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Ongoing 290x issues - need advice

Stunted

Stunted

Stunted

Associate
Joined
26 Oct 2011
Posts
180
Location
Ireland
Let's just get straight to it - I've had a string of issues with my 290x, and I'm passed the point of directing the blame at the card and *have* to consider other possibilities.

Model in question: asus dcuii oc

1st 290x: dec 2013, chain black screens, couldn't run any games. Replaced.
2nd 290x: jan 2014 - feb 2015. Occasional black screens, but tolerable. Fan bearings died after a year of intermittent use (ongoing health issues - that's another story). Replaced after fan death.
3rd 290x: march 2015. Dead within an hour of installation. Chain black screens, display corruption, eventually wouldn't even make it to desktop.
4th 290x: received just this Friday. Encountered 2-3 black screens so far. Odd screen artifacts occurring intermittently. Example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh6Q_oCtSRM (ew ff14 I KNOW, I have some RL mates playing, said I'd tag along when I'm not in a hospital bed, heh). Happens every 15-30 seconds, but no signs of crashing while ingame... yet. You'll see the flicker @ 6-8 seconds.

Rest of my system:

4930k (tested both stock and various levels of OC)
32gb ddr3 (2133mhz) (have run memtests, have tried at lower speeds)
asus x79-deluxe mobo
xonar essence stx sound card
corsair hx1050 psu (yes it's quite old by now, but it's always been reliable, voltages have always been consistent)
win 7

Final note: My system presents NO issues when using my mate's backup card (270x).


Thoughts? Am I just that unlucky, or am I missing something blindingly obvious (it's a distinct possibility, I'm so loaded up on medications atm that I won't even handle my pc's internals, had to leave it to someone else)
 
To add: GPU temps are well within tolerable range (~70C under load). Hardware settings remain @ factory defaults.
 
The 270x saw the same intermittent use over the last 6 weeks or so while the 290x('s) were being replaced, maybe ~25-30hrs a week? If I'm not in hospital, I'm at my pc currently.

As for the diagnosis, none was ever given to me - I posted the issue, they gave an rma, I sent it back, it went to asus, and asus issued a replacement. So I can assume they either found an issue, or they didn't bother to test it and just replaced.

I'm currently arranging to have this 290x tested in my mate's machine in place of his 970, we'll see how that goes. But that will take a few days sadly.
 
Yep, only replaced my ssd with a larger one recently, so it was a clean install.

As for refunds, I believe after 16 months I'm well beyond the point of a retailers refund and I'm more reliant on the manufacturers warranty. I've tried getting in touch with Asus support directly, but after a form mail that recommended a driver from Nov '13 (because old and drivers do oh so well with newer games!), a second that recommended a gpu bios update to an older bios, to a 3rd form mail that was a copy/paste of the 1st, I simply gave up there.
 
Damned phone auto correct! Anyway...

Using the second pcie slot yielded the same result.

As I said above, my next test will be trying it in a completely different machine, though it will take a few days to organise.
 
So, it took a few days to get back in touch with him, no 3g signal in this hospital and all that.

He says: In games, particularly high mem usage games, there's some display corruption/flickering. But no crashes. According to him, the biggest concern he has is that if he goes web browsing after a cold boot instead of straight into a game, there's about a 4/5 chance that it'll black screen and lock up, but once in-game, it's stable, albeit with the display issues.

So that's where we stand now.
 
meldarthx said:
Have you tried upping the voltage; also are the drivers on each one of these card been clean installed??
Click to expand...

Drivers are always clean installed, in fact it was a clean windows install with the most recent card.

As for voltage, it's not something I've been too keen on upping with the 290x's, they're far from the most stable cards I've encountered :P

Marine-RX179 said:
I have looked up the ASUS R9 290X DC II OC, and comparing to 290x that has a stock memory clock of 1250MHz, it has a factory overclock of 1350MHz.

Those symptoms you mentioned (black screens, flicker then lock up) are classic case of the unstable memory clock on the 290/290x. Sounds to me that Asus has used Elpida memory and applied the +100MHz overclock on the memory clock without properly testing for stability.

If you are not too fussed about the factory overclock on the memory and just want a stable system, changing the memory clock would most likely solve these issues right away. The 100MHz on the memory clock would most likely make as little as 1fps in games anyway.

If you still got problem with the memory clock running at 1250MHz, then I'm afraid you'd probably have to rma again.
Click to expand...

This has been my train of thought on it aswell, the lad I have running it in his system normally uses the MSI 8GB edition of the 290x and has had no issues at all.

That said, black screening *only* occurs after booting, never once it's in-game. Specifically, it occurs when going from the card's idle clocks (300/150) to its standard clocks (factory 1050/1350). Once at normal clocks it's (relatively) fine.

