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Solved PC turns solid color & crashes outside of Safe Mode

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A

AUserAccount

PCHF Member
Jun 19, 2020
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#1
Hello,

I'm currently experiencing an issue with my PC that I'd love help on.

Starting last night, I was playing a game while running a triple monitor setup, and the computer suddenly froze and crashed. After that, I wasn't able to use all 3 monitors without the PC crashing when one monitor was plugged in via HDMI. I swapped that one to displayport and it proceeded to work fine, BUT I couldn't shut the computer down. It would turn the screens off but never fully shut down.

I did a complete reinstall on my OS thinking it would be a software issue, but the problem persists. Before I had installed the Graphics Drivers on the new OS, I could sit at the desktop fine. Now whenever I load up the PC outside of safe mode, the desktop will load then turn a solid color and crash until it is hard reset by holding down the power button. Connecting the additional 2 monitors causes the PC to crash immediately even before I had the graphic drivers installed.

The desktop will load into Safe mode just fine with no issues.

Any pointers and tips would be greatly appreciated.

I am running;

RTX 2070 Super
i7 8700k
750W PSU
16GBs of RAM
 
#4
vger said:
Hello

What OS are you running? Safe mode does indicate this is a software issue... Where did you get the drivers for the 2070?
Click to expand...
I am running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.
I got the drivers from the NVIDIA website.

Also to note something I remembered after making this post: when I was updating Windows 10 to the latest version everything starting going wrong once the update upscaled my resolution. When the monitor was at the default resolution everything was fine. This was occurring BEFORE I attempted to install the GPU drivers.
 
#6
Good choice of PSU so less likely as the cause, unlike the Windows 10 version 2004 which just may well be the issue, only way to find out is roll back to the previous version 1909 in the Recovery options.

Can I ask that you do not quote every reply as we have to read all quoted posts as well, it not only wastes our time but also keeps you waiting as well.
 
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#7
I apologize for the double quote reply, I wasn't aware if you'd see it unless the website notified you because of a quote reply.

The OS build I initially installed from a bootable USB last night was 1703, then I ran a windows update from the Microsoft Website that came out last month.
The moment the update installed and increased the monitor resolution the problem was there again from before I wiped the OS.
It confuses me so much because I was playing games and using 3 monitors just fine before a random crash last night.
So even without any software installed on the PC this version can cause it to crash? Ill do my best to go to your recommended version once I leave work today.
 
#8
Windows 10 version 1703 has not been supported since October 2018 so small wonder you had issues tbh, you need to download the latest ISO and have the drivers for the MB and GPU saved on a flash drive ready to install right after Windows has been clean installed, it is most important that the first drivers that you install are for the chipset or you will cause yourself problems, below is my canned info on driver updates etc.

Once Windows has been installed, you install the necessary drivers for the MB and other hardware and then leave well alone, drivers should not be allowed to auto update and you should never update any driver/s unless the new drivers are intended to resolve a specific issue that you are having, installing new drivers unnecessarily can actually cause you the very issues that any new drivers are intended to resolve and uninstalling the new drivers may not resolve the problem/s that installing the new drivers has caused.

Depending on priority it can take many months before the driver provider releases any fix and they sometimes do not even bother.
 
#11
I was able to roll my PC back to 1703, as I went from that build to the latest, it did not give me an option to select a specific build. I can load to my desktop fine with the 1024x768 default resolution with no errors.
 
#12
Did a clean install to 1909. Latest NVIDIA drivers for a 2070 Super causes the screen to freeze and turn a solid color. When I sit at the desktop I do not get the screen to crash until I open a web browser. DDU'd that driver and tried the previous GPU drivers. Same issue. When I boot into low resolution mode the problem is not there. If this is happening on every Windows build I've tried and I've tried different graphics driver versions as well, is it still not a hardware issue? Should I change PCI slots?
 
#13
Ouch, it would have been better if you had followed the steps in your reply #9 tbh as there have been too many bad Windows updates between the release of 1703 and 1909, version 2004 can be even more problematic so clean installing that is not even an option atm :(

Do you still have the 1703 roll back option available.
 
#14
Yeah, I can go back to the Fall Creators update still, version 1709.

I did the rollback to 1703 first yesterday, but when attempting to update my GPU the executable doesn't recognize it and states that it isn't supported on that version of Windows. It was then that I went to the updated version of Windows 1909 via a clean installation.

Another thing I've noticed develop is that when I leave my computer to idle without any GPU driver installed, it has automatically installed version 432.00 of NVIDIA drivers every time. When I attempt to browse the internet with the driver installed some pages will cause the computer to freeze to a solid color but it will unfreeze within a matter of minutes, and other times it will crash the entire computer.
 
#15
What I suggest you do for now;

Roll back to version 1709, if all is well, create a new system restore point.

Disable automatic driver updates, see option one here for how to.

Manually update Windows 10 to version 1903 and then pause updates while we check to see if the computer is stable, how to pause updates here
 
#18
Went to 1903 after creating a restore point. The system is stable as long as no NVIDIA driver is installed. No matter which version I'm on the problem has been there. Install GPU driver, attempt to use any web browser or even open up a window in settings, and the PC crashes. Sometimes it'll unfreeze, other times it won't.

When I've unplugged the monitor and swapped display cables varying from different displayport cables and HDMI, the screen never shows anything until I reset the PC. I'm at a loss as to what to do. My Temps have been normal when I could access Speccy. All fans are running (regarding GPU, PSU, and liquid cooled CPU) and nothing is making any unusual noise, if any noise at all.

As of right now I am sitting on 1903 with absolutely nothing installed. I disabled all updates but I fear that when I install my WiFi drivers my system will add the NVIDIA drivers anyway.
 
#19
Can I ask that once you have done any steps that have been suggested that you hold off doing anything further and just post back to update us, we will end up having to start from scratch again if you happen to do something that goes wrong.

Download and run DriverView which you can get from here

Save the results to text and attach to your next reply for us if you will.

NB Can I just make sure that you are not swapping anything that is connected to the computer while it is connected to the wall socket, other than certain devices that are hot swappable as are some USB external HDDs nothing should be connected or disconnected to a computer while there is power present, the smallest amount of charge can hose the whole hardware set up.
 
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