R9 290x Black screen/Crash

[ajburr47]

Okay, I've seen a lot of posts about this 290x issue crashing games and such, but I still haven't seen anything I can do to fix it.

It's weird because I installed the card. turned the computer on, then installed the driver that I found on the AMD website. After installed, the computer started up, screen went black, and reset itself. After that, I wiped all the AMD drivers off my computer, installed the drivers on the disc that came with the card. For some reason if functioned long enough for me to play one round in BF4. I was pretty ecstatic about it, but eventually when I was on the desktop it crashed again.

This is ridiculous. I wanted the best card I could find, and now my computer is essentially unusable, unless I'm in safe mode.

Is there an answer? Or am I screwed?

 

[Luffyruto]

Hey, just wanted to mention i had bluescreen/blackscreen and artifacts issues. But when i flicked the BIOS switch on the graphic card it disappeared, atleast for now, i will update on friday (giving it some time).

 

[ShaboinkaBoink]

Having the same problem myself. Just got off the phone with MSI and thought this might help. They said that the motherboard has to have UEFI BIOS. Witch if you look at Simplesheep's problem it confirms it. His motherboard does NOT have UEIF and doesn't work and his Wife's does have UEFI and works. They also suggested to get a MOBO with PCIe 3.0 but it is backwards compatible. Little scared myself to fork out the money for another MOBO and all but not sure I have a choice.

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

I have a Asus R9 290 DirectCU II and get black screens too, especially when I connect my 32" tv to the HDMI port. It blacks out less than 5 mins after boot up. it's just happened once over DVI since I bought the card (a week ago). I have a Dell U2412M. I can play bf4 for hours.. it only happened once while surfing the internet (over DVI - when I connect the hdmi cable the pc is unusable). over hdmi, it goes black a few seconds then the pc resets itself. as I said before, it's never happened during gameplay.

I'll try to uninstall CCC software and re-install driver only and see how it goes

I'm having the exact same issues you are. Never crashes in game (some older games occasionally crash) Only really crashes browsing web and a few times browsing steam. it could run bf4 continuously for life, but internet explorer for only 15-45 minutes before crashing..
specs
amd fx-8350
m57al-m/usb3 motherboard with added heat sinks - latest bios
g.skill trident ddr 3 8gb x 2 16gb @ 1887mhz 1.6v
Asus r9 290x -latest bios and new omega drivers
EVGA supernova 850 g2

Have you had any luck?

Thanks!

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

If we can confirm the UEFI BIOS is the issue then I'll be happy to get a new motherboard. My motherboard does not, but for at least half the time I can use mine with no issues. (using it now) Hopefully they'll come out with some decent MATX am3+ boards soon.

 

[mfjord02]

Hi Guys,
I've been having issues with my 290x recently as well. I got the R9290X-DC2OC-4GD5 from Asus back at the end of July. It's been rock solid until last week.

I hadn't used my PC in a couple days (been busy), but that's pretty normal for me and it's never been a problem before. I saw the "graphics driver has stopped responding but recovered" message a few times, then started getting the screen freeze/black screen. I tried updating to the latest beta drivers, but that didn't make a difference. The issue for me seems to be pretty consistent. Every time I boot up my machine, it eventually happens, usually within 5 mins or so.

The only thing I can think of that may have changed on my machine is Windows Update running since the last time I used it. What are the chances that is actually the issue VS the card? I unfortunately don't have any restore points to roll back to, and I'd prefer not to wipe my machine and put on a fresh copy of Windows.

The consistency and suddenness of the failure smells like a HW issue to me. I'm probably going to see if I can RMA the card with Asus, since I bought it less than 6 months ago. It sounds like my issue is different than what most others are experiencing, but I'd appreciate any suggestions anybody might have.

 

[ShaboinkaBoink]

If we can confirm the UEFI BIOS is the issue then I'll be happy to get a new motherboard. My motherboard does not, but for at least half the time I can use mine with no issues. (using it now) Hopefully they'll come out with some decent MATX am3+ boards soon.

I confirmed it, it is the UEFI BIOS. I purchased the GIGABYTE GA-990FXA MOBO and installed it. It was an easy swap and everything works great now. It has been days and no crashes, before it would freeze or go black then reboot no matter what I did within every 15mins. Now it works great. Got some nice bench test marks with it. Can now max out the settings on any game that's out right now.

