Frequent, Sporadic AMD Driver Crashes: Intel Z97, Win7 x64, R9 270X

[jchap1590]

I have been having issues with my AMD display driver crashing. Initially, I was convinced it was Google Chrome crashing it but, after problems continued when disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome or even when the process was not running, I decided it must be something else.

I used DDU to remove both the Intel HD and AMD drivers from within Safe Mode. After rebooting, the generic VGA driver was installed but, then I noticed there was a driver missing in Device Manager for "Video Controller". I'm still puzzled what driver this is. It sounded like it's my Intel HD driver, from searching online, but when I go to install it it said "this computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software." I have an Intel Haswell Pentium G3258 with Intel HD graphics so I'm still confused where the disconnect was.

I proceeded to install the AMD drivers (ver. 14.9 WHQL), though I suspected it would not be able to find my card due to the missing Video Controller driver. I did, however, the install still failed for everything except the display driver and drag & drop transcoder. I do not know the cause of the installation failures. I rebooted and noticed that the "Video Controller" driver was no long appearing as missing its driver in Device Manager. Regardless, crashes persist.

I rebooted into safe mode and noticed when I started DDU this time that it was my PCI graphics card was installed improperly. I then scrubbed the AMD driver and the Intel HD one again (just for good measure, even though it was not reintalled at this point). Reboots between each uninstall. Still no change, crashes every few minutes and sometimes a reboot is even required to regain display output.

Last thing I tried was the same steps as the previous method, only I used the version 14.8 WHQL driver. it installed cleanly this time, but to no avail. I didn't have any issues for 2+ hours last night, but came home this evening to find I have no display output. I had to do a hard reboot on the machine.

Present time: I am still unable to get the Intel HD driver to install. I get the "this computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software" error on installation for the following driver versions: 15.33.30.64.3958, 15.28.22.64.3517 and 15.36.64.3505 (last one was from the MB manufacturer's website). Only the generic VGA driver is installed and "Video Controller" appears nowhere in Device Manager.

Really, really stumped on this one.. usually DDU has done an excellent job of resolving any display driver issues I've had in the past. I'm about 2 days away from just doing a clean install, and that's only because I'm busy tomorrow.. at my wit's end with this one


Thanks, in advance, for any help

Jchap1590

 

[Mark Phelps]

I do not know the cause of the installation failures.

My guess would be -- because you have a Hybrid Intel/AMD graphics machine and, from what I've read, the drivers on the AMD site are not designed for Hybrid machines.

In general, when you have such a machine, you should only use the drivers from the machine manufacturer's website.

 

[jchap1590]

I do not know the cause of the installation failures.

My guess would be -- because you have a Hybrid Intel/AMD graphics machine and, from what I've read, the drivers on the AMD site are not designed for Hybrid machines.

In general, when you have such a machine, you should only use the drivers from the machine manufacturer's website.

The machine manufacturer would be me

I've never heard that AMD drivers can't be used on a machine with an Intel HD enabled CPU, I have a hard time believing that to be true. I manage about 20 Windows 7 machines at work which use AMD graphics and an Intel CPU with iGPU which have no such driver issues.

Anyways, the driver has been working fine on this particular machine since I built it in August.. up until this past Tuesday, that is

My real issue for right now is installing the Intel HD driver, I cannot wrap my head around why the installer thinks my machine is ineligible for the software.

EDIT: It may be that the Intel HD driver cannot be installed while there is also a dedicated card installed. I can't remember the last time I actually installed the driver or whether that may be this issue with installation.

I've just tried installing the AMD driver via a third-party utility, Driver Booster, but the display driver just crashed as I was typing this. the PCIe controller driver was also outdated, so I was half hopeful that would have resolved my issues. I guess not

 

[jchap1590]

I will do a clean installation of Windows over the weekend. something is obviously botched in this install.

 

[jchap1590]

still crashing on a clean install.. I guess it's a hardware problem

first I tried installing just the AMD driver.. crashes
then I tried also loading the Intel HD driver, which I was able to do with the graphics card power cable unplugged and my display plugged into the MB HDMI output.. still crashes

display driver crashes do not occur when booting with the Intel HD driver. I guess I will have to RMA the card, this is obviously not a software issue.

 

[jchap1590]

now this is kind of interesting.. I restored from a backup and went to remove the AMD driver so I can just use the on-board graphics for the time being. after I rebooted, I noticed my mini PCIe wireless network adapter is now unrecognized by the system.

any thoughts on that? maybe DDU is removing some files that don't actually pertain to my display driver, but files for my PCIe controller. that might also explain why the "Video Controller" driver was showing as missing, as mentioned previously.

 

[jchap1590]

I notice that there is a strange driver installed, "ALSysIO64.sys" with a path of "%userprofile%\appdata\local\temp\" which I find to be very suspicious. from reading here, this sounds like a virus infection but I have no idea why the crashes would persist on a clean install if that were the case,

still kinda confused..

 

[Mark Phelps]

The machine manufacturer would be me

OK, sorry -- my mistake, then. What you have is more than one graphics chip, not Hybrid graphics, and in that case, the AMD drivers should work without any problem.

I do know there was some confusion with the 14.9 drivers a AMD posted two different versions -- one for APUs and another for GPUs, and folks would accidentally try to install the wrong ones.

They have posted a 14.11.2 beta set of drivers, you might try those.

 

[jchap1590]

The machine manufacturer would be me

OK, sorry -- my mistake, then. What you have is more than one graphics chip, not Hybrid graphics, and in that case, the AMD drivers should work without any problem.

