Hey folks, I need some help with a weird issue I'm having with my PC. It randomly restarts and shows a black screen when I'm playing demanding games, but it runs fine during stress tests. Here are my specs: I'm using a B550 Aorus Elite AX V2 motherboard, a new 1300W PSU, an RX 6900XT GPU, a Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, and a Samsung 1TB NVMe for storage.
I've performed a bunch of tests like Cinebench for both CPU and GPU; the CPU stays cool at about 67°C, but the GPU crashes just like when I'm gaming. In Furmark, the GPU also operates well below 60°C.
The problem occurs mainly during AAA games – the PC just restarts with a black screen, although Windows continues running in the background since I can hear sounds. Each time I restart, the monitor stays black until a few restarts later.
To troubleshoot, I've swapped out my PSU, cleaned the rig, checked temperatures, updated drivers, replaced the M.2 SSD, tested 10 different RAM modules, and checked the BIOS/voltages for any abnormalities. I even took it to a technician who was as puzzled as I am. I also have a video showing the problem if that helps!
3 Answers
What PSU did you have in the first place? Sometimes switching them doesn’t help if the underlying issue remains the same.
It seems like a power-related problem. Did the technician make sure to test it at their shop? Also, when you swapped PSUs, did you use the new cables that came with it? Mixing cables can lead to issues like this.
Yes, the technician tested it at his shop, and it showed the same issue. I replaced all the PSU cables with new ones during the swap, but the problem persists.
This is likely a GPU issue. You might want to try lowering the PCIe speed to 3.0. It could be a motherboard signal integrity problem, especially if the board has weak PCIe slots. I had similar troubles when going to PCIe 4.0 on a 4-layer board.
I tried changing the PCIe settings in the BIOS to both Gen 4 and Gen 3, and the same issue happens in both cases. I also recorded the crash happening; here's the link to the video.
I originally had an MSI MPG A850AF (850W), thinking it was the problem, so I switched to an Apevia 1300W. Unfortunately, it's still the same.