GV-R929XOC-4GD watercooled giving black screens.

[Nwanko]

Question:	I recently updated my rig with a custom loop with full cover water blocks. The system was working fine until i put on the block, then suddently the errors began. I'm getting 2d 3d screen flickering. The most common is in BF4, i can play like 2000-3000 tickets games that are long over an hour. But then when the map changesthose seconds that countdown and the map changes,i get like some flashes and flickering and then the screen goes black. Then i have to hard reset my pc. And sometimes it wont boot normal until i reset it for like 10 times,the screen always black after the windows logo. i tried crysis 3 mp and PvZ Garden warfare, and all games make the same error,before a new map loads the screen flickers and flashes and then the screen goes black. I was just about to send the card back to the reteailler for warranty soo i put back the stock cooler and tried one more time and now for like 2-3 hours of trying these different games and scenarios for some reason there were no errors of any kind. Working perfectly normal with stock cooler. How can this be now? The card is much cooler under water and still gives those errors. Is this somehow related to the stock cooler fan thas is connected and with the waterblock it isnt? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you D.
	Product Name: GV-R929XOC-4GD BIOS Ver: F21 Operation System: Win 8.1 64-bit Driver Ver: 14.9,14.12,14.11 beta1,2

System specs:
Z77X-UD5H (F16-OC bios from this forum)
3770k (Delid) 4.5ghz 1.25v
2x4gb kingston hyperx lovo 1.35v cl9
120gb samsung evo
1tb f3 samsung
750gb wd green
corsair rm 1000

loop:
ek supreme ltx acetal+copper
fc 290x acetal 2.0 (copper)
ek dcp 4.0 pump
ek bay res
360 noname rad
10/13mm tubing

[parsec]

Re: GV-R929XOC-4GD watercooled giving black screens.

One of the problems that happens when a water block is used on a video card, and the standard cooler is removed, is other parts of the video card are not cooled properly.

Usually, that is the video cards voltage regulator chips (VRMs) and related parts of the circuitry (inductors, etc), and/or the memory chips on the card.

Your symptoms sound like one or both of those are happening. You play a game, and after a while the parts that are not being cooled well begin to over heat, and you get problems with the images on the monitor. When you put the stock cooler back on the card, it cools the other parts besides the main GPU chip better, and you have no display issues.

The temperature reading we get from video cards is just like those from a regular mother board. We get the CPU temperature, but usually not the temperature of the VRMs for the CPU. The VRM heat sinks and RAM memory on a mother board are exposed to moving air from the PC case fans, so usually don't get to hot. The same parts on a video card don't have heat sinks, and do not get much if any air flow over them from the PC case fans. If we then remove the standard fans from a video card, there is very little air movement over the entire video card, and the other parts become over heated.

I don't know what your water block on the video card is like, it might even contact some of the parts I mentioned like the VRM chips. But I doubt that it contacts all the parts that need cooling on a video card. A water block on a video card can cover the parts I mentioned but not touch them, which makes the over heating problem worse.

The usual fix for this situation is to put small heat sinks on the VRM and memory chips. If your PC case has a place to mount a fan on the side panel, that can blow air over the video card and help cool down the other parts.

[Nwanko]

Re: GV-R929XOC-4GD watercooled giving black screens.

I have EKWB Fullcover 290x Acetal 2.0 block. It cools the gpu and the VRMs. And the temps are not the issue,all way below 70 Celsius

[boondocks]

Re: GV-R929XOC-4GD watercooled giving black screens.

EK full cover blocks are great, I have 3 on my 3 7950's and they definitely cool pretty much everything (which by the way the vrm temps can be monitored with a good program like AIDA).

But I wonder if it isn't just a coincidence because I don't see how the blocks could cause any problems unless you somehow managed to ding one of the components.