Does your monitor lose signal while you are gaming?
If so, I can understand your frustration. This has happened to me dozens of times throughout my years as a gamer even though I’ve always had reasonably good gaming monitors.
A simple time out of a few seconds can make a huge difference to how your game rolls out, especially if you are playing a tournament where every second counts, which can be extremely annoying.
After some extensive research on the matter, and a chunk of personal experience, continue reading as below, I will walk you through various different reasons why you may be losing signal while gaming.
I will also help you troubleshoot the various different possibilities for losing signal, find the source to the problem, and provide you with a few solutions to help you solve the cause of losing signal in just a few minutes.
Before we jump into the detail, here’s a quick summary of why your monitor turns off when gaming:
- Problems with your drivers
- Issues with your graphics card
- Malfunctioning cables
Problems With Your Drivers
If your monitor randomly loses signal when gaming, sometimes, that could be due to your drivers. They may be outdated, corrupt, or just malfunctioning for no apparent reason.
The Solution
Check for updates on your graphics drivers and run them, then see if this fixes the issue.
If it doesn’t, uninstall all of your graphics drivers and install them again. Use your GPU’s software to make those necessary updates and reinstalls.
If your GPU is from Nvidia, then in that case, install the GeForce Experience software. From there, you can install, uninstall, and amend your graphics. If you are using a GPU by AMD, download the AMD Radeon software.
Issues With Your Graphics Card
If your monitor loses signal when gaming, your graphics card could also be the one to blame. There could be quite a lot of things wrong with it, and so, discovering and isolating the reason may save you a couple of hundred dollars before you chuck it in the bin, while it is perfectly fine.
The Solution
In case you anticipate that your GPU is at fault. One of the most common reasons is high GPU temperature.
Increased Temperature
Does your GPU overheat? The standard GPU temperature is between 65C to 85C while gaming. If it’s any higher, there is something wrong. You can check your GPU’s temperature by using a tool like Speccy.
If you find that your GPU is overheating, that within itself is a pretty decent reason why you may lose signal, especially if you have an older GPU. Overheating can be caused for a number of different reasons including increased temperature in your room to covering your PC fans with random objects that can block the flow of air within the system.
The most common reason for overheating, however, is if you haven’t cleaned up your PC in some time. The chances are that dust particles have ended up in your PC and are obstructing the GPU’s cooling system from effectively operating at its true potential.
So, clean up your PC and GPU’s cooling system very carefully, ensure that your PC can get decent airflow, and check if the problem persists.
Note: Before you clean any part of your PC, ensure that it is completely turned off and unplugged from the socket. You should also never use any sort of damp cloth to clean any part of your PC as that can cause damage to the parts.
Malfunctioning Cables
Whether you are playing in 60 Hz or 244 Hz, once in a while, your monitor may just lose signal randomly. On pretty rare occasions, your HDMI cable may be at fault. Either it’s not plugged in or it is that old that it is simply beginning to malfunction. Another reason may be that if you are trying to get 120Hz on your gaming TV from your PC or other such combinations that your cables may not be supporting.
The Solution
Before you buy a new cable, take out the cable out of the port, clean it up a little bit, and then make sure to plug it back in properly. You can also try out if the cable works fine on a different device other than your PC/monitor to be sure that it is in fact the cable that is the problem and not any of the reasons listed above this point.
If you still lose signal after doing that, then you know it is time to change your cable with a new one.
Final Thoughts
Above are some of the most common reasons why you may be losing signal while gaming. Hopefully, after reading what I had to say, you have found out the reason behind why you are losing signal while gaming and can now play without any interruptions.