So the question becomes will changing the memclock from 1350 -> 1250 fix the black screening? It may fix the on-screen issues at least I suppose.
 
Just to note: I'm fine with dropping the memory clock from factory settings down to stock 290x settings.

That said - Things should function as advertised/sold :P

Once I'm through this next round of hospital visits I'm tossing this card out the window anyway - any recommendations on a replacement (or replacements - there's not a budget per se)?
 
I'm told that for now the underclock seems to be effective - he'll keep an eye on it.

In the meantime, I'm still going to replace it, got enough stress as is with my health, 16 months of that card has been enough, so one way or the other it's going straight out the window :P

So in that regard I'm still taking recommendations! I must give some poor ******* @ asus customer support an earful too, might help raise my blood pressure some more!
 
Scratch what I said above, reducing memclocks to stock defaults (rather than factory settings) didn't fix the display corruption in-game. If anything he says, now that it's started, it's even more frequent than before. See vid for reference


(note: settings for that vid are amd stock, that's 1000/1250, not factory stock of 1050/1350)
 
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After roughly 3hrs on the phone (or more precisely - on hold) to asus tech support, I finally got a response: We're very busy at the moment and will have to call you back. They never did. And that was an international call. At peak times. All in all, about 40euro worth. I could've flown to thier UK office for only a little more and beaten them to death with this brick of a card.

That aside, I continued to e-mail them about it, got the usual "Did you try this driver from nov '13? did you flash to the latest bios for the card? have you tested it in another machine?" and so on. This went around in circles for 2-3 days until I finally got:

"We're sorry for the poor experience with our product, you should request a refund from the retailer". I made it clear (for the second time) that it was 16 months since the original purchase, long passed any point of retailers refund - and quite frankly it was insulting to return the card to them a 4th time for the exact same issue.

Then I was greeted with this gem: "We don't deal with technical issues and faults. You will have to go through your retailer's support and RMA channels".

So there you have it folks: Asus technical support - They don't deal with technical issues.
 
gerico said:
Black screens are issues im having with my sli 290s. Appears to be only if crossfire is enabled that card two causes black screens.

I had thought it driver related but now im thinking its the card. Ill double check memory clocks to ensure they are stock. Glad i read this thread! I im praying its as simple as that.
Click to expand...

If you've got gpu-z, could you check what you've got listed under "memory type" for each of the 290's? Just curious :P
 
gerico said:
Will report back when im home and had a look. I. Pretty sure they are stock but id better check again incase im mistaken.
Click to expand...

It's not the speed I'm curious about, it's the memory provider. I'm betting that the blackscreening card is using elpida memory.
 
I'm sure it is right, but I'm not too pushed on the memory speeds, they'll likely still be factory set if you've not touched them - it's more the model of gddr5 used in the blackscreening card that I'm interested in :P
 
Well here's where I'm at:

The 1st card was bought @ its release. Cost = 523.56 (inc tax/delivery), ~ 715euro @ current exchange rate.

This will be my 4th returned card, it's costing ~35 euro per package for the RMA delivery costs. That's ~140 euro total.

Phone call with Asus was another ~40 euro.

So I'm at a total cost of close to 900 euro for a card with a current market value new of ~390 euro (on this site, inc standard delivery).

And I've yet to get a fully working/functioning as described product!
 
Marine-RX179 said:
I would take this note to myself as well- think twice about buying Asus products, not matter how attractive they might seem...

Though I believe OcUK take care of the entire duration of warranty for Asus product, so may be customers might be be less screwed comparing to buying from elsewhere...
Click to expand...

They have been - they've been the ones replacing the cards after all. From my email records (I've got a few of these!):

Overlockers UK Mailer ([email protected])

Dear Mr. **** (Privacy and all that jazz!)

The product GX-330-AS on RMA****** (edit: let's leave those out for now too!) has been sent back to manufacturer for repair or replacement. It will be returned to you as soon as we receive it.

Please be aware it can take up to 28 working days to receive a repair / replacement from the manufacturer.

Further email confirmation will be sent when the item is returned to you.

Regards,

Overclockers UK - Support
WebNotes:- https://www.overclockers.co.uk/webnote.php
Telephone:- 01782 444455

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS AUTOMATED EMAIL
Click to expand...


All my RMA's thus far have been through OCUK, and while they've honored them each time, I'm sure even they're getting tired of it. And it's getting costly for me! Shipping these things back to the UK constantly isn't cheap. And waiting for a month round trip is time is a frustratingly long time for someone who spends their day either stuck in their house or a hospital bed.

Boredom tends to set in very quick :P
 
Marine-RX179 said:
You should probably buy Gigabyte from now on since they are based in Milton Keynes UK :D
Click to expand...

Well the RMA shipping costs is from where I am now to OCUK themselves @ Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

I live in the arse end of Ireland and nothing here is cheap, especially postal services.
 
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