GPU Intense tasks like gaming either softlock or hardfreeze my machine

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  • System: Ryzen™ AI Max+ 395 - 64GB
  • Storage: WD_BLACK™ SN7100 NVMe™ - M.2 2280 - 2TB
  • CPU Fan: Noctua - NF-A12x25 HS-PWM
  • OS: Windows 11
  • AMD Driver Versions that I tried out: 25.10.2 - 25.11.1 - 25.12.1
  • BIOS-Version: 3.04

It’s something that I noticed after some time. And I don’t seem capable of fixing it. I updated the BIOS, I used the drivers from the homepage, but I also tried to go directly to AMD to download the drivers, but nothing. The problem is, I don’t know what I could be doing wrong.

The weird part is, I don’t think it’s a temperature issue at all (even when playing Cyberpunk, it barely gets over 60 degrees). In some rare cases I might get an “AMD Software Detected a Driver Timeout”; most of the time it’s not the case… Unless I leave the machine at a GPU-intense task for hours. The resulting effects are odd, regardless of IF the AMD Driver Timeout toast warning appears or not, especially considering everything seems to run perfectly fine, too!

  • When I try to shut down my PC, it WILL get stuck forever at the “Shutting down…” part.
  • If I close the game/program and start ANY other game it WILL hard freeze. No ALT+F4, no alt-tabbing to

Cyberpunk 2077 has a particular tell when I know that I have to hard shut down my PC: when the auto-saves suddenly start to take longer, I know something in the background has ceased working. When I close the game, the previously “Shutting down…” loop error WILL occur. In other games, equal tells do not appear, but after opening or closing a game (any game) and switching between them will ALSO hardfreeze the machine. Each time I tried to test out a different driver, I kept using AMD’s Cleanup Utility before trying something else.

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Instability while Gaming (AMD Graphics Drivers Crash -- Alot)
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I’m having similar issues, but interesting your temps are around 60 degrees in Cyberpunk, as mine go up to around 80.

Anyway, I’m constantly having the AMD GPU drivers crashing AMD Drivers Frequently Hanging and Crashing - #6 by k_peter_06

And they are pretty much random, sometimes crashing after 5-10 minutes of gaming, sometimes after 1-2 hours…

I just had the PC stuck in the shutting down loop, and had to force shut it off…

Do you also have issue with hibernation? Mine many times is not resuming properly Hibernation does not work anymore after latest BIOS and driver updates

I also had the long boot time issue, for that I had to go back to BIOS 3.03.

But anyway, I think the drivers just have too many issues, I tried both the ones from FW and the ones straight from AMD, and I end up with the same issues (GPU driver crashes, hibernation resume issue, stuck in shutdown loop, once it also froze in sleep or when the screen turns off, after 5 min in my case, it got stuck and had to hard reboot it).

Honestly it’s very annoying, the device is great, but with all these issue it’s hard to use it properly.

I’ve been creating cases and chatting with FW weekly in the past two months since I had it.

Their latest solution to these issues was to reinstall Windows. Such a low effort response and I bet it won’t make any difference, as I have a fresh install anyway…

Not sure what the solution might be, other than to wait for proper driver updates.

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And they are pretty much random, sometimes crashing after 5-10 minutes of gaming, sometimes after 1-2 hours…

At least in Cyberpunk, that’s roughly my range of crashes and the other mentioned issues

I just had the PC stuck in the shutting down loop, and had to force shut it off…

You have no idea how much “better” I feel about this now.

Do you also have issue with hibernation? Mine many times is not resuming properly

Reliably? No, it never worked for me.

But anyway, I think the drivers just have too many issues, I tried both the ones from FW and the ones straight from AMD, and I end up with the same issues (GPU driver crashes, hibernation resume issue, stuck in shutdown loop, once it also froze in sleep or when the screen turns off, after 5 min in my case, it got stuck and had to hard reboot it).

I hate that we both have that problem, but I feel better about it now that someone shares similar problems. Yes, the Drivers are clearly, clearly unreliable.

Their latest solution to these issues was to reinstall Windows. Such a low effort response and I bet it won’t make any difference, as I have a fresh install anyway…

And I already did that. I mean, I already had those issues when I got my machine around late November with a fresh install. I did spend today trying whatever came to mind; nothing helped. One older Driver kept games really stable, but made at least Cyberpunk legit unplayable. That one is only playable since Adrenaline Patch Version 25.10.2

I’m having similar issues, but interesting your temps are around 60 degrees in Cyberpunk, as mine go up to around 80.

To be really fair, I set some “aggressive” cooling for this. I feel the automated settings are… having weird spikes, so I prefer my CPU-Fan to rather run consistently. Without it, I would probably get the same as you do.

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Not really in Windows, but I have this issue in Linux. Looking at the logs everything is “shut down” according to the OS and about to reboot, but then getting stuck at the last shut down step.

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I’m pretty sure drivers are at fault in Linux too, especially the GPU drivers. The more I look into all of my issues, the mure sure I get it’s all the drivers. As the machine passes all stress tests.

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