Event ID 86, crashes and driver timeouts making game unplayable, dual monitors

[Eyrmia]

Hello, I just started having this issue today even though I purchased the game a week ago and was playing with no issues until now. The reason I think this is a Valheim bug and not a system problem is because I test-ran Jedi Fallen Order, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Wolfquest Anniversary Edition and did not have any of these issues. I will be sure to update if that changes.

The issue:
I've had five full system crashes, all displaying event code 86, and one display driver timeout. The full system crashes have happened at the following points: the title screen before clicking anything, the title screen after clicking "settings", and the title screen after enabling full screen in "settings." The driver timeout happened after about 5 minutes in-game, followed by the application crashing (mercifully, my computer did not crash this time). The final crashes were after I tried some troubleshooting. I was in-game for about a minute before my whole system crashed both times. Both of my monitors have also been flickering while the application is running, with it getting the worst immediately before the driver timeout/full system crash.

Hardware:
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, 22.5.2 drivers (up to date, released 5/17/2022)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-core with a 3rd-party cooler
16 GB RAM
Monitors: two ASUS VP249
Windows 10

In the background, I had Discord, Steam, and Chrome running. This is the same as what I had running in the past while playing.

What (maybe?) caused the problem:
I started experiencing the issue after getting my second ASUS VP249. It's brand new from Microcenter. The other one was given to me by a friend when they got a new monitor about a year ago. Previously, as a second monitor, I was using an old VIVO TV connected via HDMI. My ASUS was connected via Display Port. When I first set up the new monitor, I plugged both it and my old ASUS into Display Port. The new monitor was using the cable that came in the box, and the old one was using a 3rd-party cable that my friend got with it.

Something odd that I noticed was that when trying to plug either monitor in with the 3rd-party cable to my right side port, I got the "no signal" error on the monitor. When using the cable that came with the box, it took some finagling, but I was able to get a signal. I had the new monitor plugged into the right-hand port, and the old one into the left-hand port initially.

Troubleshooting:

• Tried launching both with Vulkan and without. I had previously been playing with Vulkan.
  
• Disabled full screen. This allowed me to actually get into the game.
  
• Moved the old monitor to HDMI and the new monitor to the left-hand Display Port.
  
• Turned off the old monitor and only used the new one.
  
• Turned off the new monitor and only used the old one.
  
• Switched the new monitor to the 3rd-party cable.
  
• Used AMD cleanup tool to uninstall my GPU drivers in Safe Mode, then reinstalled.

Again, the reason I think this is a Valheim-specific issue is because it's not happening on any of my other games, arguably more graphics-intensive. I will acknowledge that the Display Port no signal issue is on my end, though. I don't do any under/overclocking of any of my parts and I monitor my temps religiously. If I do start to have this issue on other games, I'll be sure to update and find another place to post this.

I've also included the event properties of the most recent crash below, if anyone is interested. When Googling it, I mostly find info related to Windows 11, which I don't have.

SCEP Certificate enrollment initialization for WORKGROUP\EYRMIAPC$ via https://AMD-KeyId-578c545f796951421221a4a578acdb5f682f89c8.microsoftaik.azure.net/templates/Aik/scep failed:

GetCACaps
GetCACaps: Not Found
{"Message":"The authority /"amd-keyid-578c545f796951421221a4a578acdb5f682f89c8.microsoftaik.azure.net/" does not exist."}
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2022 01:14:13 GMT
Content-Length: 121
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000;includeSubDomains
x-ms-request-id: f84f1051-853f-46df-9538-aa37f0cc5cb1

Method: GET(219ms)
Stage: GetCACaps
Not found (404). 0x80190194 (-2145844844 HTTP_E_STATUS_NOT_FOUND)

[GinsengSamurai]

This is an excellent example of a feedback report!! GOOD JOB Eyrmia! ♥ If only more bug reports were like this.

--

Anyway, to the issue. Forgive me if I'm preaching to the choir, but in the chance you might not know this, BSOD and similar issues are hardware/driver related. I am aware other games don't trigger the crash. However, other games may not be utilizing the needed resources that Valheim needs from your computer. So while you may play other games that are even more graphically intensive, at the end of the day, this might not even be about whether the graphics are intensive or not. It's likely about how the game's engine is communicating with your computer.

Let's put it this way. If your PC has an "E" problem, that means 9 out of 10 of your games that communicate to your PC like this: B-D-F, will never trigger your PC's "E" problem. However, if Valheim's engine is communicating to your PC like this: A-C-E, then Valheim just accidentally found a possible bug in your PC.

