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Started by Feevercz | | 27 answers
atikmdag.sys BSOD(s) amd r9 290
Hello guys,
I got a new gaming rig for about a month now and since the first boot I'm experiencing weird crashes. I have a BSOD every now and then (usually once a week or maybe more) during normal usage. Sometimes it strikes when I watch youtube videos, sometimes when I try to launch some game, or during the game. BSOD's crash minidumps are the only things I could get any info from, when I searched forums I found many similar problems and most of them were suggesting this fix: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1656824/atikmd...

My specs are:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4440
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G43
RAM: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
GPU: Asus R9 290 DirectCU II OC 4GB
PSU: SeaSonic 750W

But I couldn't find the exactly same issue, because besides those BSODs the much more common problem I am experiencing is when I try to run specific games like league of legends, or dead space (or it happens just randomly every few days during various actions) my monitor goes completely black (power diod is blinking) but the computer is still running and I am unable to do anything only to restart the computer and then it boots up normally.

Windows debugger tells me that the cause is atikmdag.sys, plus other various .sys depending on which minidump it is, but atikmdag.sys is in every single one, you can see it in this zip file which contains my minidump files

http://filedump.org/files/X7teQ61397590014.html

I tried reinstalling the OS, updated gpu drivers, used older drivers.
Before I reinstalled the OS the problem with monitor going black was always happening when using google chrome. One more thing I noticed is that when I try to run deadspace using windows troubleshooter in win xp sp2 compatibility mode it doesn't crash, but instead gives me error message "missing required file "ssleay32.dll"" but I have no idea if it has anything to do with my problem.

Thank You for any words of advice, I'm an IT newbie so don't be too technical on me please and I'm not native english speaker so forgive my grammar :) 
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August 10, 2014 2:33:00 AM

Andys184 said:
It's running better now no crashes whatsoever. I just delete flash player since I don't really need it for anything I do.


If you just manually download the newest version does it still do so? I know it was a few older vversions that did it for me. Hasn't happened since April 2014... Hadn't had it one time in 4 months
August 9, 2014 11:12:21 AM

It's running better now no crashes whatsoever. I just delete flash player since I don't really need it for anything I do.
July 27, 2014 3:29:09 AM

jkteddy77 said:
290x user said:
Hi,

I have the same problem. R9 290x GPU. Got the BSOD with eror code 0xA0000001 and atikmdag.sys dxgmms1.sys and ntoskrnl.exe.

System only crashed when playing Flash games (Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft), Youtube, Internet explorer, Flash websites. Never in games like BF4 or Watch_Dogs. I can replicate the BSOD when playing Hearthstone.

Things I've done so far.

- Reinstalled Windows 7 (about 10 times)
- Drivers 13.2, 14.4, 14.6 (with and without CCC)
- Tried my friends GPU (same model R9 290x)
- Bought new CPU, PSU, MB, Ram, HDD. (was planning on that anyway).
- Tried the atikmdag.sy_ trick (found on some forum)
- Tried different VBIOS versions and release dates (Asus, Club3D). They are all the same anyway/
- Tried the UBER mode on the GPU
- Tried with fresh W7 install, 14.4 driver and Hearthstone ONLY, still BSOD.

Yesterday I got my 1st BSOD since I build my system. By watching a youtube video. Same BSOD as I've had since I bought the R9 290x. Always the same error codes in minidump and bluescreenview.

At this point I'm able to say it has nothing to do with any of my hardware (except GPU itself) since I've bought a complete new build and still have the issue. BSOD happends with all driver versions I could find.

So either both the GPU's I've tried are defect, all the drivers are bugged, or the VBIOS of the GPU is just bad.
The BSOD only happens when the GPU is not doing much. GPU-Z it works at about 600mhz.

Contacted AMD, they suggested me to try all the tings I've allready tried or to RMA the card.
But I'm pretty sure they'll send the card back after a few weeks saying the card if working correctly..



I had the same issue, know what fixed mine?

Do you happen to use Google Chrome???
If you do, you need to MANUALLY install the latest Adobe Flash and Adobe Shockwave players. They should override Google chrpme's on their own, and I haven't had a crash since :) 


Thanks for the reply. I don't use chrome. I've tried to run my computer with the bare minimum and it still crashed.
It hasn't happend for a few days now since i've disabled ULPS and Hardware acceleration in Flash. But still not sure it's fixed.
July 26, 2014 1:52:48 PM

Andys184 said:
ish416 said:
I actually dealt with an issue very similar to this last weekend. I kept getting BSODs with various .sys files. Always had the atikmdag.sys in there also.

