Video Card Black outs

[Vinkman]

Lately when playing the game, my screen goes Black for 3 to 4 seconds and then comes back. No frame rate hit, no detail setting changing. [It's not a pulling Gs blackout of anything associated with modelled game play].  Checked temps and they are running around 40c. I just have no idea what it is. Sometime I can go hours before it acts up, and sometimes it starts happening right away. Sometime the blackouts are 15 minutes apart, sometimes they 3 minutes apart.

I'm running Win7 64 bit with Sapphire 5970 with the latest drivers. Got the card in Dec.

Anyone ever experience this or know what it might be?

Thanks. 

[Bino]

Which version of the drivers are you running?  Techspot is reporting that AMD released both an off-cycle driver release and a hotfix to address recent driver bugs:

http://www.techspot.com/news/43708-amd-releases-catalyst-115-drivers-115a-hotfix.html

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Lately when playing the game, my screen goes Black for 3 to 4 seconds and then comes back. No frame rate hit, no detail setting changing. [It's not a pulling Gs blackout of anything associated with modelled game play].  Checked temps and they are running around 40c. I just have no idea what it is. Sometime I can go hours before it acts up, and sometimes it starts happening right away. Sometime the blackouts are 15 minutes apart, sometimes they 3 minutes apart.

I'm running Win7 64 bit with Sapphire 5970 with the latest drivers. Got the card in Dec.

Anyone ever experience this or know what it might be?

Thanks. 

Sounds like your display driver is crashing and reset, shows as black screen for a couple seconds.

[Vinkman]

Sounds like your display driver is crashing and reset, shows as black screen for a couple seconds.

This might be true. I recall getting an issue watching some Fox News vids where it would die and I would get a meassage saying "Your video driver has failed and been succeessfully recovered."

I will check the driver version that Bino mentioned. Perhaps there's a driver issue.

[Vinkman]

Which version of the drivers are you running?  Techspot is reporting that AMD released both an off-cycle driver release and a hotfix to address recent driver bugs:

http://www.techspot.com/news/43708-amd-releases-catalyst-115-drivers-115a-hotfix.html

Thanks Bino, I read through this and the video driver crash during video payback is a symptom I'v eexperienced as well, I will try it when I get home later. 

[Drano]

And I thought it was me messing with my overclock. I've been getting the same thing (black screen) with no rhyme or reason since the last couple of patches. Only happened a couple of times but it hasn't done that in a long long while. When it happens mine doesn't come back after a few secs. I can do a ctrl/alt/del, end process and get back in OK tho.

[shiv]

I had that exact same thing a few months ago, drove me crazy trying to figure it out. Weird thing is it only happened at the monitor's default resolution.  I checked card, temps, everything, couldn't fix it.

Someone told me it was probably the monitor but that didn't seem right as the monitor was fine at other resolutions. But I got a new one and bang, problem went away.

[Chalenge]

Could be an iffy cap in the monitor also. When they go out 'some' monitors can tell you through the diagnostics and others just blink the power switch at you. Its not hard to fix if thats the problem you just match up caps and replace them (being careful not to touch the large one that every board has). Humble has a post on how to fix it in this forum a couple years back.

Flakey memory can do it also. When I see things like this I generally take the GPU apart and retreat the thermal areas with new compound. If that doesnt fix the problem I know there could very well be swollen caps in the monitor.

[Drano]

I get that but my situation was it happened a few times out of the blue several patches--months ago, went away completely and now in the last week or so it's happened again a couple of times out of the blue. I don't know if it's AH that's the issue or not just sayin it'd happened to me too.

[Vinkman]

I get that but my situation was it happened a few times out of the blue several patches--months ago, went away completely and now in the last week or so it's happened again a couple of times out of the blue. I don't know if it's AH that's the issue or not just sayin it'd happened to me too.

I downloaded and installed the latest catalyst sofware but it made no difference. I will try to send a help ticket in to AMD tonight.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Is your power supply powerful enough for the new card? Your card might be drained from power and malfunction erratically.

[Vinkman]

Is your power supply powerful enough for the new card? Your card might be drained from power and malfunction erratically.

It's rated to be high enough. Trying to remember [not at home to check] what the watt rating is. I think it's 850watts, perhaps 1000watts. I remember it was big enough. This is a new problem that started a month or so ago so the Power suply card combo was fine for 5 months or so.  It seems to be worse since the patch.

[Chalenge]

Just remember its hardly ever the total watts of the PSU that matters. You want to keep in mind the load you have placed on each line and make sure you never go beyond its rated capacity. I would say keep it down to 75% of its rated capacity or less depending on the quality of PSU. Make sure you know the specs on each device attached and what its maximum draw is so that you can plan accordingly. If you dont already know you are operating in spec or not then you have homework to do.

[Ack-Ack]

With an ATI card those black outs are caused by VPU crashing and recovering.  This is usually caused by one of four things 1) out dated drivers 2) insufficient power 3) heating issues 4) defective video card.  It's going to take some trouble shooting to pin down the exact cause but now at least you have a starting point to start eliminating some potential causes.

ack-ack

[Drano]

Well I haven't updated my video drivers in a while which is unlike me. I have downloaded the new catalyst hotifx for AGP drivers and will go through that process when I get a chance. The power thing might possibly be a factor. Running a 750w PSU which oughta be enough I'd think. I did recently get a CM-690II Advanced case and there's a lot more fans on that than my older no-name-slightly-modified-to-stick-another-fan-or-two case did. Cools a TON better tho. Maybe I'm skating on the edge of not enough power to run the video card with all the fans. I'll try ditching a fan or two and see if the black screen issue goes away. Heat's prolly not it. I have a Zalman VF-1000 cooler on the card and it works great. Rarely get above 54c at full load in Kombuster although I do OC it at 800/900. All I could get without modifying the bios on it. I've had this card(HIS HD4670 AGP) since they came out with it so it's a couple of years old. I guess that's geriatric by today's hardware standards. But I love tweaking my old school hoopty box.  At some point I'll be REALLY forced to upgrade but that wont be until the next graphics bump happens here. Or I come into money. Kids in college so that's not likely.