Inexpensive RELIABLE video card for AMD Ryzen 2700 mobo

[hz01938]

First, I do not play games at all. All I need is a reliable video card.

Here is my system:

I am suspecting my current GTX 1050 card does not get along with the system. It got along with my previous system (Intel Core i5). I heard Nvidia drivers are relatively buggy. True?

Is Radeon HD 6450 too old?

Probably the most graphics intensive task that my computer does is processing photos from my Canon camera occasionally. I assume any video card made in the past 10 years can do it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Another option is to do an "in place upgrade". Regardless of what version of windows 10 you are currently running, if the problem is due to a platform change or related to drivers for some hardware in the new build not clicking with what was already installed, you could potentially solve it with an in place upgrade that doesn't cause you to lose any of the installed applications but refreshes the entire operating system including driver frameworks.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/windows10-deploy-inplaceupgrade


I would recommend simply going to the following link, clicking on the Update now button and running the in place upgrade if you are already on the latest build version OR actually upgrading to the latest build version if you are not. It won't be as likely to cure the problem as a clean install, but it does work in many cases after a platform change PLUS if Windows is already activated, you won't need to do anything as far as making sure it is already attached to your microsoft account. It won't magically de-activate if it currently IS activated or you have a digital entitlement.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If it doesn't cure your problem, you shouldn't be any worse off than you are now. I probably WOULD make sure that my installation was registered/attached to an MS account first anyhow, because you just never know, but like I said, it shouldn't be a problem if you don't so long as the current installation is valid.

 

[hz01938]

OK, kudos for being proactive on the backup situation.

So where are you with the crashing issue?

As I stated earlier, it crashes once every few days now down from a few times per day earlier.

 

[hz01938]

Another option is to do an "in place upgrade". Regardless of what version of windows 10 you are currently running, if the problem is due to a platform change or related to drivers for some hardware in the new build not clicking with what was already installed, you could potentially solve it with an in place upgrade that doesn't cause you to lose any of the installed applications but refreshes the entire operating system including driver frameworks.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/windows10-deploy-inplaceupgrade


I would recommend simply going to the following link, clicking on the Update now button and running the in place upgrade if you are already on the latest build version OR actually upgrading to the latest build version if you are not. It won't be as likely to cure the problem as a clean install, but it does work in many cases after a platform change PLUS if Windows is already activated, you won't need to do anything as far as making sure it is already attached to your microsoft account. It won't magically de-activate if it currently IS activated or you have a digital entitlement.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If it doesn't cure your problem, you shouldn't be any worse off than you are now. I probably WOULD make sure that my installation was registered/attached to an MS account first anyhow, because you just never know, but like I said, it shouldn't be a problem if you don't so long as the current installation is valid.

I suspect this is the "repair install" that I mentioned in the other thread. I did that ,and that appeared to be a turning point - significantly reduced the crash rate, but I am not 100% sure because I also cleaned quite a few drivers around that time. I essentially followed The instructions to use an ISO file.

What made the situation slightly complicated, but not too bad, is that I also changed the SSD - the primary drive - from Micron M500 to Samsung NVMe 970. I was stunned by the 7-fold speed increase. I did not know that I was using a wrong type of SSD. I should have done this long time ago. I need to pay more attention to these hardware advancement than I have.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Repair install is 100% different thing. What build version of Windows 10 are you currently running?

You can find out by entering winver in any search or run command box and hitting enter. The latest build version, which is the early December (Was October but was redacted and then re-released later with fixes to some major problems) release and is version 1809.

Also, if you have NOT installed the Samsung specific NVME driver, and are using the built in Windows NVME PCI driver, you should do that.

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/DR/201805/20180514160435960/Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe

 

[hz01938]

Repair install is 100% different thing. What build version of Windows 10 are you currently running?

You can find out by entering winver in any search or run command box and hitting enter. The latest build version, which is the early December (Was October but was redacted and then re-released later with fixes to some major problems) release and is version 1809.

Also, if you have NOT installed the Samsung specific NVME driver, and are using the built in Windows NVME PCI driver, you should do that.

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/DR/201805/20180514160435960/Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe

I did not know there was a driver for SSD. Great tip. I have just installed it.
I looked at the link you sent again, I still believe that is essentially what I did. There are more than one ways to do it, I used the ISO approach for convenience. Once it starts, each step appears the same.

 

[hz01938]

Repair install is 100% different thing. What build version of Windows 10 are you currently running?

