BSOD in Skyrim with 7970

Hi,
Pretty much every evening, I get a BSOD 116 with atikmpag.sys. Works perfectly for 2-3 hours, then out of nowhere.. a 1-2 seconds black screen freeze then BSOD. If I try to play right after it BSOD'd, it crashes again usually about 15-30 minutes later. Nothing gets slow, GPU is not even hot (around 70C I think...). Just a random freeze + BSOD.

I ran some FurMark, 3dMark11, Heaven.. no freeze, everything looks normal, no crash at all. The scores looks normal too. It only happens in Skyrim. The only other game I tried is Diablo 3 (which ran fine for at least 4-5 hours) though, but it never crashed while browsing or other light stuff.

I know the 12.7 beta drivers might solve this problem, but I work 20 days in a row away from home, so I'm scared to screw with the drivers. A BSOD every 3 hours is better than a non-working GPU And there seems to be a lot of counter-information about driver installation in these forums, so it scares me even more

Here's the link to my mini-dumps, Heaven tests and 3dMark11 test :
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11451773/without memory dmp.7z

And in case someone needs my latest MEMORY.dmp, here's the package containing all the above + MEMORY.dmp :
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11451773/with memory dmp.7z

Checking the call stack from the memory dump, it seems tied to directx, but I'm a complete noob in memory dump analysis, so I'm probably wrong You can also see on timestamps that when it starts crashing, it then crashed every 15-30 minutes.

 

hi
i dont think many people will click your links especially as this is your first post and we get quite a lot of spammers on here.

download who crashed which you can find in my signature below and copy paste the bsod dump report

 

Oh sorry, you're right

Here's the report, I didn't include the computer info as I ran WhoCrashed on my work computer :

Spoiler

On Mon 02/07/2012 1:07:38 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\070112-24398-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys (atikmpag+0x7AE4)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800D3E64E0, 0xFFFFF88004F46AE4, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmpag.sys .
Google query: atikmpag.sys VIDEO_TDR_ERROR




On Sat 30/06/2012 11:49:08 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\063012-24585-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys (atikmpag+0x7AE4)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800E86C010, 0xFFFFF88004F1DAE4, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmpag.sys .
Google query: atikmpag.sys VIDEO_TDR_ERROR




On Sat 30/06/2012 1:43:26 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\062912-24460-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys (atikmpag+0x7AE4)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800CA154E0, 0xFFFFF880019A0AE4, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmpag.sys .
Google query: atikmpag.sys VIDEO_TDR_ERROR




On Sat 30/06/2012 1:24:06 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\062912-24492-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys (atikmpag+0x7AE4)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800D3954E0, 0xFFFFF88004518AE4, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmpag.sys .
Google query: atikmpag.sys VIDEO_TDR_ERROR




On Fri 29/06/2012 1:23:23 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\062812-24382-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys (atikmpag+0x7AE4)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800D6484E0, 0xFFFFF88004956AE4, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmpag.sys .
Google query: atikmpag.sys VIDEO_TDR_ERROR




On Fri 29/06/2012 12:59:31 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\062812-24507-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys (atikmpag+0x7AE4)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800CF6E4E0, 0xFFFFF88001A21AE4, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmpag.sys .
Google query: atikmpag.sys VIDEO_TDR_ERROR




On Fri 29/06/2012 12:28:26 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\062812-47268-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys (atikmpag+0x7AE4)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800D464010, 0xFFFFF88003064AE4, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmpag.sys .
Google query: atikmpag.sys VIDEO_TDR_ERROR

Edit : I also added a screenshot of MEMORY.dmp call stack, if it can help.

 

as suspected thats your 7970 graphics driver.
there are quite a lot of people having troubles with these drivers lately.
cant advise much more than that as i only use nvidia

 

get the 12.7 official beta drivers from amd.com and do a custom install. install ONLY the display driver, right over the top of your existing driver. works perfectly

 

What I find weird is that it only crashes with Skyrim after 2-3 hours of play. No trouble with anything else, no performance problem, no overheating... Is there a test that I could run safely overnight (~7 hours) to see if it crashes? Because it only seems to crash after long durations, but I don't want to run a stress test for 7 hours

@fenryr423 Simple as that? Just download 12.7 and install over the existing one? Does it install it in a separate directory, so that if it fails I can just uninstall it and keep using the old one? Is it CCC compatible? Also, do I install the CAP1 thing?

 

Just install the driver like he said, if it doesn't work you can revert to old driver

 

Could actually be overheating, of the VRAM and power components on 7970M. the GPU diode doesn't pick this up. Might help to check if the VRAM/power heatsink and pads are properly installed.

An ultra low GPU temp in Kombustor for example would point not to great cooling, but to no/low cooling of VRAM. (GPU heatsink airflow is in the path of the VRAM heatsink)

 

It doesn't feel that hot when I check with my hand (FurMark made it hit a much higher temperature(89C)). Should I feel it if the compenents you mentioned were overheating? Also, would it be dangerous for my GPU if I tried running FurMark right after a crash (so I can confirm if it's only crashing on Skyrim)? I'll try installing the 12.7 driver tonight and if it crashes again, I'll check VRAM cooling.

 

This sounds good then if you're hitting 89 in futuremark, so it's more likely VRAM cooling is OK but you can always take a look, it's not hard. No it's not dangerous to run FutureMark after the crash, try it.

 

Installed the 12.7 beta drivers last night and played about 3 hours straight... no BSOD Let's hope it's not only luck! Although I had a little problem with Skyrim, the HUD was messed up. This post describes the problem and how to solve it : FYI - For those playing Skyrim with AMD 7970 series - Overclockers UK Forums

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

Yeah, I think I will go with Nvidia...

 

Even with this BSOD, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. I'm seeing a lot of problems solved on this forum with the 12.7 beta. Should see even more with the official release

 

I also got the atikmpag.sys BSOD x116 and it seems to be resolved now with the installation of the 12.7 Beta driver (only) over the stock 12.5 package which came from reseller.

 

Guys make sure to use the AMD issue reporting form so AMD can hear about problems faster. Report GPU under utilization issues, BSODs, freezes, etc.:

AMD Issue Reporting Form for AMD Catalyst™ 12.6 and 12.7 Beta

 

Been using 12.7 beta for 3 days now and got no BSOD since

@TrantaLocked I'll keep that in mind if something happens, thanks!