Now, don't misinterpret my words that Valheim is free of bugs. It's definitely not. IGS could probably recode aspects of Valheim, that would use a different resource than that specific one or ones that triggers that part of your PC with the corrupt or broken driver. However, if IGS did that, would you ever know that your PC has an issue? If Valheim or any other program never trigger your PC driver/hardware issue, does that mean your computer doesn't have a problem?

Get what I mean?

It's a bit philosophical. ^_^

REGARDLESS, Event ID 86, is also a Windows 10 problem. For example, according to this thread: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1397455-windows-10-error-event-id-86/ - the guy at the end of the thread has the same issue when playing GTA5.

In this thread, someone tried to run Tarkov, but got the same issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/EscapefromTarkov/comments/tsmzgu/scep_cert_enrollment_initialization_error_86/ - check out TheDocterP69's post specifically about a potential fix.

According to this thread: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/Lync/en-US/0b456a55-8b1f-4883-a121-4aabd69d0018/event-id-86-scep-error?forum=win10itprogeneral - the last poster fixed their problem by adding an outgoing firewall rule for Windows\System32\taskhostw.exe.

[Eyrmia]

Originally posted by GinsengSamurai:

This is an excellent example of a feedback report!! GOOD JOB Eyrmia! ♥ If only more bug reports were like this.

--

Anyway, to the issue. Forgive me if I'm preaching to the choir, but in the chance you might not know this, BSOD and similar issues are hardware/driver related. I am aware other games don't trigger the crash. However, other games may not be utilizing the needed resources that Valheim needs from your computer. So while you may play other games that are even more graphically intensive, at the end of the day, this might not even be about whether the graphics are intensive or not. It's likely about how the game's engine is communicating with your computer.

Let's put it this way. If your PC has an "E" problem, that means 9 out of 10 of your games that communicate to your PC like this: B-D-F, will never trigger your PC's "E" problem. However, if Valheim's engine is communicating to your PC like this: A-C-E, then Valheim just accidentally found a possible bug in your PC.

Now, don't misinterpret my words that Valheim is free of bugs. It's definitely not. IGS could probably recode aspects of Valheim, that would use a different resource than that specific one or ones that triggers that part of your PC with the corrupt or broken driver. However, if IGS did that, would you ever know that your PC has an issue? If Valheim or any other program never trigger your PC driver/hardware issue, does that mean your computer doesn't have a problem?

Get what I mean?

It's a bit philosophical. ^_^

REGARDLESS, Event ID 86, is also a Windows 10 problem. For example, according to this thread: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1397455-windows-10-error-event-id-86/ - the guy at the end of the thread has the same issue when playing GTA5.

In this thread, someone tried to run Tarkov, but got the same issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/EscapefromTarkov/comments/tsmzgu/scep_cert_enrollment_initialization_error_86/ - check out TheDocterP69's post specifically about a potential fix.

According to this thread: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/Lync/en-US/0b456a55-8b1f-4883-a121-4aabd69d0018/event-id-86-scep-error?forum=win10itprogeneral - the last poster fixed their problem by adding an outgoing firewall rule for Windows\System32\taskhostw.exe.

Thank you for responding so quickly! I checked out the links you sent and tried their solutions. Unfortunately, the problem is persisting. I also pulled up my temp monitor and noticed that my GPU hot spot temp hit a whopping 102 degrees Celsius in Valheim, which is a bit terrifying, not gonna lie. Now that it's clear it's a hardware issue, however, I'll post this somewhere else. Thank you for your help!

[electricdawn]

I second @GinsengSamurai's opinion: Excellent error report.

Valheim IS a a resource hog when it comes to GPU. It applies extensive GPU post processing that really suck the life out of almost any GPU, even though it doesn't look very impressive when it comes to the models and textures themselves.

In any case, have you tried to set the graphic settings to minimum and turning off any post processing? I'd like to see if the issue still persists.

I've had massive temperature problems on my GTX1070Ti that ran at about 100°C. My RX6500XT runs much cooler, thankfully, so I'm using that, even though it is not as powerful as the 1070Ti.

Good luck with your efforts! Hope it works out in the end.

[Eyrmia]

Originally posted by electricdawn:

I second @GinsengSamurai's opinion: Excellent error report.

Valheim IS a a resource hog when it comes to GPU. It applies extensive GPU post processing that really suck the life out of almost any GPU, even though it doesn't look very impressive when it comes to the models and textures themselves.

