SOLVED PC locks up during gaming with R9 390X

[BoundByBlood]

Before I get into the heart of the matter I do need to provide a bit of history. My current 390X card is an RMA replacement which I received new in the box from Asus when they couldn't repair my old card. When I originally got it I put the 390X in my rig, but that thing was on its last leg so I ending up building an entirely new machine replacing everything down to the case. The only two components I transferred over to the new build were the gpu, still relatively new, and the Enermax 1000W 80+ gold power supply, which was also still pretty new and under a month old. My suspicion is the old motherboard might have damaged the new card.

What is happening is the PC is completely locking up during gaming with a loud buzzing sound looping through the speakers. It has happened twice now and when it does the only option is to hit the reset switch. The first time it happened during COD: AW using the crimson 15.12 drivers, but I suspected a corrupt windows installation. I ended up doing a clean reinstall of Win10 x64 and updating to the crimson 16.2.1 drivers. When I run 3DMark 11 everything is nice and smooth, but I was playing Rise of the Tomb Raider in steam last night which was running fine, but it locked up again I would say 20-30 minutes into the game. No performance issues in the game other than the total freeze up with the looping buzzing sound. The card is not being overclocked other than I have the fans turn up to 40% when gaming.

The least likely scenario, I think, which someone I know suggested is the psu is under-supplying the card. Aside from the fact the psu is practically new I haven't experienced any BSODs, crashes, or errors outside of gaming. I can leave my computer running for hours and everything still works so if it was the psu there should be something else happening in terms of errors indicative that unit is the culprit.

After an analytical series of tests and process of elimination here is what I think is happening:
[-] The display driver is crashing or messing up. One of the reasons I think this is because when I was messing around with the game's settings last night I heard the gpu fans rev up real loud for a couple of seconds before going back down. Also, when messing around in radeon settings the app has crashed twice now. All I have to do is relaunch it and it's fine, but the driver package could be unstable. Finally, I was just reading another thread where a power management feature in the crimson drivers have been causing instability problems for some people.

[-] The GPU is overheating. Unlikely, but still possible. I have a pretty well ventilated case with 3x120mm intake front fans, 2x120mm exhaust top and 1x140mm exhaust rear. Not to mention the card has three fans and they are working. I launched HWInfo and gamed for about 30 min. getting past the point where it locked up last night and the temps it reported to me after quitting were 71°C max and 58°C average. The gpu VRM averaged out at about 66°C as well so from what I can tell pretty normal temps for this kind of card. All of this was with the fans running at 40%.

[-] The GPU is failing. I hate to think that a card I received new in the box could be messing up so soon, but it is still possible if the old failing motherboard did indeed damage it.

If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them. What seems to be the most likely scenario? I'm thinking about downgrading to crimson 15.12 on the new windows install and see if it still locks up, but I'm also wondering if I should just go ahead and RMA the card.

Feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

 

[EarthDog]

The least likely scenario, I think, which someone I know suggested is the psu is under-supplying the card. Aside from the fact the psu is practically new I haven't experienced any BSODs, crashes, or errors outside of gaming. I can leave my computer running for hours and everything still works so if it was the psu there should be something else happening in terms of errors indicative that unit is the culprit.

I don't think its the PSU either, however that isn't sound logic. Think about it.. you likely use the most power when gaming, so it makes sense if the computer is doing menial tasks that the PSU may not 'trip'. Again, I don't think its the PSU.

[-] The display driver is crashing or messing up. One of the reasons I think this is because when I was messing around with the game's settings last night I heard the gpu fans rev up real loud for a couple of seconds before going back down. Also, when messing around in radeon settings the app has crashed twice now. All I have to do is relaunch it and it's fine, but the driver package could be unstable. Finally, I was just reading another thread where a power management feature in the crimson drivers have been causing instability problems for some people.

DDU your drivers and install something pre Crimson. 390x = 290x with more vRAM(literally) so there are plenty drivers
for it.

Disable that power management feature (ULPS?)...

[-] The GPU is overheating. Unlikely, but still possible. I have a pretty well ventilated case with 3x120mm intake front fans, 2x120mm exhaust top and 1x140mm exhaust rear. Not to mention the card has three fans and they are working. I launched HWInfo and gamed for about 30 min. getting past the point where it locked up last night and the temps it reported to me after quitting were 71°C max and 58°C average. The gpu VRM averaged out at about 66°C as well so from what I can tell pretty normal temps for this kind of card. All of this was with the fans running at 40%.

Temps seem OK...

[-] The GPU is failing. I hate to think that a card I received new in the box could be messing up so soon, but it is still possible if the old failing motherboard did indeed damage it.

