Black screen of death

[mrcaptainamazing]

Had a few days away from my pc (which is pretty much always on), went back to it last night, and was met with 2 black screens. The monitors were working, as the screen lit up, but nothing was displayed. So I rebooted, to be met with the windows logo at boot up, and then a black screen with revolving dots, much like a buffering symbol.
Had a little look online, and found a few people with similar issues to mine, so followed the solutions, only for them no to work.
I think I have narrowed it down now to an issue with my graphics card ( GTX 980) or the drivers. Uninstalled and then reinstalled the card, and drivers, but still the issue prevails. Even rolled back the drivers to the last version.
My Google-Fu has failed me, and I'm tearing what little hair I have left out.

There is no problem when 1 monitor is connected to my integrated gpu and the second one is disconnected. The issue arises when I connect my second monitor to my 980 and then restart my computer.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what could fix my problem?


Edit: I should add that when my 980 is connected to my monitor, I can only boot up my computer when I do a system restore.

[wiggie2gone]

did you install the full drivers as in the Nvidia experience and all or just the one driver? I had that issue with my 970 and once I installed just the driver issues seemed to dissipate. I sent in for a factory warranty and that fixed the issue completely.

[Bloodyfloor4]

You could check the card by plugging it into another PC and see if the problem arises.

[mrcaptainamazing]

[QUOTE="wiggie2gone, post: 44000, member: 81012"]did you install the full drivers as in the Nvidia experience and all or just the one driver? I had that issue with my 970 and once I installed just the driver issues seemed to dissipate. I sent in for a factory warranty and that fixed the issue completely.[/QUOTE]
I shall try uninstalling everything Nvidia and try just installing the driver. Thanks, I'll report back once I've done that.

[QUOTE="Bloodyfloor4, post: 44014, member: 76881"]You could check the card by plugging it into another PC and see if the problem arises.[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately that's not possible, I don't have another pc to do that, and I have no irl friends with a pc either. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[mrcaptainamazing]

Uninstalling everything Nvidia, and then restarting my computer seems to have done the trick. Problem is, I'm now on a really old version of the driver, and don't want to risk updating, just in case it causes the issue again. Think I'll hold off until the next driver is released.

[mrcaptainamazing]

Nope, got ahead of myself. It's happened again.
I think it happened just now, when my monitors went to sleep after some inactivity.

Also can't view the display using a remote viewer on my phone, so unsure if it is actually Nvidia related.

[Bloodyfloor4]

Does the monitor display even without nvidia drivers, with the monitor plugged into the graphics card?

[mrcaptainamazing]

[QUOTE="Bloodyfloor4, post: 44063, member: 76881"]Does the monitor display even without nvidia drivers, with the monitor plugged into the graphics card?[/QUOTE]
I think so. Uninstalled everything Nvidia, rebooted and the display is working. Nothing Nvidia in the programs and features. Would that mean no drivers are installed?
I've changed the settings so my monitors don't go to sleep after inactivity, hoping that maybe helps.


Edit: Yes, it seems it is using Microsoft's basic drivers, so I assume no Nvidia drivers are installed.

[Bloodyfloor4]

Try to reproduce the problem by letting it go to sleep without the drivers, if it persists its something other than the drivers.

[wiggie2gone]

You might want to test the power supply if the issue involves sleep and other power management.

[mrcaptainamazing]

Monitors went to sleep without drivers and came back on no problem. I'm fairly certain it's the Nvidia driver, as without it, everything is fine, but then, I'm not really clued up on things like this. Also, don't know why it would stop the monitor that's connected to the integrated graphics from displaying if it was just the drivers.

[QUOTE="wiggie2gone, post: 44070, member: 81012"]You might want to test the power supply if the issue involves sleep and other power management.[/QUOTE]
Is there an easy way for me to do that without puling it out?

[Bloodyfloor4]

Without pulling it out you could use hardwaremonitor:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
Dunno much about what values are correct so you gotta search on google for it

[mrcaptainamazing]

[QUOTE="Bloodyfloor4, post: 44085, member: 76881"]Without pulling it out you could use hardwaremonitor:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
Dunno much about what values are correct so you gotta search on google for it[/QUOTE]
I checked hwmonitor, and everything seems fine.

Nvidia support (finally) got back to me, and they say that the 980 is pretty much dead. I find it strange though, as the 2 monitors go black, even the one connected to integrated graphics. Looks like my pc gaming is over for the next year or so until I can afford to get another card .

[mrcaptainamazing]

A wee update. Did a clean install of Windows, and it appears to have fixed the problem.

[Saltymuffingaming]

A bit of clarification. Well a muddied water one.

I worked in a small repair shop for a few years and saw thia quiet often with windows 10. It seemed to happen when a wondows update got corrupted during installation/download. Fresh installs always fixed the issue ; though i cant say exactly why or how this happens.

[Evaangel31]

This is an issue I still am having, Took the computer to a specialist they did a complete reinstall of everything and after the weekend it happened again. One suggestion he had was it possibly has something to do with the ground wiring of my house and interference. Unfortunately unless I have 10k to have it tested (my house that is) that there is a device you can get that would help. He has seen this exact problem in a few other clients. I still have this issue. Waiting on a new graphic card and just got a new power supply. Going to see if this helps my issue.

**PS if you have any other suggestions Please send me. I would love to NOT have to completely replace my whole computer again.

[Bloodyfloor4]

Do you live near a transmission tower or a pylon? If it is related to the electricity net or ground wiring, which i doubt, then your PSU is the culprit. It can't handle the voltage spikes that appear from electricty net, which is related to bad ground wiring. But most PSU have internal circuits to deal with these voltage spikes and noise. The only way interference could become a problem is if you have strong transmission devices near the PC, but the case of a PC blocks most of the Electromagnetic waves. And the electricity net barely creates a electric field strong enough to even be noticed outside of the walls. So i'd get a good PSU, the old one probably killed your GPU.