Did my GPU just die? (R9 380)

Aodhan5000

Hi all,
So left the PC running last night to update fortnite to play with the sister today, went down then just a while ago and the screen was not waking up but the PC was running. Ended up having to hard reboot her and when I got into windows the scaling of windows was scuffed (usually have it on 125% because I'm on 1440p but it had reverted to 100%) but I changed it back, no biggie. It's now saying the refresh rate is 1.000Hz and although I wouldn't say I'm running on 1 frame a second, it certainly feels more jagged (is that the word?) than 144Hz.

Tried to boot CSGO then though and oh boy, got some weird sh*t, have it attached there. Tried to boot Radeon settings and I got another yolk saying no AMD graphics driver is installed or it's not working. I've opened up GPU-Z and Sapphire TRIXX now and they are giving me no info on GPU clock, memory clock or temps. It just says load is pegged at 31% which seems unlikely to be true but it does seem to be giving me info on power delivery and fan speed. Actually nevermind, GPU Z just died there as well, Sapphire TRIXX still working. MSI afterburner giving no information

When I tried downloading new drivers from AMD site it says in a windows box: "This app can't run on your PC. To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher."

I tried running rust there and although she'll boot, she runs at 1 FPS (or less) in the main menu. Can't be intergrated graphics because I'm on a 3600 but is it just the GPU dieing bit by bit? Any advice? Power supply is a bit dodgey, older bequiet low end unit but I can't think of anything else and everything I try is dead ends. Any use running safe mode windows? She is an R9 380 so about 6 years old at this stage but I'd like to get though this massive shortage with her until there's light at the end of the tunnel with availability. TIA

Robert ninja

Don't just install the newest driver. Completely uninstall current one first. The fact that the new drivers are not detecting your windows version correctly is odd, though.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-r9-series/amd-radeon-r9-300-series/amd-radeon-r9-380

If there was any crashes try WhoCrashed and review its report. Outside of that maybe just do a general system diagnostic too. Make sure every other component is working smoothly to narrow down that it is in fact the GPU or hardware at all. Me thinks it's some kind of OS problem, though. How long has it been since you did a clean install of windows?

Kimbot

It could have done an auto update to the Graphics driver during the night and didnt install correctly. First port of call is as above, uninstall existing drivers and reinstall the new ones.

Aodhan5000

Robert ninja wrote: »

Don't just install the newest driver. Completely uninstall current one first. The fact that the new drivers are not detecting your windows version correctly is odd, though.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-r9-series/amd-radeon-r9-300-series/amd-radeon-r9-380

If there was any crashes try WhoCrashed and review its report. Outside of that maybe just do a general system diagnostic too. Make sure every other component is working smoothly to narrow down that it is in fact the GPU or hardware at all. Me thinks it's some kind of OS problem, though. How long has it been since you did a clean install of windows?

Last windows install was when I got the 3600 and a new SSD which was about midway through February of this year so recent enough. Just wondering though, for uninstalling drivers, if I use DDU will I be left with no display output because I've no iGPU?

Robert ninja

Not likely to be windows issue then.

GPUs have a 'basic' mode of some sort to supply minimum graphics so you can even go about installing the drivers. It's probably what you've using right now in fact since Screenshot (157).png references it. You'll be grand. As for how you go about uninstalling drivers I'm not entirely sure since i don't use windows anymore but I think I just used the windows uninstall options for things like that. The only way you'd be left with no graphics would be if the GPU completely died but I think you could still get into the BIOS to diagnose connected PCIE devices.

Aodhan5000

Robert ninja wrote: »

Not likely to be windows issue then.

GPUs have a 'basic' mode of some sort to supply minimum graphics so you can even go about installing the drivers. It's probably what you've using right now in fact since Screenshot (157).png references it. You'll be grand. As for how you go about uninstalling drivers I'm not entirely sure since i don't use windows anymore but I think I just used the windows uninstall options for things like that. The only way you'd be left with no graphics would be if the GPU completely died but I think you could still get into the BIOS to diagnose connected PCIE devices.

I was thinking that myself but was just worried that'd f*CK it completely but I'd say you might be right about it running in "basic mode" rn. Used DDU before so I'll probably chance it again when I get home. Worst case scenario there's a 1050 in my mother's PC I can steal.

Aodhan5000

Uninstalled the drivers though windows, restarted, and was still feeked so I said I'd get DDU and give it a try but at the same time as I had it downloaded, the screen gave a flicker. Said I'd try and load up a game again and low and behold, we were tearing away. Really makes no sense to me but I won't complain. Still couldn't download radeon software directly from AMD homepage but could download it through the R9 380 drivers link, weird but I'll take it.

