Sapphire R7 260x black screen!!!

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Aravind92

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Bought a sapphire R7 260x 2gb(says oc edition but core and memory clocks are lesser than referrence) 25 days back.
Whole system is new.Got a black screen just when sitting on the desktop two days after i built the pc.Restarted pc,everythjing fine for 2 weeks,black screen again,all components running fine inside the cabinet,still black screen tried unplugging and replugging DVi cable,no go,monitor still gets signal after black screen.This was with the the driver which came along with the gpu.
Then installed 13.12 from amd webiste,black screen next day,just when browsing the internet.
Uninstalled that too and installed 13.12c from sapphire which had catalyst version 14.1,worked fine for 8 days,black screen again when watching a movie.Movie sound form the speaker turned into a wird long loop,still monitor was recieving signal.So uninstalled that too and installed 14.3 beta.Restarted the pc and when installiong arkham origins,black screen again,restated the pc and uninstalled that too and installed 13.10.Worked fine for one day and black screen again just after starting the system when browsing thorugh my folders on the hard disk.

Everytime i do a clean uninstall and boot into safe mode and run driver sweeper and only then i install another version.

When gaming this has never happened,No heating issue,max temp is 76 even with crysis 3.To be noted:I live in India,chennai.It is summer now and temps are between 35 and 40c outside.

Even tried leaving the system on for 5 minutes after black screen,display does'nt comeback,all components would still be running.I have to hard shut down and restart everytime this happens.

Even before i bought this card i knew many are facing this issue,with all manufacturers like asus,xfx,sapphire and all.Stll took a risk by going with the card.I just wanna know if it is hardware issue or a driver related problem.If its latter i can wait for a table version.Just wanna make sure it is not a hardware issue,if so i will have to rma this card.

I could not relate each occurance with another,happens completely random.Everytime happened under diferrent scenario_Only thing i could get out of those were like the gpu did not have lot of work to do.Was almost at idle.

Tested drivers:
13.20(worked fine for 2 days black screen,again worked fine for 2 weeks,black screen) which came along with the disc(for some reason this was released before 13.10 or 13.12)
13.10(good for 1 day)
13.12(good for 2 days)
13.12c from sapphire website.(good for 8 days)
14.3 beta(not even for 1 hour).

My whole system config is:
I3-3220
Gigabyte B75m-D3h
Corsair value select 4gb 1600mhz ddr3
Seagate barracuda 1 tb
Sapphire R7 260x 2g Gddr5
Power supply:Corsair VS450(UK version)34A on 12v.
 
Solution
From mtdew332:

"So after two weeks of searching for the cause / solution to my Black Screen issue, I think i've finally nailed it down.
With some help from overclock.net forums.
I'll just quote it here.

(This black screen from power transitions occurs because the memory clock jumps up to full speed (1250, etc), while the GPU voltage (which also controls the IMC--this is the problem) is STILL running at idle volts of 0.9xxx). That idle voltage is too low to handle the IMC, which is controlling the memory running at that speed (this is NOT due to defective memory modules btw), and thus the card black screens.)

The fix, is to increase the GPU voltage, which ALSO increases the idle voltage to the IMC as well. (previous...

Bagzi

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May 20, 2014
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I just return from tehnical support,and they say to me that I must update BIOS beacuse bios is older then graphic card and bios dont recognize card
my bios driver 13.7.2013....card driver 15.04.2014
 

Aravind92

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motherboard bios?in that case i have it updated...and card dosn't have bios update yet...And updating bios in a graphic can go wrong very often...your technical support is just trying to give you stupid reasons...And js just try frontwing's suggestion,he has a logic behind it..why in this world would amd have ulps enabled on a single card..
 


Why didn't the technical support update the bios themselves? It's their job
 

Bagzi

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People...when i come back i only install display driver "ONLY " no amd catalyst and others codes and decodes software,and all day its ok,someone say that in last posts.....we will see
 

Aravind92

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Just do what frontwing said...disable ulps...no point in having it enables with single cards...
 

Aravind92

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the techincal support in his sense is the place from where eh bought the pc...they are good for nothing...They just know how to put things together...
 

Bagzi

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Last night i got blue screen bsod when i played wolfenstain ,no black screen....thats it,I back card to them this morning,they didnt say notin, and I buyed GF GTX 650 TI
 

Aravind92

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No don't check gpu boss..that just compares specifications...look for real world benchmarks..750 ti is faster than 650 ti...gtx 750 is almost equivalent to 650 ti and its newer architecture and power efficient..
 

fruitbowl33

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Honestly, I think it's just a driver issue from AMD. They're kinda notorious for that aha... It just took me a very long time to load up the drivers which gave me a black screen for like 15 minutes, then it actually loaded into the windows desktop. I was so happy at that moment! I've read a lot of other threads mentioning how their R7 260x is giving them black screens, so I'm REALLY sure it's just a driver thing. Hope this helps :)
 

abirtj

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Installed the new beta 14.6.....got my hands of on watch dogs, there was no mention of black screens fixes in the release notes.......dont think they are trying to fix it anymore... :=(
 

Aravind92

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just try disabling ulps...That seems to have a logic behind..
 

Aravind92

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Happened again...had the monitor turned off for about ten hours..came back..keyboard was frozen and black screen..but in the las week i had the monitor turned off and computer running for a long time but happened only today..ulps disabled..yesterday enabled autodetect display...
 

abirtj

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@Aravind92 disable the PCI Express power savings from the power option of windows, it helped reduce the BS by a lot....

 

Aravind92

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Done...but i had another bs today when browsing...
 
All these benchmark numbers so useless
power_idle.gif


And the reviewer credits it without knowing the side effects