New AMD GPU issues (display driver amd has stopped responding and has recovered)

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

It's the first time I've built a computer, but everything worked fine before worrying about the GPU (Gigabyte AMD Radeon R7 260x). When I hook up everything to the motherboard without the GPU, it works fine, but I just can't play any 3D games because they're too slow.

Here's a list of the rest of the computer parts I have.

When I add the GPU, I get all sorts of problems. The most common is the screen freezes for a few seconds, shuts off and back on, and I get the error message: "Display driver AMD stopped responding and has recovered." It comes up about once every ten minutes or so (each time it comes up, I have to close the little error message multiple times), whether I'm just in Windows or trying to play a game.

I tried running some Steam games, and it would just crash after a few minutes completely or I'd have to ctrl-alt-delete it. Then it crashed sometimes and my computer would shut down with it.

This happened a week ago when I first got the GPU, so I RMAd it because I thought it must be a defective GPU. But the same exact thing is happening with this brand new GPU so I'm thinking perhaps it's a driver issue or something else. I have no clue, and I'm getting full of stress trying to fix it. I'm normally very computer savvy.

Here's what I've tried:

Reinstalled Windows 8.1 64bit
Reinstalled latest AMD drivers
Making sure GPU and RAM were completely connected to motherboard (they were)
Ran a RAM check to check for any errors (none)
Disabled Aero in Windows (didn't make any difference)
Uninstalled AMD drivers completely with AMD's uninstall program and with Driver Sweeper (computer stopped crashing, but games would run very slow - faster than on-board graphics but still not as fast as they should)
Reinstalled latest AMD drivers (starts crashing again like before)
Disabled on-board graphics
Ran the AMD driver uninstall program again, but this time clicked "Repair" (this temporarily stopped the crashing, I think, but then they started happening again so there's no change)

When it doesn't crash, games run very slowly (faster than on-board graphics, but only at around 10~15fps so not how they should be), and all other times it randomly crashes, sometimes every minute and sometimes every 5 minutes.

I also ran a WhoCrashed and got this info:

Code:

On Mon 11/11/2013 5:14:21 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\111113-8000-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: dxgkrnl.sys (dxgkrnl+0x19139) 
Bugcheck code: 0x100000EA (0xFFFFE00003102500, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: DirectX Graphics Kernel
Bug check description: This indicates that a thread in a device driver is endlessly spinning.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. 
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

Most of the time it's the above error. But sometimes it's this error below:

Code:

 On Mon 11/11/2013 5:14:21 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmdag.sys (atikmdag+0x41233) 
Bugcheck code: 0xEA (0xFFFFE00003102500, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
product: ATI Radeon Family
company: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
description: ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a thread in a device driver is endlessly spinning.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. 
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmdag.sys (ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.). 
Google query: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER

· OS - Windows 8.1 x64
· Legal copy acquired from a friend from his work
· Age of system (hardware): ~1 week
· Age of OS installation - 1 day

· CPU: INTEL CORE i5-4570
· Video Card: GIGABYTE RADEON R7 260X (AMD)
· MotherBoard: GIGABYTE B85M-HD3
· Power Supply - brand & wattage: PC POWER & COOLING MKIII 500W

Any ideas? I'm open to suggestions. This computer build has been the worst experience I've had all year, and I'm seriously regretting trying to build a desktop instead of just purchase a laptop. It's taken all of my free time in the past week trying to get this sorted out, and I haven't gotten very far on my own. Please help me however you can with my problem.

View attachment 5864

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

Hi,

All of the attached DMP files are of the THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER_M (100000ea) bug check.

This indicates that a thread in a device driver is endlessly spinning.

This usually indicates problem with the hardware itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly.

