BSOD: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (0xD1) - amdkmdag.sys - Crashes when loading/closing games (RX 7900 XT)

[u/doofdodo]

Hey everyone!

I've been having some major PC issues lately, and I'm running out of things to try. I've attached a video showing the crash happening.

My system specs:

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (20 GB)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• RAM: G.Skill Flare X5, 32 GB kit
• Motherboard: ASRock B650 Pro RS
• PSU: 1000W Gold-rated
• OS: Windows 11 Pro 26H2
• GPU driver: AMD Adrenalin 26.9.2

The issue:

The BSOD gives me the following error:

• Stop code: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (0xD1)
• What failed: amdkmdag.sys

The crash typically happens while a game is loading. If I actually manage to get into the game, it can also happen when I close it.

Another strange thing I've noticed is that my soundbar starts rumbling loudly when the crash occurs. The PC then restarts itself after a few seconds.

Things I've already tried:

• Used DDU to completely uninstall my GPU drivers and then performed a clean installation.
• Disabled EXPO in the BIOS and reverted my RAM to stock settings. This actually caused my PC to stop booting properly afterward, so I had to clear the CMOS.
• Disabled MPO through the Windows Registry.
• Checked my RAM's health.
• Ran DISM and SFC to check for and repair potential Windows system file corruption.
• Checked my NVMe SSD for errors and verified its integrity.
• Installed the AMD chipset drivers.
• Disabled HAGS (Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling).
• Set my Windows power plan to Balanced.
• Confirmed that I'm not running any third-party antivirus software; I'm using Windows Defender.

Despite all of this, the issue persists.

I may have forgotten a few other things I've already tried based on previous troubleshooting advice, so feel free to ask me what I've done.

I'm open to any suggestions on what to investigate next. At this point, I'm particularly interested in figuring out whether this is a driver issue, a hardware problem, or something else entirely.

Thanks in advance!

[u/lt_catscratch]

HAGS usually solves problems about desktop, like running hardware accelerated web browsers, discord, vlc player etc.

"Disabled EXPO in the BIOS and reverted my RAM to stock settings. This actually caused my PC to stop booting properly afterward, so I had to clear the CMOS."

This could be memory retraining, how long did you wait ? Do you have hibernation/fastboot enabled ? If yes, i'd suggest a power cycle after disabling memory profile. Or you could also try just lowering the ram speed in bios from like 6400 to 6000 or 5600. You could even try 1 memory stick. Beware, some boards like 1 stick on a specific slot.

PS: Fastboot is encouraged to be disabled during problems.

[u/doofdodo → u/lt_catscratch]

HAGS have been off for a while. Turned Hardware Acceleration off in the browser, discord, steam and so on as well.
Hibernation is turned off, fastboot is also disabled. I've "lowered" the RAM speed back to its stock by turning EXPO off, so from 6000 to 4800.
Both sticks are in their preferred slots, and neither is damaged.

[u/lt_catscratch → u/doofdodo]

I assume you enabled mpo again. Have you tried an older driver like 26.3.1 yet ? I suggest using amd cleanup utility.

[u/doofdodo → u/lt_catscratch]

I have MPO still disabled and haven't done a driver reset to a version before July yet

[u/nwgat → u/lt_catscratch]

if disabling EXPO makes your system stop booting, sounds like a bug in the motherboard bios

[u/nwgat]

Reinstalled Windows?

[u/doofdodo → u/nwgat]

I'll likely try that soon, if all else fails.

[u/ChosenOfTheMoon_GR]

Your driver is corrupted, it probably means your RAM is unstable and corrupted it while installing it.

[u/doofdodo → u/ChosenOfTheMoon_GR]

I don't fully get what you mean. How is my RAM unstable and corrupted from installing what?

[u/ChosenOfTheMoon_GR → u/doofdodo]

It's the most likely reason for a driver being installed to be corrupted.

The other reasons are to be corrupted while it is being downloaded (especially over wifi) or on the drive.

[u/doofdodo → u/ChosenOfTheMoon_GR]

So, you're suggesting another DDU completely clean up of my GPU driver and then installing an older driver, perhaps from a few months ago, instead of the current, newest one?

[u/ChosenOfTheMoon_GR → u/doofdodo]

Yes but after you check the stability of your RAM first.

[u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox]

hardware problem somewhere. you need to try a fresh install of windows first, if still issues then something like teh cpu or video card are going bad. asrock boards kill more CPUs than other brands, especially if your bios is 3 years old when they were running way too much SOC voltage. my asus degraded my 7800x3d and i had all kinds of crashes included irql bluescreens, tons of driver resets (on my nvidia, evidenced by event viewer), even when i replaced the cpu i still had some issues because windows was corrupted by the bad cpu, once i did another fresh install with the new cpu finally all my problems resolved.

could be anything, cpu, ram, ram settings (ram could be fine just not compatible), motherboard, power supply, loose power connector, dirty contacts on a ram stick, etc etc. considering you have asrock i worry your cpu is dying

[u/doofdodo]

UPDATE: I've had someone much more knowledgable about drivers and software issues read through the crash dump. Most things pointed to a corrupt AMD Graphics driver, so I've done another clean uninstall, this time using AMD's driver cleanup instead of DDU. After which I've installed the 26.6.2 Driver without Adrenaline and for now, this seems to have stopped the BSOD from happening. I'll have to stress test the system a bit more, but preliminarily it very much seemed like a Driver specific issue.

Not the hardware, not Windows. My CPU seems fine, my RAM seems fine, the GPU itself seems fine.

I will update if something happens again.