R9 290X causing system not to boot

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

Really struggling with this card. Have spent days trying to get to the bottom of it. Initially I got no screen until Windows, then I changed to a secondary display and that showed POST.

Now however I can intermittently boot into windows (whilst seeing POST). At other times everything starts up but I get no display and don't reach Windows.

I'm running on a new ASUS Sabertooth 990FX (rev.2) on latest firmware.
When I did get it to boot my Samsung diagnostic tool showed the SSD (840Pro) was not running in AHCI mode. So I restarted to get to the bios - blank screen.

I swapped out the card for my old GTX660 and boot with POST and Windows. Then the SSD shows as being in AHCI mode correctly.

So what is the 290x doing to give my mobo bios such a hard time? I'm unfamiliar with UEFI bioses so perhaps it's something to do with that?

Incidentally the easiest way to get to see POST/bios without sticking in the GTX is to pull a DIMM, presumably this is causing the bios to reassess the setup and thus revert back to something that does work with the 290x (albeit temporarily).

Any help would be much appreciated as my next test will be to hit it with a sledgehammer.

inzone · Dec 20, 2013

Can you post your complete specs including the power supply ? You need a good power supply for that card so if it's not getting enough power it won't work.

gokul36 · Dec 20, 2013

Power supply? PSU model?

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

gokul36 :

I'm using a 1000W Platinum rated Fractal Designs PSU.

When it does get up and running I can leave it in Furmark/Valley etc overnight with no issues.

Rest of specs are:

FX8350
ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Rev2.
4 sticks of Corsair Vengeance (but just 1 stick in to rule that out).

gokul36 · Dec 20, 2013

try to reset the BIOS and install the card

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

gokul36 :

I have tried that multiple times with no result.

06yfz450ridr · Dec 20, 2013

Hmm did you try resetting the bios to defaults then inserting the card? I know for some odd reason after I updated to windows 8 with my overclock in place would act really funny rebooting and locking up and everything even though my overclock was 100% stable. I had to finally reset the bios and it was fine.

one other thing is what memory speed are you running your vengeance at? are they 1866 sticks or 1600s? since these cpus are rated for 4 sticks at 1600 vs 2 @ 1866. either way you can overclock to reach those speeds fine in most cases.

just saw the last post, hmm idk try running just two sticks for now and see if it runs fine?

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

06yfz450ridr :

Stick is running at 1333mhz (it's a 1600 stick).

I actually just had the same symptom with the GTX 660 (restarting and getting no POST and not reaching Windows).

I've just turned of S.M.A.R.T detection in the bios and booted on the 290x with the HD showing as running in AHCI correctly. Who knows if it'll last. Will try some rebooting to see.

inzone · Dec 20, 2013

Is your motherboard running a current bios file ?

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

Just rebooted fine. Second reboot = no boot. No errors on the mobo but nothing on screen.

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

inzone :

Yes.

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

OK, so continued troubleshooting suggests that turning off SMART in the bios has been successful. If I then have a USB stick in (a boot drive for reflashing my 290x) I get no POST and don't boot.

Progress at least.

loops · Dec 20, 2013

The PSU may have a bad capacitor.

Can you boot w/o a GPU?
Install TeamViewer and remote into a Black Screen boot. If you can remote into a Black Screen, in most cases, the GPU is not seen. It could be that the PSU is not working or there is a driver issue.

Make sure you do a clean install to rule out a Driver issue. Disable any power saving options you have in the BIOS. Make sure you have the right GPU PCI slot as the default VGA at boot.

06yfz450ridr · Dec 20, 2013

did you do as a suggested remove all but two stick or even just one stick in the first slot?

jonnyapps · Dec 20, 2013

loops :

Team viewer was how I identified the first issue of it not showing on my tv. I haven't had any problems for the last 2 hours and, accepting the GPU is fussy, have ruled it out as the main culpret I think...

jonnyapps · Jan 8, 2014

For anyone this may help - it turned out to be a corrupt motherboard bios flash. I reflashed and everything is now working. Thanks to those that offered help.

06yfz450ridr · Jan 8, 2014

jonnyapps :

thats funny you say that just updated the same board the other day and it kind of failed it was weird in went through then rebooted and had a bunch of beeping and a black screen so I rebooted it and it was fine, what was also odd was restoring my overclock settings from the saved profile caused it to not get past post and sat there saying configuration changed please enter setup with no way to bypass it.

had to manually redo everything, must bio a bios issue, did you flash it from the bios or from the desktop?

jonnyapps · Jan 8, 2014

06yfz450ridr :

My first flash was from desktop. I noticed after the update that the 'easy mode' in the bios was missing and assumed it had been removed in the latest bios. I then noticed I couldn't see my thermistor details and that in windows my 8350 was at 1.9v(!!!). I reflashed through the bios and all was good again.

Before the reflash the only way to get to boot was to keep turning PSU off for a minute or so then praying.

06yfz450ridr · Jan 8, 2014

always flash from the bios, software related never ends well

R9 290X causing system not to boot

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