In any case, have you tried to set the graphic settings to minimum and turning off any post processing? I'd like to see if the issue still persists.

I've had massive temperature problems on my GTX1070Ti that ran at about 100°C. My RX6500XT runs much cooler, thankfully, so I'm using that, even though it is not as powerful as the 1070Ti.

Good luck with your efforts! Hope it works out in the end.

Thank you for the reply! I went in and adjusted the graphics settings while monitoring for flickering and temperatures. Here's what happened:

Setting all the sliders to low and disabling all of the effects stopped the flickering and my hot spot temps were better. However, once I left my cabin, any time I was not on the pause menu, my hot spot temps skyrocketed again. I messed around with the sliders and even moving one slider to medium (tried with vegetation and then with particle lighting) caused flickering and wild hot spot temps when not in the pause menu. From what I've been told, the problem isn't necessarily the temperature (apparently AMD cards can hit 110 before being vulnerable to damage), but the fact that my hot spot temps are about 40C above the temps on the rest of the card. Someone suggested replacing the thermal paste, but I can't do that without voiding my warranty.

The main thing that confuses me with this is that it started so abruptly and I was having no issues just a few days ago. I'm not sure if it's related to the new monitor, but that's the only thing I've changed. I don't even think there's been a patch since the last time I played that could have had an effect on the resource usage. I posted on a hardware help forum as well and haven't gotten anything super helpful yet, but I'm planning to call MSI when they open and see about getting my card repaired or replaced with my warranty.

Thank you for your help!

[electricdawn]

You're very welcome. And, yes. I would talk to MSI as soon as possible. Something's wrong with your card.

My fairly new (few months old) RX6500 XT is about 70 degrees Celsius with an adapted fan curve for less noise. Usually it's less then that with the normal curve (but more noise). So your card should definitely not be that hot.

[Lil Puppy]

How do you still have a warranty for an 5700?
Use VSYNC. this will control your temps. Limit your framerate in-game or with the game specific AMD software settings.
Driver timeouts happen when the GPU is doing something resource expensive and can't reply back to the driver that it's still doing things. Then the driver says "USER UNPLUGGED THE GRAPHICS CARD" to Windows. The drivers try to reload the driver, if it fails 3 times, windows disables the card and crashes the system with a BSOD.

The thermal paste on your GPU can handle 95c, if you exceed this for more than a few minutes, it bakes it and the chip fries because it can't offload the heat. Make sure your fans work. Enable custom fan options in your GPU drivers and set a more aggressive fan curve. Set 100% at a lower temperature than default. Defaults are usually bad for cooling.

Some of the errors may be related to the two monitors, are they using the same refresh rate?
One of your cables might be faulty or of low quality, this can cause GPU instability and flicker.
Even a monitor that is turned off is acknowledged as being connected by your GPU due to the pinning of the connectors. Try disconnecting them completely and if you can, swap the cables around to see if it's a cable issue. GPU's don't like using two different protocols for displays, look into getting them both on the same cable type, if possible.

The error log is irrelevant and didn't cause a crash or cause any issues at all. The game asked microsoft for a server certificate and couldn't find it at the location expected - if that was the game log and not just a windows log. Either way, it didn't exist and nothing happened.

[electricdawn]

Limiting frame rates is a good idea, but often doesn't help, when the framerates are fairly low anyway (as they would be on a 1060 My apologies, I'm mixing people up, I probably should stop hanging out in the forums too much...). VSync falls into the same category.

Other than that, your tips about two monitors and the fan curves are good.

[Eyrmia]

Originally posted by Lil Puppy:

How do you still have a warranty for an 5700?
Use VSYNC. this will control your temps. Limit your framerate in-game or with the game specific AMD software settings.
Driver timeouts happen when the GPU is doing something resource expensive and can't reply back to the driver that it's still doing things. Then the driver says "USER UNPLUGGED THE GRAPHICS CARD" to Windows. The drivers try to reload the driver, if it fails 3 times, windows disables the card and crashes the system with a BSOD.

The thermal paste on your GPU can handle 95c, if you exceed this for more than a few minutes, it bakes it and the chip fries because it can't offload the heat. Make sure your fans work. Enable custom fan options in your GPU drivers and set a more aggressive fan curve. Set 100% at a lower temperature than default. Defaults are usually bad for cooling.

Some of the errors may be related to the two monitors, are they using the same refresh rate?
One of your cables might be faulty or of low quality, this can cause GPU instability and flicker.
Even a monitor that is turned off is acknowledged as being connected by your GPU due to the pinning of the connectors. Try disconnecting them completely and if you can, swap the cables around to see if it's a cable issue. GPU's don't like using two different protocols for displays, look into getting them both on the same cable type, if possible.

