I responded to a previous thread because it was the exact same problem, but that thread was marked as solved for the OP, so I thought I should make my own thread just in case.
 
My 2 day old EVGA GTX 970 is randomly crashing to black screen while playing Skyrim, after ~5-15 minutes. I can still hear the sound of the game, but monitors go completely black and only way to fix is a hard reset of the PC using the power button. GPU temperatures are not exceeding 70C, I've monitored them while playing - doesn't seem to be related to temperature at all. Hasn't happened in any other game so far, granted I've only played TF2, Borderlands:Pre-Sequel, and EVE Online besides Skyrim so far.
 
I'm really disappointed by this... Skyrim is one of the main games I play, and now my whole computer crashes while playing it for ~5-15 minutes... it's unplayable. My old computer with a crappy graphics card at least didn't completely crash playing Skyrim.....
 
The OP of the other thread said a BIOS update solved his problem, but imo that doesn't seem like the answer, because I have a completely different motherboard (ASrock h97m pro4) and I am experiencing same exact problem in same game. Seems like other people are having this black screen problem in a variety of games with GTX 970 from searches I've done.  Any suggestions or options here?
 
My PC Configurations (just built 2 days ago):
ASrock H97m pro4 motherboard
EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0
EVGA SuperNOVA 650G 650W Power Supply
Intel i5-4570 CPU
Kingston HyperX Fury 8Gb
Crucial MX100 256GB SSD
Windows 8.1
 
Edit: I ran some benchmarks/stress test to see if any hardwares issues. Ran EVGA OC Scanner X benchmark and FurMark benchmark/stress test - no errors or anything, card passed benchmarks/tests just fine. So I am assuming this is not a hardware issue then. So probably a nvidia graphics driver problem perhaps then? That seems logical, though in the past when I've have nvidia graphic driver issues, windows can usually recover with 'driver crashed, issue blah' and return to desktop - while this problem requires complete PC hard reset... still seems like graphics driver issue is most likely cuprit. In that case, I guess this issue should be taken to nvidia forums/bug reports instead of EVGA forums, eh?

Scarlet-Tech
Try this. Shut down all programs like precision or monitoring software, especially GeForce Experience. Uninstall all nvidia drivers through the control panel.
Restart your computer, and then reinstall the driver using the custom selection. Deselect everything, except for PhysX (you can't deselect the driver, so it is a given lol). Once the reinstall is complete, restart again.

Do not run precision or anything, and try playing again to see how it works. If it is good, then try it with precision on afterward if it starts crashing, then do not use precision while playing, until you can back date to something like Precision 4.2.1.

I will try this - though I actually did not have Precision installed at all when these crashes originally started happening (I was monitoring temps with Open Hardware Monitor software). I only installed Precision afterwards (as in 2 hours ago) in hopes that maybe there would be something in the program that would help me. But didn't seem like that is the case :P
 
Update: OK, I followed your instructions - uninstalled all nvidia drivers/programs and precision x. reinstalled only nvidia driver and phyx during custom install. Booted up Skyrim, and lasted 4 minutes before complete black screen crash (both monitors crash, skyrim only playing on 1st monitor), and had to hard reset PC. There was no game sound persisting this crash - the whole PC went blank it seemed, video and audio. Only in Skyrim.... Full PC lockup/black screen seems extreme for a driver crash, but IDK maybe that's normal for nvidia driver crash nowadays
 
Not sure what else to do besides report driver issue for Skyrim-specific issue on GTX 970. I forget how to grab the dump info that nvidia will want, I will try to look that up and report this to nvidia - as this seems like nvidia's drivers fault and EVGA problem.

Welp, I spoke way too soon. Problem still existed with 344.16 drivers, and I continue to get crashes in Skyrim...
I've taken the problem to nvidia forums/driver thread/bug report - as it seems like nvidia driver problem in my opinion.
Not sure how much more could be said here on these forums, but wanted to update and say that the problem definitely isn't fixed. In case anybody else has problem and searches for 'gtx 970 skyrim black screen crash' they will get here. :( 

I think that's driver, people lot talk about black screen special over Display Port.
I notice on NVIDIA Forum customers ask for that. 3rd driver show up yesterday, for very short time and maybe is that confirmation. I hope NVIDIA want to optimize better new models.

Back on reporting my results.
 
I was sent a brand new card in the RMA and not a Refurb, which is great.
 
The new card is quite stable for now after testing it in Batman Arkham Origins, passing the benchmark test where the old 970 would black screen everytime resulting in a force reboot.
 
