AMD 290x Crossfire crashes entire PC within 5 seconds

[gothen1234]

Hello!

I have an R9 290x crossfire setup and as per usual it isn't working, only this time it is different, if you fancy yourself a bit of a challenge, I'll run through some details to save some time:

Power?
1300w EVGA G2 PSU, single 100Amp 12v rail so no issues here.

Cards?
The first 290x is a gigabyte, currently it is fitted with a G10 and Kraken x40
The second 290x is a reference, currently fitted with a G10 and a Corsair H90

VRM Cooling?
Both have more than adequate VRM cooling with gelid enhancement kits all round (don't reach beyond 80c in regular games)

Drivers?
I've tried 16.7.3, 16.8.2 and 16.8.3 crimson.


I will note down now that I've tested both cards, I put them both in at the same time, disabled xfire and fired up heaven on monitor 1, switched main displays and fired up heaven again on monitor 2.
I checked with GPU-z and Crimson and both cards were being 99/100% utilised. So tested separately but at the same time if that makes sense?


Ok, so I ensure crossfire is enabled in crimson, fire up Furmark, 240fps, clearly crossfire is working, flawlessly in fact! After 10minutes of Furmark I close it and load up Heaven.

I will describe the process that occurs, I'm thinking motherboard but others might disagree.

Heaven loads on monitor 1 and within 5 seconds the picture completely freezes, the other monitor however works fine and I can see GPU-z updating temps (I've tried with and without any monitoring software open btw) I can alt-tab and move the cursor on monitor 2 I can even use chrome if it happens to be open on monitor 2. However, if I try to attempt to close the benchmark/game on the taskbar then after 10 seconds both screens lock up and I can't do anything, sound still continues to play but the image is completely locked, the same happens if UAC appears, same happens if I use CTRL + ALT + DELETE.


I couldn't do too much to figure out what was wrong with crossfire lastnight though, think I might have flicked the switch on the Gigabyte 290x because I couldn't even get it to boot into windows for 15 seconds before it black screened. For some reason, there is a switch on the gigabyte 290x that breaks the card 0___0.


I believe the motherboard could be to blame;

I have been perfectly able to run crossfire before now with 2x 7950's (use bridges)

Whenever I make a BIOS change, the system shuts off after saving changes, then I hear it's usual boot routine but the monitors don't receive a signal, it's like the graphics card hasn't been detected properly or something.
This happens with any graphics card and results in me standing up, flicking the power switch on the PSU, waiting till it's completely drained the cap, then flicking the switch again, going to the breaker box to flick the breaker, then returning and pushing the power button. Only then will it turn on again as normal.
This process which I went through 15-20 times lastnight has driven me a little bit insane so I do apologise if this post seems too to the point.

I only recently bought the reference 290x, I did test it with furmark on it's own for 15minutes or so.

The seller wants to know if I am ok with it and that it works etc, should I cut my losses and just send it back?
Or is it likely that something else is to blame? Such as the motherboard?

thanks to anyone who has spent the time to read this

thanks more to those who have any ideas

 

[spat55]

Now that I've been able to disprove all of my hardware excluding the graphics cards, what is everyones opinion on the issue?

Hardware or Software?

Software from my post seems plausible as the issue but then why is no one else complaining about this problem? Surely someone uses software with video monitoring/detection? It can't just be put down to every bit of software I have is causing the problem. Even after singling out what worked and what didn't it still crashed.

If it's software then do a complete reinstall of windows to find out and only use one benchmark first, don't download anything other than a benchmark and see.

Try one card at a time, wipe all overclocks just in case also.

 

[gothen1234]

Have you tried using the cards separately? If they work like that it is fine if not and the one you are using is the E-Bayed one that is fault just return it.

It can't be that hard now just try one card at a time.

The funny thing is, I've already tested the card on it's own, but only using furmark....

Once I've rebuilt my brothers PC again xD I'll stick just the ebay card into my machine and run non-stop GTA V all night, I'll see how it is doing in the morning.

 

[spat55]

Have you tried using the cards separately? If they work like that it is fine if not and the one you are using is the E-Bayed one that is fault just return it.

It can't be that hard now just try one card at a time.

Once I've rebuilt my brothers PC again xD I'll stick just the ebay card into my machine and run non-stop GTA V all night, I'll see how it is doing in the morning.

