Monitor shuts off during 3d card use

[Avs]

Hi, this is the first time I've been here and it seems that a lot of you guys know how to solve a wide variety of problems. So here's my question anyways.

Ive recently ordered a completely new system which has been sitting here for 5 days so far. The installation went fine, in fact, everything BESIDES 3D application work requiring my 3d card works perfectly (which is why I can post here). But the problem is that when I am working with 3D software editing, or playing a 3D game, usually within 2 - 10 minutes in the program the monitor will randomly "shut down", hang, go into what looks like "standby" mode, or what others call lose it's signal. Normal computer usage so far has not caused any problems, but until I can solve this I wont be using it for anything else. More below.


The specs are:

Motherboard: AOPEN AK79-400VN Nforce Ultra 400
Processor: Barton Core AMD 2500+ 512k Cache
RAM: 2 256MB DDR400 RAM Dual Channel
Round Cables
80 Western Digital HD
CD-RW 52/16/52x
DVD
6in1 Flash media card reader/writer
420w Power Supply with 19A on the 12v Line
Thermal displays and fans
Geforce FX 5600 256MB w/ digital video input + TV
Windows XP
Direct x 9.0b
Whatever is the latest "supported" driver on the Nvidia detenator page.
19" flatscreen SyncMaster 172N by Samsung

Now, the motherboard is one of the newer Nforce chipsets. Though AOPEN aint the greatest I cant place the problem on the motherboard itself though it does integrate LAN, sound, among other things. There are no PCI cards in the motherboard. Only the Geforce FX 5600 is down there in the AGP slot. The AGP warning led is not on.

Now the black screens occur during the games/applications, however its fine during Futuremarks' 3dMark 2003 test runs. When the black screens occur, the System remains ON, however the power button will not respond thus forcing me to reboot. Everything is still spinning, the CD roms open up, and they will "attempt" to read the cd if closed back up.

Programs which it occurs on (besides the all that involve my graphics card):

3D Studios Max
Fusion
Fusion Maya
Creative Studios Archane Engine
---------------------------------------
MOHAA
CounterStrike
JediKnight Outast
Unreal Tournament 2k3 (2003)
Halflife mods various:
Science and Industry
Halflife
Deathmatch
CTF
Firearms
Day of Defeat
Natural Selection
NeverWinter Nights
Warcraft 3

You get the picture

Only Starcraft/Iso/2d things work, though I have not tested Isometric 3d on Heroes 4 games.

What I have tried. Basically everything basic to advanced.

-Flashing the bios to the latest version.
-Updating the chipset from latest supported release and leaked releases.
-Updating Nvidia drivers. Using versions from 40.xx to 44.xx and beyond to leaked drivers.
-Using VIA chipset files to hybrid substitution. (Dont try this if you dont know what it is).
-Using the VIA latency patch.
-Updating Directx 8.1 to 9.0a and then currently using 9.0b. None of these work.
-Updating game patches.
-Changing AGP speeds.
-Underclocking my processor, memory, AGP speeds.
-Outputting less and more voltages to processor, memory, AGP.
-Turning off fastwrites
-Trying P1 and or P3 power management systems.
-Trying BIOS setting, everything from power management, to voltage control.
-Setting my AGP speed from 8x to 4x, and also disabling it.
-Making sure in windows my power management options isnt using hibernation, or power saving settings. They are all at NEVER.
-Checking my refesh rate settings, they are at the standard 60hz, range.
-Checking for viruses (which would rarely cause this type of problem anyways)
-Checking for spyware (I have firewalls so I found nothing).
-Using default, safesetting, turbo Bios automatic settings
-Checking the Vysnc, turning those off, mipmaps, Zbuffer, and etc.
-Checking my CAS
-Changing my sound acceleration from Full to standard.
-And much much more.

Now there are a few things that I raised an eyebrow at which may be the problem but would be a next level kind of step which I would do if confirmed.

I have ACPI enabled when I installed the OS, so ACPI is on. If I turn this off in BIOS and boot, it will hang when trying to load the proper controllers and whatnot(which I dont know if this is normal if you installed with ACPI and then turned it off).

The powersupply is 420w. Many people say its the power, though my 12v line outputs a max of 19a which is above the recommended 15a on a 12v line, and the minimum 12a on a 12v line. This makes me rule out the power issue.

The heat inside my case is a cool 22C. The processor is at a cool 38C and never passes 50C. Ive touched it to test the heat and its never been too hot to touch.

