PSU causing GPU driver crashes

Dazzo · 28 Apr 2014 at 17:32

Hi Guys,

I'm getting driver crashes during game play (BF4 and Diablo3) and have tried every driver, settings and suggestions possible regarding reducing/eliminating this.

I contacted OC and they believe it to be a PSU issue and advised me to get my system checked by a technician. Has anyone experienced this? I assumed that a PSU wouldn't affect the graphics drivers but have not come across this.

Just gathering information and will be buying a different PSU to see if it is a problem.

Spec:
AMD 8320
Asus m5a97 evo r2.0
8GB Teamgroup Black 1600mhz
Gigabyte windforce 280x
OCZ Modxtreem 700W PSU
120GB sandisk ssd
2x Samsung spinpoint F3 500GB

Dazzo · 28 Apr 2014 at 18:56

Thanks guys i'll get another psu then. Any suggestions on what ones?

Dazzo · 29 Apr 2014 at 11:31

Jak3 Mac said:
This one is pretty good, you can't go wrong with it, SuperFlower is a good brand for quality PSUs

Thanks! I think I'll pick that one up and test it next week as I'm at home all week so will be able to send it back if it doesn't help.

Kinda wish I went Nvidia now.....

Dazzo · 29 Apr 2014 at 11:59

Steampunk said:
You're blaming the wrong thing- a high end Nvidia card isn't going to thank you for a dodgy PSU either.

I don't know if it's the PSU yet though but your right, silly comment born out of frustration and retracted!

Dazzo · 29 Apr 2014 at 12:00

ocmanus said:
Are you OC'ing any of the components? Also how old is the PSU and is it still in warranty? Your CPU or GPU are hungry so probably get at least a bronze rated and branded PSU. If the OCZ is still in warranty and you can get it replaced without extortionate costs do so and sell that one on to recoup some £.

I believe it's not but OCZ were bought out and they won't honor the PSU warranties anyway. Apparently from what I've read they are only going to honor the SSD warranties and that's for the ones they shortlisted rather then all of them.

Dazzo · 30 Apr 2014 at 10:04

ocmanus said:
I did research on this when I looked for a new PSU. It was a big sticking point regarding warranty, replacementment and returns. I could not find a good, branded and certified PSU for my budget which had a UK based return address. I decided to buy a bronze certified 750W from a good UK retailer who sell their own brand ones. The warranty is only 2 years, but I've got the reassurance that I won't be charged extortionate return costs (if any) and the turn around in the event of failure will be quicker than from Europe.

I went with the recommended psu which I already heard great things about and should arrive tomorrow ready to be fitted Friday night. Hopefully this is the end, if not gotta find someone local to help test my components.

Dazzo · 30 Apr 2014 at 16:46

dazza13 said:
For OCZ you can get it sorted out under warranty by http://www.firepower-technology.com/ they have taken over the PSU side of OCZ and are honoring the warranties. The only downside is that you have to send it to the US so if like mine it wasn't that expensive a PSU then its just not worth it.

Thanks Dazza!

I've bought a 650W superflower to see if this works and go from there.

Sending it to the US is probably a bit more hassle then it's worth and will throw it back into my old build which will be a media server when I get the gaming/everyday rig sorted out.

Dazzo · 1 May 2014 at 14:40

welshrat said:
I am not saying you have the same problem I had however I have a 280x gigabyte windforce that I bought from ****** last month for my second PC as it was a exdisplay item and I started getting repeated crashes in BF4 with driver failed error messages.

I was going to send it back but thought I would try dropping the clocks by 50hz and this totally fixed the issue. I have since read online that the gigabyte cards factory overclock of 1100mhz do have issues.

I have now modified the bios so that its overclock is set at 1050mhz and have not had a single issue since.

If this happens to fix your issue I suggest sending the card back as its not operating correctly, however for me as I got the card at a good price and its for my second PC I was not so bothered.

Thanks Welshrat! It may not be the issue but it gives me more things to try. If it does work at a slightly lower clock I would be tempted to keep it but you are right it's not working as intended then. I'm taking deivery of the PSU in an hour and testing it Friday so will keep the thread updated.

