LosOjos Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 I've just built a new machine and a problem has reared it's ugly head and it sounds like it's a common one with AMD GPUs. Every now and then (usually when watching a video or if I change the input on my TV) I get a BSOD. Examining the minidump, atikmdag.sys appears to be the root, suggesting some issue with the GPU. I've tried numerous fixes I've found online, including reinstalling drivers, registry hacking the TdrDelay value, underclocking the GPU. None seem to have worked (though I thought TdrDelay had as the problem went away for a whole day) Next step is to try removing a stick of RAM as that's been reported to work but if that is the only fix, this card is going back. Ridiculous compromise. Any regular AMD users experienced this issue and if so, do you know of a reliable fix?
jamesfed Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Never had this problem with any of my AMD GPUS I'd just return the card. 1
LosOjos Posted January 27, 2014 Author Posted January 27, 2014 Never had this problem with any of my AMD GPUS I'd just return the card. I remember I had a lot of problems when I first had my last AMD GPU, it was quite a while back I believe it was an HD 2450... had so much trouble in fact I swore I wouldn't touch AMD again! With this new build, all sources said that the R9 range were unbeatable value so thought they must be OK now. You can imagine my fury when the BSODs started! I've requested an RMA from Overclockers, will see what they say. In the meantime if anyone else has had this (a Google search shows it's not uncommon) and found a solution that worked for them, I'm willing to give it a go
LosOjos Posted January 27, 2014 Author Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) I was always a Nvidia buyer. My last card was a AMD 5870 which gave up after 2 years and now im back on Nvidia. I ONLY went with the AMD card because they are always getting the good reviews and showed the best value but hotter and louder usage that didn't bother me. You pays your money and takes your choice, and for now its Nvidia every time for me. Yeah looking at the sheer number of issues and age range of those issues (this one has been being reported for at least 4 years!), I'm beginning to wish I'd steered clear of AMD TBH. OK, Overclockers have accepted the RMA but has anyone here ever done an RMA with them? Reading the small print, they'll charge me £12.50 plus P&P if they don't agree the card is faulty. Well, considering the BSODs happen about twice a day and only (so far) when watching videos/switching the TV source, I'm not confident they will find the fault and they're then going to charge me for it Edited January 27, 2014 by LosOjos
3s-gtech Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Hmm. It's quite a particular issue - it's the sort of thing that a range of driver tests (including betas) will probably sort. There are also possibly some of the add-on modules within the Vision Control Centre which aren't happy - may be worth uninstalling some of these to check. Despite the issues I've seen online, I've had very few issues with AMD drivers across a massive range of hardware, from ancient to modern stuff. Similar experience with Nvidia, but had far more Nvidia hardware failures. 1
LosOjos Posted January 27, 2014 Author Posted January 27, 2014 Hmm. It's quite a particular issue - it's the sort of thing that a range of driver tests (including betas) will probably sort. There are also possibly some of the add-on modules within the Vision Control Centre which aren't happy - may be worth uninstalling some of these to check. Despite the issues I've seen online, I've had very few issues with AMD drivers across a massive range of hardware, from ancient to modern stuff. Similar experience with Nvidia, but had far more Nvidia hardware failures. To be fair you could be on to something RE particular drivers - don't AMD bundle something with CCC that is supposed to improve video playback quality? Would tie in with the BSODs happening mainly when streaming video... I had an issue with a beta Nvidia driver that was fixed by removing the stereoscopic driver so that may well help... I have 28 days to send off the card for RMA, so I'll give it another week at least to do some more testing, be damned if I'm paying Overclockers more money for nothing!
