Gaming Display Problem

[CoolJoey244]

So, I've been having a problem and I don't know where else to go. I'm sorry if I'm posting in the wrong area, forgive me and point me in the direction of where to post if that's the case.
My screen randomly goes black for ~3s randomly, display seemingly bleeding down before hand and glitching. I've already called HP because I thought it was a problem with my monitor and got a new monitor, power cable, and HDMI connector. My monitor is the HP 25mx set at 144hz and AMD FreeSync.
If it helps, it seems that when I go into fullscreen on a game, it's the same amount of time (as it feels) when the random black screens occur. If you need any more information, I'd be glad to provide it. This problem has been happening for too long.

 

[Originality]

It sounds like the graphics of your device is overheating. You will want to try cleaning all of the air vents/fans to get rid of as much dust as possible. You may also need to replace the thermal paste on any heat sinks.

If it’s a desktop, consider replacing the graphics card as it may be on the way out.

If it’s a laptop, the graphics is not replaceable so you don’t have many options beyond cleaning and redoing the thermal paste.

Edit: it could also be the graphics failing to supply enough frames for a 144Hz display, or being bottlenecked by the cable. However if you’ve already replaced the cable, you probably took the time to ensure you got a quality HDMI 2.0 cable rather than a cheap HDMI 1.4 cable.

 

[CoolJoey244]

It sounds like the graphics of your device is overheating. You will want to try cleaning all of the air vents/fans to get rid of as much dust as possible. You may also need to replace the thermal paste on any heat sinks.

If it’s a desktop, consider replacing the graphics card as it may be on the way out.

If it’s a laptop, the graphics is not replaceable so you don’t have many options beyond cleaning and redoing the thermal paste.

Edit: it could also be the graphics failing to supply enough frames for a 144Hz display, or being bottlenecked by the cable. However if you’ve already replaced the cable, you probably took the time to ensure you got a quality HDMI 2.0 cable rather than a cheap HDMI 1.4 cable.

Thanks! I've gone out and gotten a display port cable. I know for a fact it is better than HDMI in most, if not all cases. I haven't noticed any problems yet, so it seems good. Though, ever since I replaced the cable and disconnected my second monitor (I thought that was the problem), going in and out of fullscreen in games makes it lag for a good 6 seconds before I can input anything. A frame or two can get by but still no inputs. It goes back to normal after the 6 seconds, like how it was before with no lag. Do you have any suggestions to that?

 

[Originality]

Transitioning from full screen to normal when the two are different resolutions would cause this. Either play windowed mode (or windowed full screen) or change the resolution when in game to your native resolution.

 

[CoolJoey244]

I get what you're saying, but the only thing I can't understand is that it just started to be like this. For example, I play the Binding of Isaac and frequently look items up on the wiki, outside of the game. I noticed immediately that there's an extra long delay with switching from windowed to fullscreen- not the other way around. I tried with a few other games and it still did the same thing when I remember it didn't before.

 

[Originality]

I think that’s mostly driver dependant, how quickly it can switch between resolutions. If a recent driver update happened to make the transition worse than you remember, you can try rolling back the drivers.

However if you’re frequently swapping in and out of the game, you should really be playing in Windowed Full Screen mode. It gives you full screen play, whilst preventing /most/ issues when jumping in and out of the “active” window.

Any remaining issues will be from how the game engine reacts to being relegated to background/non-“active” states.

 

[CoolJoey244]

It worked! At least partially. It now only lags on the opposite trigger- going out of fullscreen. Albeit much shorter, it still is a hindrance and probably a problem with something other than the game (as it quickly flashes a black screen ~2s after going out of fullscreen, then allowing me to use my computer. If there is anything else I can do, please let me know. If you do or don't, I still thank you for being with me through these problems.

 

[Originality]

Aside from running in Windowed Fullscreen, there’s not really any more advise I can give on this.

Enjoy your games!