I've ran it through EVGA OC Scanner tests where I've noticed a pitch in coil whine been emitted, not enough to drive me crazy due to the location of the tower and my big headphones.
It's also passed Unigine Valley benchmark for 5 minutes. Still the coil whine is at a constant with vsync on or not. Closing the application shows a static 2d image, coil pitch increases in dB till the app closes.
 
I can always upload a video I've capture on request.
 
For now I'll play some games for a few days and see whether the new card starts to demonstrate similar issues or if the coil whine gets worse.
 
 Cheers
 

Sajin
You may be encountering a software conflict. I would recommend performing a of windows to see if it helps with the situation. If the problem persists after clean boot try downclocking the card -105 from default clocks on both the core & memory then retest in skyrim. You should also try running or as FurMark is flagged inside the NVIDIA driver and will not run the cards up to their full potential.

This system basically is a clean boot - I built the system, all new parts, last Friday. Windows 8.1 was clean installed after building. Skyrim was one of the first games I played over the weekend after clean install, and these problems happened. I don't think it's a software conflict - seems most likely either an nvidia driver issue (I have a thread going over on nvidia forums too, and others have this issue, albiet is some others games, but same exact display crash with manual reboot required) - or an actual hardware issue - which hopefully malboja's new card from RMA will give some insights into.
 
This Unigine engine tests seems very promising compared to other benchmarking/testing tools. Thanks, I will try them out - and start with the Valley test as that seems most similar to a where I mostly get the crashes in Skyrim play. I will report back whether any crashes occur during the Valley engine test similar to in Skyrim.
 
Malboja, that is interesting that your original 970 that you RMA'd was crashing during the benchmark tests. (Which tests was it crashing it?) My 970 is running these basic benchmark tests fine (EVGA OC Scanner/Furmark) - crash is only happening ingame (Skyrim). I definitely agree with your RMA if your card was crashing during benchmark tests, yeah. Keep me informed please on how your new card functions in the games that you used to have display crashes. I'm very interested to know whether this is a driver issue or a hardware issue (BTW, all the reports from people having these similar black screen display crash problems are from EVGA 970's, no reports from other manufacturer's 970s so far, so IDK if that is coincidence or pointing to EVGA issue here...)

Ok. I have some very interesting results from the Unigine tests.
 
The Valley test runs completely fine at Ultra with 8xAA. I let the cinematic run for like 10 minutes, did the benchmark, and also ran around in walk and free fly mode for a while. All beautiful with no issues, no crashes.
 
The Heaven test crashes (same crash as in Skyrim, black display crash) at around the 4 or 5th scene (scenes of the hover boat ship). BUT this only occurs when I have tessellation set to EXTREME. I tried it out with tessellation OFF, ran through all scenes just fine, and did the free move for a while no problems. Tried it with tessellation set to Normal, and that also went through the scenes no problem.
 
Weird thing is, after doing some searching it doesn't seem like Skyrim implements tessellation. Skyrim is a DirectX 9 game, and doesn't have tessellation. So I don't really know if these 2 things are linked or not.
 
If anyone else with a EVGA GTX 970 reads this thread - could you try running the Unigine Heaven test with settings to Ultra, Tessellation set to Extreme, (I'm running at 1920x1080 resolution), and let me know if your card handles it? I'm really interested to know if this is a specific hardware issue with just my card - or an issue with nvidia drivers.
 
What do you guys think? Is crashing in the Unigine Heaven pretty bad (even though tessellation is set to Extreme) - does it seem like driver issue or hardware issue? I just built this PC and this is the first time I've really doled out this much money for a higher-end graphics card, and I'm kind of disappointed about this crashing. I can RMA if need be.

Yep, sounds like the card has a problem. Downclocking the card will most likely help the card pass heaven with tessellation set to extreme. 

I had the same issue. I did everything. Re-install of Windows and games. I updated all drivers and Bios. No heat issues and have a 750 watt power supply, so shouldn't have any power issues. I actually bought 2 ASUS cards first and returned both for the same issue. Now I bought an EVGA GTX 970 and the same issue. I can't play any game with better graphics than LoL for more than 2 min's without crashing. Even in LoL when I turned off VSync and it crashed. Then I couldn't log in without crashing. I had to re-install. I mostly play Everquest Landmark, and the crashes are real. It has to be a driver issue. I hope they find it soon. Owning a card I can't use isn't the best.
 
