K
krazykyguy
Guest
I really really need some help from you guys. I'm going to be as thorough as possible so please bear with me. This may be a lengthy post. It's been roughly seven years since I last built a PC and my wife and I decided to both invest in new hardware. I've just recently completed building two new systems, one for myself, and one for my wife. The specifics of each system is as follows...
My PC:
Ryzen 5 2400g w/ Integrated Vega graphics
16gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000mhz RAM
250gb SanDisk SSD Plus
Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming 3 motherboard
Cooler Master MasterWatt 550W power supply
Wife's PC:
Ryzen 5 2400g w/ integrated Vega graphics
16gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000mhz RAM
250 GB SanDisk SSD Plus
1TB WD Caviar Blue HDD
Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming Motherboard (not the Gaming 3 version like mine)
Cooler Master MasterWatt 550W power supply
As you can see both of the systems are virtually the same. Thanks to the inflated graphics card prices going on today I decided to utilize the new Ryzen APU's until I can afford to snatch up a couple of GTX 1060's (or better if found at reasonable prices). I installed Windows 10 Pro on both machines, and updated to the drivers found on Gigabyte's website. Prepping the motherboards for the new Ryzen processor was a task all in itself as AMD had to send me a boot kit so that I could flash the outdated BIOS each motherboard had shipped with. Once done, I installed the very few games we like to play such as Sims 4 and a few indie titles. My wife's system seems to be running just fine. She has Windows 10 Pro build 1709 (she hasn't updated to 1803). She is also utilizing the updated AMD drivers that Windows automatically installed once I had finished installing Windows. Here is where things start to get interesting and the reason for this post.
My system was running pretty well until I noticed some issues with my RAM. After running MemTest on the RAM I found one of the sticks to be faulty and sent them back to have them replaced. I received the new kit and installed it as normal in slots 1 and 3. I started the computer and proceeded to update my version of Windows to build 1803. Within a few hours I started to get BSOD's regarding VIDEO_DR_FAILURE (ATIKMPAG.SYS). I went ahead and reverted my AMD drivers back to an earlier version and rebooted. This didn't help at all. I then proceeded to uninstall the AMD drivers completely through DDU Uninstaller in safe mode, relying solely upon the Windows Basic Display Adapter drivers. While this did seem to stop any BSOD errors, I can no longer hear any sound from my HDMI monitor speakers. Games are also nearly unplayable, even on the lowest graphics settings (think trying to play them on a 90's Dell Dimension with integrated graphics). Also, the ability to put the PC into sleep mode goes away whenever I don't have the AMD drivers installed. I proceeded to contact AMD about this issue, and after a few days they emailed me with a link to the newest AMD driver, released May 17th 2018. That driver malfunctioned as well. The error is always the same, and will happen at random times. Sometimes it will happen right as the PC is booting up. Sometimes it will do it within a few minutes of startup as I try to load a webpage. A few times it has acted like it is behaving itself and will do it after an hour or so. I've also done the following...
~Changed RAM sticks around from slots 1 & 3 to slots 2 & 4 (still get same BSOD)
~Reverted BIOS on motherboard to same one my wife is using (still get same BSOD)
~Tried several AMD drivers, including the one my wife is using as well as the brand new one (still get same BSOD)
~Ran MemTest64 - no RAM issues
Finally, today, I contacted Microsoft Technical support via chat and they suggested I revert my build of Windows to version 1709 (same as the one my wife is currently using). That made total sense, so I wiped my drive clean and installed fresh version of Windows 10 pro Version 1709. Once installed, Windows proceeded to install the AMD drivers. I thought that it would FINALLY work. However, my elation was short lived. The machine BSOD'd less than 10 minutes after installing Windows and the AMD drivers. Mind you these are the same drivers my wife's PC is using. I have come to my wit's end with this issue. The only time it seems to be stable is when I am running Windows Basic Display Adapter, which is great if I want no sound and do not desire to play any games. The minute I install ANY AMD drivers the PC will throw another blue screen of death on me again, with the same error as always. Can anyone out there please please please help me out here. I don't know if I am facing a software or hardware issue. I'd like to think that all of my components are running great as everything is brand new. I just do not know what is conflicting here. I cannot figure this out and have tried everything I can think of. Any help or ideas you guys and girls can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance..
