Hello everyone.
So I built a Windows 11 PC for my friend a few months ago (with Sapphire Nitro+ 7800 XT) and everything seemed promising for a few days, but then the problems started.
Graphics drivers would sometimes load on boot and other times not, random freezes doing basic tasks like viewing e-mails, weird artifacts during boot etc.
I tried so many things including:
DDU + installing different versions of drivers
Preventing Windows from overwriting driver (in Advanced system settings), choosing specific driver version in device manager as i read that Windows wont update the driver if you do so. disabling Windows Update in group policy
Testing on my own (also intel-based) PC running into the same issues
Editing registry keys
Clean Windows 11 and even Windows 10 install to test it out
Nothing really ever worked for me. I thought it was a hardware failure so i proceeded with RMA. Unfortunately they denied it as they "were not able to detect any issues" so they sent it back and somehow managed to bend the metal sides in the process (I sent it in original box with foaming, wrapped into paper bags and thoroughly wrapped in stretch foils so it wouldnt move a bit). The box I received was just a cardboard merely holding together and a GPU in a bubble foil with lots of space for GPU to move around. So I reported damage during shipping and will see what they have to say.
Anyway I was still curious if there is any chance that the problem actually lies in software. So I hooked up the gpu to my PC and tried a bunch of different things than the last time. Somehow it has worked so far (4 days in a row - the longest period without errors with this gpu) and here is what i did:
- Disabling Fast Boot in UEFI/BIOS
- In System Configuration Tool (Found in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools) -> General Tab -> Normal Startup instead of Selective Startup
- Disabling Windows Update in Gpedit (Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> Manage updates offered from Windows Update -> Do not include drivers with Windows Updates -> ENABLED
- DDU and latest 7800 XT driver, then installing it one more time via device manager
But after few more days, the problem reappeared. Every suggestion is appreciated. Thank you in advance
