Radeon 7970 computer hard lock with sound loop in T.E.R.A Online

[Anvi]

Using high graphics settings (at least 3,4,5 & 6) will randomly cause total system freeze with sound loop. Using Preset 2 doesn't show the same symptoms.

I even bought new computer, but the issue repeated itself on my new rig. Only thing in common with these systems are the 7970 GPU

Old system:
CPU: Core i7 860
MBR: AUS P7P55D Deluxe
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 7970
RAM: 8GB DDR3
SSD: Vertex2 240GB

New system:
CPU: Core i7 3930k
MBR: ASUS X79 Sabertooth TUF
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon 7970 WF
RAM: 8GB DDR3 2000MHZ
SSD: STT Ultradrive 120GB

At least EU and Korean clients suffer from this problem. I didn't have this issue a year ago in Korea. Back then I had 6970 CFX as GPUs.

Please report if you have the same issue.

Here's 2 more threads about this:
https://forum.tera-europe.com/showthread.php?t=72574
https://tera-answers.enmasse.com/pos...tart=1&stop=15
Total War: Shogun 2 - Hard lock with sound loop
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=531017
Catalyst feedback:
http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3

[leopr]

Originally Posted by Anvi

Using high graphics settings (at least 5,6) will randomly cause total system freeze with sound loop.

I even bought new computer, but the issue repeated itself on my new rig. Only thing in common with these systems are the 7970 GPU

Old system:
CPU: Core i7 860
MBR: AUS P7P55D Deluxe
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 7970
RAM: 8GB DDR3
SSD: Vertex2 240GB

New system:
CPU: Core i7 3930k
MBR: ASUS X79 Sabertooth TUF
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon 7970 WF
RAM: 8GB DDR3 2000MHZ
SSD: STT Ultradrive 120GB

At least EU and Korean clients suffer from this problem. I didn't have this issue a year ago in Korea. Back then I had 6970 CFX as GPUs.

Please report if you have the same issue.

Here's another thread about this:
https://forum.tera-europe.com/showthread.php?t=72574
Catalyst feedback:
http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3

I suffer from the same issue @ F1 2011, guess what, i got a 7970 too ;/.
I can play for hours or minutes but no matter what i will end getting a computer freeze + sound loop.

[Del_Boy]

I've had two different types of sound loop problem before, first was in 2005 when i was playing Quake 4, game would recover after 20 seconds or so, turned out i didn't have enough ram,

Then in 2009 i brought a HD4890 and had mad game freezes with sound loop with lines on screen and had to do a hard reset, tuned out i had to update sound card drivers, hope this helps.

[kn00tcn]

so no BSOD or error in event log at all?

[Anvi]

Originally Posted by kn00tcn

so no BSOD or error in event log at all?

None. I made custom filters to look for errors or warnings but nothing appears at the time of freeze. First errors are on next boot up "Computer didn't shut down properly".

Other users reported exact same issue on that tera forum thread.

[leopr]

Originally Posted by kn00tcn

so no BSOD or error in event log at all?

In my case, no BSOD, the image freezes and i hear a looping sound (Related to the game i was playing, for me it only happens @ F1 2011 because i play Crysis2,BF3,WOW with no problems at all), no BSOD, no minidump, nothing :E .

Probably its driver related and since its AMD we are talking about, we might never see a solution.

[kn00tcn]

it's actually kinda rare, usually a massive driver fail ends up with a BSOD with atipmdag.sys

is the game with vsync? high fps?

[leopr]

Originally Posted by kn00tcn

it's actually kinda rare, usually a massive driver fail ends up with a BSOD with atipmdag.sys

is the game with vsync? high fps?

I play with vsync yes, if i turn it off i have too much FPS (It causes coil whine, more annoying **** than the random freezes).

But the weird thing it only happens with one game (F1 2011).

Someone told me to unistall Google Chrome and try with FF, Chrome hardware acceleration it might cause some kind of conflict with specific games.

[Anvi]

Originally Posted by kn00tcn

it's actually kinda rare, usually a massive driver fail ends up with a BSOD with atipmdag.sys

is the game with vsync? high fps?