Anything is possible, but, I doubt the mobo damaged it.

That said, if you hose with the audio looping, have you tried different audio drivers?
What OS are you running on?
Can you create a signature with your hardware list?

 

[BoundByBlood]

DDU your drivers and install something pre Crimson. 390x = 290x with more vRAM(literally) so there are plenty drivers for it.

OK, so the last stable release pre-Crimson then.

Disable that power management feature (ULPS?)...

Can't disable it right now, AMD is aware of the issue and are promising to have a feature to turn it off in the next stable crimson release.

That said, if you hose with the audio looping, have you tried different audio drivers?

Yes, I'm on the latest realtek audio drivers now. I have two audio devices - AMD high definition and Realtek HD - in device manager on the same audio bus and I have the AMD high definition audio disabled. I've been knowing about that little conflict for years. Not sure why catalyst installs AMD HDMI audio when I'm not using HDMI.

What OS are you running on?

Win10 x64...clean reinstall too. I just downgraded to crimson 15.12 and did a sfc /scannow command. The other day when I did sfc after the reinstall everything looked good, but I just got the report Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.

Can you create a signature with your hardware list?

I've never created a signature for this site, but if you want I can give you my hardware specs.

CPU - AMD FX 8350
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD3 R5
RAM - G.Skill 32GB DDR3 1600 4x8GB
PSU - Enermax 1000W 80+ Gold
HDD - WD 1TB 128MB cache 7200 rpm SATA 6GB/s (x2)
GPU - Radeon R9 390X

 

[EarthDog]

Can't disable it right now, AMD is aware of the issue and are promising to have a feature to turn it off in the next stable crimson release.

You should be able to do so in MSI AB...

Yes, I'm on the latest realtek audio drivers now. I have two audio devices - AMD high definition and Realtek HD - in device manager on the same audio bus and I have the AMD high definition audio disabled. I've been knowing about that little conflict for years. Not sure why catalyst installs AMD HDMI audio when I'm not using HDMI.

Don't install it in the first place. It is an option when you choose custom installation. NEVER install things you don't use.

Thanks for the hardware update. THe reason we ask that it is in the signature as it is there in every post... people don't have to hunt for it to help you.

 

[BoundByBlood]

You should be able to do so in MSI AB...

I don't use Afterburner. I did, but it created conflicts with my old gpu so I just use Radeon settings. I haven't tried afterburner with this particular gpu, but I guess I could.

Don't install it in the first place. It is an option when you choose custom installation. NEVER install things you don't use.

In some catalyst packages not to install the AMD HDMI audio isn't even an option. If I don't install it or uninstall it in device manager action center will popup a notification and begin downloading the driver anyway. So I'm kind of stuck with it which is why I leave it disabled.

THe reason we ask that it is in the signature as it is there in every post... people don't have to hunt for it to help you.

Well what are the dimensions and size requirements for a signature on this site?

UPDATE - I just gamed for about 30 min. on crimson 15.12 and it still locked up so it's either looking like a driver issue, possibly due to that power management feature, or it's the card. I'm going to try catalyst 15.7 and if it locks up still then it's a pretty good bet it is the card.

 

[EarthDog]

Disable ULPS in MSI AB and try it...

Is this W10 doing that????

Not sure off hand, A simple text would do though.

 

[BoundByBlood]

UPDATE #2 - It locked up on catalyst 15.7 so the chances of it being a driver issue are getting slimmer. I'm setting up an RMA with Asus as I type this.

Disable ULPS in MSI AB and try it...

I did. I haven't gamed with it turned off yet and I don't think I need to in order to deduce what will happen mainly because catalyst 15.7, before crimson, doesn't have a power management feature and the card still locked up.

Is this W10 doing that????

You betcha. The catalyst installer is detecting the HDMI output on the card and installing the driver whether I want it or not so I am stuck with it. If I uninstall it Win10 will reinstall it automatically.

 

[BoundByBlood]

UPDATE #3 - I turned off ULPS and it still locked up. I ran a blend and In-place large FFTs torture test for about an hour a piece without any problems. I really don't think it is the PSU.

 

[Zuzzz]

Any way you can test that card in a known good system ?

Z

 

[wingman99]

Post back how the RMA goes, I don't see it being your PSU.

 

[BoundByBlood]

Any way you can test that card in a known good system ?

Wish I could, but one PC is all I have. None of my friends even have a new enough machine with PCI-E to test the card in their setup lol.

Post back how the RMA goes, I don't see it being your PSU.