I tried with a different video card (still an AMD card), tried removing and re-installing drivers (using DDU for driver uninstall and removal) tried booting to a different OS (Win 8.1 and Win 7), issue happened in both OS. Ran a preboot memory test and it failed.

I replaced the ram and no issues at all.

Feevercz said:
ish416 said:
I actually dealt with an issue very similar to this last weekend. I kept getting BSODs with various .sys files. Always had the atikmdag.sys in there also.

I tried with a different video card (still an AMD card), tried removing and re-installing drivers (using DDU for driver uninstall and removal) tried booting to a different OS (Win 8.1 and Win 7), issue happened in both OS. Ran a preboot memory test and it failed.

I replaced the ram and no issues at all.

That's what worked for me, if you have tried everything else, it might be the ram.


Can you be a little more specific on what your problem was about and if you could list another .sys that were in minidump files alongside with atikmdag.sys I'd be grateful.

Im trying to figure out if my problem is gpu related (some claimed memory issues w/ r9 290(x)), ram related, driver related or even psu related...

Thanks inadvance

Anyway I ordered new RAMs - I can get a free refund so I'll report if it fixed my problem ( but after that I ran the preboot memory test and it didnt come across any problem)



That's what worked for me, if you have tried everything else, it might be the ram.

I've been getting BSOD just for watching youtube videos I have a sapphire r9 290 Vapor-x OC and I heard if you right click the video before it plays to disable graphics accelerator some won't show settings but HTML5 but I'm pretty sure it's that also with what ram you have. Some motherboards can't handle 1.65v most that are oc are 1.65v and ones that are set to one speed are 1.5v but still can do certain speeds of the 1.65v ram. I have a 1.65v ram but set it to 1.5v and was only able to use one speed instead the oc speed for the voltage it gives out. Just switch from a 1.65 to 1.5v if your motherboard can't handle 1.65v ram.


Yes, but just remember you NEED to manually update your Viddeo players, Flash and Shockwave Players. Its a glitch with AMD's Drivers and Internet Browser's flash players. since I updated Flash and Shockwave, and updated to 14.4 Catalyst or higher, I've had 0 issues with this. It hasn't happened once in over 2 months, and that's all I've changed, drivers and flash players updated.
July 26, 2014 10:44:15 AM

ish416 said:
I actually dealt with an issue very similar to this last weekend. I kept getting BSODs with various .sys files. Always had the atikmdag.sys in there also.

I tried with a different video card (still an AMD card), tried removing and re-installing drivers (using DDU for driver uninstall and removal) tried booting to a different OS (Win 8.1 and Win 7), issue happened in both OS. Ran a preboot memory test and it failed.

I replaced the ram and no issues at all.

Feevercz said:
ish416 said:
I actually dealt with an issue very similar to this last weekend. I kept getting BSODs with various .sys files. Always had the atikmdag.sys in there also.

I tried with a different video card (still an AMD card), tried removing and re-installing drivers (using DDU for driver uninstall and removal) tried booting to a different OS (Win 8.1 and Win 7), issue happened in both OS. Ran a preboot memory test and it failed.

I replaced the ram and no issues at all.

That's what worked for me, if you have tried everything else, it might be the ram.


Can you be a little more specific on what your problem was about and if you could list another .sys that were in minidump files alongside with atikmdag.sys I'd be grateful.

Im trying to figure out if my problem is gpu related (some claimed memory issues w/ r9 290(x)), ram related, driver related or even psu related...

Thanks inadvance

Anyway I ordered new RAMs - I can get a free refund so I'll report if it fixed my problem ( but after that I ran the preboot memory test and it didnt come across any problem)



That's what worked for me, if you have tried everything else, it might be the ram.

I've been getting BSOD just for watching youtube videos I have a sapphire r9 290 Vapor-x OC and I heard if you right click the video before it plays to disable graphics accelerator some won't show settings but HTML5 but I'm pretty sure it's that also with what ram you have. Some motherboards can't handle 1.65v most that are oc are 1.65v and ones that are set to one speed are 1.5v but still can do certain speeds of the 1.65v ram. I have a 1.65v ram but set it to 1.5v and was only able to use one speed instead the oc speed for the voltage it gives out. Just switch from a 1.65 to 1.5v if your motherboard can't handle 1.65v ram.
July 25, 2014 4:04:29 PM

Alternatively:

Play any Adobe Flash video (on youtube or the like), right click on the video, choose Settings, and disable "Enable hardware acceleration".

