- Jun 2, 2016
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Recently one of my friends gave me his old r9 295x2 because it was giving him BSODs. I cleaned the card properly and re did the thermal paste/pads.
After having the card for about ~3 days it crashed for the first time while loading a game
video of crash: [video="www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V6iithwzsI"][/video]
After that, it kept crashing on random occurrences - under load, light load (youtube), no load.
Last night I found a software called memtestCL and ran it to see if maybe it was a problem with the memory of the card and sure enough, it got a few errors in almost every test
(the "random blocks" test always shows loads of errors on any card, so I think it's a bug)
(left card is the primary, right side is the secondary card)
(also, the test on the primary card took way longer)
I think it only crashes when windows tries to access the bad areas. Usually all 3 of my screens freeze, even the ones plugged into my onboard graphics but sound continues to play so and as far as I can tell everything else keeps running as well. The fan on the card goes into a "default" state (same as in BIOS or without the drivers installed) and then switches between that and normal a few times (probably tries to re-initialise the drivers)
What I tried so far:
I got a few other ideas that could work, but I don't know how I would go about doing either.
The card itself runs perfectly, and there are no visual clues of the ram failing, so I have no idea what to do with it. Can't RMA because I got it from a friend and he got it like ~4 years ago. I still have my original 290 so I can switch back if I need to
This is my current PC configuration, but I think this is an issue with the card itself so it's not that relevant
Asus H97 pro gamer mobo with an i5 4690 (non K)
16 gigabytes of 1600 mhz RAM, a 240 GB samsung SSD and 2 HDDs for data
an EVGA 1000GQ PSU (eco mode is off atm)
MSI r9 295x2 (and currently an rx 460 so I can write this without my PC rebooting)
some random case and a bunch of cooling fans
After having the card for about ~3 days it crashed for the first time while loading a game
video of crash: [video="www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V6iithwzsI"][/video]
After that, it kept crashing on random occurrences - under load, light load (youtube), no load.
Last night I found a software called memtestCL and ran it to see if maybe it was a problem with the memory of the card and sure enough, it got a few errors in almost every test
(the "random blocks" test always shows loads of errors on any card, so I think it's a bug)
(left card is the primary, right side is the secondary card)
(also, the test on the primary card took way longer)
I think it only crashes when windows tries to access the bad areas. Usually all 3 of my screens freeze, even the ones plugged into my onboard graphics but sound continues to play so and as far as I can tell everything else keeps running as well. The fan on the card goes into a "default" state (same as in BIOS or without the drivers installed) and then switches between that and normal a few times (probably tries to re-initialise the drivers)
What I tried so far:
■ loosened the screws on the backplate so it doesn't put pressure on the ram modules - no effect
■ tightened the screws - no effect
■ dumped rubbing alcohol on the whole card and let it sit/dry for a few hours - no effect
■ set the windows timeout detection and recovery (TDR) to max (8) - no effect (takes longer to reboot automatically)
■ underclocked the ram - no effect
■ overclocked the ram - no effect (no idea what I was expecting)
■ reinstalled drivers/windows/tried different slot/etc etc (basically the usual troubleshooting procedures)
I got a few other ideas that could work, but I don't know how I would go about doing either.
■ Make windows ignore the error and just reload the driver (everything else continues running, so maybe just somehow force-reload the driver with a hotkey?)
■ switch the roles of the 2 GPUs on the 295x2 (the second one seems to be working perfectly)
■ add a second card (I got a 1030 and an rx 460) and connect the monitors to that, and somehow pass the rendered frames to this one?
■ somehow fix the ram itself (doesn't seem to be a connection thing, so baking is useless (probably))
■ put in my second card (a sapphire r9 290) as primary and just hope that with 3 way crossfire the problem gets reduced to just artifacts every now and then
The card itself runs perfectly, and there are no visual clues of the ram failing, so I have no idea what to do with it. Can't RMA because I got it from a friend and he got it like ~4 years ago. I still have my original 290 so I can switch back if I need to
This is my current PC configuration, but I think this is an issue with the card itself so it's not that relevant
Asus H97 pro gamer mobo with an i5 4690 (non K)
16 gigabytes of 1600 mhz RAM, a 240 GB samsung SSD and 2 HDDs for data
an EVGA 1000GQ PSU (eco mode is off atm)
MSI r9 295x2 (and currently an rx 460 so I can write this without my PC rebooting)
some random case and a bunch of cooling fans
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