Which country are you in btw? I brought a R9 290 of Ebay and it wasn't working as intended the memory was duffed.

 

[gothen1234]

Have you tried using the cards separately? If they work like that it is fine if not and the one you are using is the E-Bayed one that is fault just return it.

It can't be that hard now just try one card at a time.

Once I've rebuilt my brothers PC again xD I'll stick just the ebay card into my machine and run non-stop GTA V all night, I'll see how it is doing in the morning.

Which country are you in btw? I brought a R9 290 of Ebay and it wasn't working as intended the memory was duffed.

I am in the United Kingdom, Wales specifically.

 

[spat55]

Have you tried using the cards separately? If they work like that it is fine if not and the one you are using is the E-Bayed one that is fault just return it.

It can't be that hard now just try one card at a time.

Once I've rebuilt my brothers PC again xD I'll stick just the ebay card into my machine and run non-stop GTA V all night, I'll see how it is doing in the morning.

Which country are you in btw? I brought a R9 290 of Ebay and it wasn't working as intended the memory was duffed.

I am in the United Kingdom, Wales specifically.

Interesting! I'm from the UK too. Did you buy a R9 290 Sapphire Tri-X?

 

[gothen1234]

Nah, i bought a gigabyte 290x then stuck a g10 and a corsair h90 on it. Then i bought a reference 290x with a g10 and kraken x40 stuck to it. Since then i've been hassled with constant xfire problems.

 

[bgunner]

remove one card and test each card with OCCT's GPU test with error checking enabled. Run it with shaders set to 7 and run for 45 - 60 mins. This will tell you if each card is stable and functioning properly. Heaven is not a GPU test program but a bench marking program where as OCCT's GPU test is an actual test program and will tell you if there are errors during the test. Do Not use the PC during the test as it can cause a false positive.

Also try an older driver like in the 14's as 13.9 was around the time they came out.

 

[Jonathan_106]

You can't be sure that it isn't the PSU until you have swapped it out, just because it is a decent brand and model doesn't mean it won't fail, cause they all do at some point.

very true, the 1st power supply I ordered for my 1st build was bad. It was a 750W Gold rated Corsair. And it being bad cause almost identical issues as to what he is describing.

 

[spat55]

You can't be sure that it isn't the PSU until you have swapped it out, just because it is a decent brand and model doesn't mean it won't fail, cause they all do at some point.

very true, the 1st power supply I ordered for my 1st build was bad. It was a 750W Gold rated Corsair. And it being bad cause almost identical issues as to what he is describing.

Yeah PSU's are the worst part of PC building, they go wrong at anytime and quite often they don't appear to be malfunctioning, the soon a PSU is made that will tell you if it is failing the better.

 

[gothen1234]

Student living and my flat was never cleaned. I just built my 7950 cf rig, I was using some terrible fractal design integra 650w thing, wanted to test some OC's on the cards, got them with g10's and AIO's so I had some pretty large overclocks on these things, 40-45% over stock.
I had no room to build the PC so I moved into my living room so I had some space, the dust grill had fallen off the bottom of my case, took no notice of it. I fire up furmark, the meter is telling me that it's pulling 700watts from the wall, then suddenly the PC just shuts off, flips the breakers... complete silence.
Turns out that a very small piece of straw had gotten sucked up into the PSU fan, stopped it completely and within seconds it had just cooked itself to death... I kept the piece of straw in the hopes it would motivate me to clean the house every once in a while, all it has done is make me keep track of the dust grill XD

 

[bgunner]

Student living and my flat was never cleaned. I just built my 7950 cf rig, I was using some terrible fractal design integra 650w thing, wanted to test some OC's on the cards, got them with g10's and AIO's so I had some pretty large overclocks on these things, 40-45% over stock.
I had no room to build the PC so I moved into my living room so I had some space, the dust grill had fallen off the bottom of my case, took no notice of it. I fire up furmark, the meter is telling me that it's pulling 700watts from the wall, then suddenly the PC just shuts off, flips the breakers... complete silence.
Turns out that a very small piece of straw had gotten sucked up into the PSU fan, stopped it completely and within seconds it had just cooked itself to death... I kept the piece of straw in the hopes it would motivate me to clean the house every once in a while, all it has done is make me keep track of the dust grill XD

Just wait till you have kids, mine just broke a small snow globe over my secondary PC's 200mm top fan and fried my HD 5770 that was in it. Luckily I had an HD 4870 just sitting around in a box for testing reasons. Not to mention they run through the house with dirty shoes even before you can get the cord wound up the the vacuum leaving shoe prints.