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

If we can confirm the UEFI BIOS is the issue then I'll be happy to get a new motherboard. My motherboard does not, but for at least half the time I can use mine with no issues. (using it now) Hopefully they'll come out with some decent MATX am3+ boards soon.

I confirmed it, it is the UEFI BIOS. I purchased the GIGABYTE GA-990FXA MOBO and installed it. It was an easy swap and everything works great now. It has been days and no crashes, before it would freeze or go black then reboot no matter what I did within every 15mins. Now it works great. Got some nice bench test marks with it. Can now max out the settings on any game that's out right now.

I'm just waiting for a matx board with a 990 chipset. ASUS won't make one, not sure why. No one else will either. I hear that matx boards have to have onboard graphics, and no 990 motherboard has onboard graphics.. Sounds like bs to me... Lots of good matx boards for Intel cpus..
I did have an expert tell me that no gpu requires UEFI bios, so keep me posted if your new motherboard does the trick.
mine just crashes randomly once a day or so, and only while running certain software. I'm sure a 990 chipset would be way more stable with an FX-8350 and a R9 290x anyways.

 

[mfjord02]

Hi Guys,
I've been having issues with my 290x recently as well. I got the R9290X-DC2OC-4GD5 from Asus back at the end of July. It's been rock solid until last week.

I hadn't used my PC in a couple days (been busy), but that's pretty normal for me and it's never been a problem before. I saw the "graphics driver has stopped responding but recovered" message a few times, then started getting the screen freeze/black screen. I tried updating to the latest beta drivers, but that didn't make a difference. The issue for me seems to be pretty consistent. Every time I boot up my machine, it eventually happens, usually within 5 mins or so.

The only thing I can think of that may have changed on my machine is Windows Update running since the last time I used it. What are the chances that is actually the issue VS the card? I unfortunately don't have any restore points to roll back to, and I'd prefer not to wipe my machine and put on a fresh copy of Windows.

The consistency and suddenness of the failure smells like a HW issue to me. I'm probably going to see if I can RMA the card with Asus, since I bought it less than 6 months ago. It sounds like my issue is different than what most others are experiencing, but I'd appreciate any suggestions anybody might have.

I ended up RMA'ing my card. Newegg had the exact same card I just RMA'd on sale, so I bought another one, knowing the RMA process was going to take a while. I got the new (identical) card and put it in. Started up Far Cry 4 and played for a solid hour. I couldn't get to the menu screen before. Haven't had a crash or black screen since. My issue was definitely the card itself. Won't complain about a 290x crossfire setup when I get the other one back, I guess!

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

I found a fix that works for me and I have yet to have a crash since implementation.

My issue was that my ASUS R9 290X would crash while watching Youtube, browsing web, and some older games.
However when playing newer games it never crashed. I worked on this for 4 months, digging through post after post when I found a little secret in a comment of a youtube video. After nearly a week to make sure I wasn't being fooled, I am now confident enough to share this fix with you. Hopefully I will save someone from great woe and gnashing of teeth.
First I'll explain the problem, and why this is happening. (to the best of my knowledge)
R9 290 and R9 290x series cards run extremely hot, to the point where manufacturers were under clocking the 2d GPU Clock and Memory Clock to bring down idle temperatures. What happens is because the clock is so low, the voltage drops due to not being needed, said voltage drop triggers an under voltage situation, causing your pc to crash or shut down and restart due to under-volt protection. basically you're not running the gpu enough, I think this is also causing the video driver crash error some people are getting too. VLC media player used to crash my pc anywhere between 1 minute and 20 minutes after starting a video. Now it doesn't after hours and hours. Same with Youtube, or games that still use a good amount of 2D Hardware. Minecraft (think of the menus, all 2d) Titan Quest (the hud and menus are all 2d) These would crash often, but not other games. BF4 ran and still runs like a dream. Far Cry 4. Runs on ultra 1080p with only slight dips below 50 fps during driving. I think newer games use very little to no 2d sprites, so they don't cause this crash.

