R9 290x Black Screen Crash

Well I've just been banging my head against the wall over the weekend trying to get my brand new MSI R9 290X Lightning graphics card to work without constantly bluescreening in Windows 8.

I did everything imaginable including formatting (from Win 7 to 8), resetting motherboard CMOS, trying different PCI-E slots, using 2 separate PCI-E power cables, increasing system agent voltage, you name it.

I've tried Catalyst 13.12, 14.1, 14.2 and 14.3 and they all give me the same 0xa0000001 bluescreen code often referencing the atikmdag.sys module.

Only just now did I realise what the cause is. I used to have a HD3850 that did the exact same thing years ago and I remembered the Powerplay function which plays around with the card's clocks.

Funnily enough the EXACT same issue even now is still occuring with my brand new MSI R9 290X Lightning card years down the track.

Using GPU-Z I watched the memory clock jump from 150Mhz to 1250Mhz when doing something simple like scrolling or clicking and dragging a window. It quickly jumps back down to 150Mhz again. Do these actions rapidly enough will make the clocks jump up and down like haywire and BSOD the computer.

I'm sure something like this can be fixed via a driver or bios update, but how long is that going to take? Powerplay 2.0 my ass...

Throwing up whether to keep the card in hope MSI responds with a fix as Asus has appeared to have done or hoping that the 14.4 drivers fix it. Otherwise this card can go right back and I think I will be jumping ship to Nvidia to get a 780 Ti 6GB card when they come out sometime in May or June.

 

Had the same, clocks going haywire when just opening/closing programs etc... on the desktop, giving random blackscreens and BSODs, so i made another profile in Afterburner (as already had a profile set to lock the 3D clocks to stop the throttling) to lock the clocks at the lowest settings you could go (which is 515/625) to use for when im on the desktop, and never had a problem since, rock solid now.

 

If you're having to downclock to get a useable card, then the card possibly has a defect.

I haven't had any problems whatsoever since December, or maybe very early January.
The only thing i'm pretty sure made a difference, was upping the Voltage a bit. I have mine watercooled though, so I know its not temp.

Its either your card, or your system setup thats causing the Bluescreens, Lockups.
Have you tried it in another system to see if it has the same reaction ? (I know thats almost impossible, but its one of the only ways to find out).
If not, and at stock its still not working right, take it back to the shop, and either get a refund, or another card. You might ask them to test the card in their own systems, and tell then exactly where and when you had the problems, so they can try to reproduce them.

 

Yeah if the only way to get it to work is to downclock it, then id RMA as a faulty card.

 

Yes.
Buy from a store that has a decent refund / RMA policy, or go for 780.

 

Well I told MSI support about the issue and their response was to RMA the card as it might have something wrong with it. If they told me to wait for the new 14.4 drivers or an upcoming VBIOS release from them I would have done so.

For those who are curious my MSI R9 290X Lightning had Samsung memory chips according to GPU-Z. My old MSI R6970 Lightning has gone back in now, which funnily enough uses Hynix memory chips.

I'm obviously disappointed in AMD for what appear to be a combination of bad driver / card vbios issues from vendors. I'm not willing to play the waiting game to see if the drivers get better or if a vbios update is issued.

...which means I'll be getting an Nvidia 780 Ti instead.

 

just had my first red screen of death while watching youtube. havent had a red screen since christmass I think.

earlier today when first firing up bf4 I also had another blinking black screen of death.

I bought those two 290's in november. it's already april. no comment.

 

i've been using the last beta drivers for the last few days. Not a single BSOD , i haven't had a black screen either.
I just left the Heaven benchmark on for 2 hour, no black screen. is 2 hours enough for a burn in test?

So can we say , the problem is solved?

 

New Afterburner out

 

I was happy that the new beta drivers were cure to the "black screen " problem. But playing Witcher 2 for 10-15 mins with the ultra settings gives me a black screen again.

Seems , new drivers wont solve this problem either.

 

I agree I don't think drivers can push for high performance without black screening the card, I have had the black screen issue with both my R9 290X with every driver only stable if I only use 1 monitor. with one monitor and crossfire I have no issues no black screens 100% stable that is up until I add 3 monitors then black screen even with one card installed works fine 1 screen but 3 monitors connected then black screen issue, only way was to down clock the cards from there default settings to keep cards from black screening, but I didn't spend £840 to put up with this for seven months trying to hunt down a fix, so I finally admitted defeat today and returned the cards to the computer shop I bought them from. hoping the replacements dont do the same because if they do i dont want them and will have to exchange for nvidia cards. i'd rather stick with these beastly R9 290X's although if they still have stability issues then they are of no use to me

 

possible issue

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)