Kimbot, I'd say you were right about it trying to update last night, and I'd say it corrupted something because the games wouldn't run when I had the drivers but did run when I uninstalled them and threatened the thing with DDU . Thanks for the help Rob, might have to pull another year out of this f*cking yolk yet. Old but gold, to me anyway. Cheers lads

Irish Steve

You may need to do some further research on this, in recent days, AMD have released a new version of Radeon software, 21.6.1, but as part of that update, they have end of lifed a significant number of CPU's and GPU's, which may have impacted other updates. You will need to see if your specific chip set combination is affected, if it is, you will need to revert to the previous version, 21.5.2, which should still be available for download from their support web site.

For me, that's the end of my use of AMD, a company that chops support for a machine that's not yet 3 years old does not deserve future support or loyalty from the user base.

Aodhan5000

What device only had support for 3 years? Pretty sure youngest was 5 years

Simi

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

What device only had support for 3 years? Pretty sure youngest was 5 years

Some of the mobile APU's released in 2016/17 probably would have been used in budget laptops for a few years after that.

Homelander

Don't think that's really AMD's fault so much. Looking at the least, the "newest" of the discontinued lines is from 2015.

Bit of a bummer when some of the cards are still pretty good though. Like if you had an 8GB R9 390, still a fairly decent card, probably close to an RX570 level performance.

The problem is there that certain games may stop working for two reasons - a) bugs obviously or b) some bigger games now often refuse to start up without a recent driver version installed.

So, say if you even had an R9 380 like in the OP and were happily trucking along playing Black Ops or Warzone at 1080p low-med settings. In a few months it's quite possible it'll stop working for the b) reason mentioned above.

Most of the older stuff it would make zero difference though as all you'd be doing is basic desktop stuff anyway or playing old games.

Irish Steve

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

What device only had support for 3 years? Pretty sure youngest was 5 years

The chip set in this laptop was announced in "mid 2018", so yes, it's not yet 3 years old, and not even 3 years from announcement.

Last AMD device I will buy

Homelander

What device is that? I can't see anything on the list that would be that recent, and even if it was it's presumably a refresh of an old line.

Irish Steve

Lenovo ideapad 330-15AST, first boot October 2018, uses A9-9425, last of the A9 range, the chip in it was announced "Mid 2018", so it wasn't an end of range as such, and I know that Harvey Norman were still selling a later version of this machine (more disc and memory) only just over 12 months ago, I priced one for a friend not long after covid bit, while it's not fast on games, it's not a bad machine for "normal" day to day computing. partly due to the SSD and large traditional disc.

It was the last of the A9 range, which first arrived in 2016, so not exactly an antique in computing terms, if I'd taken manufacturer warranty rather than retailer warranty, it would still be under warranty, which would be pretty embarassing for Lenovo. It will be interesting to see what they have to say when I get back to Ireland and can spend some time talking to them, I've other distractions with family issues in the UK at the moment that are taking most of my time.

Homelander

I'm not sure why you are making a big deal of it to be honest. It's a super low end APU and the integrated graphics will work perfectly fine on older drivers for any use anyone could have for it.

It's not like the machine will stop working, or perform any less. It just won't get updates, but these updates are generally redundant on such a low-end piece of hardware really.

Whereas with say, an R9 390, a card capable of running the latest games, it's really a huge disappointment as games will stop working, or have bugs/issues that cannot be solved.

I can't see what bearing it will have on an A9, again, it's not like it'll stop working or anything, nor would you be playing any games that require modern drivers.

Irish Steve

I didn't buy it for games, that was never even an issue, it was sold as a general run of the mill laptop for things like Internet browsing, and other related work, and for that, it's not a bad machine. My issue is that it's been dropped much sooner than a reasonable person would expect it to be dropped, and there is now no support for anything related to the chipset, which includes a lot more than just the CPU and GPU, there are also AMD USB and sound chips, and Bluetooth also runs throught USB on this machine, and recent experience with things like USB is that Microsoft are NOT covering themselves in glory on their fixes to resolve USB issues, and if they manage to break USB again, which could well happen, AMD won't be making any changes to fix the drivers if that is the way the issue should be resolved

That could well result in a number of areas of the machine no longer working. I don't think that's appropriate on a recent machine, if it was a machine that was released before Win 10 came out, that would be reasonable, but given it was sold with 10 on it, there should be ongoing support for a reasonable life usage, and to me, less than 3 years is NOT reasonable.