Drivers & Software

[sirdiddles24]

So I upgraded my computer with Christmas yesterday. Last night I started having driver issues which I had never had in the past (I did not upgrade my GPU). After extensive testing I realized that my new Freesync monitor is the culprit when Freesync is enabled. Without it my games run perfectly fine.

Old build

Processor - I5 4460

Mobo - ASRock z97 Anniversary

GPU - MSI R9 390

PSU - Seasonic 550W 80+ Bronze

Monitor - ASUS VE248 60hz 1920 x 1080 (DVI) 

New build

Processor - Ryzen 5 3600x

Mobo - ASUS prime X570-p

GPU  - MSI R9 390

PSU - CORSAIR - CX Series Modular CX750M 750W 80 Plus Bronze ATX

Monitor

1. ACER VG270U 144hz 2560 x 1440 (DP)

2. ASUS VE248 60hz 1920 x 1080 (DVI)

So I'd like to try to figure out what is wrong with my freesync. The monitor does it even when it's the only monitor active, and at all resolutions and refresh rates I've tried. It happens ONLY when fullscreen. I will play a game and the drivers will crash, forcing me to restart my PC. I watch Youtube fine, however watching a movie and pressing ALT + ENTER caused the screen to flicker but no crash.

What usually happens is the screens (both if both are active) will flicker to complete black before showing my cursor and then the application being used (usually a game), before I hear a disconnect (?) sound on my PC and the drivers have crashed. If playing a game it will continue to run the game and play music but the screen is black and I have to task manager out of the game to have any functionality. Then I need to restart the PC in order to get the drivers back.

It happens on a wide array on games, some demanding and some not, and the movie I mentioned. 

What I have tried

• Fresh installing drivers for both GPU and chipset, using DDU for the GPU drivers.
• Fresh installing the optional and recommended GPU drivers
• Removing drivers in safe mode and reinstalling
• Reinstalling Microsoft C++ 2005
• OCCT stress tests for CPU, GPU, and PSU (No errors, no crashes)

I have the drivers for my new mobo installed as well.

I AM running D.O.C.P. through my mobo though I doubt that's the issue. Like I said, everything works fine without freesync, however if freesync is on and the new monitor is active, the drivers will crash almost guaranteed within 30 seconds of starting a fullscreen app.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated. More than willing to provide more info.

[di3sirae]

EDIT 2: I was able to play WBCIII for some good time without problems with Freesync enabled. Tried opening another game, issue occured again. Started some testing with League of Legends, and i had the problem after alt-tabbing, things started to run strange and when i hit ctrl+alt+del boom, video driver failure.

RIght now it seens to be working fine, no problems with alt-tab, if i run with Freesync DISABLED and also In Game Overlay DISABLED.
But after tinkering with it looks like some random problems are occuring, so i will still test some other things.

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EDIT: OK, i was doing some more testings and... It is working? I was able to play ESO, then Warlords Battlecry III... And no driver crash. The only problem i noticed is before the pop-up for Radeon (alt+r message) appears, there is a black screen or a quick glance at the desktop, then the game appears again and i can go on without problems. Happened with ESO one time, and one time in WBCIII at the main menu, and when i started a match.
Freesync enabled for now.

Noticed that ESO with Anti-Lag makes the game run much faster now, also WBCIII appears to be running smoother.

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Original message:

Hello, i do not exactly know how to report this so i'll 'confirm' the post by sirdiddles24.

My specs are the same for a long time now and everything was fine with 19.11.3.
R9 Fury X, i7 4790, Samsung U28E590 (display port).

I did a "clean" install of 19.12.3 (removed old driver) today, and took my time to look at everything. Adrenaline 2020 is amazing, i must say, decided to see how interger would work with Warlords Battlecry III.

After opening the game, i got a few seconds of the main menu and after that, a black screen.
Disabling the GPU scalling made the game minimize and i was in the desktop, without a crash.
Trying to go back to the game would black screen for a moment and then back to desktop, with driver failure. Have to restart.

I tried another game, it seemed to work for a bit, then the same thing happened.

After disabling Freesync from Settings>Display, no more minimize to desktop. I even noticed some improvement.
GPU scalling though won't run the game in fullscreen, so now i have both this and Freesync disabled and things seens to be working fine.

Thanks and i hope this will be looked at.

All the best for you all.

* I had Freesync on before without problems, only thing that was changed is the driver.

[mindow]

Hello,

I can second this. Have similar/ same problem. If I run game(e.g. Skyrim - Borderless windowed) or something else(e.g. Kodi in ex. full screen) with disabled features (Anti-Lag, RIS, Enhanced Sync..) I can also notice screen flicker/ black screen(with everything ongoing in background I can alt-tab to something else and flickering/ blackscreen is gone than alt-tab into game and everything bad is back) especially if i run game or app(e.g. Kodi) AFTER waking from sleep. I tracked this issue to FreeSync. Driver reset does not help at all but If I disable FreeSync in monitor settings with ongoing problem than blackscreen is gone or second option is to restart/ reset PC.

System:

      GPU: Sapphire 5700 XT (Reference)

      CPU: Ryzen 2700x

      RAM: 16 GB

  Display: Samsung C27HG70 27" --> 2560x1440 @FreeSync(rangle 48-144 fps) / 144 Hz

   Drivers: Using 19.12.3 (Same problem on 19.12.2)

Now I realized it can be related to something else because when i disable FreeSync in monitor there is probably reseted more settings/ maybe drivers not just disabled Freesync. However I´m not experienced this issue with disabled Freesync in monitor settings for about a week.

[di3sirae]

EDIT: Ok, started League of Legends with Freesync + Enhanced Sync off, and had a video driver crash in the loading screen.
I still need to test with Freesync on my monitor off, but for now i'm using the old 2019 driver...

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I was also thinking it was absolutely related to Freesync, so i did some tests with it disabled, and i still had driver failure.

Disabling both Freesync + Enhanced Sync solved all problems.
No more screen flicker before Radeon pop up, no more random screen flicker/black screen, no more driver failure.
I did all tests yesterday, had to remove 19.12.3 middle game to install the one i had here, and now i am testing with 19.12.2 (problems were the same as .3).

So if anyone else is having this problem, maybe try disabling Enhanced Sync too (it worked great before 2020).
I may come back if i find anything else.