Drivers not working after reboot (formerly Drivers not staying installed)

[Dhavaer]

I got Saints Row 4 all patched on Friday and when I started it up it was very choppy. As I hadn't updated my graphics card drivers in a while I thought that might help, so I went to the AMD site, entered in the card details (it's a Radeon HD 6900) and downloaded the installer (filename is 13-4_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe). The installer ran, completed, I loaded up the game and it ran smooth as silk. All good.

Yesterday I started the game up and it was choppy again. Confused, I looked for the driver updater and couldn't find it. I loaded the installer again to check the install path and sure enough there was no executable in the folder. I ran the installer again, loaded up the game, and again, smooth as silk.

Today the same thing happened. Does anyone know why my drivers aren't staying installed?

[factotum]

Are you sure they're not? The installer executable isn't needed once the driver is actually installed, so it disappearing tells you nothing about what driver you actually have on there--you'd need to check the driver version in Device Manager to be sure the driver is actually being rolled back.

[Dhavaer]

The installer wasn't what was disappearing; it's still in my downloads folder where it should be. What disappears is the Catalyst updater; which I know from my previous PC, which used the same brand of card, should stay around. The drivers disappearing I'm basing off the performance of the game improving when they're updated.

To check, though, the current driver version is 12.104.0.0. I'll check tomorrow if it's changed.

[Dhavaer]

Checked; the drivers aren't uninstalling, they're just not working for some reason. Has anyone else had their drivers stop working after shutting down and booting up?

[Grif]

Checked; the drivers aren't uninstalling, they're just not working for some reason. Has anyone else had their drivers stop working after shutting down and booting up?

That sounds very odd.

Have you tried uninstalling and reverting to a slightly older version? ATI drivers are known to break cards with each new version.

[factotum]

Are there any relevant errors in the Event Log around the time of the reboot?

[Dhavaer]

Are there any relevant errors in the Event Log around the time of the reboot?

Maybe? I've found these timestamped roughly ten minutes after I turned the computer on:

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the AMD External Events Utility service to connect.

The AMD External Events Utility service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.


That sounds very odd.

Have you tried uninstalling and reverting to a slightly older version? ATI drivers are known to break cards with each new version.

Yes, albeit by accident. I ran an older version of the updater, which I'd finally found, but it doesn't help the game's performance any.

[factotum]

Does that service start if you start it manually after the computer has booted, and if so, does it also fix the performance issue?

[Dhavaer]

I can't seem to start it manually, but it didn't fail this morning and the performance issue is still occurring. Googling indicates the service is a hotkey poller, which doesn't sound like what I'm looking for.

[factotum]

Darn it. :smallfrown: Don't know what else to say at this point--it's not a problem I've seen or heard of before.

[Brother Oni]

It's not Windows UAC being stupid with where the drivers were unpacked to, is it? I believe the later versions of Windows tend to get a bit funny if things go into the Program Files directory.

I know it's probably not the answer, but we've exhausted all the obvious options.

I'd be very surprised if the drivers have just stopped working as that would affect your screen res on startup (like when you install a brand new graphics card), so something specific to the game isn't functioning.

Isn't there a whole bunch of PhysX stuff that gets installed with ATI drivers? Maybe one of them is playing up?

[Dhavaer]

It's not Windows UAC being stupid with where the drivers were unpacked to, is it? I believe the later versions of Windows tend to get a bit funny if things go into the Program Files directory.

Good catch. I checked the installation filepath and it is going to Program Files; I've switched it the Program Files x86, hopefully things are different tomorrow.

[factotum]

On a 64-bit system I would expect the drivers to also be 64-bit, in which case, Program Files (not Program Files (x86)) is the appropriate location for them. If they're 32-bit drivers you might have just found your issue! Oh, and note that UAC affects both those paths because they're both locations executable stuff is found, so if it *is* UAC causing an issue, it shouldn't make any difference which of those the driver is in.

[Brother Oni]

Oh, and note that UAC affects both those paths because they're both locations executable stuff is found, so if it *is* UAC causing an issue, it shouldn't make any difference which of those the driver is in.

To clarify, if it is UAC causing issues, then you'd have to unpack the drivers to somewhere else (I tend to use a general folder on a separate partition).

[Dhavaer]

Drivers are now in C:/ATI Technologies. Should that work?

[Woodzyowl]

That driver version was released months before SR4. Do you get playable performance on other games (ones not quite so month-old)? You might try a newer driver version if you get usable performance on older games.

EDIT: The most recent stable drivers are here (http://www2.ati.com/drivers/13-9_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe).

[Dhavaer]

That driver version was released months before SR4. Do you get playable performance on other games (ones not quite so month-old)? You might try a newer driver version if you get usable performance on older games.