Once you start cleaning it just doesn't stop! lol

 

[gothen1234]

remove one card and test each card with OCCT's GPU test with error checking enabled. Run it with shaders set to 7 and run for 45 - 60 mins. This will tell you if each card is stable and functioning properly. Heaven is not a GPU test program but a bench marking program where as OCCT's GPU test is an actual test program and will tell you if there are errors during the test. Do Not use the PC during the test as it can cause a false positive.

Also try an older driver like in the 14's as 13.9 was around the time they came out.

I tried OCCT 4.4.2 final on my gigabyte card and I could not get it to start the GPU 3D test, says "stopped user cancelled", I must add that I did no such thing, closed all my programs in case they were screwing with it. No dice, doesn't work. Any help with this?

the gigabyte seems to still play games fine though, currently playing TDU 2.

 

[bgunner]

It is a setting in OCCT causing this, I can't remember exactly which one off the top of my head but I think it may be the DX version. Use DX11.

 

[azzazel_99]

Remove each card from the system and test seperately. If both pass all the tests seperately then it's a psu problem or motherboard problem. I would also remove all memory and test the system with 1 stick. If it passes then add 2nd stick etc.... Running psu cables that did not come with the psu as you stated you did very well could have shorted out all kinds of stuff. This is a huge no no unless you are replacing with literally the EXACT same model.

 

[gothen1234]

Remove each card from the system and test seperately. If both pass all the tests seperately then it's a psu problem or motherboard problem. I would also remove all memory and test the system with 1 stick. If it passes then add 2nd stick etc.... Running psu cables that did not come with the psu as you stated you did very well could have shorted out all kinds of stuff. This is a huge no no unless you are replacing with literally the EXACT same model.

I have tested 3 different power supplies, tested with a different motherboard also, tested with different RAM, 1 stick, 4 sticks, no difference (with both sets). The PSU cables that were already there were evga ones I had with my EVGA 750watt supply, they're identical to the ones that came with the EVGA 1300w PSU too, swapped them over just in case but it was the same problem. I then used my brothers EVGA 750watt supply as well as his cables and it was the same problem.

It seems silly for EVGA to manufacture 2 different sets of ATX PSU cables for a modular design, the likelyhood was that they're identical so I took that risk with some logic behind it, plus the cables fit and would have been in the same configuration internally to meet the ATX standard.

But yeah, same problem either way. I've pretty much narrowed it down to GPU's atm though

 

[gothen1234]

It is a setting in OCCT causing this, I can't remember exactly which one off the top of my head but I think it may be the DX version. Use DX11.

It defaults to DX11 sadly :/ could this be the ultimate sign that the card is dead or is it likely software/drivers?

I tried with DX9 too and it just says "Crysis.exe has stopped working"

 

[gothen1234]

Ok guys, so I only have the Gigabyte card in atm and there is some artifacting just when on the desktop, restarting fixes it temporarily. No chance drivers could cause this?

It isn't OC'd atm, just on stock clocks. Was using Afterburner earlier to OC, system crashed, restarted put it back to stock clocks. Now it artifacts with no game open.

 

[bgunner]

sounds like that is the problem card. Drivers do not usually cause artifacts to appear on the screen but an unstable card can.

Does OCCT work with the other card installed? If not try with OCCT try version 4.3.1 and see if that works.

 

[gothen1234]

sounds like that is the problem card. Drivers do not usually cause artifacts to appear on the screen but an unstable card can.

Does OCCT work with the other card installed? If not try with OCCT try version 4.3.1 and see if that works.

I believe I've royally screwed myself here, I sent it back to the seller. He accepted my return request and now I have a dying PC 0___0

 

[bgunner]

try under clocking the GPU clock speed by 50 MHz and see if this helps straiten out the artifacts.

 

[gothen1234]

try under clocking the GPU clock speed by 50 MHz and see if this helps straiten out the artifacts.

*facepalm* :lol: One of my VRAM heatsinks had fallen off, hoping that the new replacement that's on there will resolve the problem.