You can find out by entering winver in any search or run command box and hitting enter. The latest build version, which is the early December (Was October but was redacted and then re-released later with fixes to some major problems) release and is version 1809.

Also, if you have NOT installed the Samsung specific NVME driver, and are using the built in Windows NVME PCI driver, you should do that.

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/DR/201805/20180514160435960/Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe

Don't why the Samsung SSD's driver is still from Microsoft after installing the Samsung NVM driver. I did not get any error message during the installation, and I rebooted the computer per the prompt at the end of the installation.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, if you used the media creation tool to install the latest build version of Windows, then that ISN'T a repair install. It's either an upgrade, update or in place upgrade, depending on what your current version was prior to doing that. Either way, that IS what I was wanting you to try so since you've already done that, no point in doing it again. It's very likely that either a clean install is going to be necessary OR that your problem is due to one or more of the programs you have installed not being compatible with Windows 10 in some way.

As far as the NVME driver, I'm not sure on that and now that you mentioned it I looked at mine and it's showing the same. I will look into this and get back to you on it. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation, then again, this is Microshaft we're talking about so who knows.

 

[hz01938]

It looks like that the driver for the Samsung NVMe SSD is up to date. I do not know why Device Manager shows Microsoft driver.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Possibly because the driver is for the actual PCI bus interface and the drive property itself in device manager is simply showing the system built in framework for the Microsoft storage space controller. If you look at ALL your drives, they probably all show the same driver version and then if you open storage controllers and look at Microsoft storage spaces it is likely the exact same one that's showing for all of the storage drives.

Stupid IMO. If a drive uses a specific driver, THAT should be what shows up in the device manager details.

 

[hz01938]

Possibly because the driver is for the actual PCI bus interface and the drive property itself in device manager is simply showing the system built in framework for the Microsoft storage space controller. If you look at ALL your drives, they probably all show the same driver version and then if you open storage controllers and look at Microsoft storage spaces it is likely the exact same one that's showing for all of the storage drives.

Stupid IMO. If a drive uses a specific driver, THAT should be what shows up in the device manager details.

You are exactly right - all disk drives show the same Microsoft driver.
When I checked Storage controllers per your suggestion, I saw Samsung NVMe Controller. This is at least confusing if not misleading:

 

[Darkbreeze]

It shouldn't be confusing, it SHOULD be there. The controller is ON the drive, so it needs to be there. I think mostly the storage spaces controller exists only to give each drive the ability to be used in virtual environments. I'm actually not 150% certain beyond that.

There are probably some other uses for it as well. Depending on your motherboard though, there should probably ALSO be some other form of storage controller listed there as well unless you have a microATX motherboard will only a limited number of SATA headers or are fortunate enough to have a motherboard with all premium SATA headers (No ASMedia, Marvell, etc, secondary storage controller) which will possibly be driven through the chipset drivers. OR, given the fact that you ARE having these problems, it may be due to the platform change.

What is your EXACT motherboard model number? I looked at the other thread you have and you list B50-F which is missing a number. Could be B350 or B450. Need to know for sure. Need to also know whether or not you have gone to the product page for your motherboard and manually downloaded and installed each and every driver (Only the latest version of each driver) for the chipset (Or obtained the newest Ryzen chipset drivers directly from AMD website), storage controllers, network adapters and audio. If you have not, you NEED to do that.

 

[hz01938]

So, if you used the media creation tool to install the latest build version of Windows, then that ISN'T a repair install. It's either an upgrade, update or in place upgrade, depending on what your current version was prior to doing that. Either way, that IS what I was wanting you to try so since you've already done that, no point in doing it again. It's very likely that either a clean install is going to be necessary OR that your problem is due to one or more of the programs you have installed not being compatible with Windows 10 in some way.

As far as the NVME driver, I'm not sure on that and now that you mentioned it I looked at mine and it's showing the same. I will look into this and get back to you on it. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation, then again, this is Microshaft we're talking about so who knows.

It shouldn't be confusing, it SHOULD be there. The controller is ON the drive, so it needs to be there. I think mostly the storage spaces controller exists only to give each drive the ability to be used in virtual environments. I'm actually not 150% certain beyond that.

There are probably some other uses for it as well. Depending on your motherboard though, there should probably ALSO be some other form of storage controller listed there as well unless you have a microATX motherboard will only a limited number of SATA headers or are fortunate enough to have a motherboard with all premium SATA headers (No ASMedia, Marvell, etc, secondary storage controller) which will possibly be driven through the chipset drivers. OR, given the fact that you ARE having these problems, it may be due to the platform change.

