Regular Radeon driver crashes - halp meh!

[Curio]

Had this new build (see sig) for a couple of months and am plagued by constant video driver crashes. Sometimes I can go a few hours of play with no crash, other times it can crash 2-3 times in fairly quick succession and then become relatively stable again. 95% of the time it happens just as the level starts (mainly playing Quake Champions and Fallout 4 right now, but happens in other games) - the screen just freezes, then after around 10-15 seconds it goes back to the desktop. I check eventvwr and it's always a component of the video driver that stopped responding.

- no overclocks whatsoever
- temps are fine
- software reports all voltages are normal
- Uninstalled drivers and run DDU in Win safe mode
- tried multiple different drivers
- no video artifacts or corruption

It seems to be a software problem as the the card itself is perfectly stable under load. In fact, I don't ever remember it crashing while under load. It's always when it first starts a level.

This is my first AMD/Radeon card in years. Loving the performance when it's working, but am getting very frustrated by the drivers.

Any ideas? I'm thinking of just getting the card swapped on the off-chance it is a hardware issue, but want to exhaust all the software aspects before I go through that.

Thanks!

 

[Begbie]

Also been having this issue.

Friend recommended upping the voltage on the memory, and it seems to have sorted the problem out for me.

Using a 1600 and a vega 56.

 

[Curio]

Also been having this issue.

Friend recommended upping the voltage on the memory, and it seems to have sorted the problem out for me.

Using a 1600 and a vega 56.

Interesting. Do you mean the main system memory or the video card RAM?

 

[Begbie]

Interesting. Do you mean the main system memory or the video card RAM?

The system RAM.

IIRC I put the DRAM up to 1.45V, VDDCR CPU Offset to 0.09375 and VDDCR SOC Offset voltage to 0.05. We were both having the exact same fault, and both have identical systems.

It's worked a treat since. But I've not fully tested it. It went from random crashes on APEX with driver error messages, to nothing now.

Do you run a DOCP profile on your RAM?

 

[Curio]

The system RAM.

IIRC I put the DRAM up to 1.45V, VDDCR CPU Offset to 0.09375 and VDDCR SOC Offset voltage to 0.05. We were both having the exact same fault, and both have identical systems.

It's worked a treat since. But I've not fully tested it. It went from random crashes on APEX with driver error messages, to nothing now.

Do you run a DOCP profile on your RAM?

No DOCP profile.

Thanks much - I'll have a play with the voltages later and see what happens!

 

[Tetras]

Have you tried any pre 20 drivers? Windows forced an update to 20 drivers around Christmas and from then on I had lock-ups and black screens. I've reverted to 19.11.3 and disabled driver updates, haven't crashed since. It's a pretty common problem, though it wasn't usually CTDs, it needed a hard reset.

 

[Curio]

Have you tried any pre 20 drivers? Windows forced an update to 20 drivers around Christmas and from then on I had lock-ups and black screens. I've reverted to 19.11.3 and disabled driver updates, haven't crashed since. It's a pretty common problem, though it wasn't usually CTDs, it needed a hard reset.

Thanks - I'll try that as well.

 

[Curio]

So I hit it with both suggestions at once (poor troubleshooting method, I admit ). I increased the RAM voltage a tiny bit, and also installed the 19.11.3 drivers. So far no crashes. It has given me false hope before though, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for a while!

Thanks, guys!

 

[Hellcat]

So far no crashes. It has given me false hope before though, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for a while!

Beware calling it fixed, which you seem to be hesitant anyway. I hope for your sake it is but some of my issues managed to go some time between reoccurrences. I had 4 blue screen crashes in a row over 30 minutes, then fine for 48 hours and couldn't re-create the issue. I didn't change anything, checked windows updates, application installs etc. Nothing updated.

 

[Curio]

Beware calling it fixed, which you seem to be hesitant anyway. I hope for your sake it is but some of my issues managed to go some time between reoccurrences. I had 4 blue screen crashes in a row over 30 minutes, then fine for 48 hours and couldn't re-create the issue. I didn't change anything, checked windows updates, application installs etc. Nothing updated.

Oh yeah, this isn't my first rodeo

 

[Curio]

Beware calling it fixed, which you seem to be hesitant anyway. I hope for your sake it is but some of my issues managed to go some time between reoccurrences. I had 4 blue screen crashes in a row over 30 minutes, then fine for 48 hours and couldn't re-create the issue. I didn't change anything, checked windows updates, application installs etc. Nothing updated.

Well, looks like both our hunches were correct. It went for hours with no crashes and I rejoiced. Then - BAM - three driver crashes in one session.

I have a GeForce GTX 1650 Super on the way. Sorry Radeon.

I really have no preference over Green/Red, and have owned both in the 20+ years I've been gaming. I've never had this amount of problems before though (not including DOA cards), and my past 2 GeForce cards didn't give me a single issue.

 

[Hellcat]

Bah sorry to hear it. I didn't really want to spend the extra on the Nvidia, but if my free time is worth more than what I'm paid by work, and I've spent 5 hours trying to fix this (probably a fair amount more) then I'm already well past the savings versus buying a RTX2070 Super. I've always ended up with a team Red card although I wasn't against owning a Nvidia, just never seemed to settle on one.

ATI Rage 128, ATI Rage Fury Maxx (That was an experience), 7500, 8500, HD3850 (the fastest AGP card?), HD4870x2 (I have a thing for dual socket GPUs - I'll try to get help), (HD4870 & HD6850 on loan after the x2 died) then finally R9 290 Vapor-X. This one lives in my son's PC and beasts 1080 games still.

Good luck with the 1650S. May the driver gods look favourably on your new purchase.

 

[Tetras]

Well, looks like both our hunches were correct. It went for hours with no crashes and I rejoiced. Then - BAM - three driver crashes in one session.

I have a GeForce GTX 1650 Super on the way. Sorry Radeon.

I really have no preference over Green/Red, and have owned both in the 20+ years I've been gaming. I've never had this amount of problems before though (not including DOA cards), and my past 2 GeForce cards didn't give me a single issue.

Aw, darn, you did disable the driver updates in Windows right? I didn't do that the first time and it installed a 20 driver AGAIN, tried to do it again (was blocked) last night too.

 

[Ezyryder]

It is possible that you had a faulty card.

 

[Curio]

Thanks guys...

Yeah, I checked and it wasn't Windows updates causing the issues. It is totally possible it was a bad card. However, my hunch says software. Besides, I think if I got a replacement I would always just be waiting for it to start crashing again.

Hellcat - yeah I am very fond of ATi/AMD myself. My very first "3D" card was an old Rage II back in 1998. Hopelessly slow, but it was still the first time I had seen 3D hardware accelerated graphics (my jaw hit the ground) so pretty special. I also had a 9600XT for a few years that was awesome.