I do know there was some confusion with the 14.9 drivers a AMD posted two different versions -- one for APUs and another for GPUs, and folks would accidentally try to install the wrong ones.

They have posted a 14.11.2 beta set of drivers, you might try those.

I had installed the latest Beta drivers (14.11.2) on the clean install I did last night

 

[jchap1590]

last thing I could think of..

flashed my MB BIOS with ver. 2108 (from ver. 2105) and installed the latest WHQL drivers (14.9) from AMD. so far no hiccups, but it's early to tell. if the BIOS was corrupted, it would make sense of why the crashes persisted on entirely different builds.

as an unexpected bonus, static overclocking is now functioning properly! previously I had to use ThrottleStop to get the clock static. of course, I had the BIOS set to default settings for troubleshooting purposes up until this point.

anyways, I will update in a few days with results.. fingers crossed until then!

 

[jchap1590]

well, the AMD driver started crashing after about 3 hours of gaming, watching videos and web browsing *sigh*

the Intel HD driver also started crashing until I set the BIOS back to default.. still not sure if this is a VGA or MB issue but I'm leaning towards the MB at this point.

 

[essenbe]

I have the big brother of your board and have never had the Intel on board graphics driver install. Unless you have Lucid Logix enabled in bios and the drivers installed, the Intel Drivers will not install, it has been disabled. Any Time the bios detects an X16 card installed, it disables on board graphics. Which is reasonable. If you have a PCIe card installed, you are not going to use on board graphics. If you feel like you need to have the Intel Graphics installed, which you don't, remove the 290X completely from your machine, connect the monitor to on board graphics, and install the Intel Graphics, Then reinstall the 290X and install those drivers.

Have you tested your PSU and board? With Graphics cards, there is little involved if it is not drivers. You have the card itself, the pcie slot and the PSU. There is little else involved other than conflicting software or drivers.

If you use so many machines at work, swap graphics cards with one of those machines. See if that machine has the same issues with your card and if you have the same issues with the good, known working card from the card from work. That should satisfy you whether you have a bad card or not, as long as your Work machine has a PSU which is large enough to handle that PSU. That is just one of several things you can try. Keep swapping out components until you find the one causing your issue.

You've done most of this before, but try to reinstall drivers this way.

I am going to give you some links that will help you get a good clean install and not have any drivers you don't need that will conflict with other drivers. Download a WHQL driver from http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/329659-latest-amd-catalyst-video-driver-windows-7-a.html . Once you have them downloaded, uninstall you current driver from control panel. next clean up any left over drivers from following this tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/83814-drivers-clean-left-over-files-after-uninstalling.html and select only ATI Display Drivers. After you have done that and rebooted, install the new driver, only select custom install and install only what you have to. Very few people need most of what they include. You do not need the audio/HDMI drivers as you already have that in your Motherboard drivers. Unless there is some reason you need them, the only thing you really need is the Display Driver. Several sets of audio drivers or other unneeded drivers will always increase the likelihood of driver conflicts.

 

[jchap1590]

I'm no longer getting any display output from the graphics card, not from the DVI or HDMI port. Black screen from the time I power it on. I can hear Windows starting through my speakers so I can confirm the system is POSTing and booting. I have not tried it in another machine yet. Something tells me the issue may be the motherboard still.

The Intel HD driver also crashes when I have the BIOS set to anything but default. I'll try running with default settings and the XMP profile enabled, maybe it's a memory issue?

 

[jchap1590]

-snip-

I am going to give you some links that will help you get a good clean install and not have any drivers you don't need that will conflict with other drivers. Download a WHQL driver from http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/329659-latest-amd-catalyst-video-driver-windows-7-a.html . Once you have them downloaded, uninstall you current driver from control panel. next clean up any left over drivers from following this tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/83814-drivers-clean-left-over-files-after-uninstalling.html and select only ATI Display Drivers. After you have done that and rebooted, install the new driver, only select custom install and install only what you have to. Very few people need most of what they include. You do not need the audio/HDMI drivers as you already have that in your Motherboard drivers. Unless there is some reason you need them, the only thing you really need is the Display Driver. Several sets of audio drivers or other unneeded drivers will always increase the likelihood of driver conflicts.

Thanks for the links.. I've been using DDU but still no luck

 

[jchap1590]

I've slotted in an older Radeon HD 6450 card which is verified to be working without issue in another machine. I successfully installed the latest AMD Display Driver (Omega 14.501.1003.0).

I suppose this rules the motherboard out as the problem, since the 270X was not outputting anything last I checked.

Thanks for the responses.. I will RMA the graphics card first and, if driver crashes continue with the 6450, I will send the motherboard in as well I suppose.

 

[essenbe]

Don't forget the PSU. The 6450 does not pull anything like the 290X, so it could be the PSU is not putting out enough also.

 

[jchap1590]

Don't forget the PSU. The 6450 does not pull anything like the 290X, so it could be the PSU is not putting out enough also.

oh, I have a 270X. it's TDP is a little more than half of a 290X I believe, 180W. and my PSU is 650W so it should be more than sufficient along with the 53W Pentium I use.

I have a Kill-o-watt power meter, I can see what the system is actually pulling and I'll definitely keep the PSU in mind regardless. I'll try the 270X in another machine tomorrow and report back with my results.

thanks again

EDIT: oh, I updated my system specs.. sorry for the confusion

 

[essenbe]

Thanks for the system specs. I wasn't saying your PSU was at fault, I just didn't want you to overlook it as a possible suspect. No reason to spend money on anything not needed.

 

[jchap1590]

still no driver crashes with the 6450, the 270X has been RMA'd

 

[essenbe]

Good luck with the RMA. Let me know how it goes.