Fps can vary between 40 and 100. I keep Vsync disabled.
Lower graphics settings seem to be keeping the system stable..

[TallgeeseIV]

Same exact problem. I played the Diablo 3 beta for hours and never had this problem, But I have it in TERA and Skyrim.

Specs:

CPU: Core i7 3820
MBR: ASUS P9X79
GPU: Gigabyte RadeonHD 7850 2048mb
Secondary GPU: HIS RadeonHD 4670
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600MHZ
PSU: 650 Watts

I read on another forum that a lot of people with x79 boards are experiencing hardlocks, all (i didn't read every post, but all the posts i read) have asus boards. some said changing pcie mode from gen3 to gen2 fixed it for them, didn't fix it for me.

Interestingly enough, as you can see I don't have a 7970. Problem on catalyst 12-3 and 12-4. haven't tried older versions. latest bios version, latest chipset drivers, latest catalyst, no change so far. Also haven't tried turning the graphics settings down... As much as I don't want to, i'll try that....

[Anvi]

Originally Posted by TallgeeseIV

Same exact problem. I played the Diablo 3 beta for hours and never had this problem, But I have it in TERA and Skyrim.

Specs:

CPU: Core i7 3820
MBR: ASUS P9X79
GPU: Gigabyte RadeonHD 7850 2048mb
Secondary GPU: HIS RadeonHD 4670
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600MHZ
PSU: 650 Watts

I read on another forum that a lot of people with x79 boards are experiencing hardlocks, all (i didn't read every post, but all the posts i read) have asus boards. some said changing pcie mode from gen3 to gen2 fixed it for them, didn't fix it for me.

Interestingly enough, as you can see I don't have a 7970. Problem on catalyst 12-3 and 12-4. haven't tried older versions. latest bios version, latest chipset drivers, latest catalyst, no change so far. Also haven't tried turning the graphics settings down... As much as I don't want to, i'll try that....

I suppose it could affect other 7xxx cards as well. My older rig is using P55 - Core i7 860, 7970 and same problem there, so it's not chipset related. I also had the hard freeze happen once or twice in Skyrim and our findings seem consistent.

Doesn't seem to be an issue for other games. For example I've played Mass Effect 3 single and multiplayer for ~200 hours without a single hiccup.

I grow tired of graphics card problem solving..

[Mr_Ditters]

7870 here. I get hard lockups in Skyrim and especially Shogun 2. Its hard to play 15 minutes in Shogun 2 without the lock up. A lot of people in their forums are having the same issue with HD 7xxx cards.

I emailed AMD customer support and they said they are aware of the issue and to be patient for the next CCC. I don't know what to think about that.

[howto]

same problem here Tera online freezing after 1-2 hours, after restarting Tera is freezing after 10 mins ...

Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2 GHz
AMD Radeon HD7950
Kingston HyperX XMP 32 GB DDR3 1600 MHz Memory
ASUS RAMPAGE IV Intel X79 Express
Samsung MZ-7PC128D 128GB
WIN 7 64 Bit

[vitaflo]

Looks like I'm not the only one and that it is a problem with 7XXX cards. My issue is with my 7870 and it's with Starcraft 2. About 15 minutes into the game the screen goes black and I get a sound loop. Have to hard reset and there is no log of the issue. Happens regardless of whether I have vsync on or not.

I've done some stress tests on the card and cpu, and both seem fine. I've also had the game crash while playing Portal. I'm hoping it's just the drivers, although I do have one of the new Z77 ASUS boards. I wanted to get some newer tech in my rig but I may have just gotten something too new with early drivers. In some ways I hope that's the case and it's not the card being bunk.

[Mr_Ditters]

Originally Posted by vitaflo

Looks like I'm not the only one and that it is a problem with 7XXX cards. My issue is with my 7870 and it's with Starcraft 2. About 15 minutes into the game the screen goes black and I get a sound loop. Have to hard reset and there is no log of the issue. Happens regardless of whether I have vsync on or not.