The error log is irrelevant and didn't cause a crash or cause any issues at all. The game asked microsoft for a server certificate and couldn't find it at the location expected - if that was the game log and not just a windows log. Either way, it didn't exist and nothing happened.

I bought the card in June 2020, so the MSI warranty is up in 2023 since it's a 3-year warranty. I sent it in a couple of days ago to be repaired/replaced. I also have a second replacement plan through NewEgg that's up in 2024.

I had VSync on and limited FPS. No effect. Also already had a custom fan curve for all my fans (CPU custom cooler, three case fans, two GPU fans).

When I said that I turned off the monitors, I meant that I unplugged them. Sorry for that confusion! I should have specified. Both monitors were at the same refresh rate, and I even lowered the rate on both of them to see if that would help. I had them both plugged in to DisplayPort at first, but I have reason to believe one of my ports is faulty, which is why I moved one to HDMI. Still had the issues with the old monitors too, though.

It arrived at MSI today so hopefully whatever's wrong with it will be solved once I get it back. :) I'm also looking into getting another DisplayPort cable in case it was the cable and not the port that wasn't working.

[Upgrayedd]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm curious if you figured this out? I'm experiencing a similar issue with a high refresh dual monitor setup, in many games including Valheim, and I'm on to thinking its the DP cable not playing nicely with my 5700 XT.

I have basically the same issue:
-One monitor is detected in any port with either of the cables I have.
-The other monitor is detected on all ports with one cable, but only the second and third port with the other cable.
*Both cables are cheap DP 1.2 that came with the monitors.

I turned my second monitor off and was able to game all yesterday without crash. Through some digging I found that AMD in particular is sensitive to bad cables (https://youtu.be/Yt7NTP4AD9Y), and others have fixed crashes by replacing DP cables. Hoping whatever outcome you had can give me more insight. Thanks in advance.

[Eyrmia]

Originally posted by Upgrayedd:

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm curious if you figured this out? I'm experiencing a similar issue with a high refresh dual monitor setup, in many games including Valheim, and I'm on to thinking its the DP cable not playing nicely with my 5700 XT.

I have basically the same issue:
-One monitor is detected in any port with either of the cables I have.
-The other monitor is detected on all ports with one cable, but only the second and third port with the other cable.
*Both cables are cheap DP 1.2 that came with the monitors.

I turned my second monitor off and was able to game all yesterday without crash. Through some digging I found that AMD in particular is sensitive to bad cables (https://youtu.be/Yt7NTP4AD9Y), and others have fixed crashes by replacing DP cables. Hoping whatever outcome you had can give me more insight. Thanks in advance.

Hi! I actually ended up just sending my GPU in to MSI and getting a replacement (still under warranty so it was free, thankfully), and that seemed to fix the issue (for now, anyway). Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Lil Puppy]

Originally posted by Upgrayedd:

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm curious if you figured this out? I'm experiencing a similar issue with a high refresh dual monitor setup, in many games including Valheim, and I'm on to thinking its the DP cable not playing nicely with my 5700 XT.

I have basically the same issue:
-One monitor is detected in any port with either of the cables I have.
-The other monitor is detected on all ports with one cable, but only the second and third port with the other cable.
*Both cables are cheap DP 1.2 that came with the monitors.

I turned my second monitor off and was able to game all yesterday without crash. Through some digging I found that AMD in particular is sensitive to bad cables (https://youtu.be/Yt7NTP4AD9Y), and others have fixed crashes by replacing DP cables. Hoping whatever outcome you had can give me more insight. Thanks in advance.

5000 series cards don't play well if the refresh rates of both monitors are set differently, make sure they're set to the same refresh rate in windows and your drivers.
Display Port is very sensitive to cable quality. Usually the one that comes with the monitor is a good choice because it's the same quality they tested the monitor with, but you may have one with manufacturing defects, replacing it may fix your issues.

Also, the first 3/4 of the AMD drivers from 2022 are defective for 500 & 5000 series cards so update your drivers to the december version if you haven't already.

If you're experiencing driver timeouts, those are a windows problem that is pretty easy to fix with a registry entry or two.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/display/tdr-registry-keys
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/display/timeout-detection-and-recovery
https://substance3d.adobe.com/documentation/spdoc/gpu-drivers-crash-with-long-computations-tdr-crash-128745489.html