Once to twice a week, I have been finding my system asleep when it should have been folding. After looking at "Event Viewer" after each of these I noticed a trend of a Kernel-Power event proceeded (but not immediately) by a volmgr one.
To view the events open up "Event Viewer", expand "Windows Logs", and click on "System"
Simplified Example:
| Level | Date and Time | Source | Event ID | Task Category |
|---|
| Critical | 5/7/2024 2:13:36 AM | Kernel-Power | 41 | (63) |
| The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. |
| Error | 5/7/2024 2:13:36 AM | volmgr | 162 | None |
| Dump file generation succeded. |
| Warning | 5/7/2024 2:11:00 AM | Display | 4101 | None |
| Display driver amduw23g stopped responding and has successfully recovered. |
| Warning | 5/7/2024 2:06:07 AM | Display | 4101 | None |
| Display driver amduw23g stopped responding and has successfully recovered. |
Updating Drivers
As a first step to try and remedy this, I always update drivers. I updated the following:
- chipset:
- 4.07.13.2243 -> 5.11.02.217 (from Asus)
- 6.02.07.2300 (from AMD after above didn't fix it)
- video: a version installed in 2024 -> 24.5.1
Updating the BIOS
I found some posts online that said it could be due to the motherboard, so I decided to try updating the BIOS to see if that would help. Unfortunately, it did not.
Before updating the BIOS/UEFI make sure to write down your changes as they will be reset.
BIOS/UEFI Settings
- Expo -> Enabled
- Fan Curves
- CPU
- 20C -> 20%
- 60C -> 40%
- 85C -> 70%
- 90C -> 100%
- System
- 20C -> 30%
- 50C -> 50%
- 85C -> 80%
- 90C -> 100%
- Advanced Mode (F7)
- Tool -> ASUS Armoury Crate
- Download & Install -> Disabled
- AI Tweaker -> Precision Boost Override
- Curve Optimizer
- Precision Boost Override -> AMD Eco Mode
- AMD Eco Mode -> cTDP 65W
- AI Tweaker -> SOC Offset -> negative -> 0.03 (however this caused the pc to hang on warm-boots so I use the below settings instead)
- AI Tweaker -> CPU SOC Voltage -> Manual
- VDD SOC Voltage Override -> 1.2
Update the BIOS
After updating the BIOS, you will need to reapply the settings.
Old video drivers
Since all the updates didn't work, I tried installing old video drivers that I knew worked from 24.5.1 to 23.10.2. Luckily this seems to have done the trick and my system is stable again with >27 days of uptime.
Slow folding
Unfortunately, it looks like my solution may be short lived as to get expected folding performance, I need to update to 24.6.1: https://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=41637&sid=d9b1c6f33f52801aaca8c31fc3fe52d1 So fingers crossed that this release is also stable.
Update 2024-07-29: I had a freeze after roughly 11 days of uptime
Update 2024-07-31: My PC crashed overnight after only 1.5 days of uptime
24.7.1
Update 2024-07-31: I updated the graphics drivers to 24.7.1. Here is the process that I used:
- Downloaded the AMD driver cleanup utility (from here)
- Downloaded the full updated AMD graphics driver (for 5600 XT)
- Disabled Ethernet/Wi-Fi
- I do this so that Windows doesn't try to "helpfully" download and install other graphic driver versions
- Ran the AMD driver cleanup utility
- Had it reboot me into Safe-Mode
- It removed the drivers and prompted me to reboot, which I did
- Installed the new drivers (had to approve the big red scary box because of no internet)
- Rebooted
- Enabled Ethernet/Wi-Fi
Update 2024-08-02: My computer has crashed twice in the past 2 days so I decided to try DDU
- Downloaded Display Driver Uninstaller (aka DDU)
- Disabled Ethernet/Wi-Fi
- Rebooted into Safe Mode
- Extracted the EXE from the ZIP file
- Ran the EXE, it will extract even more files
- Ran "Display Driver Uninstaller.exe"
- Unchecked the final option (Disable Windows Update Driver Downloads)
- Since we already disabled internet access this is unnecessary and DDU recommends reenabling afterwards anyway so this saves a step
- Close the options
- Device Type -> GPU
- Device -> AMD
- Clicked "Clean and restart"
- Waited for it to do its thing and reboot
- Installed the 24.7.1 drivers again
- Rebooted
- Enabled Ethernet/Wi-Fi
Appendix
Sources
