PC Drivers & Software

[almichaelsjr]

Since updating to Adrenalin 19.6.3 Isystem is crashing indicatind "default radeon wattman settings have been restored due to unexpected system failure". Rolling back to previous versions does not fix the problem. My system with R9 390X was working flawlessly until this update (was running 19.4.?). I NEVER made any changes to Wattman (never really knew what it was). I do NO overclocking with my system whatsoever. I have done full clean uninstalls of radeon software MULTIPLE Times and no matter which version I reinstall I get the same result. This issue is posted ALL OVER THE Internet and ATI Forums. I NEED HELP.

Motherboard ASUS Z170 pro gaming

AMD Radeon R9 390X

Windows 10 v1903

Intel i7 6700

32G Ram

DX12

[frodofreeman]

Try driver 16.6.1 (last driver before wattman introduced).  Only way I fixed the wattman crash/message.  I'm posting to a few threads to see if anyone else has tried it and see what happens.  And hope that AMD can answer why their wattman feature is causing major issues for some people.

[almichaelsjr]

I will give it a try this weekend. Right now my card (R9 390X) is out of my machine and Im using the onboard (ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming).

I have gone back as far as 17.?.? (forget which because the same problem occurred).

I have noticed that when my card is installed and I switch from Microsoft Basic Graphics Driver to any of the Old drivers my card gets pretty hot. Not so hot that I cant keep my finger on it but the temp goes up immediately. I have since re thermal pasted the processor (one of the suggestions I read somewhere) but no change in the crashing. The heat is not over the processor  but on a row of transistors that are mounted in a row on the board. I have a bad feeling that 19.6.3 may have damaged my card.

I keep getting the try this and try that from a guy named Vikas @ AMD I've been "working" with via e-mail for 4 weeks now and he seems to have stopped replying to me. I requested he either send me up to a next level tech or get me someone else because NONE of the things he has suggested work. I have not gotten a response since.

I have ALWAYS been an ATI Radeon fan on all of my 7 computer builds of my own plus about 5 others I have built for friends/family (starting in 1995) and if this doesn't get resolved I will be switching to NVIDIA.

[frodofreeman]

OK cool, good luck.  So far so good for me, I really thought my card was dying with black screen crashes as if a component had failed, and even rebooting sometimes the screen would stay black.  But since I purged the wattman drivers with 16.6.1 it has been rock solid even in a heatwave we're having lol. I don't bother with MSI Afterburner now, I just use the Overdrive menu in the AMD settings to set the fan speed and monitor the temp.  The card is factory overclocked to 1000MHz (HD 7950), so it has nothing to do with overclocking as my card is perfectly stable.  Also HWMonitor program is good for monitoring whole system.  

What gets me is I posted elsewhere about this and it's just crickets, people just shrug as if no one else has the problem!  And yet here and on google lots of people seem to be suffering.  It's one of those mystery pc problems that only affect certain people.  I was going to get a new 5700 card, but having gone through all this I don't know if the problem will still happen, let alone if the 5700 would work with this old driver.  So I may switch to nvidia at some point if my card does wear out.  Probably 1660 Ti.

[almichaelsjr]

Sad part is my computer was running fantastically prior to 19.6.3. I have ALWAYS updated the drivers pretty much every time there was an update (thru the Radeon Software) with NEVER an issue.

Actually I had been playing Battlefield V for about 4 Hours (ALL SETTINGS MAXED OUT). I quit playing to get out and do some yard work but decided to do the update before shutting my computer down. That is when the poo hit the fan.

Not only does the "default radeon wattman settings have been restored due to unexpected system failure" issue show up in this forum ond AMD but if you Google search the same thing you'll see hits going back for years with others having the same issue. I have tried ALL of the suggestions I have found there and those from the AMD rep I am "working" with with no changes.

Apparently the AMD rep has bailed out on me. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE (insert eyeroll here).

The most confusing thing is the fact that rolling back the driver doesn't help. That's why I feel the 19.6.3 update may have fried my barely over 3 years old (out of warranty) R9 390X.

I too am looking at the 1660ti NVIDIA card as well but I don't feel I should have to spend $300.00 on a new card when my R9 390X should still be fine.

It SUCKS that AMD has not rectified an issue that has been going on for others since WATTMAN was introduced.

I will let you know how I make out with 16.6.1.

[almichaelsjr]

Soooo!!! I gave it a try..... No Good. Same issue. Black screen. Actually thing now seem to be worse. Ias soon as the installation package hits the 40% mark (when the drivers actually take effect) screen goes black and I have to hold power button down to shutdown the computer. After 2-3 restart attempts Windows recognizes startup issue and then I can start in safe mode. Then I DDU uninstall. and try again. For kicks I even tried 19.7.3 (7/25/19) to see if they possibly fixed the issue but no go.

