SteamVR causing ongoing graphics crashes on my Radeon RX 480

[AgentParsec]

Okay, I've been troubleshooting a graphics crash issue with my Radeon RX 480 for several months now, and I've finally found what's causing the problem. First, some background:

Around the same time I got my HTC Vive earlier this year, I started having strange graphics card crashes. It wasn't with VR apps specifically, but any and all apps that use hardware graphics rendering. I first noticed it playing Overwatch, where it would randomly crash with the error, "Your rendering device has been lost", and it also happened in other games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim HD, to name a few. In all cases, the signal would be lost for a few seconds, and then come back on to show whatever error that the app would show when losing its rendering device.

At first I thought it was the graphics card, so I tested it extensively to find out if it was overheating or something; after testing, I found that all temperature and power stats remained well within normal parameters when it crashed. I tried various drivers, since I had also updated my drivers around the same time the issue started. I used up to date drivers, beta drivers, and even tried rolling back to older drivers; all of them gave the same results.

Then I started looking at the hardware. Thinking it could be my power box, since that was also fairly new, I swapped it with the power box on my wife's computer, and the issue continued. Then I put my graphics card on hers to see if the card was okay; it was. I was beginning to fear that it could be a bad motherboard.

This was until had a stretch of time when I wasn't using the Vive at all, and suddenly the issue seemed to go away. I went for days without the crash, where usually it would happen several times a day. I began to wonder if the Vive had something to do with it, so I started up a VR game, quit, and completely unplugged the Vive from the system. Less than 30 minutes of gaming later, I had the crash. Restarted the computer, no more crashes. I went for almost a week without using the Vive again, and once again had no crashes. This seemed to mean that the Vive was the culprit.

But I had one more theory, and decided to do one final test. After my stretch of time gaming with no crashes, I left the Vive completely disconnected from the system and started up SteamVR by itself, then closed it down only 10 seconds later. I went back to gaming, and in less than an hour I had the crash again. Restarted the computer, and several hours of gaming later, I concluded that it was specifically SteamVR causing the issue.

But why? I verified that no processes it starts are left running when it stops. What could it be doing when it starts up that makes the graphics card act all strange? Does anyone have a solution for this? I can work around it by just restarting the computer anytime I use the Vive, but that's not a fix. Any suggestions on how to fix this for good would be greatly appreciated.


tldr; SteamVR causes ongoing graphics crashing issues on my Radeon RX 480 until I restart the computer, and I need help to fix it.

[Stryder]

Leaving the hmd disconnected, start SteamVR. Close SteamVR and then close Steam itself and see what happens...
What OS?

[AgentParsec]

Originally posted by Stryder:

Leaving the hmd disconnected, start SteamVR. Close SteamVR and then close Steam itself and see what happens...
What OS?

Windows 10. And I hadn't thought of closing Steam as well, which kind of bugs me since it's so obvious. If closing Steam stops the issue from happening, then I'll also test closing and re-opening Steam as well.

[AgentParsec]

Okay, I just started up SteamVR for a total of about 15 seconds, then closed it and Steam. Verified no Steam processes were running in Task Manager. Started playing Overwatch, crashed about 30 minutes later. Whatever it's doing, it doesn't need to stay running at all; it's literally doing something to the system, but it verifiably triggers by starting SteamVR.

[CircumSamurai]

When you tested your GPU on her PC did you also try running SteamVR there to see if crashing until reset occurred? It would be interesting if no matter what else changes, SteamVR & your GPU just break when put together. If SteamVR with your AMD Radeon runs without crashes on your wife's computer, then maybe it could be some sort of combination of hardware in your system, or still something software related, possibly not entirely SteamVR. Do you have any other GPU's to test this crashing with, to see if it really is SteamVR with your graphics card & not something else? I wonder what could be causing an issue that is fixed by simply restarting the computer, very strange.

[Stryder]

Restart the computer for a clean slate. Open device manager and verify that you don't have any conflicting devices, particularly in the Bluetooth and USB trees. Start SteamVR and refresh the device manager (F5 or close and reopen it): any changes?

[AgentParsec]

Originally posted by Stryder:

Restart the computer for a clean slate. Open device manager and verify that you don't have any conflicting devices, particularly in the Bluetooth and USB trees. Start SteamVR and refresh the device manager (F5 or close and reopen it): any changes?

No changes that I saw, and no conflicts.

[Stryder]

Starting to stretch here; when you disconnect the hmd, what's going on with the Link box? Disconnect the link box and see if that changes anything.

Does your wife's computer have SteamVR on it? -I'm thinking that you are having a "generic" conflict with an "AMD" device.
What do you want to bet that if you slap an nVidia card in there, your issues dissappear? How about betting a thousand dollars for a new card? Yeesh.
You can try installing SteamVR on your wife's computer with your video card, but even that would be inconclusive. Can you borrow someone else's nVidia card? Even one that barely works for VR would answer the question.
Note that if you do determine that this is the problem, my personal recommendation is to do a wipe before committing to nVidia. Having AMD drivers in an nVidia system is asking for wierd issues.