If we run a .thread and then a kb:

Code:

3: kd> kb
RetAddr           : Args to Child                                                           : Call Site
fffff800`01483139 : 00000000`000000ea ffffe000`03102500 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff800`0147d122 : ffffd000`22eea3b8 fffff800`01a6f03a 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000286 : dxgkrnl!TdrTimedOperationBugcheckOnTimeout+0x4d
00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : dxgkrnl!TdrTimedOperationDelay+0x95fe

We can see two dxgkrnl.sys calls (DirectX Kernel) along with a timeout. This likely implies that your graphics driver timed out and never recovered, however I would imagine not the traditional way or we'd be seeing VIDEO_TDR_ERROR as opposed to THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER_M.

Ensure you have the latest video card drivers. If you are already on the latest video card drivers, uninstall and install a version or a few versions behind the latest to ensure it's not a latest driver only issue. If you have already experimented with the latest video card driver and many previous versions, please give the beta driver for your card a try.

If the beta driver does not help, or the earliest driver, or the latest, but you can play just fine on integrated graphics without crashes, this COULD be a board issue (bad PCI-e slot). Have you tried changing PCI-e slots? I don't believe this is a Power Supply issue or we'd likely being seeing shutdowns as opposed to freezes, but it's still possible.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

Thanks for narrowing it down that it's probably not the PSU. As for the PCI-e slot, I can't say because it would seriously take me a couple of hours and I'd have to unplug everything, then use the computer as a Frankenstein machine to put in the GPU in the other PCI-e slot (it'd never go in the case in the other slot since it's the opposite direction).

As for drivers, I'm currently running the latest AMD beta drivers. Since I'm running Windows 8.1 x64, if I were to try other (older) drivers, which ones should I try out?

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

Whatever is available, really. If you want to go really old, you can try the drivers that came on the disk.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

Uninstalled the drivers completely again, and reinstalled the old drivers from the CD that came with the GPU. Computer doesn't even utilize the GPU at all, and it shows up as an error driver in Device Manager. Going to try updating to a newer driver (ver12.11).

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

Let me know how that works out. If you're still getting issues, it sounds like a PCI-e slot issue after everything.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

Would a bad PCI-e slot be causing the GPU to be detected but still running games slowly? I don't quite understand

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

It's possible. Your issue sounds like a strange display driver problem in the grand scheme of things but if you've reinstalled Windows and tried various driver versions, clearly it's not. It also can't be the video card as you've RMA'd it unless they sent you another broken one which would make you pretty unlucky although I have seen it before. This is a problem that can have many causes, unfortunately. What did you use to test your RAM, was it Memtest? If not, or even if so, run it for NO LESS than ~8 passes (several hours) to ensure your RAM truly is healthy:

Memtest86+:

Download Memtest86+ here:

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Which should I download?

You can either download the pre-compiled ISO that you would burn to a CD and then boot from the CD, or you can download the auto-installer for the USB key. What this will do is format your USB drive, make it a bootable device, and then install the necessary files. Both do the same job, it's just up to you which you choose, or which you have available (whether it's CD or USB).

How Memtest works:

Memtest86 writes a series of test patterns to most memory addresses, reads back the data written, and compares it for errors.

The default pass does 9 different tests, varying in access patterns and test data. A tenth test, bit fade, is selectable from the menu. It writes all memory with zeroes, then sleeps for 90 minutes before checking to see if bits have changed (perhaps because of refresh problems). This is repeated with all ones for a total time of 3 hours per pass.

Many chipsets can report RAM speeds and timings via SPD (Serial Presence Detect) or EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles), and some even support changing the expected memory speed. If the expected memory speed is overclocked, Memtest86 can test that memory performance is error-free with these faster settings.

Some hardware is able to report the "PAT status" (PAT: enabled or PAT: disabled). This is a reference to Intel Performance acceleration technology; there may be BIOS settings which affect this aspect of memory timing.

This information, if available to the program, can be displayed via a menu option.

Any other questions, they can most likely be answered by reading this great guide here:

FAQ : please read before posting

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

Thank you. And it'll act up more when I'm doing something than if the computer is just sitting there. Perhaps it's a driver issue, or a tiny chance it's a RAM issue. I'll try checking my RAM as a last resort, though I don't have any CDs to burn anything to and I tried the USB method and couldn't get it to boot from the USB, even though I selected to boot from USB in the bios a few times.

