Nvidia Display Black Screen (Display Driver Crash)

[jcH.7109]

So I've done a good amount of research on this topic, and it seems plenty of people have the same issue. It is somewhat alarming that people have been experiencing this since at least 2017 (if not earlier) and nothing has been done to fix it. First, here are my specs:

GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW (OC +100 MHz, +303 MHz Memory Clock)CPU: i5 4670k (stock)RAM: G.Skill TridentX DDR3 16gb 2400mhzMotherboard: Asus Maximus VI HeroSSD: Samsung 850 Pro 1TBSound card: Creative Sound Blaster ZPSU: EVGA 750 P2OS: Windows 10 64-bit

Randomly while I'm playing GW2, my monitor display will suddenly turn black, and then a prompt will pop up on the side saying "No Signal Detected". This is something that typically happens when the display driver crashes. However, I can still hear gameplay sounds. I can technically still play the game, it's just that I won't be able to see what I'm doing because the display will remain completely black until I restart my computer. I also notice that every single time this happens, my GPU fan speed maxes out for some reason. Sometimes, this problem will occur 10 minutes after I start playing. Sometimes, I can play for an hour or 2 before this happens. Or sometimes, I can play for hours with no problems.

It is virtually impossible for me to figure out what specifically is causing this issue. It doesn't matter what map I'm on, it doesn't matter if I'm nowhere near other people. It doesn't matter if I'm not really doing anything. The black screen can and will happen at any time. The curious part about this is that this game is not even graphically demanding. If I monitor my GPU load while I'm playing GW2, it almost never goes above 50%. And when it does, only by a little. My GPU temperature always stays under 60 degrees C. I can play literally any other triple A game which puts my GPU under heavy load with fan speeds running very high for as long as I want. GPU temp can hit almost 80 degrees. Clock speed will reach over 2100 MHz. My display driver will not crash.

When I first bought my GTX 1080, I extensively tested it to see how much I could overclock it. I ran various stress tests (which are much, MUCH more intense than GW2), and know 100% without a doubt that at the settings I listed above, it should be stable. And it is. In every single game except for Guild Wars 2. My GPU OC is not even extreme. It is fairly modest compared to what other people have been able to achieve.

One thing to note is that I bought this game on release. I used to play using a GTX 570. Back then, there were no black screen issues at all. However, I stopped playing for a very long time and only recently started playing again. This leads me to think that somewhere along the way, Anet updated the game engine in a way that introduced this extremely annoying bug.

As I have mentioned above, I have done plenty of research on this topic. And I have seemingly found the only "solution" which people say will solve the problem: you must underclock your GPU. I have not yet tested this myself, as I've been trying any other method to avoid doing so. Needless to say, I paid a fairly large sum for my PC build. I intend to get as much out of it as I possibly can. So I've tried fiddling with the in-game graphics settings. I've tried regedit. I've tried reinstalling the graphics driver. I've tried updating the graphics driver. I've tried reinstalling the game. NOTHING works.

EDIT: Windows 10 Game Mode/Game DVR actually might be the culprit. I'm not sure. I just don't understand why it would cause issues with only 1 game. I've disabled it using regedit. Now I'm going to wait several days and just play the game to see if this actually fixes the problem. For people who are having the same issue, this is what I did:

Open Registry Editor (Run > regedit)Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStoreSet the value of DWORD "GameDVR_Enabled" to 0Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Create key "GameDVR"Create DWORD 32bit called "AllowgameDVR" and set to 0

If the black screen problem persists, I will post an update here to let you guys know that this isn't a fix.

EDIT #2: Nope turning off Game DVR did not work.

[Tazzypoos.2103]

Have you tried replacing the cable to GPU I say that because I had the same issue and it ended up being my cable. I assume since you over clock it that you have the latest GPU update and use the clean install box checked under custom install?

[jcH.7109]

No I haven't tried replacing the cable, and I seriously doubt that it's the cause of this problem. Just like attributing the problem to Windows 10 game mode, it doesn't explain how I have no issues with literally any other game i play. If the cable was at fault, I would expect driver crashes in any graphically intensive games. This is not the case. The last time my display driver crashed before I started playing Guild Wars 2 again was two years ago when I was trying to figure out how far I could push my GPU overclock, which is normal. As I have already stated in the OP, I have run several stress tests to verify the stability of my OC.

The conclusion I have reached is that this game is not properly optimized. That is quite literally the only logical explanation I can think of. From the research I've done, I've learned that some people who do not even experience driver crashes/black screens have noticed their GPU fan speed suddenly spiking for a few seconds. The only reason why the fans would start whirring like crazy is the game is suddenly demanding high GPU usage when it is not even necessary. My guess is that people who have lower-end GPUs, liquid-cooling solutions, or have already set their fan speeds at a high percentage under any amount of load do not notice this.

Some people have had to underclock their GPUs to as low as -250 MHz to stop the black screen problem from occurring. This is definitely not normal. It is also not a real solution. They are only circumventing the issue. The actual solution is for ArenaNet to properly optimize their 6 year old game. Outrageous suggestion, I know. Unfortunately, I doubt they will make the effort to do so, considering how long they've failed to address this.