When I look at my device manager, there are no device conflicts in the IRQ settings. However, when the computer boots up, when it lists the IRQ settings for the basic things booted, it says that

Multimedia Device
Network Controller
SMBus Controller
USB Root Hub Controller

are all sharing IRQ 11. Though after I get into windows, the System device manager lists IRQ 11 being used by only the Nvidia nForce PCI System Management thing, which makes me believe that its normal and not an IRQ issue.

As for the 3d Futuremark test, that partially rules out the 3d card having defects.

I have changed the RAM with new RAM, all which I have personally run burn-in tests on and which they have all passed. They are all dual channel DDR400 sticks. Ive been using them in pairs, though if I take one out, the problem still occurs even at 256MB memory.

Unless something burned out or blew up on my motherboard which would be really bad and obviously cause more problems than just the random blank screen + forced to reboot problem, I believe its NOT hardware related. This stuff is all new and tested.

That leaves me to conclude its a software issue. But I have tried multiple drivers for everything, and its not making me happy if you know what I mean.

Ive heard that this may be a conflict caused by APCI, in which case I could easily roll it back without having to reinstall anything but drivers.

Among other things, there are many people who have this problem who arent using these forums, which is why Im posting here to get your guy's point of view.

By the way, I am a professional graphics expert, and a I have done quite a few IT things in the past with major colleges, and a gamer. Theres certainly some things Ive probably missed above which I forgot to mention but Ill answer any questions if I can.

Other information added: There are NO blue screens of death BSODs, there are no erros in the event logs. There are no errors period. Just monitor loses signal turning black, while system looks like its still on.

I really would like to post this in the Video Card forum or in the MotherBoards forum since they also have very similar topics reguarding tech support, though I do not know if thats against the rules.

Please help, I have almost no clue at this point, and I would gladly forward any information to other forums if this problem is solved.

[thronka]

Have you changed the refresh rate beyond the monitor settings in the nvidia control panel?

[Avs]

No, it has been at 60hz the entire time. I mentioned this above.

When the monitor does lose it's signal, there is no sound. The Harddrive is still active and did not turn off. The refresh rate has never been beyond 60hz, and if it were, the monitor could easily support it and so could the card. It doesnt seem to be a sound problem, ive turned off the music in the games ive been testing it with and it still happens.

[ArcticFox]

We can rule out that it isn't an IRQ problem, as Windows would detect it and it's normal to have multiple devices sharing IRQs. My first thought would be the refresh rate, but that has already been ruled out.

The next thing would be to isolate the problem. We know it isn't your RAM, so next comes the video card. Ask a freind or if you have another card, plop it in their and see. If it isn't an nVidia product, deinstall the Detonators first, and then go through the normal routine of graphics card installation. Then try out your games. If it works, great, if not, step 2:

Take the card out and put it in another PC. Install some games/ 3d apps and fire 'em up. Problem fixed? If not, step 3:

Go into your BIOS, and make sure the option to "Allocate IRQ To VGA" is enabled. If it isn't, enable it and try out your games. If it is enabled, step 4:

This is a stretch, and a pain, but try disabling all your motherboards peripherals, AKA sound, LAN, etc... in the System Properties control panel and test it out. Leave your nVidia drivers on, though, because what we want to do here is boot into safe-mode except doing so disables all drivers from loading. This way, only the Detonator driver pack loads, nothing else. If the problem is fixed, start turning back on drivers, one at a time, with a reboot and a level of WarcraftIII at a time. Once you get the black screens again, you have hit the problem and can deal with it accordingly.

Hope this helps!

[Reknup]

okay before we get all technical... id suggest setting all video properties to default!

[Reknup]

Then if that doesnt help.... Try reinstalling card and drivers

And if not that........

Its your monitor or video-card-Or possibly the Application your running!

[Avs]

Thanks for the input thus far, Ill now begin the testing (of all suggestions) and have the results as soon as I finish. If anyone else has an idea, please let me know.

[cyclist110]

Who manufactured the video card?

[ArcticFox]

Sorry if my post was, uh, more than slightly confusing. Those are the steps to try after you follow the advice of other people who arn't so trained to rush into things.

[Avs]

The video card is OEM.

Update: Its now only affecting games like UT2003, Jedi Knight Outcast, and MOHAA. A co-worker played (without me knowing until told afterward) Warcraft III for four hours straight. So now I dont know if its affecting everything 3d related or just first person shooter games. Which could put the problem at OpenGL code or D3D. And I havent finished going through the step by step testing yet.