[Me_in_VR]

So, a year later I'm in the same boat. Did you ever find any solutions? I'm crashing when I try to play Skyrim VR on SteamVR. Haven't found any good advice about undervolting or anything to prevent the crash.

[AgentParsec]

I haven't found a solution, just workarounds; I always restart my computer when I'm done with VR. I rarely get crashes during VR though.

Clearly, the system is trying to do something with the drivers whenever it crashes. I confirmed this because I got the exact same crash once when Radeon Settings popped up and tried to do an automatic update. Since then I've also force closed Radeon Settings as soon as my system restarts, and I basically don't get any crashes anymore (until I start up SteamVR, which still triggers it).

[Me_in_VR]

yeah i did the whole driver dance, uninstalling with DUU in safe mode and installing latest recomended driver. also tried the whole SFC /SCANNOW system check. I'm trying new global wattman settings if it stays stable for a while I'll share what works.

[Mike LMAOski]

I just came into possession of an HTC Vive and I also have an rx480. I've downloaded the newest drivers, did the best I could with the free version of ccleaner, made a power plan, done all the vive standing-in-position setup (with only one linkbox), and I still have yet to get it to work with assetto corsa. Ive improved from crashing my whole pc, to only crashing my game. When I attempt to load into a race, I get a pause, followed by a short backscreen, followed by notifications from steam vr and amd telling me my graphics drivers did something and some settings had to be blocked. Am I wrong for only setting up one link box? It doesn't really sound like its a big deal from the much more extensive research done by you guys. Could you possibly recommend a workaround? Appreciate any suggestions and ur time :) (logitech g920 is also connected to pc w/ logitech gaming software running) (i5 6600k + passed SteamVR Performance Test)

[AgentParsec]

This is a very old thread. FYI, I eventually fixed the problem by getting a new video card. It was starting to crash in other things as well, so it might have just been a bad card.

[jhakkl]

Hello. This is starting to feel like a half-decades long AA meeting, but for people with VR related issues for people with RX 480's. I will say that my deviation from the rest is that I'm running a quest 3.

Bet you didn't think this thread would be running this long!

[TYTO]

Originally posted by AgentParsec:

Okay, I've been troubleshooting a graphics crash issue with my Radeon RX 480 for several months now, and I've finally found what's causing the problem. First, some background:

Around the same time I got my HTC Vive earlier this year, I started having strange graphics card crashes. It wasn't with VR apps specifically, but any and all apps that use hardware graphics rendering. I first noticed it playing Overwatch, where it would randomly crash with the error, "Your rendering device has been lost", and it also happened in other games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim HD, to name a few. In all cases, the signal would be lost for a few seconds, and then come back on to show whatever error that the app would show when losing its rendering device.

At first I thought it was the graphics card, so I tested it extensively to find out if it was overheating or something; after testing, I found that all temperature and power stats remained well within normal parameters when it crashed. I tried various drivers, since I had also updated my drivers around the same time the issue started. I used up to date drivers, beta drivers, and even tried rolling back to older drivers; all of them gave the same results.

Then I started looking at the hardware. Thinking it could be my power box, since that was also fairly new, I swapped it with the power box on my wife's computer, and the issue continued. Then I put my graphics card on hers to see if the card was okay; it was. I was beginning to fear that it could be a bad motherboard.

This was until had a stretch of time when I wasn't using the Vive at all, and suddenly the issue seemed to go away. I went for days without the crash, where usually it would happen several times a day. I began to wonder if the Vive had something to do with it, so I started up a VR game, quit, and completely unplugged the Vive from the system. Less than 30 minutes of gaming later, I had the crash. Restarted the computer, no more crashes. I went for almost a week without using the Vive again, and once again had no crashes. This seemed to mean that the Vive was the culprit.

But I had one more theory, and decided to do one final test. After my stretch of time gaming with no crashes, I left the Vive completely disconnected from the system and started up SteamVR by itself, then closed it down only 10 seconds later. I went back to gaming, and in less than an hour I had the crash again. Restarted the computer, and several hours of gaming later, I concluded that it was specifically SteamVR causing the issue.

But why? I verified that no processes it starts are left running when it stops. What could it be doing when it starts up that makes the graphics card act all strange? Does anyone have a solution for this? I can work around it by just restarting the computer anytime I use the Vive, but that's not a fix. Any suggestions on how to fix this for good would be greatly appreciated.


tldr; SteamVR causes ongoing graphics crashing issues on my Radeon RX 480 until I restart the computer, and I need help to fix it.

I think that those from steamVR must synchronize with the updates from AMD, from what I can see, I think that they do not have a friendly relationship, because the graphics are getting worse and worse and eat more and more resources, in addition, a collaboration is needed tight and with VIVE because the 2.0 update just tells me that it is not supported between them….