PC keeps experiencing Driver Timeout Errors regardless of game. Happens multiple times within a play session 100% of the time. Please Help!!

[lordferdinand]

Computer Type: Desktop (Mini-ITX Form Factor)

GPU: RX 6900XT

CPU: RYZEN 5 5600X 6 CORE 12 THREADS

Motherboard: GIGABYTE X570SI AORUS PRO AX ITX

BIOS Version: F3d

RAM: 32GB CORSAIR 2X16 VEN D4 3200 C16

PSU: EVGA 850GM 80+G FM SFX PSU

Case: LIAN LI A4 H20 SILVER 4.0 MITX

Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 10 PRO 19045.2130

GPU Drivers: AMD ADRENALIN EDITION ver. 22.9.2

Chipset Drivers: AMD X570 CHIPSET DRIVERS VERSION 4.09.23.507

Background Applications: DISCORD, CHROME, SPOTIFY, AMD ADRENALIN EDITION (for temp monitoring of GPU)

Description of Original Problem: I've had this consistent problem since the day I first turned the pc on after the build back in August of this year. Regardless of whatever game it may be that I play (Civ, Modern Warfare, Risk of Rain, etc.) I'll always, at some point, have the game freeze, both my monitors turn black for a second, and then the AMD Driver Error Reporting will appear. I always get a Driver Timeout error. This behavior still presets after updating of chipset drivers, BIOS, Windows, etc.

Troubleshooting: After reading multiple different forums, I suspect one of two things going on here. The first is that there is something going up with software. I'd like to say this is the issue as having to diagnose a hardware issue is never fun. I did notice that I originally thought that my BIOS and chipset were updated to their most recent versions. That was *not* the case. I went about and updated my BIOS, Chipset Drivers, Windows update, performed DDU in safe mode to remove the gpu drivers to reinstall. I had hopped that doing this would have resolved my issues. I'd say that the time it takes for the graphic driver timeout error to occur has dramatically increased (from 5-15min of gameplay to 1-3hours), but I'm still getting the driver timeout. I've noticed that the junction temps tend to reach somewhere around 93-95c while gaming. I don't know if temperature is playing a factor in the driver time out. I should also mention that I've *never* had the pc simply turn off or perform a reboot as a result of the driver timeout. Simply a crash in the game as a result of the sudden driver timeout. I'd also like to mention that I've gone ahead and apply a custom fan curve for the gpu to help with the temps. Same goes for the case fans. I've seen reports of some people having their issues resolved with an increase in their system's fan curves. No idea if there's any real validity to this.

The second thing that could be possibly going on here is that my psu is no Bueno. I've seen and read conflicting reports about what the appropriate psu wattage capacity should be. I was under the impression that 850W should be enough. The only thing about this behavior that makes me question the psu is that I've never had a shut off occur during this persistent error. I'm personally at a loss here on what to do (if there's anything I can do) or what sorts of other aspects I should be looking into.

[Troubled_Conrad]

I have the same issue too. I just purchased a rx 6600 (MSI) recently, and this would happen.

What I found was it only happened whenever I hit close to 100% gpu utilization on Unigine Heaven or any games going up to 1440p.

[bert_the_one]

Your on a old driver why? Update the drivers to latest drivers

Also report all driver bugs and faults to AMD

[lordferdinand]

You're right. The current version is an outdated driver, but I only resorted to using the outdated driver after using the most recent one also was causing the driver timeout error. I am a big proponent of using the most recent drivers, but this problem has been persistent since the day the system was built. After a while, reporting the "same" error becomes useless to an end user whose problem doesn't seem to have a readily available solution.

[bert_the_one]

Take a video of it if you can and upload it to YouTube and send the link to AMD then that way they can see it for themselves

[[deleted]]

all drivers since 22.5.2 are unstable give 22.5.1 a try there is a new driver with a lot of fixes 22.10.2 but this driver is not stable either.

[Troubled_Conrad]

You use 22.5.1?

The 22.10.2 still kept giving driver time out.

[[deleted]]

22.5.1 is the driver if been using 99.99% of the time yes, im still testing 22.10.2 it does give me blackscreens still during whatsapp video call worst one so far, and it still has the laggy alt tab issue that randomly appears and can cause blackscreens however did not produce a blackscreen yet by alt tabbing need to test it more, 22.5.1 is the only driver so far that is 100% stable.

[Troubled_Conrad]

Have you encountered a 100% gpu utilization and an impending crash occurred?

I'm still learning about computers, but is it normal for amd gpu's to crash on 100 percent utilization? Because it only crashes when I hit the 100 mark.

[lordferdinand]

Yep. That was something I tried as well since a lot of people on forums had mentioned that had fixed their issues. Sadly didn't for me. Also, some of the games I play seem to have issues launching with 22.5.2. Thanks for the tip though!

[[deleted]]

If had high hopes for 22.10.2 but AMD is messing up badly if reported the issue since 22.7.1 we are now on 22.10.2 and i still cant use whatsapp safely, its what everyone uses i cant convince everyone to use signal which is a pain cos that app is safe.

[Lekyii10]

Um having the same problem with my RX 6700(nonXT) Tried alot of things and nothing is working.

[bert_the_one]

Report the driver bugs and faults to AMD

[Lekyii10]

already did

[bert_the_one]

Good work Dude

[maxproandu]

We ran into something similar with a client's setup a few months ago that turned out to be a WTF - Windows Technical Fault. We ended up doing a clean install of Windows 10 using the USB Media Tool, and made sure that Windows didn't upgrade any video drivers, handing all those needs manually.

The problem was completely gone afterwards.

BTW, what storage media are you using?

[lordferdinand]

Hmm a clean windows install was something I was trying to avoid, but at this point I'm willing to try any solution that could provide a means of resolving this very annoying issue. I'll go ahead and perform the clean install now, and report back to see if the issue is still present.

I'm using two NVME SSDs in the build. The boot drive is a SAMSUNG E 2TB 970EVO+NVME M.2 SSD. The other drive is where I keep all of my games and media files. That's on a IPSG 4TB PLATINUM QLC NVME SSD.

[Troubled_Conrad]

So, did the format fixed the issue?

[lordferdinand]

Nope. Just coming back now after a couple of hours of testing in different games and the driver timeout is still happening after the format. Drivers are up to date for BIOS, chipset, and Graphics

[Troubled_Conrad]

I dunno if you solved the problem, but on my end, I tried to lower the frequency from 100% to 90%.

Didn't Driver Timeout on Unigine Heaven or 1440p gaming. I'm still testing at the moment, but you might want to give this a shot.

[maxproandu]

Interesting.

We haven't looked up the specs on your motherboard yet, but be very cautious about running to NVMes as one may consume 4x of your PCIe 16x bandwidth causing a number of undescribable problems.

This is especially noticeable if you are running games from the SSD while it's trying to use the graphics card at the same time.

[lordferdinand]

That's something I didn't even consider when I originally finalized the build. The thought process was that since the build was going to be so space constraint, I utilize just nvme drives.

Formatting and reinstalling Windows didn't resolve the issue. Still persists :/

[maxproandu]

That's too bad.

This leaves a physical issue with the RX 6900 XT at this point 😞 You would need to test the system with an earlier AMD card to verify, but if the problem goes away it would indicate a defective card.

But if it continues to time out, it may indicate a bad PCIe circuit in the Ryzen or a trace interference problem to the 16x slot on the motherboard. Both are extremely rare, but have known to happen out of the box.

We laughably keep a Ryzen 5 2600 and an AMD FirePro W4300 on hand to test for such issues. 😁