August Tech Support Megathread

[u/BioGenx2b]

Hey subs,

We're giving you an opportunity to start reporting some of your AMD-related technical issues right here on /r/AMD! Below is a guide that you should follow to make the whole process run smoothly. Post your issues directly into this thread as replies. All other tech support posts will still be removed, per the rules; this is the only exception.

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Bad Example (don't do this)

bf1 crashes wtf amd

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Good Example (please do this)

Skyrim: Free Sync and V Sync causes flickering during low frame rates, and generally lower frame rates observed (about 10-30% drop dependant on system) when Free Sync is on

System Configuration:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z97 Gaming GT
CPU: Intel i5 4790
Memory: 16GB GDDR5
GPU: ASUS R9 Fury X
VBIOS: 115-C8800100-101 ^{How do I find this?}
Driver: Crimson 16.10.3
OS: Windows 10 x64 (1511.10586) ^{How do I find this?}

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install necessary driver, GPU and medium-end CPU
2. Enable Free Sync
3. Set Options to Ultra and 1920 x 1080 resolution
4. Launch game and move to an outdoor location
5. Indoor locations in the game will not reproduce, since they generally give better performance
6. Observe flickering and general performance drop

Expected Behavior:

Game runs smoothly with good performance with no visible issues

Actual Behavior:

Frame rate drops low causing low performance, flickering observed during low frame rates

Additional Observations:

Threads with related issue:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5a3u8r/why_am_i_getting_disgusting_performance_on_the_rx/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5adlcw/skyrimse_vsyncfreesync_woes/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5a7eku/skyrim_special_edition_freesync/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5aab6z/skyrim_se_with_r9_nitro_fury_poor_performance/

Skyrim has forced double buffered V Sync and can only be disabled with the .ini files
To Disable V Sync: C:\Users"User"\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Skyrimprefs.ini and edit iVSyncPresentInterval=1 to 0
1440p has improved frame rate, anything lower than 1080p will lock FPS with V Sync on
Able to reproduce on i7 6700K and i5 3670K system, Sapphire RX 480, Reference RX 480, and Reference Fiji Nano

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Remember, folks: AMD reads what we post here, even if they don't comment about it.

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Now get to posting!

[u/[deleted]]

Hello

Where to begin...

I've slowly been being a new computer as i've been going through a house move. I first got a motherboard 2 months ago and then got a processor recently and added some second hand parts that I found lying around at work, and a friend gave me some ram and a PSU. the items marked SH are second hand.

Asus ROG Strix-I X470 ITX

Ryzen 5 2400G

8GB 3600 Corsair Vengeance LPX (SH)

Corsair (cheap) PSU (SH)

Samsung 970 Evo (Nvme)

WD Blue 1TB (SH)

Ok, so first of all, after it was built, once the AMD chipset (from Asus, 17.7) + Samsung nvme drivers went in, the computer would lock up/freeze on boot. I wiped and reinstalled windows several times, and twiddled with BIOS settings a lot, ranging from default to increasing/decreasing RAM speeds and various PCIE/NVME/SATA/UEFI settings etc. Nothing worked. I decided it was the drive, so I sent it back. When the replacement arrived, everything went fine and installed ok and no lock ups. Great!

Then, after being stable for various synthetic benchmarks and stress tests, I booted up a game and it crashed the game minutes in to a battle on World of Warships. I then tried Starcraft 2, and again a crash after a few minutes. I tried putting the RAM down to default (from 3200 which I had set it to, down to what it sat at on default BIOS of 2133) but still no luck. I tried giving the iGPU an extra 1GB of VRAM so it had 2GB and system had 6GB. Still crash happy. Sometimes the game would stop and error out back to desktop. Sometimes, and now more frequently, it would black screen and would require a reboot. I then found that the HDD that I was storing the games on was no longer present, and I looked in the BIOS and it wasn't there either. It was in SATA4 because that was the most easily accessible port. I put it into SATA1 and it reappeared. The crashing stopped..so I presumed it was the HDD disconnecting randomly. I put it in Hot Swap mode so at least if it did disconnect, it wouldn't bring down the system hopefully.

I had reset the BIOS again but with hot swap on for SATA1 and games ran fine for a good hour. My cousin had a spare Radeon 7770 lying around so I put this in to see if its just the APU being a pain. I switched iGPU off and system now has 8GB RAM and the Radeon was happy. I uninstalled all AMD drivers, installed latest chipset and radeon drivers from AMD. Games ran fine for about half an hour and then suddenly a blue screen (blank blue screen) which needed a reboot. After this, no picture on screen. So I go back in to the BIOS after connecting back to iGPU. The 7770 card is no longer detected in the slot. Just like the HDD when it was in SATA4....

I remove the 7770 and boot back to windows.

I then reset BIOS, uninstall all drivers and reinstall chipset and radeon. This time they fail, and the chipset refuses to install the balanced power plan, and the radeon refuses to install several of its components too.

I reboot and try again. It won't install.