Flash doesn't play nice with hardware acceleration and you don't really need it anyway.
July 22, 2014 11:10:19 AM

290x user said:
Hi,

I have the same problem. R9 290x GPU. Got the BSOD with eror code 0xA0000001 and atikmdag.sys dxgmms1.sys and ntoskrnl.exe.

System only crashed when playing Flash games (Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft), Youtube, Internet explorer, Flash websites. Never in games like BF4 or Watch_Dogs. I can replicate the BSOD when playing Hearthstone.

Things I've done so far.

- Reinstalled Windows 7 (about 10 times)
- Drivers 13.2, 14.4, 14.6 (with and without CCC)
- Tried my friends GPU (same model R9 290x)
- Bought new CPU, PSU, MB, Ram, HDD. (was planning on that anyway).
- Tried the atikmdag.sy_ trick (found on some forum)
- Tried different VBIOS versions and release dates (Asus, Club3D). They are all the same anyway/
- Tried the UBER mode on the GPU
- Tried with fresh W7 install, 14.4 driver and Hearthstone ONLY, still BSOD.

Yesterday I got my 1st BSOD since I build my system. By watching a youtube video. Same BSOD as I've had since I bought the R9 290x. Always the same error codes in minidump and bluescreenview.

At this point I'm able to say it has nothing to do with any of my hardware (except GPU itself) since I've bought a complete new build and still have the issue. BSOD happends with all driver versions I could find.

So either both the GPU's I've tried are defect, all the drivers are bugged, or the VBIOS of the GPU is just bad.
The BSOD only happens when the GPU is not doing much. GPU-Z it works at about 600mhz.

Contacted AMD, they suggested me to try all the tings I've allready tried or to RMA the card.
But I'm pretty sure they'll send the card back after a few weeks saying the card if working correctly..



I had the same issue, know what fixed mine?

Do you happen to use Google Chrome???
If you do, you need to MANUALLY install the latest Adobe Flash and Adobe Shockwave players. They should override Google chrpme's on their own, and I haven't had a crash since :) 
July 22, 2014 2:55:08 AM

Hi,

I have the same problem. R9 290x GPU. Got the BSOD with eror code 0xA0000001 and atikmdag.sys dxgmms1.sys and ntoskrnl.exe.

System only crashed when playing Flash games (Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft), Youtube, Internet explorer, Flash websites. Never in games like BF4 or Watch_Dogs. I can replicate the BSOD when playing Hearthstone.

Things I've done so far.

- Reinstalled Windows 7 (about 10 times)
- Drivers 13.2, 14.4, 14.6 (with and without CCC)
- Tried my friends GPU (same model R9 290x)
- Bought new CPU, PSU, MB, Ram, HDD. (was planning on that anyway).
- Tried the atikmdag.sy_ trick (found on some forum)
- Tried different VBIOS versions and release dates (Asus, Club3D). They are all the same anyway/
- Tried the UBER mode on the GPU
- Tried with fresh W7 install, 14.4 driver and Hearthstone ONLY, still BSOD.

Yesterday I got my 1st BSOD since I build my system. By watching a youtube video. Same BSOD as I've had since I bought the R9 290x. Always the same error codes in minidump and bluescreenview.

At this point I'm able to say it has nothing to do with any of my hardware (except GPU itself) since I've bought a complete new build and still have the issue. BSOD happends with all driver versions I could find.

So either both the GPU's I've tried are defect, all the drivers are bugged, or the VBIOS of the GPU is just bad.
The BSOD only happens when the GPU is not doing much. GPU-Z it works at about 600mhz.

Contacted AMD, they suggested me to try all the tings I've allready tried or to RMA the card.
But I'm pretty sure they'll send the card back after a few weeks saying the card if working correctly..
May 18, 2014 11:20:01 PM

Same here, I BSOD at random times on youtube in full screen mode without touching anything or if I skip around in time of the video. I did a google search and apparently it's a big problem among 290/290x owners. I never had issue with AMD's drivers but this is a HUGE disappointment because you would expect top notch service for going high end...not bsods. Twitch bsod for me as well, I think it's a flash related driver error. Did all the things you guys mentioned too, I memtest ram, no errors and even changed PSU's before realize it's a driver issue.
May 16, 2014 12:17:01 PM

hi there, sadly i got the same issue as well. Got R9 290 recently and im getting BSODs randomly when watching Videos from Player or Web-players. I kept my system and only changed GFX -Card and RAM. Of course i did run MemTest too, to check RAM and found no issues with it. Strange thing is, it only seems to happen on 2D releated GFX stuff (Vido transcoding or whatnot). I didnt get a BSOD in 3D Applications so far. Very strange issue. I hope i dont have a damaged GFX card, since i read there are several issues with the new r9's...

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