I've done some stress tests on the card and cpu, and both seem fine. I've also had the game crash while playing Portal. I'm hoping it's just the drivers, although I do have one of the new Z77 ASUS boards. I wanted to get some newer tech in my rig but I may have just gotten something too new with early drivers. In some ways I hope that's the case and it's not the card being bunk.

I'll give SC2 a try to see if it happens to me too. But right now (in the past 10 minutes) the displays are blacking of for split seconds repeatedly. Not good.

[Robula]

Hi, I also own a single HD 7970 and I have frequent hard locks while playing TERA. Never had this problem with any other game since I got this card. :/

Some days playing TERA is fine, then I'll get this issue and it will carry on until the computer is turned off for a while. While my GPU temperature is relatively low while playing, I can't imagine it is overheating.

[TallgeeseIV]

Found this thread for another game, seems to be the same issue:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=531017

Looks like it is an HD7xxx series problem with no fix yet.

[Valagard]

I've played Tera online (When it lets me play online for hours) in a multiple 4-6 hour sittings without a single crash or hardware lock up, and I have a 7970

EDIT: I am not saying the problem doesn't exist for some users, just saying that its not affecting all users like in my case

[Robobandit]

I think the problem pretty much exists for everybody.

It is random and unpredictable enough that you could conceivably have had several 4-6 hour play sessions without experiencing the issue.

Sometimes I play for 8 hours or more and don't see it.. sometimes it happens within 10 minutes.. it truly does seem random.

I tried lowering the screen resolution, disabling my cpu overclock, playing in a window.. none of it mattered.. it still happened eventually and it didn't matter which drivers I used.. RC11, 12.2, 12.3 or 12.4 or the april 18th hotfix driver..

I also get flickering textures and problems with any video driver and the driver also frequently stops responding and crashes with all of these drivers.

I don't think I've ever been this frustrated with an ATI card before.

[TallgeeseIV]

Originally Posted by Robobandit

I think the problem pretty much exists for everybody.

It is random and unpredictable enough that you could conceivably have had several 4-6 hour play sessions without experiencing the issue.

Sometimes I play for 8 hours or more and don't see it.. sometimes it happens within 10 minutes.. it truly does seem random.

I tried lowering the screen resolution, disabling my cpu overclock, playing in a window.. none of it mattered.. it still happened eventually and it didn't matter which drivers I used.. RC11, 12.2, 12.3 or 12.4 or the april 18th hotfix driver..

I also get flickering textures and problems with any video driver and the driver also frequently stops responding and crashes with all of these drivers.

I don't think I've ever been this frustrated with an ATI card before.

I second the unpredictability of the issue. I've also played for 3-4 hours straight with no issue, and I also had it lock up upon loading the game once or twice.

My card doesn't seem to have any texture problems, graphics seem crystal clear and accurate except for the crashes. no driver not responding errors or anything, although I am having a weird issue with the catalyst 12.4 drivers where the right click context menu icon isn't installed along with them. it's there in 12.3, just not 12.4, very strange.

Also, ALLLLLL these people are having the same problem:

https://tera-answers.enmasse.com/pos...tart=1&stop=15

At the end (at the time I'm posting this) the lowering the graphics settings solution seems to be the fix until AMD get's it done.

[Lane]

I have play the beta from start.. and never really experience problem.

never get a lock on. Funny to see the beta was so smooth, and there's problem after the game launch...

But, i have not transform my beta account and upgrade since.. so i cant tell if something have change ..

[GhostXL]

Originally Posted by Lane

I have play the beta from start.. and never really experience problem.

never get a lock on. Funny to see the beta was so smooth, and there's problem after the game launch...

But, i have not transform my beta account and upgrade since.. so i cant tell if something have change ..

Nope nothing major changed from the beta client to launch. You will get launch updates through that same client.

[TallgeeseIV]

Also the problem was there in the beta as well. Also I'm convinced this is a driver issue since the same thing happens with several other games.

[Anvi]

I hope AMD fixes this before more custom GTX 680 cards show up in stock. Because I've just about had it with the driver problems.. I read thru the Total War thread and sure seems like the very same problem.

[Robula]

Just out of interest. How many of you are using MSI Afterburner?