#553 PC Hard Resets on Loading/Creating Game with AMD Adrenalin Driver

Bug: PC Hard Resets on Loading/Creating Game with AMD Adrenalin Driver

188 °C

Bug #553

PC Hard Resets on Loading/Creating Game with AMD Adrenalin Driver

Status:	Closed
Priority:	Critical
Added by:	camsland on July 5, '26
Assigned to:	Unassigned
Due date:
Reported for:	v.0.23944089

Steps to Reproduce

Use a Windows PC with an AMD Radeon GPU and AMD Adrenalin driver/software installed.
Launch Drive Beyond Horizons from Steam on version v0.23944089.
Load into the main menu, and attempt to load a previous save, or create a new game.
Observe that the entire PC resets/reboots instead of the game closing normally.
Check Windows Event Viewer after reboot: System log shows Kernel-Power 41 / unexpected shutdown, not a normal application crash.
Inspect BIOS, drivers, tuning, OC, AMD software adjustments.
Inspect hardware and PSU.
Boot into safemode, uninstall AMD driver/software with DDU. Install locally, boot in safe mode.
Boot normally and install drivers/software.
Observe system hard-reset

Explanation

AMD Adrenalin driver/software will inevitable lead to consistent pc hard-resets when loading or creating a new game.

On my system it causes a full PC reset/reboot. Windows records Kernel-Power 41 / unexpected shutdown events, with no normal game crash report and no minidump.

I reproduced this after exhausting the usual hardware, software, and configuration causes. My system is running an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D with an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT using AMD driver version 32.0.31021.5001.

Because I had the time and resources to rule out hardware, I replaced the power supply with a new 850W unit and verified that the rest of the hardware was functioning normally. I also tested BIOS and power-related settings extensively, including CPU, GPU, and memory adjustments: stock BIOS defaults, memory profile changes, CPU power/boost behavior, GPU tuning/power behavior, paired with lowered graphics settings, and a 30-60 FPS cap.

There will still no fix, and I was certain that it had to be something on my end, rather than the game itself.

So I got external storage and created copied all of my data to the external storage before performing a full Windows reset/reinstall, reformatting all of my SSD's, ensuring updated BIOS, updated drivers, verified/reinstalled the game.

I also tested without installing the AMD drivers/software in safe mode, resulting in no hard resets, the only issue being poor performance.

To ensure there was no corrupted files, I tested with Steam Cloud/save data removed by renaming the local DriveBeyondHorizons AppData folder. The system still hard-reset.

Since there was still no solution, I then removed my 9070 XT, installed a 3070ti, did another windows reinstall and removed all drivers with DDU. Setup the system again, installed proper drivers, and the game ran completely fine. I then shut-down, removed the 3070ti, installed a RTX 5080, and did another complete reset and reformatting of SSD's.

I can confidently say that it is certainly an AMD Driver/software issue.

This is not a normal crash to desktop. The entire PC resets/reboots. Windows records Kernel-Power 41 / EventLog 6008 unexpected shutdown events, with no normal application crash report and no minidump. Based on my testing and reports from other users, this appears tied to AMD GPU driver/software behavior rather than bad saves, insufficient PSU, unstable BIOS settings, or damaged hardware.

The game previously worked normally for me, allowing me to play around 45 hours before it began to hard-reset my PC. Lowering settings may let it load briefly, but the PC still eventually resets.

Local evidence: