RX 6700XT driver crashes under load, is it worth trying to flash vBIOS?

[a1337cookie]

My friend has been having issues with his GPU, and I've been trying to help him. Games keep crashing or black screening, and a popup appears saying the AMD driver has crashed and has been reset.

His specs:
AMD Ryzen 5 5600
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3600 CL16
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB
Asrock RX 6700XT Challenger D
Corsair RM750 80+ Gold

The system ran just fine for about 9 months before the issue started. It happens in all sorts of games (Insurgency, Starcraft 2, Intruder, Sea of Thieves, Darktide), but he said some games still worked (Binding of Issac, Potion Craft). The time it takes to crash can vary; it crashes within a few minutes for Sea of Thieves, but often takes 10 or 20 minutes in Darktide.

Some games just crash to desktop, while others get a black screen, but you can still hear the game running (still move around and shoot, ect). As far as I know, it never crashed the entire system, the driver always recovers and resets.

We tried tons of stuff, including updating graphics driver, updating Windows, DDU and full driver reinstall, full Windows reset, disable MPO, undervolt and underclock, and more. I'm 95% sure it's a GPU issue, as we swapped it with an RX 570 from another system and the problem followed it. The 570 works just fine in this system, while the same crashes happened in the other system (similar specs).

He already ordered a replacement GPU, and I'm pretty sure it will fix the issue. However, I would still like to try and get the RX 6700XT working if I can. I'm just wondering if I should try a vBIOS flash, or if it's not worth the risk. Thanks in advance.

 

[P4-630]

Ever thought about RMA?...

 

[a1337cookie]

Ever thought about RMA?...

Sure, I told him he should try to get it replaced, but he didn't want to bother I guess? He just gave it to me instead. If I can't fix it, I'll see if I can RMA it myself, though it has been just over a year since the purchase date, which may be past Asrock's warranty period. Just curious if it's fixable using vBIOS.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Asrock's standard GPU warranty is 2 years I believe.

 

[a1337cookie]

Asrock's standard GPU warranty is 2 years I believe.

Hmm, I saw 1 year on their website, but I think he bought it from Newegg, which says 3 years warranty. If RMA is the only option, I'll have to talk to him about it. What complicates things more is that I don't live near him, I'm currently just visiting, and I don't know if they need a specific address for the return or something.

 

[P4-630]

My advice, never flash a BIOS of a GPU when there's still warranty left..

 

[Assimilator]

This is either standard AMD driver shenanigans, or a defective graphics card. An updated BIOS isn't going to fix either of those things.

 

[a1337cookie]

This is either standard AMD driver shenanigans, or a defective graphics card. An updated BIOS isn't going to fix either of those things.

Alright, good to know.

My advice, never flash a BIOS of a GPU when there's still warranty left..

I will not risk it then, and try to figure out the RMA stuff. Thanks for the help all.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Alright, good to know.

I will not risk it then, and try to figure out the RMA stuff. Thanks for the help all.

Maybe get in touch with Newegg initially as they seem to have extended the warranty from what you said earlier, they may deal with the return and if not they should be able to offer a contact route to Asrock.

 

[Noci]

If it ran just fine for nine months and suddenly it has these issues, it indeed looks if something got broken at a certain point in time. Like Assimilator mentioned, flashing the vBIOS ain't gonna solve anything.
If it is driver related, it most likely happened after a driver update. Try to go back to the previous version and see if the problem persists (but from your description it seems you already tried this).

But if these crashes started occasionally and the frequency of them increased over time while under high load, it might also be wise to look at the temps of the GPU.
If you RMA a product and after checking by Asrock it seems to be working properly, you'll pay the bill.

 

[Deleted member 57642]

Binding of Issac & Potion Craft have very low system requirements - incomparable to the others mentioned (even a basic iGPU can run those just fine). That being said, this games barely use the Video Card - which explains why you have no issues. Same can't be said about the other games, thus - "when the GPU is actually used" the system is acting-up. Either the mobo or the GPU seems to have some hardware issues - more than likely a burned component - which triggers above issues when actually used.