Video Signal Corruption after BIOS update - Help needed to resolve

[MrTechnic]

I am having issues with a desktop PC I built in November 2015. The issue is a video signal corruption that seems to occur during change in load on the CPU (eg when opening a new application, clicking a URL etc) and shows up differently on 2 different monitors. On my monitor (Dell 2209WA) it shows up as approximately 1 second of black screen whereas on a borrowed monitor (Dell U2211H) it shows up a one or two narrow coloured horizontal lines of varying width in varying screen positions for only a fraction of a second. In both cases I can continue working without irruption it is just with my monitor I cannot see what I am doing for a second.

My PC is of the following configuration…
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Gene
Intel i7-6700K CPU
16GB Kingston HyperX Fury Black HX426C15FBK2 DDR4 RAM
Samsung 950 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD
Windows 10 Pro with all current updates installed
I am using on-board graphics via the HDMI port on the motherboard.

This all started after I updated my motherboards BIOS (from a version 2???) to v3007 (using ASUS windows tool) and then v3801 (downloaded from ASUS website and update in BIOS setting page). Immediately after the update, Windows Update installed an update for the Intel graphics driver.

I have ruled out this being a windows issue (still occurs after driver roll-back, roll-back to set point well before BIOS update, still occurs in Safe Mode and in light blue troubleshooting screens). I have also ruled out HDMI cable fault and no issues were reported from Windows RAM check (Extended with Default Cache settings) and Samsung ‘Magician’ SSD diagnostics tool.

Rolling back the BIOS to v2202 (the only 2??? version on the ASUS website) resolves the issue but I am not able to stay on this version due to fact it does not contain fixes for Meltdown bug but mostly because I cannot save the settings from pressing the MemOK! button on the motherboard (with all versions of the BIOS my system has never been able to boot until pressing the MemOK! button and then saving the setting in BIOS but with v2202 it tells me to load BIOS setting and save but when I go to save it says no changes have been made which means I cannot save the setting and thus needed to press the MemOK! button on every boot).

The other thing I have experienced over the last (approximately) 6 months is the occasional random freeze whereby only the mouse will move but clicks and key strokes are buffered and actioned when the freeze finishes. These freezes can last from 30 seconds to at least 90 seconds. I have run full virus and malware scans with no reported issues. These symptoms have been reported elsewhere so I had assumed they were Windows related.


Does anyone have any thoughts on what may be causing this and what I might be able to try next to resolve the issue?

[MrTechnic]

Update: Used Xbox application in Windows 10 to record screen content. Monitor got black screen but no black out or other video issues present in recording. From this it appears the issue is between the video buffer or where the Xbox game recorder gets it source data and the HDMI port on the motherboard. Would say it is a faulty motherboard except that the issues can be turned on and off by changing the BIOS version.

So once again: Does anyone have any thoughts on what may be causing this and what I might be able to try next to resolve the issue?

[MrTechnic]

Update #2: I played around more with the RAM as that was what my original gut feeling was telling me and with just one stick (doesn't matter which stick or which slot) it works fine. Put in both sticks in dual channel mode (A1 and B1 or A2 and B2) and the issue occurs. Put in both sticks in adjacent slots (A1 and A2) and so far the issue has not returned either. Why would this be so?

[Retired]

MrTechnic, well, normally for dual-channel configuration, the modules should be installed in slot's A2 & B2. Everything should be working fine from there on 🙂
Now the question is, did you overclock the system? Maybe your OC setting's aren't stable? Another hint that comes to my head is, do have the same resolution enabled for both monitors using hdmi & display port?

[claudej]

I've had trouble with Ram sticks while having a bent CPU pin. But probably not your problem.