AMD Crossfire issues

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dmoe33

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K so ive had this laptop for about 2-3 years now and when it started out it was fine. It wasnt until recently that ive been having lots of issues which ive found out to be the gpus. This thing runs duel R290x's and some issues ive been having are:

-GPUS get wayy too hot even when idle
-Clock speed is stuck at 300/150 and the only way to make it run at its default clock (950/1250) is to enable overclocking in afterburner to which it then returns to 300/150 after a few seconds due to it getting way too hot, like 70-80 to 100C in like 10s.
-My 2nd card seems to be doing 0 activity even though I try to increase it to match the first card

Im not really tech savy but ive tried all the usual fixes such as disabling ULPS, reinstalling drivers, etc. but to no avail.

Help will be much appreciated



 
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dmoe33

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Yea thats what i thought. Ive cleaned out the dust recently but replacing the thermal compound is something ive never done before and im afraid of messing it up. Is it normal for it to need replacing? do u have any idea why my 2nd card isnt doing anything?
 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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yes over time especially in laptops that get pretty hot it will dry the compound out much faster.

but for me crossfire was occasionally an issue until the newer drivers, you will want to use ddu to remove your drivers then re install the latest drivers.

is this a new game or an old game that was working with crossfire as some games simply will not work with crossfire well but I generally found it to be driver related
 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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they are actually m290x's which are desktop 7870s, still pretty powerful for a laptop in its day
 
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dmoe33

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Ah i see this laptop does get pretty hot. Its both old and new games that have the issue, thinking of it actually its new games that have the biggest issue (maybe cause of the more demand?)

 
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dmoe33

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Yea its and Alienware 18 forgot to mention that

 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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I would first start by resolving the heat issues, you want to do both the gpus and cpu as I would say all use paste vs thermal pads.


get any decent thermal compound and re apply, also remove the fans from the heatsinks as some dust will build up in there that sometimes wont come out.

should lower the temps quite a bit. then you can work on xfire issues.


I would say do what I said above and see what happens, leave ulps on for now as it is a laptop and any un-needed heat and power draw would be nice.

 
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dmoe33

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Another issue i forgot to list was that sometimes it gets really hot like 90C+ just right after startup usually when doing one of the mentioned fixes and just shuts down. This happens not as commonly as others but still occurs randomly
 
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dmoe33

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Hmmm what is a decent compound that u suggest? Also ive never done anything like this before is there anything i need to be careful of or anything i should know before taking it apart and doing a procedure that I have no experience in?
 
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dmoe33

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If i were to get one ive heard (havent actually looked into one myself) that the one specifically for this laptop is fairly expensive and doesnt really help all that much. I may look into one if i feel the need, thanks for the suggestion tho
 
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dmoe33

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Interesting turn of events... ive run the DDU process and reinstalled the most recent drivers (16.8.2) and now its seems that my first card which i assume the system set for itself as the primary card is still stuck at the 300/150 but my 2nd card which previously showed the same now is running at its default 950/1250 ,yet again seems to be doing absolutely nothing. It Also seems that my first card (300/150) is heating up because of it when the 2nd one is not.

Here are the screenshots
http://imgur.com/a/1pIbO
 
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spdragoo

spdragoo

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Which is why I tend to not listen to marketing division people. The laptop coolers are just a frame for the laptop to sit on that will allow for airflow from the fans to be pulled up & cool the laptop down. As long as the cooler's "recommended laptop size" matches the physical size of your laptop, you can pick up a fairly inexpensive one (I think ours was maybe $20 tops).
 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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I generally just stick with arctic silver but I use whatever I have kying around. I would use a ceramic or non conductive if you havent done this before incase you use too much


also you I am not sure on the exact model but it may or may not be easy to access this to replace
 
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dmoe33

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Yea i think mainly it just needs to be elevated as most of if not all of the heat buildup is at the back, ive done some searching and since this things pretty massive my options were more limited but i found one and hopefully it helps out

 
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dmoe33

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Ive seen a complete teardown of it and it looks really complicated (as it should) but apparently its not as bad as it seems. I think the biggest issue is finding the time and the space to do it and finding the right compound to use thats not too expensive, any idea on how much a decent-good one costs?

 
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dmoe33

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still having the crossfire issue but again another issue i forgot to mention is that at random times itll just shut off even though the temps reach a point where it has before and was fine. Like example itll sit at around 80-90C and be fine but at other times itll reach the same then shut down pretty sure its still a heating issue but what causes it to stay on or shut down?
 
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06yfz450ridr

06yfz450ridr

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dmoe33

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Yea i know that but like it stays at the same temps but sometimes itll shut down and sometimes it wont which is why im confused.
 
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dmoe33

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So i got the heating issue fixed for the most part (hopefully) still have my 2nd card card doing absolutely nothing for me and still have the clock speeds stuck at nearly half of what they are capable of. Any suggestions on what to do?
 
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dmoe33

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Just got some really weird error. Screen randomly "black screened" although it wasnt black screen it was grey and started flickering like crazy , i then closed the lid and then re opened and now display works but there is a slight flickering occurring on the screen thats very slightly noticeable
 
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dmoe33

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errr thats kinda what i dont wanna hear im not gonna lie. It hasnt done that since so maybe just a small hiccup? Im still getting the issue of 2nd card idle and clock speeds stuck however pretty much everything else is good
 
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