The Fix:
I don't think new drivers are necessary, but I have the latest OMEGA Radeon drivers, and the latest bios for my GPU.
Mine works, so I can't confirm these are required steps, but I recommend them. Maybe do this first, if you want.
Then download the latest version of ASUS GPU Tweak. Can be found on ASUS Support website. If you have a MSI or other brand card, download MSI Afterburner or equivalent. I can confirm ASUS GPU Tweak works, because it has the 2d option. I can't confirm MSI Afterburner has this, but I'm sure it does. refer to MSI Afterburner help to see if it has 2d settings.
Before Installing GPU Tweak or equivalent, go into CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and disable AMD Overdrive so It doesn't conflict with ASUS GPU Tweak or MSI Afterburner. Don't worry. If your card is stock overclocked, it will retain it's stock overclock. I am not confirming they conflict, this will just prevent it, since you now will be using Afterburner or Tweak to control clock and fan settings from now on. CCC will still be used to adjust graphic options for games etc. Some folks don't even use CCC...
After disabling AMD Overdrive, install GPU Tweak (or afterburner)
Use internal updater to make sure you have the latest version. go into options and set it up to start when windows starts, and I chose to have it minimize once opened, so it's not in the way on startup.
You'll see a overly fancy red window with a giant tachometer on the top. Under that you'll see a Red button that reads "3D", and to the right a description of the card you have.
Hover pointer over the 3D, click 2D. Now you can change the 2d settings for your card.
Change GPU Clock to 430 MHZ. I recommend typing in 0430.
Change Memory Clock to 900 MHZ. Again, type as 0900....
(not required) I also recommend Defining an new heat to fan speed curve, as I think the stock one sucks. Click the little gear by user define.

Important last step:
Make sure to save your new 2d settings, and if you chose to your new fan curve to a profile, you'll have to select that profile every time you use your pc.

Caveats:
1. You could RMA your card, but it takes forever and you might get another back with the same issue. I did this and I'm content. (I've been trying to figure this problem out for 4 freaking months, needless to say I'm pleased as punch.) I even thought it was sub-standard power in my house, or my CPU, or my RAM... lols. A new build nightmare.
2. This mod will fix your problem, but bring your idle gpu temp up. Make sure you have adequate cooling. Is your case cramped? Jungle of wires?? Clean it. Maybe change your thermal compound on your cpu, and clean everything. Fix that jungle... My idle temp of my gpu went from 38c to 47c.... Not a big deal for me at all. Under load there will be no change in temp. If bf4 took it near 90c, that won't change. If your cpu is on the verge of overheating, or other components, make sure you're ready for a jump of 10c or more on a cramp dirty case. my cpu is on water, so I'm not concerned about 10 degrees..
3. If you think it's a pain in the butt to click profile 1 on GPU tweak when you turn on your pc, RMA your card.
It's really not a big deal and takes minutes to install, and seconds every time you turn on.
4. Don't close ASUS GPU Tweak after clicking your saved profile. Clicking the X closes it completely and shuts off any changes you've made. GPU Tweak will need to always be running in the background, but uses little resources anyways. I'm not sure if MSI Afterburner works the same way, and you need to keep it open. Just minimize it. Someone with an MSI card, and issues, should try Afterburner and report their findings.
Again, this took me 4 months to figure out, I hope I can get you fixed in 30 minutes...

Thanks again for everyone's input.
Let me know if you have any questions or problems.

Cheers!
Matt

Oh and to update, here's the thread that I first created back in September showing all that I was completely on the wrong path in the beginning.. lol http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2303442/windows-random-crash-reboot-windows-error-codes-reasons.html#14908917

 

[ShaboinkaBoink]

You know, it's funny when you talk directly to an MSI tech at MSI in California and they give you the answer to the problem (UEFI BIOS) and you take the time to post it on here for everyone after doing what the MSI tech said to do (it worked) and then no one listens to the way to fix it. It's frustrating when you know the answer to the problem and no one listens. It's like talking to a kid, Me- 4+4 is 8, kid - no its 5....... Yes there may be some other ways around the fix, but 95% of the time it's going to be that you don't have a UEFI BIOS mobo

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

Yeah, maybe with UEFI Bios these steps are unnecessary. There are zero am3+ matx motherboards that offer it. If you have a micro atx build, you can't put a 900fx atx board in it... The best you can do is the few 760 chipset matx am3+ boards on the market. None have UEFI....
If you can but don't want to change your board, use my trick.
If you can't use an atx board, use my trick. I tried going to the "experts". I called ASUS back in September, the tech support guy I spoke to was worthless, and said my level of understanding was way beyond his. I'm no expert, either.... Maybe your MSI expert was the diamond in the rough.
If getting a new board worked for you, Great. I want a new board too, but there's nothing on the market that's better for my cpu in matx...
Thankfully my $1500 brick turned back into a pc. Works great whether I play games, or just browse the web and videos.
I'm just trying to help those with the same situation as me.

