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New BIOS for Z390 and RTX 4090 Black screen fix

kayawish24
Level 10
Hello, i am using 9900KS with Asus stirx Hero Z390.I bought Asus strix 4090 OC but the problem is when my PC is in idle mode likle if i am browsing or watching youtube screen will start going black with Nvidia drivers crashing.I am on Nvidia newset drivers which was released 2 days ago.I am getting this problem since november with my RTX 4090.But when i am gaming then i dont encounter any crash etc.Now i am using prefer max perfonce in nvidia control panal and all is stable till now.I saw that asus released mainboard driver specialy on Z790 board for RTX 4090 Fix and many people with Z790 problems were solved with that.I want to ask asus to release BIOS for Z390 board too otherwise i will be forced to RMA my card which i dont want.Before 4090 i was using 3090 Ti and not a single crash i got in idle.looks like the card undervolt too much in idle mode so it stops giving signal to display port.even viewer is full of nvlddmkm errors.when i do prefer maximum performance in nvidia control panal then i dont get black screen in idle.
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14 REPLIES 14

Blai5e
Level 8
Have you updated the VBIOS for your 4090? It may help with your issue...

Both the TUF and Strix 4090's have a VBIOS update (V2.0) that address the issue of the card having issue on low or idle loads. If you look at the Support page for your card, you'll see V2.1 which was to address the "ECC State" setting not being applied when setting it via the NVIDIA control panel. Just use the RTX4090_V2.1.exe update tool as it will include the changes introduced in V2.0.

Blai5e wrote:
Have you updated the VBIOS for your 4090? It may help with your issue...

Both the TUF and Strix 4090's have a VBIOS update (V2.0) that address the issue of the card having issue on low or idle loads. If you look at the Support page for your card, you'll see V2.1 which was to address the "ECC State" setting not being applied when setting it via the NVIDIA control panel. Just use the RTX4090_V2.1.exe update tool as it will include the changes introduced in V2.0.


yes i also updated BIOS. the 2.1 and also V2 before that but same black screen at idle.I noticed that there are two kind of people with this black screen problem.One who are getting black screen in heavy load like in gaming and others getting black screen when PC is idle or they just doing brosing , watching youtube etc and i am also in them.

kayawish24
Level 10
ok i ran RTX4090_V2.1.exe again and it said updated ECC function sucessfully ? now shall i enable the ECC in nvidia control panal or what ?

kayawish24
Level 10
i know i already did this BIOS update on my card but still it was black screening at idle.all power states are disable in Bios and also in windows.only prefer maximum performance in nvidia control panal solve the problem but then my card is in boost clock all the time even if i am not doing anything 😞 why asus release special bios for Z790 to fix RTX 4090 ? why cant asus not release for other boards ? does asus know this problem by the way ? can my card be faulty ? but if its faulty then it must give crashes in load not in idle ?

kayawish24 wrote:
i know i already did this BIOS update on my card but still it was black screening at idle.all power states are disable in Bios and also in windows.only prefer maximum performance in nvidia control panal solve the problem but then my card is in boost clock all the time even if i am not doing anything 😞 why asus release special bios for Z790 to fix RTX 4090 ? why cant asus not release for other boards ? does asus know this problem by the way ? can my card be faulty ? but if its faulty then it must give crashes in load not in idle ?

Regarding the idle black screen enabling the performance mode means always having the card with maximum voltages and frequencies.
That's why it works.
The defective chip fails to be stable under the low voltage of the idle state.
It's a workaround that shouldn't exist on a 2600 euro card.
It has to work perfectly out of the box.
The only solution is to RMA the card.
I had the same problem as you and wasted my time and money trying to fix it.
I sent the card to ASUS for assistance and they recognized the problem immediately without batting an eye.
They refunded me because they didn't have stock to replace.
I bought another 4090 Strix and it works perfectly.
Sadly there will be no magic drivers or special bios to fix a problem caused by a bad chip.
The card must work with all the drivers otherwise every update you have to rely on providence.

Andre221183 wrote:
Regarding the idle black screen enabling the performance mode means always having the card with maximum voltages and frequencies.
That's why it works.
The defective chip fails to be stable under the low voltage of the idle state.
It's a workaround that shouldn't exist on a 2600 euro card.
It has to work perfectly out of the box.
The only solution is to RMA the card.
I had the same problem as you and wasted my time and money trying to fix it.
I sent the card to ASUS for assistance and they recognized the problem immediately without batting an eye.
They refunded me because they didn't have stock to replace.
I bought another 4090 Strix and it works perfectly.
Sadly there will be no magic drivers or special bios to fix a problem caused by a bad chip.
The card must work with all the drivers otherwise every update you have to rely on providence.


i know you also replied same on Overclockers.net 🙂 i wana check one thing that is may be cablemod cable is faulty.I wana do last troubleshoot before RMA.

kayawish24
Level 10
RMA the card and bought GALAX 4090 SG and its all supper since 4 days ...

kayawish24 wrote:
RMA the card and bought GALAX 4090 SG and its all supper since 4 days ...



Is it still OK ?

tomek.suchodolski wrote:
Is it still OK ?


yes new 4090 from GALAX running smooth like butter. lot of people asus strix 4090 cards facing this black screen and asus dont want to accept that cards are faulty.