What is your EXACT motherboard model number? I looked at the other thread you have and you list B50-F which is missing a number. Could be B350 or B450. Need to know for sure. Need to also know whether or not you have gone to the product page for your motherboard and manually downloaded and installed each and every driver (Only the latest version of each driver) for the chipset (Or obtained the newest Ryzen chipset drivers directly from AMD website), storage controllers, network adapters and audio. If you have not, you NEED to do that.

Thank you for the elucidation. Going to Asus's website to download and install the latest drivers was the first thing I did.
Here is the motherboard information:

Repair install may be a misnomer for that installation. I did install the same version of Windows 10 (1809).

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, so that IS an in place upgrade. It just gives you the same installation you already have, but fixes things that might have been broken. So in a sense it IS a repair install, but it's not actually the "process" used when "repairing" windows because that relies on a snapshot of the image taken when the initial installation was done which in some cases might have had problems from the start.

Obviously, better than any of these methods a clean install is clearly a much better option ESPECIALLY if this installation is still riding an upgrade from an earlier version of Windows such as Windows 7 or 8.1, OR if you have been through several major spring or fall updates without having done a clean install.

I fully understand your hesitation to do this, but I think it would be helpful if for no other reason (And I don't think that is the case) than to say it's not the issue. It's probably equally likely to be something in the installation that cannot be fixed properly without a clean install or it's due to an application that simply doesn't want to play nice with the current version of Windows 10 and we've seen quite a few older applications and drivers do exactly this.

It might not EVER be possible, for some applications, to get them to work right on current Windows 10 versions, if they are very old applications that have not ever been updated for support for Windows 10 or are not currently being kept current to ensure continued compatibility with Windows 10 every time they do a major update.

It could also BE a hardware issue, that is always a given, but it's often hard to figure out if that is the case unless and until you've eliminated these other possibilities as well.

 

[hz01938]

Yeah, so that IS an in place upgrade. It just gives you the same installation you already have, but fixes things that might have been broken. So in a sense it IS a repair install, but it's not actually the "process" used when "repairing" windows because that relies on a snapshot of the image taken when the initial installation was done which in some cases might have had problems from the start.

Obviously, better than any of these methods a clean install is clearly a much better option ESPECIALLY if this installation is still riding an upgrade from an earlier version of Windows such as Windows 7 or 8.1, OR if you have been through several major spring or fall updates without having done a clean install.

I fully understand your hesitation to do this, but I think it would be helpful if for no other reason (And I don't think that is the case) than to say it's not the issue. It's probably equally likely to be something in the installation that cannot be fixed properly without a clean install or it's due to an application that simply doesn't want to play nice with the current version of Windows 10 and we've seen quite a few older applications and drivers do exactly this.

It might not EVER be possible, for some applications, to get them to work right on current Windows 10 versions, if they are very old applications that have not ever been updated for support for Windows 10 or are not currently being kept current to ensure continued compatibility with Windows 10 every time they do a major update.

It could also BE a hardware issue, that is always a given, but it's often hard to figure out if that is the case unless and until you've eliminated these other possibilities as well.

Somehow the Samsung driver has shown up in Device Manager under Disk Drives:

I think it happened after I plugged in a USB drive for backup.

Perhaps a good indicator of of the the large number of apps that I have is the used space of the primary SSD - 417 GB. This is AFTER I used junction and other methods to direct many directories that are supposed to be on the primary drive to a secondary drive (e.g. Pictures folder, package cache, etc.). In other words the 417 GB space is primarily used by Windows OS + installed apps. The project files created by the apps are mostly on the secondary drive.
What may compel me to to have a clean install may be issues with some apps that existed LONG before the recent hardware update. For example, I cannot use the latest version of Firefox or Thunderbird because they would crash instantly. I have the feeling it may happen with more and more apps one way or another.

I greatly appreciate your persistent help.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You have a long weekend ahead of you, at some point. Heh.

 

[hz01938]

You have a long weekend ahead of you, at some point. Heh.

Yes, a very looong one.
I am wondering if you could let me know if the following idea is valid.
I actually use only about half a dozen applications + browsers more than 95% of the time. I have two SSDs with similar sizes. I can have a fresh install on the Samsung NVMe SSD, then install those frequently used applications on it first, then boot from it most of the time. When I need to use other applications, I boot from the other SSD that still has the original image. In other words, I have two installations of Windows 10 to boot from depending on which applications I want to use. I use one of them at least 95% of the time. If this works, I can take time (e.g. one or two months) to sort out other applications and migrate them one by one to the new installation.

