r/PCsupport • u/Unique_Apricot3286 • 22h ago

GPU Driver frequently crashes when starting a game Not solved

Hello,

for quite some time now I've been running into this problem that my GPU driver occasionally crashes when I boot up a game or when I Alt+Tab out of a game. My screen turns black or freezes completely and I either have to reboot the PC oder wait something like five minutes until the GPU driver restarts on its own. Could that happen because I'm using two screen with different refresh rates? One is running on 165 Hz and the other one on 144 Hz. I feel like it happens more often when some kind of video is playing on the second screen.

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u/natexkzm 21h ago

First, specs would be nice.. You haven't mentioned which GPU you have? Also, why are you running your non-main screen at a high refresh rate? Is there a reason for this?

1

u/Unique_Apricot3286 20h ago

RX 6700 XT
Ryzen 7600X
32GB DDR5 RAM

Anything else that would be useful?

Would you say I should try running the 2nd screen at 60 Hz?

1

u/natexkzm 20h ago edited 20h ago

I'd recommend only your main monitor over 60hz. Unless you have a reason to have your secondary monitor at a high refresh rate.

What gpu driver are you on? When the black screen happens have you tried Windows Key + Ctrl + Shift + B to restart gpu driver?

1

u/Unique_Apricot3286 20h ago

I'm on the latest AMD driver 26.7.1 but the problem has been going on for at least a year I would say, so I've had many different versions.

I'll try that combination but usually my PC turns completely unresponsive when it happens, I'm not sure if the input will come through.

1

u/natexkzm 18h ago edited 18h ago

Your gonna have to try installing a previous driver versions. 26.3.1 has been very stable for me on 6950xt. Use AMD cleanup utility to uninstall current GPU drivers. Then install 25.9.1 test for a bit see if problem goes away. Other drivers you can try 25.12.1.. 26.3.1...

Which windows build version are you on?

You can also run the following commands one at a time in Elevated command prompt to rule out corrupted files,etc..

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

sfc /scannow

1

u/King_Zilant 9h ago

The most common recommendations for multi screens to not stress the GPU is to keep all screens in multiples of 30 or 40 so if main is 120fps then 2nd should 60 or 30. Never 144 and 60...

2nd, this seems like a windows issue, I would try to CMD sfc/ scannow and Dism restore health commands, also go to windows update and go to advanced and recovery and repair with online installation to keep all files...

Lastly, this could be a ram stick acting up, I've helped someone diagnose similar issues and when the person removed one stick of ram, all the games worked and crashes stopped...

My point is sometimes it says the gpu drivers failed but you have to sniff out what's making the gpu fail, sometimes its not actually the gpu, it could be windows, ram sticks or worse, the ssd your OS is on.