System: Windows 7 64bit
             i7 3770
             Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
             16 Gb Corsair DDR4 1600
             750 watt Corsair power supply
             

Morphe42
Seeing as my card's problem seems like a hardware issue (similar to malboja's), I have instigated an RMA with EVGA. The replacement card should be here next week sometime. I will update with results of how replacement card runs. I hope I receive a stable card like malboja :)
 
VanillaGorilla, your card issues sound really bad - and that's weird the problems existed with both the ASUS cards and yoru EVGA card. I hope you get the issues figured out. It sounds like maybe a conflict with some other hardware in your setup, or driver issues like you said (but many people are playing intense graphics games with GTX 970, so the driver issue would be unique to your system). In my case, I do not believe this is a driver issue - and here's why - when my displays crash to black screen (and windows is still running, the displays are just black), and I use the soft reset button on my computer - the displays stay completely black, during the mobo POST screen, and then I hear windows boot up and the displays are still black. (A hard reset - powering PC OFF and back on is only way to fix). A driver issue would not prevent the mobo POST screen showing up, and if it was a driver crash the displays would be back on when windows boots back up. Since my displays are dead even during mobo POST screen - I assume this is a hardware issue in my case. I'd recommend trying this out - when you get a crash in game (does it restart windows right away? or does windows stay running and your displays just go black?), use the PC soft reset button on your case and see if your displays come back and you can see the POST screen and windows booting back up. If yes, you can see POST and then windows after soft reset - then it might be driver problem (or a different hardware problem) - if you can't see POST screen and windows booting back up - then it is probably this same hardware issue that malboja and I had.

Hello;
 
Ive got the exact same issue and exact same card. Will go through all your steps and report in this thread.
 
Do you know of any possibility to grab a 970FTW by paying the difference from EVGA? I've got a bad feeling about these 970 SC ACX 2.0's.
 
Hope you also keep us updated about your replacement card.
 
Regards,

I tried switching card to the x8 slot, running the test with physx set to cpu, running with latest drivers, older drivers, it seems.to me that the card is not running correclty after all these...

Well I received my RMA, and have been using it for about a week now - this problem is solved, so it did seem like a hardware issue. The new RMA card runs Unigine Heaven (with extreme tessellation) just fine, no crashing. Same with Valley. I've played several hours of Skyrim now with no crashing, whereas the old card would crash before 5 minutes of gameplay.
 
So I am happy about EVGA's RMA policy, and that I received a new card that seems to run much more stable than the original card.
If anyone else is experiencing display crashes on GTX 970 that persist across soft reset, and must be hard reset (re-powered) to get the displays working again, I'd suggest an RMA. EVGA tech representatives seemed like they might know about this issue with some of the cards, and were not hesitant to RMA the card.
 
There is still two unrelated issues with this graphics card, that I thought might be fixed with the new card, but persist.
 
1) Occasionally, I still get a flash of an artifact across the screen, when just on the desktop/normal web browsing. The flash is very brief, and the pattern is kinda like a checkerboard pattern of white/pink that flashs over the displayed image. I've read reports of this same pattern on other people's GTX 970 and also other older nvidia cards, so I'm not sure if this is a driver issue, or a random hardware issue. It's not a big deal though, and doesn't negatively affect anything really. Oddly, the most discussion I've seen about this particular problem is on Hearthstone forums (I don't play it, just found it via google search): 
 
2) Using the DVI-I (with VGA adapter) out, the graphics card puts out noticable RF interference when the graphics card is under heavy use (gameplay). My main monitor is HDMI, and secondary monitor is the analog signal. When I start playing a game, the second monitor starts getting the horizontal waves/ripples going up and down the screen indicative of RF interference in the signal. I need to try a new VGA cable here to see if maybe the cable just isn't shielding well (could very well just be a cable issue here with bad shielding). I guess it could also be the power supply (also an EVGA product) producing the RF interference, as it would be doing its stuff when the graphics card is working more. Not really faulting the card here, as RF interference is something to deal with when using analog signal, but alas my current setup requires analog signal for a secondary monitor. 

My black screen crashes were caused by EVGA Precision X just because it was installed lol. I wasn't even using it. I also switched form HDMI to DVI because I don't use audio from HDMI anyway.

Yep I have the same issue with my card. Skyrim crashes like crazy!! Under 3 min. Here is my report from whocrashed
 
Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Thu 12/11/2014 12:42:29 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\121114-17191-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: (nvlddmkm+0x921828)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA80123074E0, 0xFFFFF8800FBA6828, 0xFFFFFFFFC000009A, 0x4)
Error:
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product:
company:
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 344.75
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 344.75 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query:
 
I am about to run unigine heaven and see if it crashes. 

Glad this is solved for you. Good troubleshooting on your part.