Windows 10: Recurring Crash to Black Screen

Symptoms:


I have crash that occurs pretty frequently on my machine. When it occurs the screen goes almost completely black, filling with very dark "snow" (noise) that upon closer inspection is actually tessellated. If any audio was playing at the time of the crash, then it is replaced by the "robot growl" (a very rough, constant noise), otherwise no sound plays after a crash. The crash can only be resolved by performing a hard reboot.


System Specs:


CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K

Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 5

Video Card: AMD Radeon R9 390, model 100382NTOC-2L (driver version 26.20)

RAM: G.SKILL 2x8 GB DDR3 1600 SDRAM

PSU: EVGA 850 W

OS: Windows 10 x64 (version 1803)


Attempts to fix/diagnose problem:

• I ran mdsched to check the RAM, but it did not find any problems.
• I tried to repair any corrupted system files by running the following commands:
  • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
  • sfc /scannow
• I consulted the Reliability Monitor to try to find the cause of the crash.
  • I can see events that seem to have been logged after I started the machine back up after a crash that only say "Windows was not properly shut down. The previous system shutdown was unexpected."
  • The Reliability Monitor shows a "Hardware Error" just before the first such crash. The problem event name is listed as a "LiveKernelEvent" with code 141.
    • I am very inexperienced with working with the Event Viewer, and have been unable to isolate this event there to try to glean further information. Additionally, the Event Viewer in my current version of Windows seems to crash when the user attempts to make a custom filter.
    • Searching online for "LiveKernelEvent code 141" seems to indicate that this event can stem from a wide variety of issues such as failing hardware, corrupted drivers, etc as opposed to a specific cause.
• I have played games with the case open, but the crash still occurred.
• I carefully vacuumed as much dust as I could out of the case and changed the video card to a different slot with the same interface. The crash still occurred.
• I ran FurMark for 20 minutes, with GPU temperatures staying between 80 and 85 degrees C for almost the whole test. The computer did not crash.
• I ran Prime95 for 15 minutes, with all CPU cores staying at 100% utilization for the whole test and staying between 95 and 100 degrees C for almost the whole test. The computer did not crash.

Additional Observations:

• The crash is very random with no easy way to quickly and reliably reproduce it.
• Three things make the crash more likely (but not guaranteed) to occur:
  • If a crash has occurred recently then it is very likely that a crash will occur again. If I reboot the computer when a crash occurs and continue using it immediately after the reboot it will almost always crash again in under 5 minutes.
  • Gaming seems to induce the crash more reliably than just surfing the Web. However, I have had the machine crash with only simple programs open like the Reliability Monitor and Event Viewer.
  • Switching between programs by using alt-tab (especially if the current application is running in fullscreen) has caused the crash.

Thank you for any assistance!

:)

 

Black screen error

Hello,

There are several reasons why you are facing a black screen issue. One of these is due to outdated or incorrect device drivers. For us to figure out what's causing this, provide more details by answering the listed questions:

• Can you confirm to us if you are using a laptop or a computer?
• Have you made any recent changes to your device prior to this happening?
• What exactly were you doing when the error occurred?
• Have you tried any troubleshooting steps to resolve this? If yes, specify all of the steps that you have done.

As an initial part of troubleshooting, we suggest following the steps given on this article:

Troubleshoot black screen or blank screen errors. This will help you diagnose and rectify most of the known black screen concerns.

We will wait for your response.

 

black screen

Hi Bart,

It is possible that you're experiencing black screen due to corrupted system files. To assist you better, we'd like to gather more information:

• Are you getting any error messages?
• What happen when you tried to login?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

In the meantime, we suggest that you follow the steps in this
article to troubleshoot black screen errors. You can choose which situation you're experiencing the error and perform the instructions.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

black screen

Hi,

To assist you better regarding your concern, we would like to know more information:

• Did you get any error messages?
• Have you tried updating the drivers?

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps suggested by Sharath Srinivasa on this

link.

You can also check the article about troubleshooting black screen problems on the link below.

windows-10-troubleshoot-black-screen-problems

Hope this information helps. Please post us back if you need any further assistance.