Hard locks and GFX driver crashes at full load

schumi84 · 25 Apr 2020 at 11:31

Hi all, this thread is more of a confirming of my suspicions before I go looking to spend any money for the sake of it.

I recently purchased a 5600 XT Red Dragon and it performs flawlessly with its updated BIOS however now that I have some shiny new hardware I have jumped on the Folding bandwagon.

I am finding that if I have the GPU folding at the same time as the CPU then I will experience either a system reboot due to an apparent graphics driver crash as described in Event Viewer or a hard lock requiring a cold boot.

If I just have the GPU folding by itself then it will be happily loaded at 100% with the core speed sitting at 1750Mhz according the Radeon Software. Likewise the same can be said of the CPU, I've put the max clock to 4000Mhz in Ryzen Master @ 1.3v and it will sit at 100% load fine.

My PSU is a Corsair HX620 Modular unit and owned it about 8-10 years old from new. I would like to think it would be man enough to power the system however due to its age I wonder whether that is now the weak link.

Any thoughts would be welcomed and if it is indeed the PSU, a suitable replacement that won't break the bank; PSU prices seem a bit ludicrous £/Watt compared to when I bought my existing one however I understand times change.

Thanks

wookiee87 · 25 Apr 2020 at 11:41

you could download hwmoniter and within it should show what voltages your psu is at, look at the 12v, 5v and 3.3v all should be within 10% of that number, if any seem too low post them up here and we'll advise you, tbh if your psu is almost 10 years i'd say its on its last legs, its done very well.

don't forget FAH will put an enormous load on your components so if your psu can't deliver things will go wrong, have a look and report back

schumi84 · 25 Apr 2020 at 12:16

Thanks for that info, Wookie, I'd forgotten about HWMonitor. I've got CPU-Z, GPU-Z and other monitoring software installed but not that.

The readings that it is showing are all very static and pretty much bang on their expected values when both the CPU and GPU are at 100% (see below)

This PSU has previously powered my old i5 4670k and a Phenom 1090T alongside an ATi 5870 card so has done the rounds a bit but, like you say, it is getting on a bit so might not be able to hold the output for long periods.

Unfortunately I don't have another unit I can try to test.

wookiee87 · 25 Apr 2020 at 13:07

Voltages look ok, interestingly though your cpu voltage is bouncing all over the place, did you put your rig under load and record the lowest values or does the screenshot above show this too?

given your psu is pretty old, i'd air on the side of caution and look for another unit, gold rated preferably, wont mention brands as others are sure to say what they prefer (i like corsair but nearly everyone says they are well over priced compared to others)

just out of interest what are you full system specs (curious to see what cpu you have, seeing the voltage hover between 1.32-1.4v something interesting is going on with it

schumi84 · 25 Apr 2020 at 13:55

In the screenshot above both CPU and GPU were at full load and the high reading must have been taken before I applied the Ryzen Master profile which I set the max vCore to 1.3v and 4.0Ghz all core. Coretemp doesn't show the ViD going above 1.3v and when at 100% CPU it drops down to 1.28ish.

The full specs are
Ryzen 3600
MSI B450 Mortar Titanium
2x8GB TeamGroup 3200Mhz RAM
AMD 5600XT
Corsair MP510 480GB NVME
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD

If I leave Ryzen Master at the default profile then the voltage does bounce all over the place when it is boosting the CPU for split seconds so that is why I put the 1.3v limit in it. If I leave the default settings and have both CPU and GPU at 100% the system also crashes so I don't think it is a lack of voltage to the CPU.

wookiee87 · 25 Apr 2020 at 14:16

that explains why the core voltage is all over the place, if your ryzen cpu is stock then it will automatically ramp up and down, its completely normal behavior for ryzen cpu's and you are right in setting a manual voltage as that will reduce power draw and ultimately heat output too.

i'd be looking squarely at your psu at this point, your whole rig is very new compared to your psu, price wise don't go any lower that £70 for a unit and watts wise something in the 550-650w will be more than enough, stick to gold rated psu's too and you'll be fine

lastly have you played around with windows power plans to see if that makes any difference with the lockup's?

schumi84 · 25 Apr 2020 at 15:04

That's great wookie, thanks for your input, it's very much appreciated. I've not got a preference on PSU manufacturer but was thinking something like a Seasonic or be quiet as they're known makes to me. Stock seems to be in relatively short supply but there's a Kolink 700W Modular available which seems decent though I'm not sure on the brand.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kolink-enclave-700w-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-04b-kk.html

With regards to the Power Plans I run Ryzen Balanced and haven't changed from this setting so it is certainly something I could look at to see if they continue.

Thanks again.

/edit

The general review on the Kolink doesn't look fantastic so maybe something like this would be better suited?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seas...w-80-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-06y-ss.html

wookiee87 · 25 Apr 2020 at 15:25

DEFO STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM KOLINK!, THEY ARE PURE GARBAGE, short term ok but not for long term use at all

the seasonic psu you've linked will be a fine option, 650w will allow a cpu and possible gpu upgrade in the future, when it arrives and is installed, post a update on how your getting on XD

EsaT · 25 Apr 2020 at 16:02

schumi84 said:
PSU prices seem a bit ludicrous £/Watt compared to when I bought my existing one

While construction was good HX620 was outdated low end design already decade ago.

Kolink is cheap brand with also very short 3 year warranty.
Seasonic Core would be one of the better priced 7 year warranty PSUs.
SuperFlower Leadex is another 7year warranty PSU though at higher price.
Phanteks Amp/Seasonic Focus are then 10 year warranty models.

BeQuiet has total lack luster warranties for max 5 year warranty even for models costing same as 12 year warranty PSUs.

schumi84 · 25 Apr 2020 at 16:11

Thanks for the honest input guys, I did wonder when I saw some reviews and the test results were a bit all over the place.

I know I didn't pay a huge amount for my current PSU back in the day (maybe £60 ish) so it does look like I could do with a refresh.

Superflower were the other brand I was thinking about so I'll take a look to see what they offer.

I'll look at getting something ordered today so I can have something to play with at the beginning of the week and put some pics up.

It's not a pretty setup but it's compact and does the job.

Thanks again for all of the advice.

schumi84 · 29 Apr 2020 at 20:39

Quick update now I have installed my new PSU.

Unfortunately it hasn't resolved the graphics driver crashing when I'm loading CPU and GPU and strangely it seems to be doing it now when just GPU is loaded, I don't have a single problem when gaming and it is solely when using F@H.

I saw that AMD released the new Adrenaline software (20.4.2) which interestingly appears to have a F@H fix in it but unfortunately even with these installed I'm having the issue.

I have seen in another thread that someone was having a similar issue even when gaming and a possible solution was to install a 19.xx.xx driver as it is down to the graphics drivers playing up so that is my last port of call really. Either that or just not use the graphics card to fold which is a bit of a shame but if it's going to mess about with work units then it's probably best.

At least I have a nice shiny new PSU in the system and it also gave me a chance to give my case a bit of a tidy up.