 

[ShaboinkaBoink]

Yeah, maybe with UEFI Bios these steps are unnecessary. There are zero am3+ matx motherboards that offer it. If you have a micro atx build, you can't put a 900fx atx board in it... The best you can do is the few 760 chipset matx am3+ boards on the market. None have UEFI....
If you can but don't want to change your board, use my trick.
If you can't use an atx board, use my trick. I tried going to the "experts". I called ASUS back in September, the tech support guy I spoke to was worthless, and said my level of understanding was way beyond his. I'm no expert, either.... Maybe your MSI expert was the diamond in the rough.
If getting a new board worked for you, Great. I want a new board too, but there's nothing on the market that's better for my cpu in matx...
Thankfully my $1500 brick turned back into a pc. Works great whether I play games, or just browse the web and videos.
I'm just trying to help those with the same situation as me.

Understood, Maybe I should have read it more carefully about it being a m-ATX board that you were trying to make work. Although the board that I did have was a m-ATX and I purchased an ATX board instead to make this work. Really if you think about it, a full sized card like this one was never made to work with a small MOBO, Especially if you are going crossfire. So for anyone with this problem in the future I hope they read both solutions on here since I did not find an answer anywhere else before figuring it out on my own. And one question, why not go with an ATX MOBO instead? Even if your case wasn't able to fit it, a new case is not that much for a system that already has a $400 GPU in it.

 

[Eluzive]

You know, it's funny when you talk directly to an MSI tech at MSI in California and they give you the answer to the problem (UEFI BIOS) and you take the time to post it on here for everyone after doing what the MSI tech said to do (it worked) and then no one listens to the way to fix it. It's frustrating when you know the answer to the problem and no one listens. It's like talking to a kid, Me- 4+4 is 8, kid - no its 5....... Yes there may be some other ways around the fix, but 95% of the time it's going to be that you don't have a UEFI BIOS mobo

I appreciate your answers. However, I was wondering what else you had to do. I currently have a Asus P9X79 Pro board which supports UEFI Bios. I am also running Windows 8.1 but am experiencing crashes on my R9 290x. I have also tried swapping out the R9 290X with 2x 5870s but still experience the crash after opening different games such as GW2, SC2, League, etc.

I will also be trying sirmatthewofhodge's solution and will provide an update.

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

You know, it's funny when you talk directly to an MSI tech at MSI in California and they give you the answer to the problem (UEFI BIOS) and you take the time to post it on here for everyone after doing what the MSI tech said to do (it worked) and then no one listens to the way to fix it. It's frustrating when you know the answer to the problem and no one listens. It's like talking to a kid, Me- 4+4 is 8, kid - no its 5....... Yes there may be some other ways around the fix, but 95% of the time it's going to be that you don't have a UEFI BIOS mobo

I appreciate your answers. However, I was wondering what else you had to do. I currently have a Asus P9X79 Pro board which supports UEFI Bios. I am also running Windows 8.1 but am experiencing crashes on my R9 290x. I have also tried swapping out the R9 290X with 2x 5870s but still experience the crash after opening different games such as GW2, SC2, League, etc.

I will also be trying sirmatthewofhodge's solution and will provide an update.

I hope it works. Let me know if you have any questions. I've had zero problems so far.

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

Yeah, maybe with UEFI Bios these steps are unnecessary. There are zero am3+ matx motherboards that offer it. If you have a micro atx build, you can't put a 900fx atx board in it... The best you can do is the few 760 chipset matx am3+ boards on the market. None have UEFI....
If you can but don't want to change your board, use my trick.
If you can't use an atx board, use my trick. I tried going to the "experts". I called ASUS back in September, the tech support guy I spoke to was worthless, and said my level of understanding was way beyond his. I'm no expert, either.... Maybe your MSI expert was the diamond in the rough.
If getting a new board worked for you, Great. I want a new board too, but there's nothing on the market that's better for my cpu in matx...
Thankfully my $1500 brick turned back into a pc. Works great whether I play games, or just browse the web and videos.
I'm just trying to help those with the same situation as me.

