Farmi Feb 20, 2024 @ 1:22pm
Screen flashing black at random times during games
I have a problem where the screen will go black, usually for about a second, at seemingly random times during steam games. This has happened for the following games:

sekiro
hollow knight
don't starve together
Plate up
code vein

The problem doesn't seem to trend with more graphically demanding games, or be associated with higher GPU temps or fans running. Most of the time the game will run fine after the black screen, though some like hollow knight will lock up and need to be restarted. Most often happens 10-30 minutes into gameplay, and does happen again some time later if I keep playing in the same session. So far I've only been able to reproduce this problem while playing steam games. For example I have not yet encountered the issue while playing games through epic but I'm still testing.

The problem is relatively recent, I've had this pc about 3.5 years and I first had these black screens sometime fall '23

From what I've read online this issue seems to most resemble an issue described as being due to mismatched/ an issue with monitor resolution, but I've been using these same monitors for the entire life of the PC and the problem is newer.


Specs:
CPU: ryzen 5 3600
GPU Radeon RX 5700
Mobo: Asrock x570 phantom gaming 4
Monitor: Tested on Lenovo Len 27q-30 1440p/75Hz and ASUS VP249 1080p/144Hz
RAM: Would need to look up the specifics but 2x 8GB
Windows 10

What I've tried:

Updated windows and graphics card drivers
tested on different monitor and cable
verified game files
re-installed steam
turned off Freesync and vsync
Played on 1920x1080 instead of 2560x1440

any ideas?

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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
_I_ Feb 20, 2024 @ 1:33pm 
can be a few things

bad cable, hdmi/dp, try another one

gsync/freesync can cause, but it seems you ruled that out

or bad backlight leds, when failing they will open and turn off all backlight til they cool and work again
if turning the backlight/brightness down, using the displays osd menu, and it does it less often, this is the problem

if it stays out for long enough, you can also use a very bright flashlight and put it directly to the panel, if you see a partial image around the light there is no backlight
Last edited by _I_; Feb 20, 2024 @ 1:34pm
Farmi Feb 20, 2024 @ 2:00pm 
I tried playing the games on a different monitor (the 1080p listed above)which uses a different cable, and still got the black screen. Worth noting that the original monitor was still plugged in, just showing desktop.

This makes a cable/monitor hardware issue seem unlikely to me, but I will test more rigorously and try some of the things you suggested. Thanks
Farmi Feb 20, 2024 @ 2:05pm 
No noticeable change between full screen and borderless. It feels like the problem might be less frequent in windowed, though it's hard to say for sure since there's usually several minutes in between black screens anyway. But the problem definitely doesn't go away in windowed either
Bad 💀 Motha Feb 20, 2024 @ 10:21pm 
Radeon 5700... say no more. Terrible GPUs
Last edited by Bad 💀 Motha; Feb 20, 2024 @ 10:21pm
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Date Posted: Feb 20, 2024 @ 1:22pm
Posts: 4