aoddriver4.2 service failed to start error in system log

Question

Hello,

I am seeing the following event failure in my system log.  Can you advise me what to do to resolve it please?  I believe the driver is related to my graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series)

The error is

The AODDriver4.2 service failed to start due to the following error:

The system cannot find the file specified.

Event id 7000

Thank you.

• Rob Lightbody

Answer 1

Hi Rob,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. 

I would appreciate it if you could answer the following questions:

1.    Have you made any recent changes to the computer?

2.    What is the make and model of the computer?

Let’s follow these methods and check if it fixes the issue.

I suggest you to download and install the latest drivers from manufacturer website.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

---

**Note:**If you are running 32-bit operating system, download and install 32-bit drivers.

If you are running 64-bit operating system, download and install 64-bit drivers.

---

After installing updated drivers, check if you receive the error message.

Hope this will be helpful. If you still have further queries, please reply us and we will be happy to help you.

Answer 2

 

I am having the same problem as Rob.  I have been trying to chase the issue for many months.  My monitor will just spontaneously go black.  This error shows around the time as the unexpected reboot.

1.    Have you made any recent changes to the computer?

2.    What is the make and model of the computer?

1.  None since the last updated driver in Dec 2013.

2.  Custom built.  AMD  HD 6700 on an ASUS M4N72-E

I am running the most up-to-date driver excluding the beta

:::::::

Update: I have a new video card.  R280  It has not solved the problem.  I believe it is less frequent than in the past.  My theory is that I am not stressing the card as much because I am playing the same game as before but now my CPU is the bottleneck not the GPU.

Answer 3

Same here.

Updated asrock & radeon drivers - no change. Still there. Sick and tired of chasing "poke in the dark" fixes, too.  Wish there was someone who really knew what is causing this and how to fix it. Seems like a lot of people have "ideas", but nobody has the answer.

UPDATE:

We have a Sapphire Radeon R7 260X graphic card. Computer would randomly freeze or simply shutdown - and only infrequently. Only error in event viewer has been this AODDriver4.2 service failed to start error.

FOR US - this may not be same case for anyone else - but FOR US, this worked:

(BEFORE YOU TRY IT - Backup (export) both folders...just in case.)

Removed AODDriver4.2 folder(s) in registry:

hkey_local_machine   system    ControlSet001  services   aoddriver4.2.0

hkey_local_machine   system    ControlSet002  services   aoddriver4.2.0

Again, this worked for US - may not be YOUR solution to that error.

Whether or not this will resolve the freezing/shutdown issues - we'll have to wait and see.

These happen only infrequently, making troubleshooting very difficult.

Good luck! We were one step away to a fresh install of Win7Pro64

Answer 4

Hiya NaiOni,

Sounds exactly like the problem we were having, but we didn't have to be playing a game. We could be running anything - internet, tax software, Outlook, Word - it didn't matter. And like you, it started happening more and more often. And you're right - there are so many "fixes" out there, I began to believe nobody really had an answer.

We have 10 workstations at our office, and two systems were throwing this error and freezing up. One was fine at first, but started freezing and throwing the error after we got a new monitor (we run dual monitors on all workstations). We removed the two folders from the registry (in the post above yours), AND disabled the built-in speakers on the new monitor and haven't had a freezing event since. I haven't checked either computer lately for the error, but two weeks after we deleted those registry folders, we were error and freezing free. Why that seems to do the trick, I have no idea.

Again, it worked for US, may not work on your build, but we had 2 out of 2 successes. If you decide to try it, just make sure you backup your system and just to be sure, backup those registry files!!

Good luck!

Answer 5

I have this problem as well. Been having it for months. For me, anything on the screen will freeze, if any audio was playing it will lock up in a solid note, and nothing will work. After I restart, there is no crash dump, and I find that error in the event viewer. I did a refresh of my OS (windows 8.1), but the problem persisted. I installed the latest BIOS, but that didn't solve it either. Then I went into my BIOS settings, deactivated turbo mode for my CPU, and enabled a few power saving settings, and the problem was seemingly fixed. Until now, that is. It just happened again.

After a bit of googling, I've found a lot of people having the same problem, but their 'fixes' where vastly different, and largely unrelated. One would have me disabling TLS 1.0 in internet explorer. Others would have me use regedit. Multiple fixes wanted me to use CMD, either for a clean up of my windows image, or to scan and fix drives. Again, nothing worked. I tried all of them.

There is one common theme, though. Most, if not all, of the people having this problem had an AMD GPU, and an ASUS motherboard. Same goes for me. 

My specs are as follows;

• Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600)
• ASUS ROG Crosshair V Formula motherboard
• AMD FX-9590 8x 4.7GHz CPU
• AMD RADEON R9 290 4GB GPU
• 16GB 1600 MHz RAM running at 1333 MHz
• Corsair HX750 750W PSU

The freezing can happen at any time, but the only way to guarantee is used to be to run a game. After 30 minutes of playtime tops, my computer would freeze. This is, however no longer the case, as my BIOS tweaking has made the problem far less frequent.  My system would also freeze seemingly at random, although this was far less common. Usually this happened when the computer was idling, and I was away from the computer.

The longer I had the problem, the larger it became. At first it would only happen about once a week. Then that became once a day. Soon it started happening maybe 7-8 times a day or more. Then it started happening when I played a game for a prolonged period of time, and became less frequent outside of games.

On rare occasions it would produce a bluescreen. Running a crash dump analysis program, it indicated the problem was related to drivers. This, however, I find unlikely, since I refreshed the system, and installed new drivers.

I've seen multiple theories online, and have come up with a few on my own, about the possible cause of this. In one forum, people theorized that it could be the C: drive, which in that case, as well as mine, was an SSD. They believed it could be outdated SSD firmware. Many have theorized it is caused by the GPU. On one forum, the suggested it could have to do with SATA drivers. Me and my friend first believed it might be caused by RAM failure. Our other theory was that it had to do with the power supply not being powerful enough. This theory is strengthened by the fact that my BIOS tweaks has made the crashes and freezes far less frequent. Another theory I've considered has to do with SATA settings in my BIOS. When I was tweaking, I noticed that under Advanced> Sata, ESP was enabled for all ports, which switches the internal SATA ports to external ones. I changed that as well.

I have not been able to find any clear consensus on the internet about this issue. I've been digging around a lot, and this is the information that I've gathered. I haven't found any posts anywhere summarizing all the different forum threads. With all of it gathered in one place, I hope this is enough for someone to figure out what is causing this, because I am at a loss for what to do.