Understood, Maybe I should have read it more carefully about it being a m-ATX board that you were trying to make work. Although the board that I did have was a m-ATX and I purchased an ATX board instead to make this work. Really if you think about it, a full sized card like this one was never made to work with a small MOBO, Especially if you are going crossfire. So for anyone with this problem in the future I hope they read both solutions on here since I did not find an answer anywhere else before figuring it out on my own. And one question, why not go with an ATX MOBO instead? Even if your case wasn't able to fit it, a new case is not that much for a system that already has a $400 GPU in it.

I agree with you, an atx board would be much better. I should have probably gone with a bigger case, but I had this 92mm radiator closed loop water cooler laying around, and my case is the only decent one with a 92mm fan port in the back. Only reason why I got an Inwin Dragonslayer. I have two antec ball barring fans on it in push/pull and get about 3000 rpm and cool core temps. I'd have to get a 120mm water cooler, a new board, and a new case. I'm happy with what I have now it's fixed.

 

[osios]

Hello! i bought asus radeon r9 290, before few days, same issues black screens...
My system:
win7 x64
asus mb p8 z68-v pro gen3
intel cpu i5-2320 3.00 ghz
g-skill ram 8g 12800
psu coolermaster g750m 80+ bronze
display drivers: the newest 14.12 omega

i tried everything i googled without luck(drivers, tweaks..))! Today i had an idea to try it in my tv. So my monitor is connected through dvi and my tv through hdmi, right click on desktop>screen resolution and changed multiple displays to ''duplicate these displays''(monitor and tv).
so i tried it with a game called 'state of decay' which i had blackscreens every second(my screen was coming back when i was hitting escape), and viola, my monitor had again the same blackscreens but my tv was running smoothly without even 1 blackscreen. So i dont know if the problem is the monitor or the dvi cable(some expert could help)

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

Hello! i bought asus radeon r9 290, before few days, same issues black screens...
My system:
win7 x64
asus mb p8 z68-v pro gen3
intel cpu i5-2320 3.00 ghz
g-skill ram 8g 12800
psu coolermaster g750m 80+ bronze
display drivers: the newest 14.12 omega

i tried everything i googled without luck(drivers, tweaks..))! Today i had an idea to try it in my tv. So my monitor is connected through dvi and my tv through hdmi, right click on desktop>screen resolution and changed multiple displays to ''duplicate these displays''(monitor and tv).
so i tried it with a game called 'state of decay' which i had blackscreens every second(my screen was coming back when i was hitting escape), and viola, my monitor had again the same blackscreens but my tv was running smoothly without even 1 blackscreen. So i dont know if the problem is the monitor or the dvi cable(some expert could help)

Did you try changing the 2d clock and memory clock in ASUS GPU Tweak?

 

[osios]

Hello! i bought asus radeon r9 290, before few days, same issues black screens...
My system:
win7 x64
asus mb p8 z68-v pro gen3
intel cpu i5-2320 3.00 ghz
g-skill ram 8g 12800
psu coolermaster g750m 80+ bronze
display drivers: the newest 14.12 omega

i tried everything i googled without luck(drivers, tweaks..))! Today i had an idea to try it in my tv. So my monitor is connected through dvi and my tv through hdmi, right click on desktop>screen resolution and changed multiple displays to ''duplicate these displays''(monitor and tv).
so i tried it with a game called 'state of decay' which i had blackscreens every second(my screen was coming back when i was hitting escape), and viola, my monitor had again the same blackscreens but my tv was running smoothly without even 1 blackscreen. So i dont know if the problem is the monitor or the dvi cable(some expert could help)

Did you try changing the 2d clock and memory clock in ASUS GPU Tweak?

