Big thanks to the several people who posted tips to update my drivers for ETH + DCR mining! I was finally able to get my hashrate almost back to what it was earlier this year. I am still about 10-12 Mh/s short but this is much much closer than the 35-40 short i was per rig, so thank you very much to all that contributed!
Here is exactly what I did (in the hopes it might help others with this same issue):
1- Updated DDU to current version (I was using old version on previous attempts)
2- Rebooted in safe mode and ran DDU (I was previously running in regular mode)
3- Installed latest Crimson drivers 17.11.2
(At this point I did NOT try installing the Pixel patcher that was recommended)
4- Rebooted and updated Afterburner to v4.4.0
(Font size and icon size seemed good at this point but when i checked watt-tool and AB & Device Mgr, nothing was showing up)
5- Downloaded Pixel-patcher and ran it
https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-AMD-ATI-Pixel-Clock-Patcher?page=16- Rebooted again and now everything in Dev Mgr & Watt-Tool was showing up ok
7- launched the new AB but everything was zero value and grayed out
8- opened up the dreaded AMD wattman
a- switched all 6 GPUs from Graphics to Compute (WM had to restart each time)
b- went in and lowered core and voltage settings and increased clock speeds (had to do this 6 times of course, again ridiculous)
(watt-tool undervolts showed as before but they were NOT taking effect as my power draw prior to wattman changes was through the roof!)
9- Launched Claymore and speeds were very close to expected
Couple of issues still:
A- 1 of my 6 GPUs would not change from Graphics to Compute. I tried several times and it would not take effect. So that GPU is now running about 4 Mh/s slower than the other 5. Anyone know how to address this issue?
B- It took FOREVER to update all of those settings in wattman! Reminded me again how much I hated working with that POS before i discovered watt-tool and AB.
My question here is... are these settings essentially saved there once applied? Or am i going to have to go through all of that again if that rig crashes or reboots?
Thanks again!