Is this approach viable?

 

[madmatt30]

^ yes its a viable approach.

In fact a fairly sensible one too.

 

[hz01938]

^ yes its a viable approach.

In fact a fairly sensible one too.

Great! Thank you for for the nod. I will get that going most likely this weekend, and hopefully finish the complete migration by the end of next month.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I have to not agree, to some degree at least. I've seen a lot of problems with multiple OS drives attached unless there was a 3rd party boot loader involved. It's recommended to change the BIOS settings to UEFI (Windows 8/10) rather than CSM (Legacy) and select "Windows boot manager" as the boot device when running Windows 10 and if you have two separate drives, both with viable boot and EFI partitions on them, you could confuse the hell out of the BIOS.

It's definitely an option like Matt has indicated, but I'd be careful with it. Maybe do the clean install to the NVME drive WITHOUT the other drive attached, which is how it needs to be done anyhow (All secondary drives should be disconnected when you do the clean install and then reattached after you are completely done), make sure that everything is good and then shut down, add the other drive and see if there are any issues. If there are, you may need a 3rd party boot loader to differentiate between the two.

 

[hz01938]

I have to not agree, to some degree at least. I've seen a lot of problems with multiple OS drives attached unless there was a 3rd party boot loader involved. It's recommended to change the BIOS settings to UEFI (Windows 8/10) rather than CSM (Legacy) and select "Windows boot manager" as the boot device when running Windows 10 and if you have two separate drives, both with viable boot and EFI partitions on them, you could confuse the hell out of the BIOS.

It's definitely an option like Matt has indicated, but I'd be careful with it. Maybe do the clean install to the NVME drive WITHOUT the other drive attached, which is how it needs to be done anyhow (All secondary drives should be disconnected when you do the clean install and then reattached after you are completely done), make sure that everything is good and then shut down, add the other drive and see if there are any issues. If there are, you may need a 3rd party boot loader to differentiate between the two.

Thank you for the caution.

It would be very easy for me to attach only the NVMe SSD that I need more than 95% of the time. I need to figure out how to disable it when I use the other one because I cannot simply unplug a cable. It is screwed to the M.2 socket of the motherboard.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You should be able to fairly easily choose the one time (Each time) boot override option in the bios on those occasions when you need to boot from the other drive.

 

[hz01938]

You should be able to fairly easily choose the one time (Each time) boot override option in the bios on those occasions when you need to boot from the other drive.

I am not sure what you meant. I can choose the boot drive easily. When I choose the Samsung SSD, I can unplug the Micron SSD physically first. However, I cannot unplug the Samsung SSD physicall easily if I choose the Micron SSD for booting. As my understanding of your caution, this might be a problem.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is your motherboard model number?

Most boards from the last five generations or so have an option on the same page where you save or exit the bios settings, or on the boot order page, to choose a drive to force a boot to if it is a drive that contains a bootable partition. It is called a "boot override" because it will attempt to boot from that drive, say, a secondary storage drive or USB drive, rather than the drive that is normally configured to be the primary boot drive.

 

[hz01938]

What is your motherboard model number?

Most boards from the last five generations or so have an option on the same page where you save or exit the bios settings, or on the boot order page, to choose a drive to force a boot to if it is a drive that contains a bootable partition. It is called a "boot override" because it will attempt to boot from that drive, say, a secondary storage drive or USB drive, rather than the drive that is normally configured to be the primary boot drive.

ASUS ROG STRIX B350-F.
I usually set the first drive of the boot sequence in BIOS to the drive from which I want boot. For example, will set the first one to the Samsung SSD most of the time after unplug the Micro SSD, and set it to the Micro SSD the rest of the time or occasionally in this process. In the latter case, I cannot unplug the Samsung drive.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, it SHOULD be set to "Windows boot manager" (Along with Windows 8/10 selected in the secure boot setttings), if you want to use the full benefit of creating and running a UEFI installation, not a specific drive, which is why it might create problems.

Settings for CSM, secure boot and boot override are all located in section 3.8 of the user manual for your motherboard. Also, it would be recommended to ensure that your bios view is set to advanced rather than EZ as many options will not be available under the basic or EZ mode views.