Solved BSOD when installing AMD graphics driver atikmdag.sys BSOD

[essenbe]

OK Nick, Here is what I want you to do. Remove the bottom card, run Furmark, then, remove that card and put it in the slot you use for your second card and run Furmark again. Now remove that card and do the exact same thing with the second card, try it in both slots. On both cards in each slot I want you to after running Furmark, let it cool down then run the benchmark. Write down the score and the core clock and memory clock each time for both cards. Download GPUz (GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility) watch out for all the add ons they like to install with it. Just uncheck them. If you can keep it open to the sensor tab and it will tell you almost everything. So, write down as much info as you can about both cards in both slots. Run any other benchmark you usually use. I always like running Ungine Heaven (Heaven Benchmark | Unigine: real-time 3D engine (game, simulation, visualization and VR)) it will work the card just as hard and is much more interesting than Furmark. Try it set to the pre configured Extreme Setting and run the Benchmark. I'll show you how to set the test up, then once the test starts and everything gets loaded and starts moving, press the benchmark tab in the top left corner. Run it on both cards in both slots and note all the details plus the score and the min and max FPS as well as the core clock memory clock.

the set up should look like this. Then just push run, once it starts moving press benchmark.
View attachment 337604

 

[nick7969]

Well I tried powercolor on slot 1 I got max of 87 min of 7 fps. Tried powercolor on slot 2. The mhz doesn't go above 300 mhz. I'm averaging 7fps. Very sluggish. I tried Sapphire on slot 2 and getting about the same as slot 1 powercolor. Why isn't powercolor going above 300mhz on slot 2, i wonder?

 

[nick7969]

Forgot to mention, after it wouldn't go past 300mhz on my sensor. I went to catalyst and bumped power to 20% in overdrive. Than it was performing at the same fps as slot 1.

 

[essenbe]

at this point, I'm not concerned about the performance, only about the crashing and freezing. We'll worry about performance later.

 

[nick7969]

Sorry I had a typo there, it is suppose to say 300mhz not 300fps. Anyways, I put back xfire back as it was. Tried running heaven benchmark and as soon as I hit run, the whole system freezes and have to eventually restart. Well I'm thinking of going back to windows 7, since I know the last time it worked properly was on my 7.

 

[essenbe]

I wouldn't think it was 8.1 but I guess it is possible. I run 8.1 in a Virtual Machine, so I really wouldn't know. It is worth a try. I'm a fan of Windows 7 and run Windows 10 Preview on another SSD. Pretty much everything works on 7. If you still have a legal Windows 7, it may be worth a try.

 

[nick7969]

How is windows 10 preview? Do the drivers work ok on there?

 

[essenbe]

Some do and some don't. Most of the Windows 8 drivers work. But, it's an Alpha Build. A lot can go wrong and some of your normal software may not work.

 

[nick7969]

Thank you for your help. I will try it on windows 7 soon and let you know.

 

[essenbe]

Sounds good. Let me know.

 

[nick7969]

So I installed a clean windows 7 x64. None of my chipset drivers were loaded on there. Anyways, first thing I do is install the amd catalyst. Reboot. Works fine, no crashes, and no freezes. Than I try the heaven benchmark, it runs fine, im getting 24 fps but it may not be utilizing crossfire I think. So the next thing I do is, update drivers through MSI live update. Reboot. Hit run on the heaven benchmark, and freeze. Had to shut down the computer. SO looks like one of the chipset driver is causing this issue. Anyway to find out which one it is? Is there a monitoring software that can detect this when it freezes?

 

[essenbe]

maybe you are getting your terms confused or I don't understand the problem correctly. There is only 1 chipset driver. There are several Motherboard drivers.

 

[nick7969]

Sorry. Chipset driver, and than bunch of other motherboard drivers.

 

[essenbe]

Try it again and install the Chipset drivers, Graphics driver and Lan driver then all Windows Updates. test it then. After that, install 1 driver at a time and test it between each until you find which one is causing it.

Heaven, you need to run full screen to use CFX. Just set everything to max and it should use the Crossfire.

 

[nick7969]

Looks like I found the culprit. It was my TL-WN822N usb wireless adapter driver. I uninstalled it. The test runs fine. The only problem now is that the fps is still at 24fps. I think the other card is not being recognized. I checked CCC and crossfire is enabled.

 

[nick7969]

Fixed. I don't know what it was, but I don't get any errors anymore downgrading and upgrading drivers. I installed the latest beta for Far Cry 4 and the game works amazingly well on ULTRA settings. Getting about 60fps, compared to 24 before. The other thing that might have helped is I flipped the bios switch to the default.

 

[essenbe]

I'm happy to hear that it is fixed. Maybe it was that bad driver that affected everything else. That does happen. Whatever the reason, I'm glad you are running well now. Thanks for letting us know. If you have further problems, we will be here and happy to help.