Strange issue with crossfire on upgraded pc (BSOD)

[Das_Beard]

I recently upgraded my pc from an AMD FX-8350 to an i7-4790k.  When doing this I wiped everything on my drives and did a fresh install of everything.

Core specs:

CPU - i7-4790k

mobo - ASUS Sabertooth Z97 mark 1

GPU - 2x R9 290 (reference) w/ EKWB waterblocks

PSU - Corsair AX1200 (have also ran tests with seasonic x1250)

Case -  Corsair 750D

OS - Windows 7 pro

 

Since the re-install I have had constant issues with crossfire.  At first it would just freeze up when switching to crossfire and then later just not even giving me the option to switch on crossfire.My first idea to remedy this, past making sure all cables were actually plugged in, was to try using different AMD drivers. So far I have tried 14.7 RC3, 14.9 and 14.9.1.  All end with the same exact result.  This led me to believe it was not the driver since all worked the exact same way.  Things started getting really strange when I started trying to swap out power supplies to try and remedy it that way.  Initially it appeared to work.  I plugged up my seasonic x1250 outside of the case to see what would happen before completely swapping it into my system and both cards were showing and was able to even overclock and run 3dmark firestrike to benchmark.  Thinking I had solved the issue I swapped the different psu into my system.  However when I I turned my computer back on it with the new psu in I started running into the exact same issues!  First with it freezing with crossfire on and then not even showing the option or seeing the second gpu.  To test the oddity of this further I got my ax1200 that I had just taken out of my system and tried plugging it up from the outside.  Strangely enough now both my gpu's were showing up and again working in benchmarks with no issue.  Since this is the psu with sleeved cables I went through the hassle of putting the ax1200 back into my computer.  Of course in doing this it stopped working as soon as it was in the case again.  My thought then turned to the possibility that maybe I was pulling my cables too tight for window appeal and was possibly causing them to not get a good connection.  So I disconnected the PCIe cables and instead off running them through the back I just let them run straight from the psu to the gpu's so that there could be zero kinking in the lines.  Again, this appeared to have fixed the problem.  Again ran benchmarks and played games with both working just fine.  One issue I did have though was that whether I had one or both graphics cards on my games would freeze after about 10-30 minutes if I ran with ULPS disabled.  I was okay with that though because at least it was working and it seemed to me that this had to be the remedy.  I was wrong again though.  At the time I was playing CS:GO and when running that game with both cards I would get the random stutter or lag when in crossfire so would just ran 1 card at the time since just one card already keeps me in the 200 fps range or higher on almost all maps.  This was working for a couple days like this.  When I finally when to play a game where I wanted to use crossfire it again froze when I enabled it.  Consistently freezing as soon as I turned it on until it reached the point eventually that it just stopped recognizing the second gpu and stopped giving me the option AGAIN!  I am now to a point where my only thought could be to just re-install windows again and start from scratch.

 

Breakdown of the issue again:

1. Crossfire appears to initially work until I potentially disable crossfire or have to restart the computer for any reason
2. From there I am unable to enable crossfire without my computer freezing
3. After a while from that it will eventually stop giving me the option to crossfire completely and I do not see the second gpu in my devices.

My troubleshooting thought (feel free to correct me)

 

• I do not think it is either of my graphic cards since for at least a while both cards will work and even allow overclocking for at least a decent period of time.
• I do not think it is the psu since I have 2 seperate psu's ,one of those being brand new, having the exact same issues.
• I do not think it is the amd driver since I have tried a few different ones with the exact issue process as well.

Sorry this has been so long.  I just wanted to be as thorough as possible without completely having to tell y'all every single step.

Thank you in advance for the help.

 

Edit: Upon further thinking I do not think the crossfire issues really began until I let Windows do its first big update.  Did try at one point to back track in recovery, but for some reason it did not let me.  Will be re-installing windows today and will update from there.

 

Edit/Update:  Have re-installed windows with zero change to the situation.  Figure I should also mention the errors or freezing I get are actually most of the time a BSOD

[TR0J4N]

perhaps the motherboard is faulty? do they cross fire fine in your am3 board? 

[Das_Beard]

perhaps the motherboard is faulty? do they cross fire fine in your am3 board? 

 

Yeah it worked fine in my AMD board.  Is there a good way to actually test if it is the board?

[Das_Beard]

Went ahead and re-installed windows which made zero difference at all!

[Jetster]

Did you try switching cards? Also fi you format again just run one card adn let everything update. Then add the second

[Das_Beard]

Did you try switching cards? Also fi you format again just run one card adn let everything update. Then add the second

 

I guess this is where the issue of watercooling comes into play.  I would just plug in the cards one at a time to make sure they both work, but since they are in a loop I can't just switch them around freely. That may be something I need to take the dive and try though