[Monitor] loads black screen upon boot up

[FrostNinja]

Not sure if this is a software or hardware problem. I was surfing on Chrome on Windows 8.1 when suddenly the monitor flickered, the image on screen got distorted and the screen suddenly turned black. When I restarted, there are images of the motherboard logo during boot up, and the windows loading screen. Once it loads, the login screen doesnt appear but it just turns black.

I tried troubleshooting by restarting in safe mode and disabling the gfx card and the monitor so that upon restart, windows will find the correct card online and install it. However, it still boots up all the way til the login screen and then the black screen.

Is this a hardware or software problem? Is there a way to troubleshoot and find out which it is and what to do to fix? Google doesnt help because different solutions work for different configurations.

If it helps, im using:
Intel i5 760 + MSI p55a G55
Sapphire 6870
Dell u2211h Monitor

 

[Alternative X]

Got spare GPU? Your i5-760 has no iGPU.

 

[FrostNinja]

Dont have. I asked Nigel (PC care and solutions), and he also suggested the same thing. Looks like I have to bring it down there for him to help me solve.

However, I suspect that it is the driver and not the gpu itself. I can enter safe mode and view stuff in there without any problems. It's only when I load the normal way, it gives a black screen.

I even refreshed my Windows installation. It was working well til about 5 mins in, after normal bootup. When I open a browser, it went black again. Presumably, because the gpu driver was updated/updating).

 

[Rock-kun]

Dont have. I asked Nigel (PC care and solutions), and he also suggested the same thing. Looks like I have to bring it down there for him to help me solve.

However, I suspect that it is the driver and not the gpu itself. I can enter safe mode and view stuff in there without any problems. It's only when I load the normal way, it gives a black screen.

I even refreshed my Windows installation. It was working well til about 5 mins in, after normal bootup. When I open a browser, it went black again. Presumably, because the gpu driver was updated/updating).

Not necessarily. In Safe Mode the desktop is not hardware accelerated. It is entirely possible that the driver is fine but the GPU is failing, and once hardware acceleration is started in a normal Windows boot certain instructions call the failing parts in the GPU that triggers the display shutdown.

 

[jtjt00]

In safe mode, set fresh rate to 60Hz and then restart into normal mode.