Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X freeze with anything past 13.12

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

Hello. I have a problem with my fairly new R9 290X (got my new build the 26th of June): since I got it, I haven't been able to use any driver past 13.12.
As soon as I finished building my rig, I installed Windows 8.1 x64 and the 14.4 drivers. Everything was going fine, BF4 was going fine too. Then, I went into the graphics options and changed from DirectX to Mantle and the whole system froze. Mouse wasn't moving, sound wasn't working, keyboard caps light wasn't changing, etc. I had to hard reset, but after BIOS POST, I kept getting a blank screen/black screen.
Uninstalled 14.4 from safe mode and installed 13.12 and everything works.
Now, I know that I can keep using 13.12 but I really would like to use more recent drivers, with Mantle.
If I try to install anything past 13.12 (I tried 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.6, 14.7), even with a complete clean install of Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, after the driver installation + reboot, I can't open any applications that are somewhat related to the GPU, like: GPU-Z, HWMonitor, MSI Afterburner, etc, but I can open applications like Windows Explorer or Firefox.
The biggest problems, though, are the freezes. If I open Internet Explorer, the system freezes. Same thing if I try to open any games, sometimes I get a freeze even in 30 seconds after logon, doing absolutely nothing.
What could be the problem here? My card's memory is Hynix by the way.
Thank you.

EarthDog · Jul 15, 2014

Does your new card have a dual bios? For giggles, switch to the other bios and see if that helps...

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

EarthDog said:
Does your new card have a dual bios? For giggles, switch to the other bios and see if that helps...

Yes, it does. I tried with both Quiet bios and Uber bios but nothing changed.
Thanks though.

RCoon · Jul 15, 2014

Misaki said:
14.4 drivers is a crap. Wait for 14.7 or back to 13.12 is you can't wait.

Cursor on BSOD, lol.

Yup, 0x7E BSOD's are almost always related to dodgy video drivers...

EDIT: Uninstall 14.4, run a driver sweep, redownload 14.4, and click on custom installation, untick the AHCI driver that it tries to install, but install the rest of the components. DO NOT INSTALL THE 14.4 AHCI COMPONENT

This should fix everything. The issue is with AMD Chipsets that use AMD's AHCI driver. 14.4 has a broken AHCI driver, so don't install that with the driver update.

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

RCoon said:
Yup, 0x7E BSOD's are almost always related to dodgy video drivers...

EDIT: Uninstall 14.4, run a driver sweep, redownload 14.4, and click on custom installation, untick the AHCI driver that it tries to install, but install the rest of the components. DO NOT INSTALL THE 14.4 AHCI COMPONENT

This should fix everything. The issue is with AMD Chipsets that use AMD's AHCI driver. 14.4 has a broken AHCI driver, so don't install that with the driver update.

The thing is, there is no AHCI driver in the list.

RCoon · Jul 15, 2014

Boing said:
The thing is, there is no AHCI driver in the list.

Try unticking everything except the Display and HDMI. It's a start. If that works, begin adding on from there.

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

RCoon said:
Try unticking everything except the Display and HDMI. It's a start. If that works, begin adding on from there.

Already tried that, installing just the Display drivers. Same thing, freezes and can't open GPU-related applications.
I also tried installing just the driver .inf from Device Manager, same thing.

RCoon · Jul 15, 2014

Boing said:
Already tried that, installing just the Display drivers. Same thing, freezes and can't open GPU-related applications.
I also tried installing just the driver .inf from Device Manager, same thing.

All of this after running driver sweeper? Seems your card is really boned if you can't install a WHQL video driver with just the video only and not all the rest.

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

RCoon said:
All of this after running driver sweeper? Seems your card is really boned if you can't install a WHQL video driver with just the video only and not all the rest.

I didn't use Driver Sweeper, but I used Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU).
If the problem is my card, why can I use 13.12 with no problems? :/

RCoon · Jul 15, 2014

Boing said:
I didn't use Driver Sweeper, but I used Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU).
If the problem is my card, why can I use 13.12 with no problems? :/

Not a clue, I was under the impression WHQL was supposed to be the stable version.

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

RCoon said:
Not a clue, I was under the impression WHQL was supposed to be the stable version.