Will do. Usually I don't have problems with Asus service, but the last RMA took a month which is why I think they traded me up from a 280X to a 390X. Yea, all the testing with Prime95 without issue and the evidence from what I have done so far point to the card itself and it's very unlikely it would be the PSU at this point.

I'll keep this thread open and post back when I get the card back.

 

[mrsteve0924]

i once had a board lock up randomly like that and gave out a high pitched noise. was a blown cap on the board. did you inspect for any?

 

[Angrychair]

Blown caps are easy to spot, but caps don't have to be blown to be bad. My thoughts when I read through the thread and especially when I got to the part about the buzzing sound was mainboard problem, but there can also be other more mundane causes for this kind of problem, which is normally indicative of an IRQ problem, such as a bad peripheral (mouse, KB) causing too many interrupt requests. I'd suggest starting with the easiest stuff to test and changing and disabling peripherals to the greatest extent possible. Hook up a different mouse and keyboard, disable your onboard sound and network, etc. See if you're still having problems after that, and if you are then you might need your mainboard replaced. If the problems go away start enabling and hooking peripherals back up until the crashes return.

 

[BoundByBlood]

which is normally indicative of an IRQ problem, such as a bad peripheral (mouse, KB) causing too many interrupt requests.

i can pretty much guarantee it's not the peripheral devices since I've unhooked them and the issue still occurred. I have used these same devices for years without any problems, but just to be sure I did disconnect them.

See if you're still having problems after that, and if you are then you might need your mainboard replaced.

Unlikely. The board is brand new retail just like the cpu, ram, hard drives and chassis. Sure, it could be manufacturer defective, but it hasn't given me any problems or errors and everything else works as it should. I've tested the ram with memtest and I have also done multiple torture tests in prime95, a bad board wouldn't have held up in stress testing.

The issue only occurs within gaming and with all of the troubleshooting I have done everything is pointing to the card itself.

 

[dark bishop]

Watching this thread closely, similar has been happening with my 290x minus the squealing noise.

 

[BoundByBlood]

After doing research this appears to be a fairly common issue and there are a ton of videos about it on youtube. What is different about all these scenarios is the cause won't always be the same for everyone, but it's either going to break down into hardware or software.

Some people claim they upticked their dram voltage from 1.50 to 1.55 and it was resolved. Tried it, didn't work. Others underclocked their ram. Some went into the advanced properties of their sound device and unchecked the box: Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device. Needless to say I tried all of this.

One thing I regret not trying before sending my card off was a workaround I had forgotten about until recently. I'm talking about C1E support and C6 in bios. It didn't occur to me that during gaming the cpu isn't working as hard as the gpu so during the times when the gpu is under load and the processor is idle it might have been trying to go into a power saving mode causing an interrupt.

So, bishop, I would recommend going into bios and disabling C1E and/or core C6 to see if that makes a difference or helps with the problem.

 

[Nebulous]

I've got a 390 and I have disabled all the power saving features in the bios. Not one single issue with my 390 aside from it being a serious heater. I game quite extensively and no lock ups. With a fan curve set in AB, my temps top out @ 55c-ish or so. 3 fans do a decent enough job at keeping my temps in check, but the noise is annoying

 

[BoundByBlood]

Not one single issue with my 390 aside from it being a serious heater.

As per AMD's specifications the 390 series of cards are designed to operate at 95C so it's made to run hot.

With a fan curve set in AB, my temps top out @ 55c-ish or so.

50s are a good temp for this kind of card with air cooling.

I've got a 390 and I have disabled all the power saving features in the bios.

I do have a problem with this statement and don't consider this sound advice [no offense Nebulous]. Advanced power saving features are a nice thought, but the coding within them is flawed kind of making them an "unfinished technology". They sound great on paper and rarely work as well as they should without creating conflict. However, some do work better than others.

TBH I would not disable all of them in the bios. It's just not a good idea for your hardware to have your cpu running in full state even when it's idle. Turning off all of the PWM features should only be done if necessary because they are creating a conflict.

@dark bishop: Below is a list of what I would do.

[-]Enable: Cool 'N Quiet and APM.

[-]Disable: C1E, core C6 state, HPC [not pwm but it has too negative of an impact for too little gain], and Turbo Mode [if you're not currently overclocking]. Any other power management feature which isn't CnQ or APM in your bios should also be turned off.

That should work. If it doesn't then go back and turn off CnQ as well.

 

[wingman99]

I have tested the power saving features and I only save 18 watts, yours should be about the same. What do you have it clocked to and vcore voltage?

 

[BoundByBlood]

Stock clock speed and default vcore. I'm just trying to get a stable system, once done I might overclock in the future.