u/Bluesummers8719

(Another) Possible fix for pc crashes/blackscreen/timeouts.

TLDR: If you have even low pcie lane degradation (or signal instability) your AMD gpu is very sensitive to that. Lower your pcie speed from bios and see if it solves your problem with driver timeouts and pc freeze.

So i waited some days before posting this just to make sure it wasn't luck again.

After some update in July i started having multiple driver timeouts and pc freezing at random times even when browsing. I have tried almost every possible fix posted online and nothing helped.

Troubleshooting: About 1 month later my pc would start stuttering everywhere, audio crackling and had long boot times. I thought i was the RAM because after tweaking some voltage settings in bios the system seemed to stabilize but then it would come back randomly. I removed the dgpu, used the igpu and everything ran perfect.

It had something to do with dgpu or how it connects to the rest of the sytem but stress tests were flawless no problem there. Then i went into a rabbit hole and discovered that AMD handles signal integrity at the PCIe level differently than Nvidia (that's probably why Nvidia cards run flawlessly on the same systems) and Windows exacerbates this by how it handles driver timeouts and data packet loss (that's probably why Linux runs flawlessly on the same hardware).

So maybe something in the drivers and/or windows update changed how tight the margin is for buses to operate and how they handle tdr and data loss. Most probably there is pcie lane low degradation that AMD gpus are very sensitive to apparently. When on Auto, AMD forces the highest pcie speed even if it's unstable and Nvidia lowers the speed in case of instability. Also, that's probably why some people have success removing PCIe Riser Cables (they can cause signal instability) or reseating the gpu.

This post analyzes the problem better: https://www.reddit.com/r/radeon/comments/1kvmdrg/why_amd_is_perceived_to_have_more_crashes_and/

reddit.com
u/Bluesummers8719 — 10 days ago

Possible fix for pc crashes/blackscreen/timeouts.

Brothers in arms, i think i have found the location of the Holy Grail!

The fix: disable the Windows Update service completely.

1) Disable via Services

  • Press Windows Key + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
  • Scroll down and find the Windows Update service in the list.
  • Right-click Windows Update and select Properties.
  • Change the Startup type dropdown menu to Disabled.
  • Click the Stop button if the service status is running.
  • Click Apply and then OK.

2) Disable via Group Policy Editor

Note: The Local Group Policy Editor is available on Windows Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

  • Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog box.
  • Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
  • Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update (or Manage End User Experience).
  • Double-click on Configure Automatic Updates.
  • Select Disabled.
  • Click Apply and then OK.
  • Restart your computer to apply the changes.

System: Windows 10 22H2, 6700xt

Context: This problem started back in Jan 26 for me. I resolved it back then but didn't remember what action did it. Then it started again this Aug and after trying almost everything you can see people online suggest i remembered that around the same time i re-enabled Windows Update to make some updates and connected the dots. It seems that blocking only the drivers from Windows Update doesn't do the trick. I used to get 1-2 crashes every 30min and now i am 6h+ without one. I will update the post if anything changes and i am just lucky!

reddit.com
u/Bluesummers8719 — 1 month ago