mac_shinobi Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) PM Sent but basically from looking at google thus far 1. Use relevant utils to diagnose your computers RAM so full diags not the quick tests ( each stick one at a time if required ) 2. Remove SPTD drivers ( which generally come with cd / dvd burning type tools ie Alcohol 120% ) 3. Try either latest drivers for the AMD / ATI GFX Card or possibly slightly earlier drivers ( so not the latest and not beta ) 4. Possibly try the msconfig / boot work around All links included in the PM If its still the same then I would RMA the card and swap it for an NVidia if possible? Be good to know what things you have already tried / done - so we are not re-suggesting you to do things you have already done / tried and know have failed etc Edited January 27, 2014 by mac_shinobi 1
LosOjos Posted January 27, 2014 Author Posted January 27, 2014 PM Sent but basically from looking at google thus far 1. Use relevant utils to diagnose your computers RAM so full diags not the quick tests ( each stick one at a time if required ) 2. Remove SPTD drivers ( which generally come with cd / dvd burning type tools ie Alcohol 120% ) 3. Try either latest drivers for the AMD / ATI GFX Card or possibly slightly earlier drivers ( so not the latest and not beta ) 4. Possibly try the msconfig / boot work around All links included in the PM If its still the same then I would RMA the card and swap it for an NVidia if possible? Be good to know what things you have already tried / done - so we are not re-suggesting you to do things you have already done / tried and know have failed etc Have tried all those apart from the boot fix, so I'm trying that now. Next thing to try is to use DDU to completely remove the drivers, then try another install. I'll repeat that until the crash has persisted across 3 versions of the drivers, then it's getting RMA'd. My only worry with RMA is it's not a consistent crash, sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't, and I'll be extremely p'd off if Overclockers decide the card is fine then charge me for the privilege of having it back
mac_shinobi Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Have tried all those apart from the boot fix, so I'm trying that now. Next thing to try is to use DDU to completely remove the drivers, then try another install. I'll repeat that until the crash has persisted across 3 versions of the drivers, then it's getting RMA'd. My only worry with RMA is it's not a consistent crash, sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't, and I'll be extremely p'd off if Overclockers decide the card is fine then charge me for the privilege of having it back Complain and they dont have your pc with the same config so if it shows up as working they wont come across the same issues. Surely you can swap for an nvidia card of a similar value ?
LosOjos Posted January 28, 2014 Author Posted January 28, 2014 Complain and they dont have your pc with the same config so if it shows up as working they wont come across the same issues. Surely you can swap for an nvidia card of a similar value ? Yeah well that's what I'm hoping if I can't get this working (so far so good with the boot fix BTW...) I just wish I knew somebody who had gone through the process with Overclockers so I'd have a better idea how helpful they'll be. I'm already annoyed with them for not publishing my review of the awful BitFenix Colossus mATX case they sold me, in fact that alone is enough for me never to buy from them again; how can you trust them if they'll only post positive reviews? 1
mac_shinobi Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Yeah well that's what I'm hoping if I can't get this working (so far so good with the boot fix BTW...) I just wish I knew somebody who had gone through the process with Overclockers so I'd have a better idea how helpful they'll be. I'm already annoyed with them for not publishing my review of the awful BitFenix Colossus mATX case they sold me, in fact that alone is enough for me never to buy from them again; how can you trust them if they'll only post positive reviews? When I do have money I try to if possible buy from Aria PC - Computer Hardware, Components, Monitors.. at lowest prices I've had bad experiences with both ebuyer and scan so try to if posisble avoid them, novatech were great and got the items to me extremely fast and in working order although did cost a little bit more but I suppose worth it, not had to call them for support etc so not sure how they rate on the support front Never ordered anything from ocUK but from your comment think I will avoid them as well
featured_spectre Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Problem with the R9s are that AMD popped them out knowing people will be using them for mining more than gaming, so (IMO) didn't properly do the drivers as they wouldn't be used as much for the gaming side of things. I have had similar issues with an nVidia card before, so its all much of a muchness, I do not have a preference for brand. If it fails again with a new card however, stop, get a refund, then go and get an nVidia.