Given the nature of this problem, I've given up on finding reasonable fixes. If the game itself is not optimized properly (at least for Nvidia GPUs), then there is quite literally nothing I can do besides following in the footsteps of others and underclocking my GPU to at least be able to play the game with no black screens.

I now sort of regret spending more money on this game and buying the expansions. Had I known about this issue, I probably would not have returned at all. Guild Wars 2 is a good game, but this is ridiculous. I now feel compelled to continue playing because of the money I invested.

[Healix.5819]

Have you tried... not OCing? A successful stress test doesn't mean it's 100%, and having to further UC isn't limited to GW2, it's a solution to an unstable GPU. Not all cards have the same potential due to the quality of the materials, so although one person might get an extreme OC, someone else might fail at a factory OC. The fans going full throttle is due to the temperature sensor being unresponsive / too high.

As for why it's only happening with GW2, not all games are the same. Simply using DX9 means it's interacting differently with the GPU for example and crashing an OC can be as simple as that. The problem could also be elsewhere, like a slight dip in the power from the PSU causing the GPU to crash. You ran a stress test, but did you stress the PSU by stressing everything (CPU, GPU, RAM and all drives) at the same time?

If you upgraded the GPU without doing a fresh install, clean install your GPU drivers. You may also want to confirm it's not a recent driver problem by trying an older version. If you previously played GW2 on this PC, delete the folder %appdata%/Guild Wars 2, and (if it exists) Documents/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat.

[jcH.7109]

@ Healix.5819

1. I did not run "a stress test". I ran various stress tests. This includes GPU torture testing (FurMark, Heaven), CPU testing (Prime95), memory burn-in testing (memtest86+), and SSD testing (HD-Tune).
2. If you are familiar with computer building and components, you would quickly realize that a 750W 80+ Platinum rated PSU is overkill for this build. I bought it along with the GTX 1080 in the summer of 2016 and have had no issues with it.
3. I'm not a noob when it comes to PC building. I know how to upgrade components. GPU installation isn't exactly difficult. My 12 year old cousin could probably do it.
4. If you read the OP, you would know that my GPU isn't anywhere close to being overheated while playing GW2. GPU load usually stays under 50%, but very occasionally it might go above 50% by a few digits. Because of this, stress testing my GPU doesn't even seem relevant.
5. It is in no way, shape, or form, normal for a game to suddenly cause a MASSIVE SPIKE in GPU usage with no significant changes in the environment. I would tell you the exact GPU load/temp when the driver crashes, but the screen goes black the moment it happens. I'll try logging the history with AB.
6. Guild Wars 2 is not the only DX9 game I play.

[Azjaqir.9436]

Hi.

I think it's probably tide to connection issues (was in my case at least) and when the game suddenly disconnects it fails to show the message that you've been disconnected and only shows a black screen, although I've never had experienced my monitor turn off.

Try out using a vpn and see if it still happening. For me connection problems started back when they announced PoF and probably moved their servers to Amazon. Every game I've seen using AWS had connection issues in one way or another and GW2 is one of them. I used to be able to ping the map IPs I'm in and see if I have a stable connection to various of them but not anymore since PoF... .

[Ashantara.8731]

Set your in-game resolution and refresh rate to the same you have set under Windows (see nVidia Control Panel). I recommend always using the native resolution and refresh rate.

Delete your local GW2 settings (C:\Users\ {username}\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2), then launch the game and re-adjust the in-game graphics settings. Note: this will NOT delete your keybinds or other preferences.

If (2) didn't help, try adding the -windowed parameter to the GW2 shortcut link, then launch the game and switch to fullscreen mode.

[nCode X.1036]

@"jcH.7109" said:So I've done a good amount of research on this topic, and it seems plenty of people have the same issue. It is somewhat alarming that people have been experiencing this since at least 2017 (if not earlier) and nothing has been done to fix it. First, here are my specs:

GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW (OC +100 MHz, +303 MHz Memory Clock)CPU: i5 4670k (stock)RAM: G.Skill TridentX DDR3 16gb 2400mhzMotherboard: Asus Maximus VI HeroSSD: Samsung 850 Pro 1TBSound card: Creative Sound Blaster ZPSU: EVGA 750 P2OS: Windows 10 64-bit

Hi,

So I've gotten into the same issue as you. I didn't find any answer so I wanted to tell you the solution I've come up to.Firstly, this seems to happen not only with GW on my side but I also saw a similar problem in Warzone (Modern Warfare)It seems to be related to the memory (VRAM).

-SOLUTION-

So I dropped the resolution from 2K to 1080p and then it solved the problem for a time. but then it began to do it again.the final solution was for my to drop the voltage and clock offsett of my card on EVGA Precision X1 by a factor of 10 each. (offset of -10).This solved the problem and I presume it is due to to my GPU "fatigue", a.k.a normal use.. It's sad because I always took good care of my GPU (temps, clocking).Other GPU software would probably do as well.

Have a nice day!