Understanding and Troubleshooting PC Freezing, Black Screen, and Artifacts: A Technical Overview
In the world of PC gaming and high-performance computing, stability is paramount. However, even well-built systems can encounter unpredictable issues that disrupt workflow and entertainment. Recently, a user shared a detailed account of a perplexing set of symptoms affecting their desktop PC, and through their thorough description, we can explore the potential causes and troubleshooting strategies for similar hardware anomalies.
System Configuration Overview
The affected system features a robust configuration designed for demanding tasks:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 X AX
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 MSI
- Processor: Intel Core i5-13600KF
- Memory: 2x 16 GB Corsair DDR5 5200MHz
- Power Supply: Corsair RM850e
This assembly has been assembled with care, operating reliably until recent events.
Initial Stability and Subsequent Symptoms
Initially, the system operated flawlessly—no instability, artifacts, or performance issues. The user performed a clean installation of the latest Nvidia drivers, maintaining stability for approximately three hours of use.
However, after transporting the PC to a new residence—weather conditions aside, no shocks occurred—the symptoms began to manifest, including:
- Intermittent slow boots, occasionally taking up to two minutes
- Visual artifacts such as abnormal pixel coloration and flickering black bars
- Complete system freezes followed by black screens
- Automatic restarts of the system
- Audio choppiness during black screens
- Reduced frame rates and overall degraded performance in applications and games
- Unresponsive behavior where input devices (keyboard and mouse) become inactive
- Anomalous RGB keyboard behavior, requiring physical reinitialization
- VGA diagnostic LED indicating potential hardware issues
These symptoms appear unpredictably, sometimes after periods of normal operation lasting hours.
Diagnostic and Troubleshooting Efforts
The user conducted comprehensive diagnostics to isolate the problem:
- Storage health checks via CrystalDiskInfo and chkdsk confirmed healthy SSDs.
- Extended VRAM testing with OCCT (30 minutes at 95%) yielded no errors.
- RAM diagnostics with OCCT also showed no problems.
- Replacing or testing alternative GPUs did not reproduce or resolve the issues.
- Power outlet and connection checks showed no impact.
- Re-seating RAM and GPU hardware found no improvement.
Recent Steps and Observations
Notably, the user reinstalled the graphics driver shortly before experiencing
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