cooler, black screens happened before that too,

Side side note : the black screens are unreplicable. They literally happen so randomly, there is no set of circumstances i've ever noticed that causes them. They can happen from 5 seconds of rebooting the computer, to anywhere to a week. sometimes black screening even before explorer loads up....ir yeah i can go a week doing whatever without incident then pewf "Suprise mutha $%^er"