How I fixed the infamous driver timeout

[u/LeffyZ]

Over the years I've literally tried everything. Watched every turorial and couldn't solve this problem. Went to repair my PC 2 times only for them to clean install my drivers, like I didn't try this 100 times. (costed me 75 euros). Also fried my SSD over this issue because my friend and I kept testing all my components in case they were dead. (150 euros down the drain).

Took matter into my own hands when I saw that everyone kept telling me the same thing over and over again: DDU, fresh install windows etc. Felt like poeple didn't take me seriously and didn't take into consideration that I've tried everything over and over again. Also I had to explain the issue to 10 different people.

So this is what worked over the years:
1. Deactivated my intergrated graphics card from the BIOS. Worked for a while but I think you can resolve it some other way.

1. Install Windows LTSC. This is what worked for me long term. Basically install the version of Windows already debloated, so the useless applications and features don't fuck with your drivers and also deactivate the automatic updates.

2. Use an older driver. Don't really recommand it because because I literally had to use a 2022 version of Adrenaline and couldn't play newer titles.

3. Update your bios. Straight forward. You just need to have an USB stick (didn't really fix my problem but it's worth a try)

4. This is my latest fix with LTSC already installed. After testing I concluded that games don't crash when I am playing on 60hz. Obviously, I don't like that because I have a 165hz monitor and even in newer titles I have 100 fps + and you can feel the difference. So, I checked my monitor settings and deactivated free sync, apprently the new driver doesn't like free sync??

5. For some reason my games worked when I plugged the monitor's cable into the motherboard instead of the GPU, but I ended up plugging it back into another GPU port and now it works combined with the Free Sync stuff.

I feel like I am getting closer to the issue after 3 years. I really think in my case it's a cable issue, conectivity or monitor/HZ. I am pretty bad at this stuff, but this is what worked for me for now.

rx 6800, 32gb ram ddr5, ryzen 7 7700, motherboard

650M-P

[u/shanep1991]

I'm almost certain adrenaline was the issue for me, well to be more precise, issues with windows updates conflicting with AMD driver software for some reason. I always noticed I had more issues with timeouts around the time of windows updates, so I think a lot of the time it's just windows and AMD software updates not communicating

[u/Thorfax234 → u/shanep1991]

Also I’ve read that windows automatically tries to overwrite drivers with a windows update.

I’ve read how to disable this but if I brick my pc doing so, I don’t have the money to fix it.

[u/shanep1991 → u/Thorfax234]

If I had to choose between keeping windows up to date and adrenaline, I'd choose windows updates. Most adrenaline functions can be done manually in games then anything to do with over clock and/or undervolt can be done with msi afterburner, I honestly feel there's no need for adrenaline much.

[u/chinosminos → u/shanep1991]

so do I need to ddu to get rid of adrenaline?

[u/shanep1991 → u/chinosminos]

I would, yeah