I have literally tried EVERY tip and trick on both the AMD Forums, other forums, and EVERYTHING Vikas (from AMD support who has bailed on me) with no fix.

I have since requested a NEW help ticket with no response (other than the canned "we got your submission" reply email from AMD).

I am thoroughly convinced that when I updated to 19.6.3 the new driver fried my card. EVERYTHING was running perfectly right up to the moment I installed that driver (thru Adrenaline software).

So, considering that AMD has bailed on me as a whole, and none of the other fixes out there are making any difference, it looks like I am in the market for an NVIDIA card to replace my R9 390X. Sad that I have to do so after only 3 years considering my card was not a cheap one at the time.

Any NVIDIA suggestions??

[frodofreeman]

Agh, sorry to hear that!  Yeah sounds like the card is damaged if you can't even install the driver.  I know with my card (with the 19.5.2 driver) the fan went ballistic to 100% and I couldn't even power down.  I literally had to pull the plug out to shut it down for goodness sake!  So there is definitely something psychotic about those adrenaline drivers (how aptly named).  I was lucky it didn't seem to do major damage as I have been ok with the 16 driver since (no crashes so far).  So I think they would have worked for you if the card was alright.  It seems like AMD don't know what the problem is, or they think it's only a few people who are being affected so they don't care much.  Just puts you off, I will see what the 5700 owners are saying as time goes by, otherwise I think the Nvidia 1660 ti is the best option.

[almichaelsjr]

Now that you mention it my card did the same thing where the fan went crazy high speed. I am going to make the assumption that I was not as lucky as you and my card fried before I could power it down.

I took my card to work today and Had my IT guys try it in one of their computers. The card is DEAD!!!

I have contacted ATI/AMD regarding replacing the Card that their driver damaged ..... Lets see what happens.

[cplifj]

And you have a windows running without fast startup function ? 

Because no matter what, that will Fu your system, it will create errors.

So first things first. Then we also have DDU to clean out the very garbage that got created.

[almichaelsjr]

1: Yes (Fast Startup AND Hibernate turned off)

2: Yes (DDU) every attempt to try a different driver.

3: problem started when i was running Win 10 1809 ... updated to 1903 since (figured I would add this one)

[mysticode]

Any updates?

[almichaelsjr]

No Good. Same issue. Black screen. Actually things now seem to be worse. As soon as the installation package hits the 40% mark (when the drivers actually take effect) screen goes black and I have to hold power button down to shutdown the computer. After 2-3 restart attempts Windows recognizes startup issue and then I can start in safe mode. Then I DDU uninstall. and try again. For kicks I even tried 19.7.3 (7/25/19) to see if they possibly fixed the issue but no go.

I have literally tried EVERY tip and trick on both the AMD Forums, other forums, and EVERYTHING Vikas (from AMD support who has bailed on me) with no fix.

I have since requested a NEW help ticket with no response (other than the canned "we got your submission" reply email from AMD).

I am thoroughly convinced that when I updated to 19.6.3 the new driver fried my card. EVERYTHING was running perfectly right up to the moment I installed that driver (thru Adrenaline software).

So, considering that AMD has bailed on me as a whole, and none of the other fixes out there are making any difference, it looks like I am in the market for an NVIDIA card to replace my R9 390X. Sad that I have to do so after only 3 years considering my card was not a cheap one at the time.

Any NVIDIA suggestions??

[almichaelsjr]

I took my card to work today and Had my IT guys try it in one of their computers. The card is DEAD!!!

I have contacted ATI/AMD regarding replacing the Card that their driver damaged ..... Lets see what happens.

[dezi]

  5700 xt 50th<--- For games that are crashing after a few mins of play the only fix i found is to drop your max GPU Clock down to about 1800mhz!, for some reason games like Fortnight, and GTA V .... seem to crash and reboot with the "Wattman restored to Default Settings msg"  I know it sucks lowering the clock but if your having this problem try dropping you Clock down to 1800mhz and that does the trick for me with really no impact to the game

[almichaelsjr]

Earlier on mine would crash just being on the windows desktop. Now I cant even get past the drivers install.

[mysticode]

I'm getting crash/freezing randomly during anything GPU intensive now. No BSOD.

[mysticode]

Just tested out the 4GB version of MSI RX 580 (on loan from a friend, I have the 8GB version) in my system, and within an hour or two I had the same frozen screen required a forced shutdown, with subsequent Wattman recovery notifications. No BSOD dumps to diagnose with.

DDU'd and installed an Nvidia 1070ti (also on loan) with latest drivers, and so far testing has gone very well (fingers crossed). No hiccups, freezes, or anything close to the problems I had on my Radeon card(s)+drivers. Still doing more testing, but I'll keep you all up to date.

A reminder that I am on Windows 10 1903, and didn't have any issues with Radeon cards before 1903.