PC Drivers & Software

[madmartigan]

Hi everyone,

Can someone please help me pinpoint my problem ? Obvisouly, it would be great if that problem had an easy fix that doesn’t require me to buy anything, flash my bios or reinstal windows 5 times while reading the bible backward, but what I really need is to make sure that the problem comes from my R9 380 series GPU and not from something else.

When I built my new PC, around 8 months ago, I had a computer freeze when playing Dying Light. I did some digging on this forum and found out about the issue with the drivers of the R9 380 series that provoked similar freezes ( https://community.amd.com/thread/199969 ) and immediately downgraded my drivers from v18.10.1 to 15.11.1 (beta). I was able to finish the whole game without any crash. I also played with several other games during those 8 months (Total War Warhammer, GTA5, Warhammer 40k Inquisitor Martyr, Divinity Original Sin Enhanced, Payday 2, Blood Bowl 2, Rim World, Hotline Miami, Overcooked, etc.) without any problem.

Last week I started having freezes when playing games on this computer again (on at least 3 games : Shadow Tactics, Overcooked 2, Divinity Original Sin). I tried uninstalling the 15.11.1 beta drivers and installing the latest (19.7.2) drivers, tested them, then uninstalled those and even installed back the 15.11.1 (beta). It didn’t work.

Apparently Unity-made game such as Overcooked 2 are very prone to provoking a freeze in less than 5 minutes so I have an easy way of reproducing the problem. Some games do not seem to trigger those freezes (Shadowrun HK extended), and I never had a freeze while doing something else than gaming (watching videos, consulting websites, etc.).

The symptoms : The monitor goes black, the computer is non-responsive and the sounds from the game might continue normaly a while or lock up on the last sound. The only solution is to power down the computer and start it back again manually.

After carefully monitoring all components temperature, I can say this is not a temperature problem : during multiple occurrences, all components were running under 60°c just before the pc froze up, in the middle of the hottest summer we have seen in Europe for a long while.

CPU/Mobo/RAM/windows 10 install are around 8 months old with relatively average usage (I don’t overclock anything, don’t temper with anything electrical and I don’t tinker with my PC parts or software often, just a nice careful cleaning up from time to time).

My GPU/PSU are 3 years old, and I should mention I used them in another computer which had another type of freeze problem, although I’m fairly confident that this was coming from the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme4+ mobo. It doesn’t seem to be the same problem as those could occur at any time, sometimes even when the computer was just idle (someone even reported his mobo freezing on the bios!). I got rid of the old mobo/CPU and RAM and went with those bought 8 months ago.

My tower computer case is quite old (it was a gift from a friend) and my monitor is more than 5 years old.

Also I tested my 2 hard drives (which are not SSDs) for viruses and memory erros and also did a Memtest on my RAM before installing them : they were fine.

My desktop :

CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 2600 6 core 3,4 Ghz

Mobo : MSI B450 Gaming Plus (MS-7B86) bios v1.0 ? (on bios said : E7B86AMS.100 dated 06/27/18)

RAM : Corsair Vengeance LPX (2x8go) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0

GPU : AMD R9 380 series (XFX R9-380P-2DF5)

Drivers : 15.11.1 (beta) / 19.7.2 [both were tried, I’m curently using 19.7.2]

PSU : Corsair CP-9020098-EU VS Series VS650 ATX/EPS 80 PLUS 650W

OS : Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Monitor : LG IPS 226V-PN running 1920x1080 @60HZ connected to the GPU through an HDMI cable

Again : can someone please help me pinpoint if this problem comes from the GPU or if I am mistaken and that another part of this PC is responsible for those freezes ? My working theory is that one of window’s update now prevents driver 15.11.1 from working properly, but it’s just a guess, I don’t know enough to test from where this comes from and I need to make sure of it because my loved one’s PC has been slowly dying out for months, and rather than pick wildly from all the newest parts available and pray they’ll play nice with each other I would rather go for some parts that I already know first hand and are as stable as possible.

Thank you very much for reading this and have a good day.

Mad

[madmartigan · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

Turns out I had ruled out a temperature issue too fast, because I had :

1/ Checked the temperature of my components one minute before the freeze and thought that they could not rise up by 30°c in one minute. Turns out I was wrong.

2/ Checked the inside of my case under my desk without using a flashlight and missed the fact that one of the two fans of my XFX R9 380 wasn’t working anymore.

I have not tinkered with my GPU or the rest of my case at all during the last couple of months, nor was it moved around, and the breakdown arrived before the heatwave, so my guess would just be bad luck or bad component.

Either way, of course it happened 3 months after the end of it’s warranty, which makes it a 4 out of 4 in 3 years : in 3 years the 4 most expensive components of my previous computer turned out either faulty (ASRock FM2A88 Extreme 4+ Mobo), obsolete (CPU for FM2+ slot, RAM DDR3) or broke down (GPU XFX R9 380). *Sigh*

I’m probably going to buy something else because paying 40€+ for an aftermarket cooler is already a bit much (and I’m not sure I want to install it myself anyway because it’s a bit trickier than a CPU fan), and jury rigging it with ordinary fans would probably work, but let’s face it, it’s not getting any younger and has drivers issues too.

Sorry, I must leave you in a hurry : my wallet just shot itself to death after hearing I needed a new GPU. My credit card is giving it CPR but, frankly : it’s dead Jim.