Dazzo · 4 May 2014 at 01:33

PSU changed to superflower.

Had no issues playing bf4 last night for a few hours, played d3 tonight and it locked up, didn;t crash to desktop though. Going to try the other suggestions of checking to see if the clocks are stable (not oc'd by me) and go from there.

Dazzo · 6 May 2014 at 08:16

Looks like you were right welshrat. I downloaded afterburner and dropped it to 1049 instead of 1100 and not one driver crash :S

Not sure if this is a problem or not though!

Dazzo · 6 May 2014 at 11:22

Threepwood said:
If the card is voltage unlocked then upping the volts on the card might also have the same result.

(i'm surprised at you being told it was definitely the PSU, btw. Could be would be more like it)

I may have worded it wrong above, the term used was 'may well be' so I just wanted it ruled out and I needed a new psu anyway.

Not sure I particularly want to be messing around with the voltage though tbh. I've asked OC what they recommend the next step to be now I know what the issue is.

Dazzo · 6 May 2014 at 16:55

Dave1240 said:
I also have the Gigabyte 280x windforce and have to run at 1025/1500. If I run at standard 1100/1500 I get a blank screen and display driver has stopped responding in the bottom right. This happens on youtube and games once every hour. I have a 1050w XFX psu.

Thanks Dave.

Don't know whether to send it back then or just run it at 1050 and save on the hassle

Dazzo · 6 May 2014 at 16:58

welshrat said:
Great well at least you know what the issue is, these cards are voltage locked as far as I am aware, I have a program to alter the bios and tried initially to up the voltage to 1.25 as its set to 1.2 in bios but no cigar, so I changed the max clock in the bios to 1050 and all is well. (give me a shout if you want links and instructions)

I have a feeling that my card was returned due to this issue and having read online it seems a common issue with these gigabyte cards (they just have not done enough testing with the factory overclock) I would either return the card for another brand or be happy with the slight downclock. I only paid £200 for mine a month ago and its only for my other PC so was happy with my fix, Your mileage may vary

Defo not an AMD issue though and my asus 290 DCII is rock steady I wont be buying gigabyte again though due to the voltage locking and the issues with this card and also my old gtx670 which would not run correctly with pcie 3.0

Yeah I'm thinking just sticking to the 1050 at the moment but I'm with you on the never buying Gigabyte again. First and last product from them for me unless some seriously good reviews come out on a future release. Shame really it runs BF4 great. If I RMA it for another prob end up with the same problem.

Could you send the links anyway? Just incase I decide to do it though the Bios instead of an MSI afterburner profile!

Thanks for all the help.

Dazzo · 8 May 2014 at 11:03

welshrat said:
No Worries Dazzo, I used the following product as sometimes afterburner doesnt startup so this guarantees the clocks stay as they should.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/

I then used ati winflash which can be downloaded from the gigabyte website.

Good luck if you decide to use this method, I had no issues and flashed it 3 times trying different voltage.

Yes agree on gigabyte. I picked them due to good reports on RMA however cant say their quality has been great and voltage locking the cards means you can't even increase the voltage to solve the issue Also if you look at their forums you will see it littered with complaints. Not saying this isn't typical of all manufacturers however I have nothing but great experiences so far with Asus.

Cheers Sam

Edit:- despite all this though 1050 is a healthy overclock and still performs very well in all games so far.

Also found this page which links to the original software for editing which mentions the ability to alter voltage on these cards so might be worth another shot. For me however I am happy to leave as is for now.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1450456/gigabyte-r9-280x-v2-voltage-lock-bypass-through-bios-mod

Awesome, going to stick to msi afterburner for now see how it goes and playing games at the 1050 clock it's still pretty epic! Sorting out my additional HDD tonight and firing up Rome 2 total war to see how it runs on there.

It is a bit of a shame really, I chose gigabyte because the RMA issue sounded good in case I ever needed it, didn't think I actually would!

Bookmarked your post and will report back if anything major happens.