Question Help! Strange Problem with New System

Apr 24, 2021
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I recently built a new system through CLX with the following specs:

Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900X 3.7GHz 12-Core
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO - ATX
Memory: G.SKILL Z Trident Total 64 GB Dual Channel Memory
Graphics Card:AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT, 16GB of dedicated GDDR6
Operating System Storage: 1TB Patriot P300 PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe
CPU Liquid Cooling: CLX Quench 240 Closed Liquid Cooler
Secondary Storage: 4TB 3.5in Seagate Barracuda HDD
Chassis Selection: Set Eclipse P400S Mid Tower Black/Red
Chassis Fans: CLX Red Ring Fan
Power Supply: EVGA 850 B3 - 80+ Bronze 850W

I have not had an AMD/Radeon build in probably 15 years. I've been solidly in the Intel/Nvidia camp, but was convinced to give the 5900X a shot. I ended up with the RX 6900XT after I waited almost two months for CLX to get a 3080 card. When they offered to upgrade me to a 6900XT free of charge, I said, "what the heck..." After all, I built this system mainly for VR flight simming (DCS, IL-2 BoX, MSFS2020, etc.), so the RTX features didn't really matter to me.

In any event, shortly after installing DCS and running it in VR, I started getting green screen crashes followed by reboots, artifacting or signal loss to all monitors. Eventually, I sent the system back to CLX and they replaced the GPU and reinstalled windows. When I received the system back, and ran DCS, the same thing happened. Green screen crashing, artifacting and sometimes signal loss. CLX had me run DDU and do a fresh install of the Radeon software. This seemed to solve the problem and everything was running great....until this week. I put in a second SSD and to do that, I had to take the GPU out. As soon as I put everything back in and went to run DCS, same damn problem! I've been running DCS on every computer I've owned since it came out as LOMAC. Although DCS in VR seems to be the catalyst for the problem, I really don't think it is the problem.

CLX insists it’s a GPU problem and they are sending me another one. This will be the third card in this system. When I express disbelief that two GPUs can go bad, they claim that it is an industry wide problem this year due to covid shortages and work restrictions. QA has been very poor and parts shortages are requiring manufacturers to source from more questionable distributers, and they are seeing record numbers of bad cards come back as RMAs as a result. They claim this is a problem with AMD and Nvidia. They had me run my card with furmark under full load and they do not believe this is a power or heat issue. I have multiple monitors with both HDMI and DS cords. When I lose signal, I lose it to all monitors. I've also tried running DDU and just installing the AMD display driver without all the bloatware. No dice. Just about the only time I'm confident that the system will run stable is when I boot in safe mode. I've searched the internet and seen several threads reporting similar problems/symtoms, but none of the recommended fixes seem to work for me. What else could it be? MOBO? Ram? I’m getting to my wits end. CLX customer support has been great, but this is getting old. I've spent more time on the phone with tech support than I have using this $3200 system.

Anyway, I'm new to this forum and it seems like there are a lot of smart people here. I'm really interested in all of your thoughts and advice.

Thanks in advance.

Semper Fi.
 

David0ne86

Prominent
Mar 11, 2021
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A bronze 850 w to fuel a 5900x and a 6900xt is a VERY bad idea in my humble opinion. Did you try to run any stress tests on your pc like aida64 to see what happens?


Doesn't strike me as an high quality psu to me. And to me it's baffling they decided to put such low quality psu on such a rig.
 
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It's not a bad PSU but it's certainly not as good as it should for such a high end PC. It indeed might be the issue here.
Is it possible to ask them to replace it with a better one?
The tier list will help you:

I would definitely get a tier A for that system.
 
Apr 24, 2021
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Thanks for your thoughts. I’ve discussed PSU with several of their techs and none of them feel that power is the issue based on the symptoms of the problem. I guess primarily the green screening and artifacting. Also, the problem will occur from desktop when there are low power demands with nothing running. The only stress test they ran with me is through furmark.
 

David0ne86

Prominent
Mar 11, 2021
424
113
440
Thanks for your thoughts. I’ve discussed PSU with several of their techs and none of them feel that power is the issue based on the symptoms of the problem. I guess primarily the green screening and artifacting. Also, the problem will occur from desktop when there are low power demands with nothing running. The only stress test they ran with me is through furmark.

And the results were? Meaning stress testing with furmark. Because if nothing happened then and there, it's def not the videocard as furmark is most likely the most intense stress bench for the gpu out there today.
It is also really weird the same issue presented with two different cards. I mean it is possible i guess, but you will have to be REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLYREALLY REALLY REALLYREALLY REALLY REALLYREALLY REALLY REALLYREALLY REALLY REALLYREALLY REALLY REALLY (think that's enough) unlucky. I would honestly try to look elsewhere. I would personally NEVER put a cheap notsogreat psu in such a build. Can you please try to stress test it yourself using aida64 as it will stress your whole system rather than a particular piece of hardware?
Have you also tried contacting amd/other players of said game to see if they have your same issues?
 
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Apr 24, 2021
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I'm not breaking out any cigars by a long shot, but I did a manual install of the AMD drivers through the device manager and so far the system seems to be running stable. I've watched some youtube, loaded steam and downloaded a file. Otherwise, just let the thing idle on desktop and so far so good. I still only have one monitor plugged in. Next I'm going to plug in my VR headset and see if anything changes. Then, I'll run one of my sims and see what happens.

Why would installing the driver directly from the device manager, rather than through the radeon install program, which gives me the option to just install the driver make a difference?
 
Apr 24, 2021
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The plot thickens...I had another crash and/or loss of signal not long after plugging in my VR headset. I don't know exactly what happened because I left the room briefly to take out the damn garbage and, of course, that is when the event occurred. Regardless, I'm thinking one of two things at this point. It either is another bad GPU, or perhaps the VR headset adds to the power draw and there is an issue with the PSU?

As I said above, CLX is confident it is not the PSU, but I don't really know what to think at this point and a lot of you guys who have chimed in here seem to think that this PSU is not appropriate for this system. I've run a lot of different PSU calculators and they all come out with draw in the 450-550w range. I'm not sure why this 850w wouldn't be sufficient.
 
Apr 24, 2021
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OK...I am now willing to bet that this is a VR related issue. There do not seem to be any problems until I plug in my headset and run Windows Mixed Reality. I do not know if it is a GPU or a PSU issue, but it has to be one of the two and it is triggered by the VR Headset and/or WMR.