Built A New Computer - Had Constant Screen Blackouts - Perplexing??? I Fixed It!

Hey Folks,

 

As the thread title suggests, I had built a new desktop computer. 

 

The quick specs are:

 

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

ASRock B650 Mainboard

32 GB 5600 DDR5 Ram

2 - 1 TB Teamgroup M.2280 SSD Storage

Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB

Montech Sky Two Mid-tower case

 

Ok, I put all of that together with no major issues in installation.

 

As I was going through the Windows 11 installation, I noticed that the monitor screen kept on blacking out every 2-3 minutes. No warning. Nada!

 

Hmm... I had wondered about the drivers for the RX 7800 XT. So, I uninstalled the 1st install and reinstalled the drivers again.

Still doing the monitor screen blackouts.

 

I'm saying to myself... WTF???

 

Oh no! Is something broken already?

 

When I hooked up the monitor to the graphics card, I used the Display Port cable on both the monitor and the graphics card.

 

Ok, so, I took the usual steps to troubleshoot the issue and I started with the most basic one... checking the cable.

 

I wonder if it is the cable that is causing the problem. 

 

So, I got one of my new HDMI cables that had never been used, I plugged that in and PRESTO! No more monitor screen blackouts!

 

I did take a much closer look at the DP cable and noticed that the end that went into the graphics card had a few connectors that were kind of bent. Not much, but just enough to screw things up. Here's the odd thing, that DP cable worked fine on the older computer that I just replaced. 

 

The old computer had a RTX 3600 12 GB card in it and it worked fine for that setup. I cannot confirm if the connection pins were already bent when it was hooked up to the old computer because I did not bother to look closely to the inside of the connections. 

 

At least, I know that I built the computer correctly. It's only the cable and not something major that I have to return. 

 

So... any computer builders out there reading this... double check your cables, especially the insides where the pins can be easily displaced.

Better yet... use BRAND NEW cables to assure hassle-free installs. 

 

So, I have ordered brand new DP cables and once I get it, I will plug that in and see what happens. 

 

MCG

Edited by hamluis, 20 March 2024 - 11:29 AM.
Moved from Int Hdware to Tips/Tricks - Hamluis.

UPDATE:

I got the new DP cable in tried that out.

I still got the screen blackouts. WTF???

Theres something that I was missing, so I did a bit more research on the specifications of the RX 7800 XT graphics card, the monitor, and the DP/HDMI cables.

I had concluded that the monitor might have been the source of the screen blackouts while I was using the DP cables. Using the HDMI cable, the monitor worked just fine.

I notice that the monitor was only compatible up to the DP 1.2 version specification. Even though the RX 7800 XT was supposed to be compatible with DP 1.2 version, but I had surmised that it might work better with a monitor that supported the DP 1.4 version specification.

I had bought a new 27 inch monitor 2 months ago, but didnt get around to using it and I looked at that monitors specifications and lo and behold, it did support DP 1.4 version specification. Could that be the solution?

I setup the new monitor and plugged in the DP cable that came with the new monitor and I have been running this new monitor for 4 days now with zero screen blackouts.

Well, the moral of the story is, check the specifications of all computer components!
Even the minor details can come back to bite you!

Have a good one!

MWG