FrankJaeger Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 How about trying modified drivers? Unofficial Drivers ? Videocards - ATI Catalyst (Modified)
FrankJaeger Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 I used to work for Aria lol...never purchase from him again. The only Iranian who has gone to america for a week...comes back with an american accent pmsl
LosOjos Posted January 28, 2014 Author Posted January 28, 2014 How about trying modified drivers? Unofficial Drivers ? Videocards - ATI Catalyst (Modified) Don't really want to mess around with third party drivers. I'm of the opinion that if first party can't do it, I'll buy from a manufacturer that can! Does your PSU meet the requirements? Yeah, 500w and it's Corsair not some cheap make, had this same PSU in 3 different recent builds with no issues. BTW: day 2 and no BSODs since trying the boot fix posted by @mac_shinobi I also disabled the "ATI External Events" service that day so can't be 100% certain what fixed it. If I make it through the weekend with no crash, I'll try to work out which one fixed the issue just out of interest 1
mac_shinobi Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Don't really want to mess around with third party drivers. I'm of the opinion that if first party can't do it, I'll buy from a manufacturer that can! Yeah, 500w and it's Corsair not some cheap make, had this same PSU in 3 different recent builds with no issues. BTW: day 2 and no BSODs since trying the boot fix posted by @mac_shinobi I also disabled the "ATI External Events" service that day so can't be 100% certain what fixed it. If I make it through the weekend with no crash, I'll try to work out which one fixed the issue just out of interest Possibly the service. Not sure what the msconfig boot thing does
LosOjos Posted January 28, 2014 Author Posted January 28, 2014 How was the driver installed? With the installer? Possibly the service. Not sure what the msconfig boot thing does The only thing I can think of is that the AMD drivers try to write to a non-existent area of memory because it fails to properly detect the amount of RAM in the system... don't know how likely that is but then again there are a lot of reports of people getting the card to work by removing a stick of RAM! As I say, if it makes it a few more days, I'll do some proper testing to find out what fixed it. 1
mac_shinobi Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 With the installer? The only thing I can think of is that the AMD drivers try to write to a non-existent area of memory because it fails to properly detect the amount of RAM in the system... don't know how likely that is but then again there are a lot of reports of people getting the card to work by removing a stick of RAM! As I say, if it makes it a few more days, I'll do some proper testing to find out what fixed it. I presume they mean did you extract the drivers out of the setup file regardless of it being an exe / msi or whatever and then going through device manager so you only install the driver and not any additional gumph or did you right click on the installer to run it with admin rights and when going through the setup wizard did you just get it to install everything under the sun or a custom install to only install certain items etc
LosOjos Posted January 29, 2014 Author Posted January 29, 2014 I presume they mean did you extract the drivers out of the setup file regardless of it being an exe / msi or whatever and then going through device manager so you only install the driver and not any additional gumph or did you right click on the installer to run it with admin rights and when going through the setup wizard did you just get it to install everything under the sun or a custom install to only install certain items etc Ah ok. I just did the default install, nothing out of the ordinary. I suppose trying to extract just the driver to install could have helped, if it was some piece of pointless AMD software causing the issue that could have solved it. Still going strong, boot fix or service disable seems to have done the trick. The weekend will be the real test though when I put it through it's paces with some more demanding games. Going to try Tomb Raider first of all just to see what all this fuss over TressFX is about... 1
mac_shinobi Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 Ah ok. I just did the default install, nothing out of the ordinary. I suppose trying to extract just the driver to install could have helped, if it was some piece of pointless AMD software causing the issue that could have solved it. Still going strong, boot fix or service disable seems to have done the trick. The weekend will be the real test though when I put it through it's paces with some more demanding games. Going to try Tomb Raider first of all just to see what all this fuss over TressFX is about... Sounds good - be good to know what the fuss about TressFX is about as well
Duke5A Posted January 30, 2014 Posted January 30, 2014 My only worry with RMA is it's not a consistent crash, sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't, and I'll be extremely p'd off if Overclockers decide the card is fine then charge me for the privilege of having it back So, use the card as a path to ground while doing your best Michael Jackson impression while wearing fuzzy bunny slippers on shag carpet. Personally, I prefer Thriller myself - works every time.
LosOjos Posted January 31, 2014 Author Posted January 31, 2014 So, use the card as a path to ground while doing your best Michael Jackson impression while wearing fuzzy bunny slippers on shag carpet. Personally, I prefer Thriller myself - works every time. haha yeah you might be on to something there! Is the white glove essential though? BTW - got another BSOD last night, although this one looks memory related rather than GPU. PC is sat at home running through an extensive memtest as we speak. I'm about ready to chuck the lot in a box and ask for a refund! 1
featured_spectre Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 Not sure if done so already but throw up your PC spec and what you are running at the time it happens.
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