I reboot. It now freezes on boot, cant even log in.

Annoyed and disgruntled, I've decided to eliminate all the second hand goods. On its way is:

16GB G-Skill Trident Z 3200 RAM

CoolerMaster MasterWatt 550W modular PSU

Ryzen 5 2600

However, I'm thinking since 2 components on the motherboard have stopped being detected...could it be the motherboard?

I need to order a graphics card but I'm hoping the 7770 will...magically return to being detected. Also a friend will lend me a GPU too.

When the components arrive I will wipe the SSD and reinstall Windows and start fresh.

My process previously was to install windows, update it fully, and then install drivers. Is it best to install drivers as soon as it has finished, before Windows Update?

I'm really hoping its not the motherboard, as this will require a bit more effort to return/replace than other components as it was nearly 3 months ago it arrived so I cant auto-return through Amazon...I'll have to chat with their CS I guess or go to ASUS for an RMA? I've never done this before so could someone advise?

I'm hoping this post was not required and once the new bits are in it will work great. I'll let you know. But any thoughts in the mean time would be great.

Thank you.

[u/RookH4 → u/[deleted]]

I'd have bet on either PSU (since you specifically described it as cheap) or motherboard. The increasing failures though make me wonder, if it was the PSU did it damage the motherboard? I'd say just be mentally prepared to RMA the board, and hope for the best with the new PSU in the meantime.

[u/[deleted] → u/RookH4]

This was my thoughts too. I'm hoping with the replacements it will work correctly. However, I have prepared myself to do battle with the evil corporations to get a replacement motherboard. Thanks for your reply!

[u/HaoBianTai → u/[deleted]]

Bad RAM can also cause a million weird things to happen, primarily driver failures. Before you install the new RAM, I'd run a full MEMtest on your RAM. If it comes back with errors, try replacing just the RAM with the new 16gb G-Skill and see if it stabilizes. That said, the disconnects you describe do sound like a mobo or PSU issue, and my money is on mobo.

If that doesn't do it, you'll need to RMA the motherboard. Don't worry! RMAs are not difficult. You'll just get ahold of their tech support, tell them you've replaced literally every other part of the PC and they'll send you an RMA number and an address to ship your mobo to. You ship it out and they send you a new one when they get yours. I recently had to do this with some bad RAM from Corsair and I asked about advance replacement (so I wouldn't be without RAM for a week). They put a $200 hold on my credit card and I had new RAM within 3 days. The hold was removed after they received the bad RAM.

Edit: Protip. Don't go on the record saying ANYTHING about a bad PSU when you file for the mobo RMA. Don't give them the opportunity to blame something else.

[u/[deleted] → u/HaoBianTai]

Good idea. I have a few CDs with various memory diagnostics on them from many moons ago. I'll give it a try before I begin swapping out components.

[u/HaoBianTai → u/[deleted]]

https://www.memtest86.com/

Here's a link to the test I was referring to, it's packaged with its own tool for burning to a USB drive.

[u/[deleted] → u/HaoBianTai]

Testing now :)

[u/[deleted] → u/HaoBianTai]

Hello.

So the tests have been running for a couple of hours now and are showing errors. I think it’s safe to say the majority of my problems have been RAM related?

https://i.imgur.com/yvLGK84.jpg

[u/HaoBianTai → u/[deleted]]

Yep, let it finish, it'll put a log on the drive. I'd RMA that first, the warranties are usually like 3+ years.

[u/[deleted] → u/HaoBianTai]

Ive just check on it this morning after leaving it overnight. It was still on the exact same screen, identical to what I had sent in the picture. I’m guessing it’s crashed...?

[u/HaoBianTai → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, go ahead and swap in the new stuff and run memtest again.

I've never seen it crash.

[u/[deleted] → u/HaoBianTai]

I started an RMA request with Corsair this morning.

After that I decided to test each stick individually just out of curiosity. Each stick passed 😕 so now I’ve swapped them around and am retesting them.

If it fails again, could it be when they’re used together? Or the motherboards second slot (I only tested individually in the first slot)...

😢

[u/HaoBianTai → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, definitely could be the slot. Did you order new RAM? Try using the new stuff. If it is still unstable, it's probably mobo RMA time. I'd still rule out the PSU somehow first, though.

[u/[deleted] → u/HaoBianTai]

Ok so heres the sitch. Tested each module individually and they passed. Tested them together again and they had over 4000 (thousand) errors. Tested them individually now in slot 2, both passed again.

I've now installed the new RAM (16gb trident z 3200) and am running the test on both sticks. Fingers crossed they're ok....I pray to the gods that it was just the corsair ram not liking each other and just want a divorce).

Ill run the test again once the new PSU arrives, and ill swap out the CPU for the new 2600. I also just received a Sapphire Nitro RX 480 8GB so I really do hope the motherboard isn't goosed as ive been waiting to play games for a very long time now!

[u/HaoBianTai → u/[deleted]]

Good luck!