More...
My PC:
Ryzen 5 2400g w/ Integrated Vega graphics
16gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000mhz RAM
250gb SanDisk SSD Plus
Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming 3 motherboard
Cooler Master MasterWatt 550W power supply
Wife's PC:
Ryzen 5 2400g w/ integrated Vega graphics
16gb Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000mhz RAM
250 GB SanDisk SSD Plus
1TB WD Caviar Blue HDD
Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming Motherboard (not the Gaming 3 version like mine)
Cooler Master MasterWatt 550W power supply
As you can see both of the systems are virtually the same. Thanks to the inflated graphics card prices going on today I decided to utilize the new Ryzen APU's until I can afford to snatch up a couple of GTX 1060's (or better if found at reasonable prices). I installed Windows 10 Pro on both machines, and updated to the drivers found on Gigabyte's website. Prepping the motherboards for the new Ryzen processor was a task all in itself as AMD had to send me a boot kit so that I could flash the outdated BIOS each motherboard had shipped with. Once done, I installed the very few games we like to play such as Sims 4 and a few indie titles. My wife's system seems to be running just fine. She has Windows 10 Pro build 1709 (she hasn't updated to 1803). She is also utilizing the updated AMD drivers that Windows automatically installed once I had finished installing Windows. Here is where things start to get interesting and the reason for this post.
My system was running pretty well until I noticed some issues with my RAM. After running MemTest on the RAM I found one of the sticks to be faulty and sent them back to have them replaced. I received the new kit and installed it as normal in slots 1 and 3. I started the computer and proceeded to update my version of Windows to build 1803. Within a few hours I started to get BSOD's regarding VIDEO_DR_FAILURE (ATIKMPAG.SYS). I went ahead and reverted my AMD drivers back to an earlier version and rebooted. This didn't help at all. I then proceeded to uninstall the AMD drivers completely through DDU Uninstaller in safe mode, relying solely upon the Windows Basic Display Adapter drivers. While this did seem to stop any BSOD errors, I can no longer hear any sound from my HDMI monitor speakers. Games are also nearly unplayable, even on the lowest graphics settings (think trying to play them on a 90's Dell Dimension with integrated graphics). Also, the ability to put the PC into sleep mode goes away whenever I don't have the AMD drivers installed. I proceeded to contact AMD about this issue, and after a few days they emailed me with a link to the newest AMD driver, released May 17th 2018. That driver malfunctioned as well. The error is always the same, and will happen at random times. Sometimes it will happen right as the PC is booting up. Sometimes it will do it within a few minutes of startup as I try to load a webpage. A few times it has acted like it is behaving itself and will do it after an hour or so. I've also done the following...
~Changed RAM sticks around from slots 1 & 3 to slots 2 & 4 (still get same BSOD)
~Reverted BIOS on motherboard to same one my wife is using (still get same BSOD)
~Tried several AMD drivers, including the one my wife is using as well as the brand new one (still get same BSOD)
~Ran MemTest64 - no RAM issues
Finally, today, I contacted Microsoft Technical support via chat and they suggested I revert my build of Windows to version 1709 (same as the one my wife is currently using). That made total sense, so I wiped my drive clean and installed fresh version of Windows 10 pro Version 1709. Once installed, Windows proceeded to install the AMD drivers. I thought that it would FINALLY work. However, my elation was short lived. The machine BSOD'd less than 10 minutes after installing Windows and the AMD drivers. Mind you these are the same drivers my wife's PC is using. I have come to my wit's end with this issue. The only time it seems to be stable is when I am running Windows Basic Display Adapter, which is great if I want no sound and do not desire to play any games. The minute I install ANY AMD drivers the PC will throw another blue screen of death on me again, with the same error as always. Can anyone out there please please please help me out here. I don't know if I am facing a software or hardware issue. I'd like to think that all of my components are running great as everything is brand new. I just do not know what is conflicting here. I cannot figure this out and have tried everything I can think of. Any help or ideas you guys and girls can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance..
More...