I didnt try it but if that was the issue, why then only my monitor and not my tv have the black screens

 

[Leon Ynema]

So the problems was that once catalyst drivers were installed the computer would randomly restart, or it would tell me that my Graphics drivers stopped working and were restarted. The starts were not during heavy us but random. So you could be opening a browser, or event viewer, but you might be able to run a stress test on the GPU/CPU for a while. And all my temps were just fine and cool.
At first I changed most components. I got a new PSU, then changed the GPU, got a new MOBO, changed RAM from a second desktop, and even moved my CPU over. Funny thing the problem continued. It wasn't the components, and the problem would only appear when the catalyst drivers were installed. Funny thing the solution wasnt the drivers, but changing bios settings.

made 2 changes >Changed PCIe bus settings from Auto to 110>Chipset Overvolt from Auto to 1.3.>

and all of a sudden my PC was stable.
So my final conclusion is that the current bios of this motherboard can't handle the R9 290.
it worked for me.

 

[Captain Pyjamas]

I've also had all the above problems, and I think I've finally resolved it (fingers crossed). I've tried every method, tinkering with voltages in After Burner, messing about with drivers, changing power supply, the list goes on and on and every time, it started crashing again. Finally I figured it's crashing whilst browsing... I uninstalled Chrome and went with Mozilla. I also tinkered as mentioned above with the PCIE Overclocking in the Bios and changed it from AUTO to 130. No idea what it means or does but as a result of these 2 things I think (touching wood) it's stable. Unfortunately I did both at the same time so not sure which did the trick. So, forget new MOBOs and other expensive solutions, I'm putting my money on it being Chrome.

 

[Captain Pyjamas]

NO, I take it all back!!! It's started crashing again. Not changed anything and had 1 whole day of no crashing but today it's begun again. It's bizarre!! Crashed today when on Ebay. Can't return the card as bought second hand.

 

[chevy80c10]

I found a fix that works for me and I have yet to have a crash since implementation.

My issue was that my ASUS R9 290X would crash while watching Youtube, browsing web, and some older games.
However when playing newer games it never crashed. I worked on this for 4 months, digging through post after post when I found a little secret in a comment of a youtube video. After nearly a week to make sure I wasn't being fooled, I am now confident enough to share this fix with you. Hopefully I will save someone from great woe and gnashing of teeth.
First I'll explain the problem, and why this is happening. (to the best of my knowledge)
R9 290 and R9 290x series cards run extremely hot, to the point where manufacturers were under clocking the 2d GPU Clock and Memory Clock to bring down idle temperatures. What happens is because the clock is so low, the voltage drops due to not being needed, said voltage drop triggers an under voltage situation, causing your pc to crash or shut down and restart due to under-volt protection. basically you're not running the gpu enough, I think this is also causing the video driver crash error some people are getting too. VLC media player used to crash my pc anywhere between 1 minute and 20 minutes after starting a video. Now it doesn't after hours and hours. Same with Youtube, or games that still use a good amount of 2D Hardware. Minecraft (think of the menus, all 2d) Titan Quest (the hud and menus are all 2d) These would crash often, but not other games. BF4 ran and still runs like a dream. Far Cry 4. Runs on ultra 1080p with only slight dips below 50 fps during driving. I think newer games use very little to no 2d sprites, so they don't cause this crash.

The Fix:
I don't think new drivers are necessary, but I have the latest OMEGA Radeon drivers, and the latest bios for my GPU.
Mine works, so I can't confirm these are required steps, but I recommend them. Maybe do this first, if you want.
Then download the latest version of ASUS GPU Tweak. Can be found on ASUS Support website. If you have a MSI or other brand card, download MSI Afterburner or equivalent. I can confirm ASUS GPU Tweak works, because it has the 2d option. I can't confirm MSI Afterburner has this, but I'm sure it does. refer to MSI Afterburner help to see if it has 2d settings.
Before Installing GPU Tweak or equivalent, go into CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and disable AMD Overdrive so It doesn't conflict with ASUS GPU Tweak or MSI Afterburner. Don't worry. If your card is stock overclocked, it will retain it's stock overclock. I am not confirming they conflict, this will just prevent it, since you now will be using Afterburner or Tweak to control clock and fan settings from now on. CCC will still be used to adjust graphic options for games etc. Some folks don't even use CCC...
After disabling AMD Overdrive, install GPU Tweak (or afterburner)
Use internal updater to make sure you have the latest version. go into options and set it up to start when windows starts, and I chose to have it minimize once opened, so it's not in the way on startup.
You'll see a overly fancy red window with a giant tachometer on the top. Under that you'll see a Red button that reads "3D", and to the right a description of the card you have.
Hover pointer over the 3D, click 2D. Now you can change the 2d settings for your card.
Change GPU Clock to 430 MHZ. I recommend typing in 0430.
Change Memory Clock to 900 MHZ. Again, type as 0900....
(not required) I also recommend Defining an new heat to fan speed curve, as I think the stock one sucks. Click the little gear by user define.

