AMD R9 270X Crash Issue, Need Help Urgently Please!!

Hi People,

i got my AMD R9 270X yesterday and since yesterday its beeen giving me a huge headache, at it wasnt working, so after abit of error and trial finally got it working, but it crashes after every 2-3 minutes and all i get is a Screen of Death, i have to restart my PC throug the reset button, What could be the problem?? Kindly help!!

Did you delete the old drivers ? Are you sure the video card is locked in its place ? what kind of issues are you facing ? Did you install any new hardware beside the video card ?

@woomar: no GPU is the only new hardware in my system, the game starts fine and works perfectly for 2-3 mins and then suddenly i am looking at a grey screen with lines and thats it, nothing works after that, i am running win 7 ultimate 64 bit, i installed windows again as well but no use

@usman_8831:

So you have installed a clean version of windows , that eliminates the driver issue ...

Are sure the power cable is connected to your video card (6-pin or 8-pin)?

There is a great possibility that your card might be defective. Don't hesitate at all, send it back and ask them for a new one since it covers the laws of DOA.

Try driver fusion you can buy it from steam... Rips GPU drivers off like butter.

I'm running a R9 270X and I have absolutely no problem (was using a GTX 580).

I actually just put new thermal paste on mine today and dropped the core 4c (was 75c now 71c). I heard a lot of people have overheating or high temps on AMD cards because they put way to much thermal paste on. Mine had a giant glob on it. GPU should be fine low 80's.

But the screen turning grey with lines sounds bad... You already did a fresh install of windows... Normally you would have driver crash or game crash... But would still be able to ctrl + alt + del. Sounds like bad card.

1) Check if the fans are spinning on the card, could be a loose wire jamming the fans making the card overheat.

2) Is your video card getting enough power, check if your PSU meets the minimum requirements.

3) Download latest driver from amd.com, don't use the drivers that came with the CD.

4) Check the wiring and connections again, make sure the card is not short circuiting itself against something loose in the case. Check the case for loose screws, i once had a loose screw on the back on the motherboard causing a short circuit and blue screens of death.

Let me know if that helps

@woomar: yes, the Cables are secured fine, i have triple checked, Two 6-pin cables connected.

I have discovered something strange that when i bump the fan apeed to 100% the card works well for 15-30 mins and then the screen goes grey, if i set fan speed to manual it crashes in just 2 mins

Sounds like a defective gpu. I'd RMA/return it.

@topgunmv: Ok, Returning the card is going to be a big problem for me as i dont live in US and i ordered it from amazon to be shipped to KSA where i live. I will end up like for 2 months without a GPU !!!

Ask them for an advanced RMA. Which means they will send you another ahead of time while you return the other.

i have discovered that if i am playing Dead space 2 the GPU doesn't crash even when playing for hours, but as soon as i fire up Crysis 3 or Alan wake it crashes within 5 mins!!

Get an RMA, you have 7 days from when you received it from Amazon, then its manufacturer warranty.

I always abuse the hell out of new GPU's when I get them, just to make sure everything is working normally.

Run Unigine Valley Benchmark check your temps as it runs.

Here is mine after 2 passes.

(notice how OC'ed mine is and I didn't even try to go higher yet)

I replaced my thermal paste on mine with high grade stuff. Would be in the 74-75c range with manufacturing giant glob of thermal paste. I hear people having 80's or even 90's C because of bad thermal paste application.

So maybe your card is overheating. Since you said that if the fans are maxed it takes longer to get that screen. If your temps look fine before the crash then it's not thermal. It would either be RAM or VRM (power) issue.

@xxbioghostxx: have tried all of this, nothing works and it keeps crashing

@Truth_Hurts_U: i am going to return it tommorow, should i ask for a replacement or go for nvidia Gtx 760?

@usman_8831: 760 is a better card. I would get that if you can.

This the 760 beats 270X in majority of games. Just in a few recent AMD optimized games, the 270X somehow manages to outperform it. But if you are buying from an US store most probably the 280 or even 285 will be better deals than 760.

@glez13: He bought his card from Amazon and the price (lowest) of a R9 280X from Amazon is $260.92.

R9 280 is $185.85.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-R9-280-GAMING-3G/dp/B00JJNQ99U/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1414175663&sr=1-5&keywords=r9+280x

GTX 760 is $209.99.

He might not want another AMD card after his experience.

It doesn't matter if it's Nvidia or ATI. There's always bad cards from both sides. R9 280 is the way to go in that price range.. on top of that it's 3GB.

But a product being DOA has nothing to do with AMD or Nvidia. If he is going to adopt that posture he should be avoiding the specific manufacturer for the time being, if it's not the usual random defective product it could be a problem with a batch.

@insane_metalist: He is the one asking about a GTX 760 instead. I'm just telling you what I think.

I owned and built a lot of system over my life I had over 15 different video cards I used. I know how it works. But from someone that lives far away and has to wait 2 months for another GPU he might not want to take the chance again.

Besides I'm using an AMD GPU and mine works great. I've been using Nvidia for a long time. I sent back a defective GTX 970 and I had my GTX 690 break on me 2 times. So I'm not for or against either AMD or Nvidia. Though I prefer Nvidia because of gameworks.

I have ordered replacement, if i RMA then i am getting only the list price as the refund amount, excluding the shipping cost, which i will have to bear to send the card to Amazon, So if i ask for replacement they will ship me the Card in advance and will also refund me upto $25 shipping charges that i will have to bear, sounds goods to me.

Judging by the lines on the screen, the memory is probably the problem, before you ship it back you can try reducing the memory clock by 100MHz, if that doesn't work try reducing the core clock as well, you can do this on the Catalyst control panel or using msi afterburner.

Seems like the cooler is not making proper contact with the core chip or the vram.

@EducatingU_PCMR: tried, still same issue

@usman_8831: You never mentioned temps or volts, so probably one component is overheating/volting beyond limits.

So it was the best decision to get the RMA.

@EducatingU_PCMR: the temp never goes beyond 45'C under heavy load because my room is airconditioned, but i am not sure about volts, will check

Anyways i have asked for a replacement and i will get the replacement by 7th Nov

Finally received the replacement and the card works like a charm, getting very good frame rates .

I have this card and I really enjoy it, glad your issue got resolved...

@Arthas045: yes it is indeed a great card for 1080p Gaming, Crysis 3 is running perfectly smooth on High Settings and Battlefield 4 on Max Settings.