PC/TV Problem, Google Isn't Helping

Getting a bit desperate for help with a problem I'm having and for once I cannot find a single person with my issue on google. I'm probably searching wrong.

While playing games on my PC, or just on the desktop, the bottom half of the screen will flicker up and back to position for a second or two. Once or twice it has even gone black, then came back in a way that suggests it was disconnected and reconnected but this is very rare. I should mention my GTX970 is going out to my TV video minihdmi to HDMI. I also have a second screen that is on VGA but that doesn't seem to be having issues so I don't think it's the GPU.

I have disconnected the cable and checked the ports, everything seems fine. I don't have access to another GPU, or another cable and don't have the money to just buy a new cable without knowing. I have rolled back my GPU drivers and still have the issue.

What is going on?

@alistercat: I had something like this happen. For me it was because the refresh rate on my monitor is apparently not the same as my tv. If you happen to be running it so it clones your desktop to both screens, make your tv the primary clone source. That fixed it for me. All you have to do is right click the screen under "Set up multiple displays".

Also if you just installed the new nvidia drivers 364.47 people have been having those exact problems, plus as whole bunch more as well. Might just try rolling back to an older driver and see if that clears it up.

Edit: whoops just noticed you already said you rolled back your drivers. Sorry. Well maybe my first solution will help.

I'm occasionally having the issue with the screen going black. As blitzer85 stated it seems to be a refresh rate related issue, though I think the problem may primarily be due to the cable rather than the TV not handling the refresh rate, but the image cutting out may be due to the cable.

As I live in Europe my HDMI cable is apparently only rated for 1080p 50hz, but the computer defaults stuff to 60hz, which my TV supposedly supports.

HDMI seems like a mess over all, while unlike USB it doesn't have a dozen different connectors, there are a bunch of different variants supporting different resolutions, refresh rates, some supporting two way communication and networking while others only seem to handle the very basics. If you still have the packaging you could try to check if your cable is claiming to support 1080p/60.

@fisk0: @alistercat: both my monitor and the TV are 1080 60, and my TV reports the incoming signal when it connects or changes and it is 1080 60 so I'm not sure it's the refresh rate. I've been using a TV for my main monitor for, like, 8 years without issue.

My TV also reports the signal as 1080p 60, but the signal drops out for a couple of seconds maybe once or twice a day. Using the same cable on my PS3 that also happens when playing stuff that runs in 1080p/60, like Doom Classic Complete, but since most PS3 games neither run in 1080p nor in 60 fps that's much more rarely an issue on there..

I was going to link you to the nvida driver thread but i see you posted there, besides the cable just being bad I would check control panel and see if the driver changed any of your settings. I find that sometimes when i upgrade nvidia drivers my settings get changed, specifically DSR and phsyx stuff, so maybe check there and see if anything funky is going on. If you can connect that cable to your other monitor and check maybe that could narrow it down , or see if you can use the cable on another tv or something.

@oursin_360: @fisk0: I have ordered a new cable, and I'm beginning to suspect it's my TV more than anything. Thanks for all the help, hopefully the cable will fix things but there's no a lot else I can test.

Sounds like a handshake issue.

Can you disable HDCP on your card? Probably can't. If you use apps that require it you're going to have disable it per gaming session.

@wolf_blitzer85: @fisk0: @oursin_360: @biffmcblumpkin: Replacing the mini HDMI to HDMI cable seems to have done the trick! Thanks for the help. Glad it wasn't something more serious. The quality on this amazon basics cable is pretty good.