Important last step:
Make sure to save your new 2d settings, and if you chose to your new fan curve to a profile, you'll have to select that profile every time you use your pc.

Caveats:
1. You could RMA your card, but it takes forever and you might get another back with the same issue. I did this and I'm content. (I've been trying to figure this problem out for 4 freaking months, needless to say I'm pleased as punch.) I even thought it was sub-standard power in my house, or my CPU, or my RAM... lols. A new build nightmare.
2. This mod will fix your problem, but bring your idle gpu temp up. Make sure you have adequate cooling. Is your case cramped? Jungle of wires?? Clean it. Maybe change your thermal compound on your cpu, and clean everything. Fix that jungle... My idle temp of my gpu went from 38c to 47c.... Not a big deal for me at all. Under load there will be no change in temp. If bf4 took it near 90c, that won't change. If your cpu is on the verge of overheating, or other components, make sure you're ready for a jump of 10c or more on a cramp dirty case. my cpu is on water, so I'm not concerned about 10 degrees..
3. If you think it's a pain in the butt to click profile 1 on GPU tweak when you turn on your pc, RMA your card.
It's really not a big deal and takes minutes to install, and seconds every time you turn on.
4. Don't close ASUS GPU Tweak after clicking your saved profile. Clicking the X closes it completely and shuts off any changes you've made. GPU Tweak will need to always be running in the background, but uses little resources anyways. I'm not sure if MSI Afterburner works the same way, and you need to keep it open. Just minimize it. Someone with an MSI card, and issues, should try Afterburner and report their findings.
Again, this took me 4 months to figure out, I hope I can get you fixed in 30 minutes...

Thanks again for everyone's input.
Let me know if you have any questions or problems.

Cheers!
Matt

Oh and to update, here's the thread that I first created back in September showing all that I was completely on the wrong path in the beginning.. lol http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2303442/windows-random-crash-reboot-windows-error-codes-reasons.html#14908917

I couldnt send you a pm so ill just do it here. THANK YOU very fn much because this works. MSI afterburner is useless and the asus GPU tweak works great. I can't say thank you enough.

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

I found a fix that works for me and I have yet to have a crash since implementation.

My issue was that my ASUS R9 290X would crash while watching Youtube, browsing web, and some older games.
However when playing newer games it never crashed. I worked on this for 4 months, digging through post after post when I found a little secret in a comment of a youtube video. After nearly a week to make sure I wasn't being fooled, I am now confident enough to share this fix with you. Hopefully I will save someone from great woe and gnashing of teeth.
First I'll explain the problem, and why this is happening. (to the best of my knowledge)
R9 290 and R9 290x series cards run extremely hot, to the point where manufacturers were under clocking the 2d GPU Clock and Memory Clock to bring down idle temperatures. What happens is because the clock is so low, the voltage drops due to not being needed, said voltage drop triggers an under voltage situation, causing your pc to crash or shut down and restart due to under-volt protection. basically you're not running the gpu enough, I think this is also causing the video driver crash error some people are getting too. VLC media player used to crash my pc anywhere between 1 minute and 20 minutes after starting a video. Now it doesn't after hours and hours. Same with Youtube, or games that still use a good amount of 2D Hardware. Minecraft (think of the menus, all 2d) Titan Quest (the hud and menus are all 2d) These would crash often, but not other games. BF4 ran and still runs like a dream. Far Cry 4. Runs on ultra 1080p with only slight dips below 50 fps during driving. I think newer games use very little to no 2d sprites, so they don't cause this crash.

