Black streen and then freeze. CPU, GPU or software issue?

Kmerse · 30 Sep 2018

I'm having a very weird issue in one of the computers I'm responsible for.
The machine works fine generally, but it has some weird issues.
1) During gaming, the screen goes blank, the sounds continues to play, then usually gets stuck (repeats the last few tunes) - but not always - and only a hard reset works. This happens especially with later titles that seem to be heavy on the GPU like the Tomb Raider series, The Crew 2, For Honor etc. But it happens on older titles as well like Star Wars Empire at War as well.
2) During torrenting, occasionally the whole machine gets lagging and the screen eventually freezes completely - again, the only thing that can help is a hard reset.

The strange thing is that the components seem to work fine. I tested the CPU, the GPU, the RAM, the PSU with every method, every general, benchmark and stress test I came across the Net, and every component returned with great results. I took the machine apart and cleaned it from dust. I made a completely clean install of Windows 10. Nothing solved the issue.

And now I'm totally lost. My guess is that one of the parts is malfunctioning, but I can't figure out which one. Some forums suggest that it MAY be the GPU, but I have no definite answer and I would like to know at least moderately sure before I tell the user to buy a brand new GPU...

Mobo Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H
CPU Intel Core i5 4690k 3.5GHz
GPU nVidia Geforece GTX 970
RAM Corsair HyperX Fury black 2x8GB
PSU EGVA Supernova 750 G2

dalchina · 30 Sep 2018

Hi, just wondering if you might be experiencing a memory leak- leading to eventual freezing problems through lack of resources.

Perhaps you could monitor or log resource use in scenarios (1) & (2) and watch for any progressive change.

Finding a Memory Leak | Microsoft Docs

Kmerse · 30 Sep 2018

I didn't see any sign of memory leak, but I'll check it out.
In Scenario 1) if the torrent client is shut down in time, the issue disappears instantly: Does this point toward a memory leak or not?

Kmerse · 30 Sep 2018

UPDATE:
I don't think it's a memory leak, because I monitored it, there was no change over time, but I managed to cause the problem instantly only by launching a game (Rise of the Tomb Raider in this instance) and browsing the menu!
I also managed to find a setup in the Heaven Benchmark test that caused the graphical glitch, but in this case the computer kept working in the background (I kept audio tracks played in the background and they kept playing fine). GPU it is then?

dalchina · 30 Sep 2018

Ok, so not that (it was your use of eventually in your first post that seemed to suggest that).

History- was this PC ok up to a date, then start showing this symptom? Was it ok with a previous build of Win 10 for example? Can you correlate the start of the symptom with any update?

Another thing you might try is to use Windows Performance Recorder (downloadable MS tool).
This generates a (large) etl file- you can configure what is logged.

It provides traces you can examine which might help you identify the problem, assuming you can terminate logging successfully.

Of course, if you were able to swap the graphics card and prove or eliminate this as cause- with one you have already- so much the better.

Kmerse · 30 Sep 2018

Yes it was ok for a while, then we started noticing these issues. First a few games crashed, then when the internet provider started to give much bigger bandwidth the torrent issue appeared. But I can't remember exactly when the symptom first showed, probably because the first few times it was only considered a bug or something.

Meanwhile I found yet another interesting fact. I downloaded the latest nVidia driver with Firefox when the same slowing down glitch happened, but the download was finished before the computer froze. The glitch appears when the download prompt panel appears and at that time the network usage of Firefox rocketed from 0 to 97 Mbps. GPU usage also increased... I never saw anything like that. Note that was BEFORE I started downloading the driver.
Does this tell you anything?

dalchina · 30 Sep 2018

Hmm, very odd.

Two suggestions from previous threads - this is assuming the problem may have started after an upgrade or update.

1. Is your BIOS up to date? (Sometimes this makes a difference with some PCs wrt Windows versions)
2. Try an OLDER graphics driver

In a few cases people find the driver delivered AFTER an upgrade causes problems. And in some cases it's not the graphics driver but low level driver.

What is your Windows build?
Windows key + R, winver.

If you look at your Update History, is there any clue related to when you started to have this problem?

Out of curiosity - may be quite irrelevant- try running Resplendence's Latencymon (free).
Commonly latency problems are related to the network driver - I'm thinking of your torrent related comments.

Kmerse · 30 Sep 2018

Well, there was a never version for the UEFI. I'M gonna test it tomorrow. I'll also test the new nVidia driver.
I tried reverting to previous drivers before, but it never solved the issue. Maybe I just didn't revert back far enough...

I have Win 10 Pro Version 1803 Build 17134.285

I managed to spike latency by going to the nVidia page and opening the download panel again, so that's something.

Black streen and then freeze. CPU, GPU or software issue?-latency.jpg

But that doesn't give anything to why games crash and why the Heaven Benchmark crashes as well...

dalchina · 01 Oct 2018

2) During torrenting, occasionally the whole machine gets lagging and the screen eventually freezes completely - again, the only thing that can help is a hard reset.

That is presumably independent of the GPU, so should be simpler.

At a guess, the LatencyMon report may not point to anything useful given the situation it was used in. However ndis.sys may point to your NIC driver. You could check when that was updated and try an older version.
===============

Just wondering- going back to basics- have you checked your disks recently?
Hard Disk Sentinel (trial) is a great tool - the text summary is really useful.

Then if ok run chkdsk as appropriate on each disk.
(I know you mentioned checking components, but it's worth eliminating basics).

As suggested you could try using the WPR, but could be time consuming. Many parameters to change which affect data collected...

Kmerse · 01 Oct 2018

I rechecked the drives, they are all fine. Interestingly though HDS says that my newest driver, the SSD I'm using as a system disk has only 90% health while all the others (HDDs) are on 100%.
I also tried to update the VGA driver, then downgrade it, still no avail.

On the bright side however, I updated the NIC driver and so far no slowing down while torrenting or trying to download the latest nVidia driver. Fingers crossed, maybe there is one less problem :)