 

[gothen1234]

Ok everyone, I have the solution to this thread.

The answer is: The gigabyte card is broken. Won't even load a game let alone play one before it completely locks up and crashes.

I guess I'm back to integrated.

 

[paraglidercsuki]

Hi, Folks. It is me who sold the other card for him. I can see he found the problem! Well, i did ask you! Are you sure that your card is OK!! Finally, we know the answer but this is not the reason why I am here. Just finished like 95% my new DIY build, using the card mentioned in here. I did found one more with exactly the same cooling.
http://prntscr.com/d4oon3

A few details in this pictures.

http://prntscr.com/d4oqyh

http://prntscr.com/d4or9y

http://prntscr.com/d4orjc

http://prntscr.com/d4oxkt

I am no benchmarker or overclocker more like a hobby DIY builder. So I am sorry if I do not post properly or what so ever.
Also made some videos in valley and heaven, 3D mark. Will try to add them later.
So the card is fine, works in crossfire. Also checked Far Cry 3 in 4K , medium setting. 40-60fps. I did experience a little shuttering by the way, but not that bad.

 

[RobCrezz]

Sorry not read it all, but my troubleshooting steps would be as follows:
1) Clean windows installation, even if its on a different drive. Bare minimum installed to test - rule out any software.
2) Breadboard it - Everything out of the case, bare minimum connected, single stick of ram, both cards, psu, cpu, keyboard mouse and monitor.

 

[gothen1234]

Hi, Folks. It is me who sold the other card for him. I can see he found the problem! Well, i did ask you! Are you sure that your card is OK!! Finally, we know the answer but this is not the reason why I am here. Just finished like 95% my new DIY build, using the card mentioned in here. I did found one more with exactly the same cooling.
http://prntscr.com/d4oon3

A few details in this pictures.

http://prntscr.com/d4oqyh

http://prntscr.com/d4or9y

http://prntscr.com/d4orjc

http://prntscr.com/d4oxkt

I am no benchmarker or overclocker more like a hobby DIY builder. So I am sorry if I do not post properly or what so ever.
Also made some videos in valley and heaven, 3D mark. Will try to add them later.
So the card is fine, works in crossfire. Also checked Far Cry 3 in 4K , medium setting. 40-60fps. I did experience a little shuttering by the way, but not that bad.

Sorry not read it all, but my troubleshooting steps would be as follows:
1) Clean windows installation, even if its on a different drive. Bare minimum installed to test - rule out any software.
2) Breadboard it - Everything out of the case, bare minimum connected, single stick of ram, both cards, psu, cpu, keyboard mouse and monitor.

*****************SOLUTION TO THE THREAD IN THIS POST!******************

Hello again,

Nice to hear that you got the build working, now this is going to sound like an outright lie but please listen to what I have to say.

The Gigabyte card died, it stopped working entirely. I accepted that it had died and decided to buy an NVIDIA 980ti because it was on sale, I would usually buy another ATI card but I decided to see what this whole NVIDIA master race malarkey was all about... I just don't see enough of a difference for anyone to claim one is superior to the other, both have their pro's and con's.

Getting back to the solution to this entire thread, there isn't one... that is correct, there is no solution.

I would claim that the solution is: 'terrible mounting of the NZXT G10 and AIO', but it just randomly stopped working, no overheating, all temps fine. I even stuck on the original cooler and it still refused to work, no picture no nothing, computer wouldn't even POST when using the IGP in conjunction. Tried different PCI-E slots, the lot!

Then one day I put it back in my PC to prove to my friend that it had died and I hadn't just bought a 980ti outright for no reason and it just fired up and worked as normal, I was shocked when it turned on, I was also made to look like a fool...

But yeah, no issues whatsoever. Tested it for hours, days in fact! Half hour of Furmark, I left it for 24hours on Heaven benchmark, overclocked it some, tested again, did a firestrike run. I completed Bioshock 2 Remastered because of the poor NVIDIA optimisation. I even managed to sell the card as: "in perfect working condition" on eBay for £160!
(something I wasn't too keen on initially)

Sorry again about screwing you around, it was hell for me also.

Has anyone ever had a card die completely then just suddenly work?

Thanks everyone for the support!


*****************SOLUTION TO THE THREAD IN THIS POST!******************