The Fix:
I don't think new drivers are necessary, but I have the latest OMEGA Radeon drivers, and the latest bios for my GPU.
Mine works, so I can't confirm these are required steps, but I recommend them. Maybe do this first, if you want.
Then download the latest version of ASUS GPU Tweak. Can be found on ASUS Support website. If you have a MSI or other brand card, download MSI Afterburner or equivalent. I can confirm ASUS GPU Tweak works, because it has the 2d option. I can't confirm MSI Afterburner has this, but I'm sure it does. refer to MSI Afterburner help to see if it has 2d settings.
Before Installing GPU Tweak or equivalent, go into CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and disable AMD Overdrive so It doesn't conflict with ASUS GPU Tweak or MSI Afterburner. Don't worry. If your card is stock overclocked, it will retain it's stock overclock. I am not confirming they conflict, this will just prevent it, since you now will be using Afterburner or Tweak to control clock and fan settings from now on. CCC will still be used to adjust graphic options for games etc. Some folks don't even use CCC...
After disabling AMD Overdrive, install GPU Tweak (or afterburner)
Use internal updater to make sure you have the latest version. go into options and set it up to start when windows starts, and I chose to have it minimize once opened, so it's not in the way on startup.
You'll see a overly fancy red window with a giant tachometer on the top. Under that you'll see a Red button that reads "3D", and to the right a description of the card you have.
Hover pointer over the 3D, click 2D. Now you can change the 2d settings for your card.
Change GPU Clock to 430 MHZ. I recommend typing in 0430.
Change Memory Clock to 900 MHZ. Again, type as 0900....
(not required) I also recommend Defining an new heat to fan speed curve, as I think the stock one sucks. Click the little gear by user define.

Important last step:
Make sure to save your new 2d settings, and if you chose to your new fan curve to a profile, you'll have to select that profile every time you use your pc.

Caveats:
1. You could RMA your card, but it takes forever and you might get another back with the same issue. I did this and I'm content. (I've been trying to figure this problem out for 4 freaking months, needless to say I'm pleased as punch.) I even thought it was sub-standard power in my house, or my CPU, or my RAM... lols. A new build nightmare.
2. This mod will fix your problem, but bring your idle gpu temp up. Make sure you have adequate cooling. Is your case cramped? Jungle of wires?? Clean it. Maybe change your thermal compound on your cpu, and clean everything. Fix that jungle... My idle temp of my gpu went from 38c to 47c.... Not a big deal for me at all. Under load there will be no change in temp. If bf4 took it near 90c, that won't change. If your cpu is on the verge of overheating, or other components, make sure you're ready for a jump of 10c or more on a cramp dirty case. my cpu is on water, so I'm not concerned about 10 degrees..
3. If you think it's a pain in the butt to click profile 1 on GPU tweak when you turn on your pc, RMA your card.
It's really not a big deal and takes minutes to install, and seconds every time you turn on.
4. Don't close ASUS GPU Tweak after clicking your saved profile. Clicking the X closes it completely and shuts off any changes you've made. GPU Tweak will need to always be running in the background, but uses little resources anyways. I'm not sure if MSI Afterburner works the same way, and you need to keep it open. Just minimize it. Someone with an MSI card, and issues, should try Afterburner and report their findings.
Again, this took me 4 months to figure out, I hope I can get you fixed in 30 minutes...

Thanks again for everyone's input.
Let me know if you have any questions or problems.

Cheers!
Matt

Oh and to update, here's the thread that I first created back in September showing all that I was completely on the wrong path in the beginning.. lol http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2303442/windows-random-crash-reboot-windows-error-codes-reasons.html#14908917

I couldnt send you a pm so ill just do it here. THANK YOU very fn much because this works. MSI afterburner is useless and the asus GPU tweak works great. I can't say thank you enough.

Any time! I'm glad it worked for you!

 

[sirmatthewofhodge]

Hey guys! Good news. After I updated to the gta v 15.4 beta drivers I no longer have to set custom 2d clocks in gpu tweak. I reached out to amd to find out why their new driver fixed my problem, but I have yet to hear back from them. I'd like to see if Chevy80c10 or anyone else would like to try this and see if ccc beta 15.4 also solved the issue for you. Not having to oc my 2d clocks brought my idle temps back down where they should be, and no crashing on 2d heavy applications. I'm pretty stoked about this. Let me know if it worked for you.