PC Drivers & Software

[CasteHappy]

This is the 4th time I try getting any answers to this, I'm really lost and I don't know where to ask for help, thank your for your time.

Even if you have a really vague idea I can try whatever you suggest, I'd just like to get some directions. I don't even know how to accurately describe this problem so I can't really search for solutions.

Computer Type: Desktop

GPU: RX 6700 XT

CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core processor 3801Mhz

Motherboard: Asrock AB350M Pro4

BIOS Version: P7.20

RAM: 32GB (Kingston FURY Beast 8GB 3200MHz DDR4 CL16)

PSU: EVGA 650 BR, 80+ Bronze

Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 10 PRO

GPU Drivers: Adrenaline 24.9.1 (Still persists in 24.10.1)

Description of Original Problem:

(Context: I'm a video editor for a gaming channel and I record a lot of game footage)

I admit I have a really bad habit of leaving a bunch of Firefox tabs open when I'm researching something, and this time I had After Effects and some other apps in the background (sorry!), right when I noticed that my browser was slowing down, I tried closing it but my PC froze. After a couple of seconds my screen went black and stayed like that for less than a minute before I decided turning my PC off by pressing the power button.

When I turned it on again, I noticed that I couldn't hear anything from my monitor. Also tried booting up a game from steam and it inmediately crashed, and when I went to open the AMD app, and I got a message saying something that made me believe my drivers got deleted or corrupted? and it wouldn't start.

Downloaded the newest drivers from the AMD site and installed them again. Everything seemed to work fine but after recording a couple of clips for a video (with OBS), I noticed the files wouldn't play properly on my media player (MPC).
The recordings would get stuck on some frames but would play fine after some seconds, and I jumped to another part of the video, I'd get another still frame for a while.

When I imported the files to After Effects (and Vegas Pro), it was evident something was wrong: https://imgur.com/a/wIBANq4

At first I thought OBS was making corrupted files for some reason, but using the AMD Software also got me the same results. So after an hour of testing I decided to use DDU first and then reinstall the drivers, which didn't do anything.

As a last resort option, I changed the encoder in OBS from AMD HW H.264 (AVC) to AMD HW H.265 (HEVC), and the recordings looked fine! I have no clue what's going on here, I must say I've been having some annoying problems since I installed the 6700 XT (May of last year) but I've never encountered something like this.

Main issue is that Vegas Pro has a really hard time playing HEVC, I wouldn't mind sticking with HEVC until I find a solution but I need to record a lot of footage for a project and it's gonna be impossible to work with.

Any ideas? I'm not clueless about all of this but I'm not too well informed either, any help is appreciated. If you need anything else that might be useful to know, please let me know. Thank you!

Troubleshooting:

• Reinstalled drivers

• Used DDU and then reinstalled drivers

• For now I'm using the x264 encoder

[AMID_of_IT_all]

Hi there. Sorry to hear nobody helped you with this. When you do get a reaction ignore everybody who says you'll need to swap hardware until you use their HW configuration. They are fools. You have a nasty problem and by that I mean it could be a lot things causing it. I'll give you a few hints but I'm not going to explain everything in detail. Use Google to find out the exact procedures. Start with checking the event viewer's system logs especially the WHEA log (windows hardware errors) If it's the systems memory that is causing the problems there is a big chance you'll find a lead here. At least you'll see what exactly caused the hard crash you experienced. The picture you embed do point to memory problems. It could also mean memory allocation problems. You can use memtest86 or the build in memory check in windows to see if the memory is faulty. Video ram check is a bit more complicated. You need a special tool for that. To check if a driver has problems you can use Latency monitor. Download it from resplendence.com That tool tells you which drivers causes the longest latency in your system. It's always usefull to take out the videocard and clean the contacts with contact spray. Do the same with the RAM sticks. Before you do make sure have you have no static electricity (ESD) in your body by grounding with a wet finger first. Use an ESD proof or at least a cotton cloth for the cleaning. In case of timeouts while the system writes to the hard disk (see latency monitor or event viewer) also clean the contacts of each hard disk. Remember that lot of unstable systems where build by folks who make the contacts of the components dirty or didn't clean them in advance. Good luck finding the cause. Let me know what you find out OK?     

[AMID_of_IT_all]

Assuming (from your post) that H.264 does not work and H265 does work also check your Vegas Pro log files. After reading your post again I became almost sure that your problem, the corrupted video encoding thus not the system crashing, must be application related. To be sure you could test H264 hardware encoding with another application and see if the result differs. Vegas Pro log files should be here:

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\VEGAS Pro\ErrorReport

There's also some "log" files here:

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\VEGAS Pro\21.0

You can edit your post and make sure the troubleshooting section is not at odds with the problem

[elstaci]

First @AMID_of_IT_all gave you some really good troubleshooting tips.

First your GPU card supports the following Graphics Rendering formats from AMD Support:

HDMI™ 4K Support: Yes

4K H264 Decode: Yes

4K H264 Encode: Yes

H265/HEVC Decode: Yes

H265/HEVC Encode: Yes

AV1 Decode: Yes

Could be a AMD Driver issue if this occurs with other apps but if it only occurs with OBS than I suggest you open a OBS Support ticket and see what they suggest. It might be a Settings issue with OBS or AMD Radeon settings.

Could also be defective hardware as mentioned. I would run MEMTEST86 or Windows Memory Diagnostic to physically check your RAM modules for defection.

Also run CHDSK to make sure your Windows drive doesn't have any bad sectors that could be corrupting your programs.

Then run in a elevated Command Prompt/Powershell the following simple command line to check your Windows installation OS:

SFC /scannow

But if the issue only occurs with OBS than looks like OBS need to update or patch its app to be compatible with AMD driver.

You can always stress test your PC by downloading OCCT and running all 3 Stress tests and see if your computer crashes during any of the tests.  Normally by stress testing your PC if you have any defective hardware it would show up during the Stress tests.

EDIT: I would update your BIOS to the latest Non-BETA Version 7.40: https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/AB350M%20Pro4/index.asp#BIOS

Just in case it is the latest AMD Driver not being fully compatible with OBS try install a much older version and see if it works correctly to rule out the latest Graphics driver as the cause from here: https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/previous-drivers.html/graphics/radeon-rx/radeon-rx-6000-ser...

Sometimes AMD drivers comes out with a new feature that may cause problems with video Apps.

To change the subject since your mentioned Firefox, I also open several Tabs at the same time that causes Firefox to crawl and  at time just stop working  before any of the tabs fully open. 

I found out if you open Task Manager and click on Firefox in the menu. You will see many Firefox tabs running. But if you see one in particular using a high CPU usage stop that tab from running and than you will see all the rest of the tabs on Firefox will start working and downloading quicker.  I usually need to do this several times to be able to see all the Firefox tabs open normally.