If that doesn't work, I guess I'll have to send back my mobo for an RMA, which would be terrible because that means I wouldn't be able to use my desktop at home for over a week to work on some projects that I have. So much wasted time all over this thing. I can't imagine what this would be like to someone who didn't even know the basic computer things that I know...

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

If it makes you feel any better, these kind of things happen just as much on laptops as they do with desktops. You did not make a bad choice in building a desktop, you just appeared to have unfortunately (like many of us at a time) have hit some bad luck with some bad parts.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

Now it's acting a bit different. I reinstalled the latest beta drivers again, and now games will run fast like they should (first time it's ever done that), but I'm still getting the "display driver amd has stopped responding and has recovered" error and the computer will still crash. *sigh*
It's like these problems are changing and it's hard to diagnose what the issue is.

If I end up RMAing the mobo, how does that work with the processor stuck on there with the fan and the heat glue? Will removing those parts again mess anything up? I don't even remember what other things came with the mobo besides the driver CD (was the metal plate on the back of the computer case included with the mobo or was that from the case?).

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

When RMA'ing a motherboard, all they care is that they get the motherboard back. You can keep the manual, peripherals, etc. You obviously have to remove everything else. This means when taking the CPU off, when going to reinstall it on the new board, you'll need to clean off the old thermal paste and apply new thermal paste.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

Okay, when I get home from work I'll try the GPU in the other PCI-e slot (I'll have to take apart the computer almost completely to try this), and see if I get the same issues as before.

But what if I do this, and the bottom PCI-e slot gets me the same result, and I still get the same crashes? Does this mean its not a PCI-e problem and therefore I shouldn't bother RMAing the mobo? What do you think?

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

If you switch slots and you're still getting the same issues, they may have sent you another faulty card. Did you check the serial # or anything to make sure it wasn't the same card? I don't believe it's the PSU as I said earlier as you are getting display driver recovery failures. If it was a faulty PSU, it'd be much different because you'd be hardlocking or straight shutting down. This would likely even happen with integrated. If you can use integrated with no problems whatsoever, it's definitely the GPU.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 12, 2013

I can use integrated on board graphics with no problem whatsoever (I just can't play any 3D games of course). I also had no problems with the GPU before I installed any drivers - but the computer simply wasn't using or recognizing the GPU anyway and was just using on board graphics in that case (even though I plugged the monitor into the GPU directly), so I'm guessing in that case the computer was just bypassing the GPU and only using it to grab the monitor signal. And I didn't think to check the serial # before I sent the last one back, but I don't think they sent me the same card back - they said they approved a replacement for it (or did they... I'll never know...). I'll update again here once I try the GPU on another PCI-e slot later today. If the GPU is the problem and I don't have to RMA the mobo, I'm going to get a different GPU completely to avoid this problem.

Patrick · Nov 12, 2013

Understandable, I'd do the same thing. Keep me updated.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 13, 2013

I took another look and realized it wasn't another PCI-e slot, so I can't really put the GPU in there after all. I just have to assume it was a GPU problem and send it back, but I'm also going to send back the motherboard. I'm going to get the motherboard replaced for another one of the same, but I'll try a different GPU. I'll update once they're both back, and I'll probably reformat windows one more time after installing them and before using the computer.

Patrick · Nov 13, 2013

That's definitely your best option, replacing both. You may as well.

Regards,

Patrick

Pikmeir · Nov 20, 2013

Just to give you an update, I RMAd the mobo for a new one, and switched to a different GPU (Gigabyte GTX650 Ti Boost GDDR5-2GB), also did a fresh install of Windows 8 on the first boot - installed all drivers from included CDs - restarted - did Windows updates - restarted - and now everything works. Just wanted to say thanks for your help and everything looks like it works fine now. I hope this computer can last a long time.

Patrick · Nov 20, 2013

That's great to hear, thanks very much for the update and I am glad to hear everything is working as it should.

Regards,

Patrick

New AMD GPU issues (display driver amd has stopped responding and has recovered)

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