EDIT: The most recent stable drivers are here (http://www2.ati.com/drivers/13-9_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe).

I got the drivers from the AMD site; I'd have thought they'd have the newest version. I've installed the new ones, I'll see if they keep working. Thanks.

[Dhavaer]

Nope, they stopped working too.

[Brother Oni]

Since we're running out of ideas (I apologise if any of these questions sound condescending or appear to be questioning your competence):

Obvious question that hasn't been asked: What version of windows are you using?

Next stupid question: You are running on an administrator account? Not on a User/standard account and plugging in the administrator password when you're installing stuff?

[Dhavaer]

Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1.

I'm pretty sure it's an administrator account; there are no other accounts and I've never been asked for a password.

The current driver version is 13.152.0.0, by the way.

[Brother Oni]

32 bit or 64 bit?

Have you tried uninstalling your graphics card via device manager, rebooting and installing drivers from scratch?

[factotum]

32 bit or 64 bit?


He said earlier he has a Program Files (x86) folder, which means a 64-bit system.

[Brother Oni]

He said earlier he has a Program Files (x86) folder, which means a 64-bit system.

D'oh, I'm not paying attention, am I? :smallsigh:

[Dhavaer]

Have you tried uninstalling your graphics card via device manager, rebooting and installing drivers from scratch?

I have now. Game performance is still sluggish after restarting.

[Brother Oni]

But you can still rerun the installer and the game performance improves?
Your computer can't be using any other ATI driver as we've removed them all. :smallconfused:
Are you getting a performance drop with any other game or just SR4?

The only possible thing is that installing the drivers from scratch puts some sort of setting to default which allows good performance, which is then altered somehow by SR4 on reboot.

When you start the game, do you change your video options?
When your perfomance is choppy, does reducing the resolution or otherwise toning down the quality, improve the performance?
Is the game's config file set to read only or something stupid like that?

[Dhavaer]

But you can still rerun the installer and the game performance improves?
Your computer can't be using any other ATI driver as we've removed them all. :smallconfused:
Are you getting a performance drop with any other game or just SR4?

The only possible thing is that installing the drivers from scratch puts some sort of setting to default which allows good performance, which is then altered somehow by SR4 on reboot.

When you start the game, do you change your video options?
When your perfomance is choppy, does reducing the resolution or otherwise toning down the quality, improve the performance?
Is the game's config file set to read only or something stupid like that?

The performance still improves when the installer is run. Skyrim seems to take a performance hit after a reboot, but it's hard to tell through all the mods. ENBs are rough on performance.

Occasionally SR4 will start in windowed mode and I'll change that, but otherwise I haven't touched the options. I'll have to try changing the settings; but SR3 had the same difficulty when run with DirectX 10/11 but was fine with 9. SR4 doesn't give a DirectX option on starting. Not sure if that's relevant. I'm not sure which is the config file, but none of the likely looking files in the folder (display.ini, for instance) are read-only.

[Drascin]

For what's worth, I've been having the very same problem myself for months now, also with an ATI card. I mean, it's not super time consuming or anything, but having to spend five minutes reinstalling every time I turn on the computer is a pain.

Can't help you with solving it, though. Nothing I've tried has worked.

[Avilan the Grey]

Okay, stuff probably mentioned already:

Virus program / Firewall blocking correct installation?

Often when a file "disappears" it's the Security program or Windows that detects a false positive of some sort and either quaranteen it at windows start or actually reverts the installation "for you" completely.

[Dhavaer]

Okay, stuff probably mentioned already:

Virus program / Firewall blocking correct installation?

Often when a file "disappears" it's the Security program or Windows that detects a false positive of some sort and either quaranteen it at windows start or actually reverts the installation "for you" completely.

From what I can see my anti-virus hasn't picked up anything lately. How would I tell if Windows is playing silly buggers?

[Brother Oni]

From what I can see my anti-virus hasn't picked up anything lately. How would I tell if Windows is playing silly buggers?

Disable all protection software (including Windows Firewall), install the drivers then reboot. If Avilan is correct then that should fix it.

Since we've only given it the choice of Win7 drivers or the sole ATI one and your computer works fine, I don't think this is the cause, unless one component of the drivers (the part that gives you good performance) is not installing properly due to anti-virus/firewall silliness.

It shouldn't be a DirectX issue as your performance increases when you update your ATI drivers, rather than your Dx ones.

[Dhavaer]

When your perfomance is choppy, does reducing the resolution or otherwise toning down the quality, improve the performance?

Just tested this: it significantly reduces but doesn't entirely eliminate the choppiness. There's a distinct 'hang' if I swivel the camera too quickly.

[Avilan the Grey]

As for windows itself... I think I worded it poorly. If Windows auto-restores something it is usually because it thinks a program messes with the core files.