Hello everyone.
I would like to share a problem that I had for more than a year and that I finally managed to solve.
If you are having issues with your RX 6700 XT (or maybe other AMD card) you should consider checking this post.
It would be a mess to explain everything from how the problem appeared and how I managed to identify it.
So I will try my best to be short. (spoiler - I failed)
After a certain moment my GPU wouldn't post. The fans would move for less than a sec and not even making a full spin
( just a short twitch)
Usually it's supposed to spin for few seconds and then stop due to pre-installed Zero RPM function.
But no, nothing. I would take the GPU out,check cables,PSU connections,made sure I had 2 separate PCI-E cables going from my psu,even thought this would be a power insufficiency issue.Bios settings,CMOS restart,drivers reinstalling, almost everything you can imagine.
The situation since then was next: my GPU was living its own life,working as usual but sometimes
(once in month or two)
it just wouldn't post and I couldn've spent days bringing it back to life,but nothing would help, it would turn on randomly and the situation was just getting worse as this was occuring more often. To the point where it just didn't want to work anymore,at all. Only time it would work is after uninstalling the drivers and the next first boot with GPU in being identified as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter in device manager display adapters section.
After hours and literal days I hope I've found and solved the issue.
I had a story of playing with my main and backup pc and its parts to check out linux,build a server,etc. Means a lot of software installation and hardware manipulation.Then, I moved back to my peak main build (description at the end)
As it turns out, when you have a clean system without any traces of GPU drivers
(after DDU Deinstallation for example)
and when you connect a new GPU, windows will upload it's own drivers for it.
I've realised that's the issue after finding this pattern - uninstalling drivers , turning pc back on and tracking how the Microsoft Basic Video Adapter turns into you new GPU's name in the Device Manager and screen flickering.
(windows doing it's dirty thing - installing drivers)
After this sequence,no matter if I updated drivers to newest or downgraded them - after I restarted the pc the problem persisted, little twitch from the fans and nothing on the screen.
Apparantly, the drivers that windows chooses for you would somehow interfere with the GPU itself,and with time,it got to the point when it just wouldn't work anymore.
(I suspect the windows 24H4 update, before it the GPU would post sometimes,but never after)
The solution was manually disabling Windows from installing any drivers on your hardware(including GPU).
I did it in both possible ways,google them.
1
go to Control Panel>System>Advanced system settings>Hardware> *something about the drivers update,the option below*
Might vary from Windows version (mine is 11 pro and the path is not exactly like this)
2
Hit Windows+R
Type "gpedit.msc" and press Enter.
Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.
Double-click on "Configure Automatic Updates".
Select "Disabled" and click "Apply" and "OK" to save changes.
After this, I again uninstalled the old drivers,Connected my GPU
(for some reason every time i uninstalled the drivers I had to take out the GPU from the case and boot the pc from Integrated GPU in order for the motherboard to recognize the new GPU again when its connected)
and with the GPU being identified as Microsoft Basic Video Adapter I installed the latest driver software for it downloaded from official AMD website, restarted the PC and... Success!
This is the most mysterious and time consuming problem I've ever had. No wonder,the driver version that windows was installing is nowhere to be found on the official AMD website!!! And it was breaking all the future updates you would do(even if you press factory reset when updating, I tried)
I couldn't find anyone talking about this problem,or maybe I wasn't searching for right things on google,as I was thinking the problem was hiding somewhere else
(RAM, PSU insufficiency, etc.)
so I decided to write this post to hopefully help someone solve and prevent any problems. (and don't sell your gpu for 100 golden coins,its probably not faulty after less than a year of usage, right?).
Pc specs
MB: Prime Z690-P WIFI D4
CPU: i7-12700K
GPU: Powercolor Fighter RX6700 XT
RAM: 2133MHZ 16GB x 2
Disk C (System Disk): Sata SSD "Kingston" 960GB
AIO: Corsair H60 120mm
PSU: 750 W "Bronze"
2 Extra fans and HDD's totaling 3TB (1tb and 2tb)
(Rgb for pu$$i€$)
Here's the medal for understanding my alien English.
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Good luck
Have fun
Best regards
Monterian.
