The screen turns black and displays "No Signal" while playing PC games.
The screen turns black and displays "No Signal" while playing PC games.
I’m experiencing a recurring problem that has appeared intermittently over the past few months.
During intense gaming sessions, CPU temperatures reach around 45°C while the GPU spikes up to 75°C at its maximum. These readings consistently stay within normal limits.
Occasionally, the display will abruptly cut out and there’s no signal detected. Despite this, I can still hear audio through the speakers. This pattern usually occurs when the screen goes dark, after which the computer freezes.
Restarting the machine resolves the issue, though it only happens during heavy workloads—not during regular internet browsing or standard desktop tasks.
Recent research suggests the problem may be linked to power delivery, possibly due to insufficient power reaching the GPU from the PSU, triggering a safety shutdown. Some users speculate it could be a GPU-specific concern, though no definitive confirmation exists in forums yet.
Here are my system details:
PC Specifications:
- ASUS Z790E ROG STRIX Gaming WiFi
- 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700K @ 3.4GHz
- 32GB Corsair Dominator 6400MHz
- Gigabyte RTX 3070 GeForce Nvidia 8GB
- Corsair RM850x 850W PSU
- Samsung 980 PRO SSD 2TB
- 1TB HDD backup
- Windows 11 64-bit
- 65" TCL TV Monitor, 4K resolution
What I’ve tried to fix:
- Installed a new HDMI cable and tested all inputs.
- Switched to a different TV monitor.
- Updated graphics drivers to the latest version.
- Disabled overclocking.
- Increased fan speed while gaming; temperatures remain stable (CPU 45°C, GPU up to 75°C).
- Reinstalled graphics card and cleaned dust from both the GPU and PSU.
- Ensured all connections were secure and used a different connector on my last attempt.
- Conducted GPU stress tests, all passed without issues.
The game I’m running—Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 and MSFS 2020—requires significant memory and GPU resources.
About a month ago, I managed to play for three hours straight without problems. Now, within 30 minutes, the screen goes black and a “No Signal” message appears.
Have you encountered this issue before? Any suggestions on possible causes or solutions would be appreciated.
Thank you.
p.s. I’ve been using the internet and typing this post for over an hour without any problems. Normal Windows desktop tasks don’t trigger it. It appears to be tied to heavy usage.
Big win today and I believe we’ve finally identified the problem and found a solution.
I disassembled my card, re-applied the new Arctic Silver 5 paste, and tested it.
Running MSFS at Ultra in the rain performed exceptionally well—this would consistently succeed every time.
After playing for over an hour, my GPU temperatures stayed at a maximum of 74°C, and during FurMark GPU stress testing, hot spots never exceeded 74°C.
The card would automatically shut down and turn off the display, preventing any signal or lock-up.
That’s great news.
I already have new thermal pads arriving, and I plan to install them as well.
I’m still curious about your PTM7950 concept, but I’d like to learn more about it.
I finally ran the DDU in safe mode and installed the updated drivers. I then played CMS2021 for at least an hour without any problems. It was also cold in the room, so I’m curious if that might be related. I’ll do another test, but I hope it was just a graphics driver issue.
In case the hot spot becomes too warm, I recommend adjusting the fan curve for the card to spin more at cooler temperatures, helping to reduce possible spikes.
I completed all the updates and surprisingly managed to play for a full hour without any issues. Throughout the day I was able to use the computer for work, which is encouraging. It makes you hopeful that everything is now working properly. I even played a little CODMWII and it performed well.
Today I started MSFS2020 and everything seemed fine until the screen went black after about 15 minutes and the "No Signal" message appeared. Before starting any game, I always switch cooling and fans to game mode at 100%, which was the setting used in these tests.
What else should I try? Could it be related to Windows settings like graphics acceleration or other unusual parameters? Might the issue be a refresh rate problem? I’m currently using a high 120 Hz refresh rate in the games and on my monitor.
I just ran another test. I’m wondering if the problem is graphics-related. Here’s what happened: I changed everything to a 60 Hz refresh rate and was able to play MSFS2020 for nearly 45 minutes. Then I switched to an external view, flying over a large area with thick clouds. Within 15 seconds the screen went black and the computer froze, repeating the sound continuously.
What do you think?
I completed all the GPU driver updates and unexpectedly managed to play for a long time last night without any issues. Throughout the day I was able to use the computer for work. It makes you hopeful that it’s fixed now. I even played a little CODMWII and it worked perfectly.
Today I started MSFS2020 and everything seemed normal for about 15 minutes. Then the screen went black quickly, and "No Signal" appeared. Before starting any game, I always switch cooling and fans to game mode at full speed, which was the setting used in these tests.
What else should I try and what could be causing this? Perhaps it’s related to graphics acceleration or other odd behaviors. Could the refresh rate be the issue? I’m currently running a high 120 Hz refresh rate in the games and on my monitor. I lowered it to 60 Hz and still got a black screen.
I just ran another test. I’m wondering if the problem is graphics-related and here’s why: I changed everything to a 60 Hz refresh rate, and I was able to play MSFS2020 for nearly 45 minutes. Then I went outside, flying over a large area with thick clouds. Within 15 seconds the screen went black and the computer froze completely, with the sound repeating endlessly. Most of the time the screen goes black and shows "No Signal," but I can still hear the game and manage to operate things.
What do you think?
The hot spot reached 105c during the GPU stress test. The typical temperatures were about 71c. Should this be considered excessive and possibly the cause of the problem?