AMD R8/9 Black Screen Crashes

M

MrDave

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Ok, I think I'm consistently able to recreate the black screen crashes. When my system starts from a Full Powered Down state, I seem to never have the Black Screen computer crashes. However, If I let my computer go into standby, that is enter sleep mode, At some point after resuming from standby, I will get a Black Screen crash. It doesn't matter what app I am running, Desktop or full screen... It really appears consistent that the common denominator in these random black screen crashes happens only after the computer has awoke from a standby state.

ATI had this problem in the past a number of years ago where Graphical acceleration failed after waking from standby. It may be time to stop using standby on your computer, again!

If I register a black screen crash on a normal power up, that is a cold boot, I will follow up in this thread. I can't believe this is a problem for so many owners which you can find google dates going back 2 years!!!
 
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are you sure its a crash...

I get black screens, but switching the monitor source or turning the monitor on and off gets the screen back.

Thats the "infamous" monitor blanking bug, seems to that happens during monitor intialisation
 
Yeah, its a crash. Everything comes to a crashing halt. even my num lock and caps lock lights are frozen in their last position. Ctrl Alt Del won't reset the computer nor bring up the task manager. Still haven't had a black screen crash, yet, since I disabled sleep mode and shut the computer down when I am done using it or just leave it on with a screen saver but no sleep mode. Hibernate probably would be fine, as that's a true shut down, too. Just recovers from disc when you power up.
 
Well coming back from standby can be a lot of things not necessarily video, for me fiddling with allowed power saving settings in the motherboard bios sorted things.

Personally I have all hibernate and hybrid sleep stuff disabled in windows and bios...
Also found C6 state in bios has caused issues with me.

Its probably worth looking in Adminstrative tools/ event viewer to try and track down the culprit.
 
New Development, updated ASUS GPU TWEAK II, released.

New Development, updated ASUS GPU TWEAK II, released.

OK, so the system going to sleep has nothing to do with whether or not I get "Blank, black screen crashes", since I installed my ASUS R9 290x-DC2-OC edition video card. The previous card was the AMD HD 6870. A cleanup for AMD drivers, nor did multiple fresh installs of the OS help protect against "Blank, black screen crashes". Putting the AMD HD 6870 card back in would cure my "Blank, black screen crashes" and then replacing it with the ASUS R9 290x-DC2-OC edition video card my "Blank, black screen crashes" would begin again in the 2D Windows desktop again.

Doing a little more research I noticed people mentioning that while in 2D desktop mode the GPU speed jumps around a lot and some people have made new profiles for 2D desktop GPU speeds. Interesting enough, this is where my crashes happen. Using file explorer, or Internet explorer, just hanging out doing something you wouldn't expect your computer to crash from.

So I had uninstalled ASUS GPU TWEAK and was just watching speeds and temps using the Catalyst Control Center. I watched in amazement, while my computer was idle, at the numerous times the GPU would slow down to 150 MHz then Jump to 1050 MHz and then jump right back to 150 MHz. It did this a lot while IDLE. And then I crashed with a black screen, doing nothing but watching the CCC display my system properties.

Alright, off to the ASUS web site. Awesome Sauce!!! ASUS GPU Tweak II, has been released June 2015. A major upgrade. It has new profiles and displays. And something that thrilled me, the 2D's desktop profile average speed is in the 300 to 400 MHz range and rarely pops to 1050 Mhz. I mean rarely while the system is idle doing nothing. If I need fast 2D speed, the GPU speed pops right up there and works great. Idle again and it drops back down to 300 - 400 MHz range, again, and stays there.

So with this more consistent 2D desktop speed range for the GPU, I have not yet had any more "Blank, black screen crashes" while allowing the updated ASUS GPU TWEAK II to run, which starts when Windows starts.

My motherboard is a socket 1155 P8P67 EVO, one of the first motherboards out for the socket 1155 series, that does not have the internal CPU (mine is the i7 2600K) graphics adapter support available. It was left out by design in this motherboard. I don't think that has anything to do with the "Blank, black screen crashes" because this system never has them when using the AMD HD 6870 video card, I just thought I would mention the hardware design for anybody following my thread.

I will continue to monitor my system and immediately post here if I have another "Blank, black screen crash" while using ASUS GPU TWEAK II, which has a more stable GPU speed for the 2D Windows Desktop default profile.

Also, FYI, my ASUS R9290x-DC2-OC has the Elpida memory chips. Some say the "Blank, black screen crash" only happens on the boards with the Elpida memory and not the Hynix memory.

Memory tool can be found here in the "Blank, black screen crash" ROG thread.
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?39791-Memory-info-tool
 
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It has been confirmed that the memory failing to return from idle is the cause of the black screen problems, at least with the 260X cards, so I believe that you are having the same problem.


http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=34024145

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthre...C-graphical-artifacts-high-temp-no-Power-Save

If you RMA, be careful, because the with the 260X cards the Asus fix is to reflash the bios with one that disables all the power saving features, or underclocks your ram.

Now, Asus might have a better bios fix for your particular model of card, but I'd be wary of their "fixes".
 
ASUS Upgraded my card through RMA

ASUS Upgraded my card through RMA

My Black Screen crashes are no longer happening. Asus sent me the R9 390x OC STRIX Gaming Edition card as a replacement for my R9 290x OC card. My blank/ black screen crashes are gone and have been gone for months now. I went through a lot of detail, a lot of trouble shooting, and even expense in purchasing other new components to correct the problem of the blank/ black screen crashes of the R9 290x OC card. I would have to say determination pays off in the end. When I got my RMA, ASUS delayed a couple of weeks in sending me a replacement board and eventually after I asked what the hold up was, they offered to send me the R9 390x OC STRIX card because they didn't have any R9 290's and apparently couldn't fix mine. If you are still suffering from the blank/ black screen crashes, and have not removed your heat sink to replace it with a water cooling block or anything that they could say damaged your card, I would suggest being diligent and apply for an online RMA and be sure to fully document your history with your troubled card, especially ways you can recreate the problems. Your name brand board comes with a warranty, you are allowed to use it!
 
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