BSOD shortly after starting

demonicvampiregirl

I posted this on the Steam forums but got little to no help. So posting it here in hopes I get better replies.

Copy/paste of the OP from the thread:

I just downloaded this game this morning and was going to play it for a bit before I made a call to a friend. Was running fine for a bit and then after saving, restarting, playing a bit and then pausing to talk to my dad, I noticed my screen flickered and it gave me a BSOD.

Here is my PC set up:

Motherboard: Asus M5A99X Evo R2.0 Motherboard
Processor: AMD FX-8350 Processor 8-Core, 4.0 GHz
Memory (part number): CML8GX3M2A1600C9B
Graphics Card #1: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E
Sound Card: Realtek ALC892 (built in)
Monitor: Dell E176FPf 17" LCD Monitor
Storage #1: WD Black 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive (WD1003FZEX)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Universal CPU Cooler
Case: NZXT G921RB Mid Tower Black/Blue Computer Case
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Series HX750W 750W PSU
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Desktop MK320 (920-002836)
Mouse: See Keyboard
Headset/Speakers: Logitech Z313
OS: Windows 7 64 bit SP1


I think the video card is the problem honestly. I am going to be getting a Radeon Nitro + sometime soon. The drivers are not up to date either. The graphics was default at 1024 x 768 with quality on minimum and water on medium? settings I think. All I know is the water looked very blocky. So essentially everything was still default I believe.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202223&ignorebbr=1

This one to be exact.

Will also be upgrading the RAM from 8GB to 16GB as well. If you got any suggestions on what may have caused this and how to fix it, please tell me. I literally just started the game, hardly had any time in it at all and don't really wish to touch it until I know what may be causing it.

Other info:

I saw the post talking about dxdiag and the output_log files. So here they are:

DXDiag: http://pastebin.com/kBjR3d63
Output_log:http://pastebin.com/GnnT4wu3

I did run WhoCrashed and it was atikmdag.sys. I'm still posting to see what may be other issues here. If it's just the video card, the above Radeon is the one I am going to hopefully be getting next and will resolve all my issues.

0x6A7232

Update the drivers. Make sure Windows is up-to-date. And yet, upgrading will help a lot. I want to get a Nitro+ myself here soon.

If you get an SSD (say, 250GB), and install Windows to it, you get 5-15 second boot times. And if you put Subnautica on it it's a lot happier. Good ones are Samsung EVO or PRO 850 or 950/960 series are good, so is Mushkin ECO3. Also I've heard good things about MyDigitalSSD or somesuch. Pro tip, check Tom's Hardware reviews, they are great. Also http://www.userbenchmark.com for comparing different products to decide which to get. http://pcpartpicker.com is good for comparing prices and getting price history for parts.

demonicvampiregirl

Yes, but would any of that actually allow me to even play? I do want to do a round of updates soon on here, so maybe this time I will include the video card drivers. All other games tend to run just fine, on ESO I have to keep extra stuff off in the background as it will make my PC give me a bluescreen but I figure that's cuz it's a resource hog as is.

As for the SSD, I been considering and thinking of doing that for my next PC build along with 1 or 2 1TB HDs. This build is rather far in the future so I don't really need to worry as of right now.

I do check Toms Hardware when I am having issues. They have been rather informal when I've checked them out. I actually got my entire update list in Newegg already, found the same RAM as the PC, the Razer keyboard & mouse I want, along with that video card. I have checked that PC part picker website before, I pretty much found all my items on there for the cheapest price, minus one item I think?

Never heard of the benchmark website, may have to check that out when I next decide on a new video card. I looked at it and the Nitro+ is the top one for Radeons so far from what I gathered. So that's encouraging. I just worry if it'll fit within my PC case. -lol-

0x6A7232

Updating may help you play.

As far as Radeons, if that upgrade is a ways away, when Vega comes out, you should be happy with that, I think - that's the high-end market (like the nVidia GTX 1070 and 1080 are). Currently, the RX 480 is just under a GTX 1070, and for only $180-220 depending on what you get. So here's hoping the Vega cards will give nVidia a run for its money, like the Ryzen CPUs are hopefully going to do with Intel (can't be sure cause it's not released, but it looks like $350 Ryzens are giving $1,000 i7s a run for the money, which is good no matter which side of the camp you're on -- competition will drive performance up and prices down).

If you're worried about the card fitting in the case, just wait a bit and then run the card through pcpartpicker, it should warn you if it won't fit (or just measure) -- they'll likely have smaller versions of the same card eventually, too (IIRC they have single-fan RX 480s now that can fit some smaller cases).

http://wccftech.com/amd-confirms-rx-500-series-preview-capsaicin-cream-l/

http://wccftech.com/amd-confirms-vega-10-doom-4k60fps-vulkan-demo-outperform-gtx-1080-opengl/

http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-7-1700x-389-8-core-cpu-benchmarks-leaked/

http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-reviews-live-february-28th-testers-receiving-samples/

http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-3dmark-benchmarks-leaked-faster-core-intels-i7-6950x/

demonicvampiregirl

Actually, that is a good thing. Granted I don't know if I can upgrade to either of'em as you can see my set up above. Those are probably gonna work on different motherboards and Windows 10 more than Windows 7. I do hope both of them do give Intel a run for their money. I love AMD and am only considering Intel due to the fact they do perform better and I'd like a high end PC that lasts a long time next round. (Granted, overall I've used Intel/Nvidia and both was fine!) However if Ryzen and Vega both can give Intel a run for their money, I'm staying with AMD for a while longer.

The upgrade should possibly happen within the next month or two. Just got to see how some things play out and then we can go get it.