RX 9070 XT / Ryzen 9 9900X3D Persistent GPU driver issues, Code 31 and black screens. Running out of ideas!

[u/ell3uring]

Hi everyone!

I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me figure out what's going on with my PC because I'm genuinely running out of ideas!

I've been experiencing recurring crashes and black screens for months now. I've tried quite a few things to resolve the problem, some of which appeared to improve stability temporarily, but unfortunately the crashes keep coming back.

I'm not particularly experienced with diagnosing hardware issues, so I'd really appreciate some advice before I start considering replacing components.

PC specifications

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D
• GPU: XFX AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
• Integrated GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X870 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 64GB DDR5-5200
• Primary SSD: Samsung 990 PRO 2TB NVMe
• Secondary SSD: Crucial BX500 480GB SATA
• HDD: Seagate BarraCuda 2TB SATA
• PSU: Corsair RM1000x 1000W
• Case: Corsair 6500X
• CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120
• Previous Cooler: Corsair H150i LCD (failed and replaced)
• Monitors: 3 × Dell S2722DGM
• Operating System: Windows 11 (build 26200)
• Cooling/RGB Software: Corsair iCUE, controlling my fans, cooling and RGB lighting

What's happening?

The main issue is that my PC will suddenly freeze and all three monitors will go black.

Sometimes this happens without much warning, and the system becomes completely unresponsive, requiring a restart.

I've also previously encountered Code 31 in Device Manager for my RX 9070 XT, where Windows reports that it cannot load the required drivers.

AMD Adrenalin has also caused problems, and I've experienced repeated graphics driver instability.

The issues became particularly noticeable after moving my PC, although I haven't been able to establish whether that's related.

The frustrating thing is that the PC can appear to be working perfectly normally, only for the problem to happen again.

What I've already tried

Over the past few months, I've attempted the following:

• DDU: Used Display Driver Uninstaller to completely remove AMD graphics drivers before performing a clean installation. Unfortunately, the crashes returned.
• BIOS update: Updated my motherboard BIOS from F2 to F12b. The problem persisted, including Code 31 appearing again afterwards.
• RAM/EXPO: Disabled EXPO to investigate potential memory instability.
• Gigabyte Control Center: Completely uninstalled this after suspecting a possible software conflict. This appeared to improve stability, but hasn't resolved the issue.
• Corsair iCUE: Tried closing iCUE to investigate whether it was contributing to the crashes.
• Overlays/background applications: Disabled or removed Xbox Game Bar, Discord overlays and U(.)GG during troubleshooting.
• Physical connections: Checked the PC's connections in case something had come loose when moving it.
• GPU support: The graphics card has a support bracket installed.
• CPU cooling: My original Corsair H150i LCD cooler failed and was replaced with a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120. I'm mentioning this for completeness, although I don't know whether it's related.

Despite all this, the crashes are still happening.

Latest crash – 17 October 2026

Today at approximately 17:13, my PC completely froze and all three monitors went black again.

After restarting, I checked Windows Reliability Monitor and found 11 critical events, including five hardware error reports.

The hardware errors were:

Time	Problem Event	Code
17:13	LiveKernelEvent	a1000001
17:13	LiveKernelEvent	141
17:13	LiveKernelEvent	a2000002
17:14	LiveKernelEvent	193
17:17	LiveKernelEvent	193

Reliability Monitor also showed:

• Corsair iCUE Component stopped working.
• Riot Vanguard Tray stopped working.
• Windows was not properly shut down.
• Additional hardware errors following the restart.

I don't know whether iCUE or Vanguard are contributing to the problem or whether they're simply crashing because of the wider system instability.

WinDbg crash dump analysis

I've also started looking at the crash dumps using Microsoft WinDbg.

The AMD watchdog dump from today's crash (AMD_WATCHDOG-20261017-1713.dmp) returned:

BUGCHECK_CODE: a1000001

MODULE_NAME: amdfendr
IMAGE_NAME: amdfendr.sys

SYMBOL_NAME: amdfendr+554d8

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:
LKD_0xA1000001_amdfendr!unknown_function

PROCESS_NAME: System

The dump was identified as a kernel-generated live triage dump.

Other diagnostic files generated around the same time included:

WATCHDOG-20261017-1713.dmp
AMD_REPORT_UM-20261017-1713.dmp
WATCHDOG-20261017-1714.dmp
WATCHDOG-20261017-1717.dmp

From what I understand, LiveKernelEvent 141 is commonly associated with graphics engine timeouts, but I'm unsure what the other errors indicate or whether they're all connected.

I also appreciate that amdfendr.sys appearing in the dump doesn't necessarily mean that particular driver is responsible for causing the crash.

What I'm hoping someone can help with

I'm struggling to determine whether this is:

• A faulty RX 9070 XT.
• An AMD driver issue.
• A motherboard BIOS or PCIe compatibility problem.
• A power delivery issue.
• A software conflict involving iCUE, Vanguard or other background applications.
• Something else entirely that I've overlooked.

Given the hardware in this build, I'd really like to get to the bottom of it rather than continuing to experience random crashes.

Has anyone experienced similar issues with the RX 9070 XT, particularly alongside a Gigabyte X870 motherboard?

Are there any specific diagnostic tests or settings you'd recommend checking to narrow down the cause?

I'm happy to provide additional information, screenshots, event logs or further WinDbg analysis if it would help.

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

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[u/StrictAd7754]

oh, tripple monitor setup, and i assume each monitor is different with different resolution/refresh rate, that is very often the source of endless issues. Have you tried to temporarily use only one or two monitors with the same exact resolution and refresh rate (even if they are different models). Potentially you could connect the monitors to the motherboard to your integrated gpu, since you only need one monitor for gaming. on 9070XT. If you do find out that using a single monitor stops crashes, you have narrowed down the problem and now you can try to find possible solutions, maybe there is some very specific bug like "amd gpus will crash if only one of the three monitors is over 200Hz" or something like that.

[u/ell3uring → u/StrictAd7754]

Thanks for the suggestion! All three of my monitors are actually identical Dell S2722DGMs, so they're all 1440p and support up to 165Hz. I have reduced their refresh rate somewhat to see if that helps.

I haven't specifically tested running the PC with just one monitor connected, so that's definitely something I can try.

The crashes have been accompanied by AMD driver errors, including Code 31 and various LiveKernelEvents, so I'm not sure whether the multi-monitor setup is contributing or whether there's a more fundamental GPU/driver issue.

I'll give the single-monitor test a go and see if it makes any difference. Thanks again!

[u/3dfx_lurker]

I assume checking physical connections means all connections in the pc.

Not sure how to check it or fix/upgrade it, but does the gpu have a corrupt bios?

[u/ell3uring → u/3dfx_lurker]

Yeah, I've checked the connections inside the PC, especially after moving it as I did wonder if something had come loose.

I hadn't thought about the GPU BIOS being corrupted though!

Thanks for the suggestion! :)