Why does the screen go black when the GPU is turned on?
Why does the screen go black when the GPU is turned on?
A few weeks back, after my PC completed the boot and should have opened the standard blue Windows 10 login screen, I encountered a black screen with only a faint glow at the top (the mouse cursor appears if I move it there). Even after cleaning the PC and verifying all connections were secure, the issue continued. When I started in safe mode and rolled back drivers, nothing changed. Disabling the GPU through the device manager under display adapters resolved the problem, making the screen normal again. After logging back in, the GPU was immediately restored to the black screen.
I became convinced that my GPU was faulty and needed replacement, so I purchased a new one, but the issue still occurred with the new card installed.
What’s going on here? I’m unsure if the PCI slot is damaged or if any of the cables or connectors are defective.
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
What is the age of your power supply unit?
You didn’t specify the motherboard make and model. About that, what BIOS version are you using?
NVIDIA Geforce RTX3060 (previously 2070S)
Try DDU to eliminate all GPU drovers (Intel, AMD, Nvidia) in Safe Mode, then install the newest GPU drivers manually via an elevated command—right-click the installer and select Run as Administrator. Let me know if this works.
Thank you for the welcome!
The motherboard is an MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX MAX AM4 with BIOS version 3.90.
The power supply unit was assembled in December 2019.
After booting in safe mode and using DDU to remove GPU drivers, I manually installed the latest driver as administrator. The system didn't crash. A restart later still kept it running, though it seems to be showing some issues.
This brings up another problem I thought would be resolved: since I disabled the GPU to use the PC, I've noticed faint horizontal lines on the screen. I expected these because the GPU was off, but after installing the driver, they persist and look unpleasant.
Any suggestions? (A friend told me he can't see the lines in the image)
The image isn't the most smooth to view, especially when showing something. And everyone is seeing it on various monitors. Color banding often appears in images with gradients, which might make it clearer if the source feels more fake. Is this a strange question? Are you still using the same video cable? Have you considered using another monitor? The CPU is linked to the GPU through the CPU's PCIe lanes, so a possible issue could be with the CPU itself. Testing the card in another system might help identify the problem.
I'm still using the same cables. My current monitor is just a year old, so I might try an older model if this keeps happening. The original problem also appeared again the next day. Using DDU and reinstalling the latest driver has resolved it, but a black screen still occurred briefly yesterday when a game started, only fixing itself after pressing the alt key. Also, I don't have a spare power cable for the monitor to GPU or GPU to PSU.
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX MAX AM4
BIOS: 3.90
Support page: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-TOM...ax/support
Current BIOS versions need updating. Flash the latest, then reset CMOS and check if the problem remains.