AMD 7970 Black Screen Lock Up

[Sudaman]

First off, Hello I am new around here Although I constantly visit the forums. This is my first post after making this account.

To Begin My Setup:
SSD: SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D
PSU: Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W Continuous@40°C, 80Plus Bronze Certified,Modular Cable Design,Active
Motherboard: ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
CPU: AMD FX-8150 X8 3600MHZ 16MB 125W AM3+
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel 1366/1155/775 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+
Case: Antec DF-85 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
GPU: (2 in Crossfire) SAPPHIRE 100351SR Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card OC with Boost
OS: Windows 7 64bit
Catalyst Drivers: v13.1

So to begin my computer setup is almost 9 months old now. I got it all around July 2012 and then put it together and began playing games with a fresh install of Windows 7 OS. It had no problems playing anything I threw at it. Crysis(with extreme texture pack), Batman, Mechwarrior Online(Closed Beta), League of Legends, etc. The thing ran like a Olympic Sprinter who just stole a gold metal and was making a break for it.

About 1-2 Months ago I had this problem with my computer locking up with a Black Screen every once in a while. After a while I did a fresh install (Uninstall, Drive Sweeper, Install New Drivers) for the video drivers and it seemed to fix the problem. Then the problem popped up again and I once again redid the drivers it went away. Next time I looked and found my RAM was popped out slightly on one side I then reset my RAM, and redid the drivers again it went away.

Now, It has come back and at first I ignored it. Now it is happening every time I play a game. 15-25 minutes into League of Legends match it black screened I could hear my friend on skype for about 15 secs then it would make a skipping sound and not respond at all until I hard reset it. (this is how it crashed every time in all the times it has crashed). So I redid the drivers and started up League of Legends again same thing. Tried redoing the drivers again and doing a single match of Mechwarrior Online about half way in it Black Screen Sound Skip and boom have to hard reset again.

So I poked around and tried to fix it ran a Direct-x update all up to date. I did a Fubar run for 30 minutes got temperatures of about 81C on Main GPU & 73C on 2nd GPU. (No Crash) I then ran Prime95 for 30 minutes temperatures hit about 43C. (No Crash) I ran a PC Doctor USB Test on all hardware no errors returned ran full test on RAM no error. (No Crash) But still when I play a game it will lock up after a black screen.

I ask for advice and help please kindly as I'm starting to hit my head against a wall and could use some help figuring it out maybe a fresh perspective will see what I'm missing.

 

[4745454b]

I know the temps look good but whenever I have issues like your talking about one of the first things I do is get rid of the dust in the case. You've had it running for nearly a year and might have a lot of dust building up. Shut it down, remove the cards one at a time and blow out the dust. (can of air, your mouth, etc.) Do the same for the heatsink on the CPU and the PSU. Put it all back together and try again.

If it continues, try using only a single 7970. Problem continue? Maybe one of your cards is dying.

 

[Sudaman]

I try to clean my computer about once a month at least I just pulled it apart to check for dust nothing really big just small stuff got rid of it all just in case going to test it now probably will crash again. But I will post back.

 

[4745454b]

Most people don't clean their systems. I'd test each card by itself and see if the issue goes away/stays with one card.

 

[Sudaman]

Most people don't clean their systems. I'd test each card by itself and see if the issue goes away/stays with one card.

I added the 2nd crossfire cable to the two cards and have been stress testing with Mechwarrior Online, League of Legends, and SC2: HotS. So far so good.

 

[4745454b]

Interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that. Can you remove the original bridge? Perhaps you had a bad one or it wasn't on tight. I'm just wondering if you NEED two or if the old one was bad.

 

[Sudaman]

So I have been testing it alot and playing and the problem came back. So I decided to restart my computer to unlock it and turn off Crossfire and run a monitor on both cards to see if it was a system thing or a single graphic card like you suggested. After a while the problem did it again and the monitor connected to the top graphic card went black and the skipping sound came in for a bit. I was able to use the other monitor for about 15 secs the normal time I have before it fully locks normally. So I'm guessing its my 1st Graphics card going to try and RMA.

 

[4745454b]

I actually meant physically remove the cards one at a time and see if the problem goes away. I would be inclined to agree that it is the top one as well but having it happen with that card and not the other will prove it.

 

[Sudaman]

I actually meant physically remove the cards one at a time and see if the problem goes away. I would be inclined to agree that it is the top one as well but having it happen with that card and not the other will prove it.

I did a physical removal of both today and stressed the top one first and it gave out after a long time then put in the 2nd and it didn't do it once. So pretty sure at this point. Opening a RMA for it now.

 

[4745454b]

Good idea. Hope it fixes the problem.