Computer freezes with installed graphics card drivers, not without

[swiggu]

Title.

I get both freezes where the screen turns black, my monitor goes on standby and there's a couple of seconds of buzzing coming through my headphones and freezes where the screen turns still. In both cases I get no error messages whatsoever and my only option is to manually shut down my PC with the power button or reboot it with the reboot button. Finally, I sometimes also but much less frequently get the message that the AMD display driver has stopped responding and has recovered, where I get a few seconds of unresponsiveness but it comes back up after a while.

I previously thought the issue was lying in certain Microsoft/Windows services, specifically  Superfetch and Windows Image Acquisition, as I didn't get the freezes for a couple of days with them disabled on startup, but the freezes came back after a while nonetheless.

I tried to remove the drivers in the Device Manager and I haven't had a freeze until now, but as I like to game and use Netflix and the likes, I feel like using my actual graphic card's drivers would be optimal for displaying performances, so I'd like to find the root of my issue. I don't seem to get the freezes when using the standard VGA graphics/monitor.

It might have something to do with the voltage of some of my hardware, but I'm not at all accustomed to making changes with stuff like that, so I might need some guidance if that's a possible solution.

I think I've downloaded every driver and driver update for the rest of my hardware using drivers supplied by the manufacturers and their websites respectively, so I doubt it's related to out of date drivers, although it could be some sort of hardware/driver conflict between my graphics card and any other device, who knows.

Here's my specs:
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
- AMD FX-6300, Vishera 32nm Technology
- 4,00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz
- MSI 970A-G43 (MS-7693) (CPU 1)
- Standard Monitor (otherwise Club3D Radeon R7 260X royalKing Vapor with drivers installed)
- 931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 ATA Device (SATA)
- HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSB0 ATA Device
- Realtek High Definition Audio

Thanks in advance.

[Calum]

Was this a working system you added the card to, or is it a new build?

[swiggu]

It's a new build.

I should note that I've ran Memtest86+ a couple of times, so I think RAM is also excludable as a cause. I'd put this in the first post but I can't find the edit function.

[Calum]

Edit is disabled after the post has been up a while, so putting the info in a new post is fine

Which AMD driver versions have you tried so far?  Is there any pattern to the freezes, for example do they happen only when (or are they more frequent when) running Flash video or web browsers, or anything like that?  It could be worth disabling hardware acceleration in Flash and your browser(s) to see if this helps at all.

[swiggu]

So far it can generally happen at any time I'm actively using my PC for around 20 minutes, but most frequently when I'm running things in full screen, like videos, be it in Chrome or in VLC, or video games, but I've also had it happen when I was just writing a post or looking around the services.

I've tried a couple of different ones, but none of them to even install for me except the most recent 13.11 Beta 9.4 version.

I turned on OC Genie II in my BIOS purely out of curiosity, and I haven't had any of the irrecoverable freezes for a few hours now, but I did still get the AMD display driver crash which recovers after about half a minute, but forces me to reboot anything utilizing my GPU for rendering which is annoying.

[Calum]

Yeah, that figures with it being almost a brand new card (well, in name & device ID anyway).
I don't see a PSU listed in your specs, what make & model of PSU are you using?
Could also be worth trying the card in a different physical PCI-E slot, shouldn't make any difference but it's worth a quick try.

[swiggu]

My PSU is a Sharkoon WPM 500W.

I could try that out over the weekend when I have access to all of my tools (I live on campus and my strap and screwdrivers, etc. are all back home).

[swiggu]

Is there anything else I could try out in the meantime?

[Calum]

If you have a different PCI-E connector on that unit, try that - again, it shouldn't make a difference, but it's worth a try.
In a case like this where you have a brand new card malfunctioning, on a brand new system, with the crashes seemingly related to the card alone - you have limited options really.  Different drivers aren't an option as the 260X is new (as I said, in terms of its name and device ID although it's basically a 7790), so other than trying a different slot or PSU conenctor, I can't really suggest much else other than returning the card.

[swiggu]

Even though I have an additional PCIe slot on my motherboard, I can't switch it since the connectors for my hard drive are in the way and my wireless network card is occupying the slot.

I also checked the event manager and when I got screen resets, it showed error ID 4101 and that "amdkmdap had stopped responding and has recovered", and when I got complete freezes it showed error ID 41, which was kernel-power related. Could it be a combination of the AMD driver malfunctioning in combination with an error with my kernel, or just an AMD driver issue?

[Calum]

Kernel power event 41 just indicates the machine hasn't shut down properly, you'll often see the same event after a power cut or if you pull the plug.  It doesn't refer to the OS kernel in this case.
You're basically dealing with a graphics card not functioning correctly, as I said this can be down to the card itself, the PCI-E slot, PSU or connectors, or the driver.  There's very little you can rule out with there being no other drivers available, and the slot and power cables are outside chances at best, so I do suspect your card needs replacing.

[swiggu]

Alright. Would you suggest I replace my current card with the same model or a different one?

[Calum]

It's entirely up to you, if that card matches your requirements then by all means just RMA it for a replacement, if you'd prefer something different then RMA it for a refund or credit and get something else.
I can't comment on the overall reliability of the 260X as it's too new for any meaningful stats, so if you were asking due to reliability nobody can really answer that yet.

[swiggu]

Alright, thanks. I'll just get a replacement for the same GPU then.

[swiggu]

I tried reseating everything and got one regular AMD display driver crash into a recovery, then an hour later I got an actual BSoD for the first time that created a mini dump. Does this change my situation at all? Are there solutions for this?