This is weird..
I contacted AMD, and they told me to ask for a RMA. Contacted Sapphire, and they told me it's a driver problem so I should ask AMD.
I asked AMD again 4 days ago and they said "I've added this to the Catalyst issue tracker, we'll take a look. We may contact you for additional details. Will be tough to repro because it's isolated, may need your help."
All I can do is wait I guess.

GhostRyder · Jul 15, 2014

Boing said:
This is weird..
I contacted AMD, and they told me to ask for a RMA. Contacted Sapphire, and they told me it's a driver problem so I should ask AMD.
I asked AMD again 4 days ago and they said "I've added this to the Catalyst issue tracker, we'll take a look. We may contact you for additional details. Will be tough to repro because it's isolated, may need your help."
All I can do is wait I guess.

Try downloading the 14.7 beta drivers and see what happens. My cards are PowerColor R9 290X but I am having no issues with my trio right now.

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

GhostRyder said:
Try downloading the 14.7 beta drivers and see what happens. My cards are PowerColor R9 290X but I am having no issues with my trio right now.

As I wrote in the OP, I tried 14.7 too and nothing changed.

GhostRyder · Jul 15, 2014

Boing said:
As I wrote in the OP, I tried 14.7 too and nothing changed.

Oh I missed that when reading sorry, well anyway it sounds like a bad video card in all honesty and I would RMA it.

I do not understand why 13.12 would be stable and the other versions would not, but this seems to be the problem at least to me.

eidairaman1 · Jul 15, 2014

Tell sapphire you tried the card in another machine and it failed to work. Record the pn and sn down of the card and send it back for replacement.

Boing · Jul 15, 2014

Alright, I'll probably wait then. I can't RMA it right now cause I'm going on vacation. When I'll be back, I'll check if the new drivers have fixed it, if not, RMA.
Thank you guys.

Processor	AMD FX-8320 @ 4.3 GHz
Motherboard	ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Memory	2x4GB Kingston HyperX Fury 1866 MHz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC
Storage	500 GB WD Blue, 2TB WD Green
Display(s)	ASUS ML238H
Case	Enermax Ostrog
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar DGX
Power Supply	Corsair RM850
Software	Windows 8.1 x64

Processor	AMD FX-8320 @ 4.3 GHz
Motherboard	ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Memory	2x4GB Kingston HyperX Fury 1866 MHz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC
Storage	500 GB WD Blue, 2TB WD Green
Display(s)	ASUS ML238H
Case	Enermax Ostrog
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar DGX
Power Supply	Corsair RM850
Software	Windows 8.1 x64

System Name	HP Omen 17
Processor	i7 7700HQ
Memory	16GB 2400Mhz DDR4
Video Card(s)	GTX 1060
Storage	Samsung SM961 256GB + HGST 1TB
Display(s)	1080p IPS G-SYNC 75Hz
Audio Device(s)	Bang & Olufsen
Power Supply	230W
Mouse	Roccat Kone XTD+
Software	Win 10 Pro

Processor	AMD FX-8320 @ 4.3 GHz
Motherboard	ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Memory	2x4GB Kingston HyperX Fury 1866 MHz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC
Storage	500 GB WD Blue, 2TB WD Green
Display(s)	ASUS ML238H
Case	Enermax Ostrog
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar DGX
Power Supply	Corsair RM850
Software	Windows 8.1 x64

System Name	HP Omen 17
Processor	i7 7700HQ
Memory	16GB 2400Mhz DDR4
Video Card(s)	GTX 1060
Storage	Samsung SM961 256GB + HGST 1TB
Display(s)	1080p IPS G-SYNC 75Hz
Audio Device(s)	Bang & Olufsen
Power Supply	230W
Mouse	Roccat Kone XTD+
Software	Win 10 Pro

System Name	SnowFire / The Reinforcer
Processor	i7 10700K 5.1ghz (24/7) / 2x Xeon E52650v2
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Case	Thermaltake Cube / Dell Poweredge R720 Rack Mount Case
Audio Device(s)	Realtec ALC1150 (On board)
Power Supply	Rosewill Lightning 1300Watt / Dell Stock 750 / Brick
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Memory	16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V)
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X
Storage	Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB
Display(s)	NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter)
Case	AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition
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Power Supply	Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3)
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Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X freeze with anything past 13.12

The Exiled Airman