290 Reference R9 290 Blackscreen definitive fix

[Guest Generallee]

This is it. The ultimate fix to the annoying blackscreen issue on early R9 290 reference models. 

 

You're here because :

• Your reference R9 290 is blackscreening on boot, under load, or randomly
• You found out that a temporary fix was to underclock it using afterburner
• YOU CANNOT update your drivers, and the last driver barely working is probably 14.4 Beta or 13.2 WHQL
• You are about to punch a nun in the face

Worry no more fellow 290 user, the solution is here and it baffled me with it's simplicity. As you probably know, there were several batches of 290's back in the day, mainly two: R9 290 cards with ELPIDA memory, and 290's with SK HYNIX memory. HYNYX memory users shouldn't worry because they were most likely not affected by the blackscreen issue, however if you've arrived here, chances are you are an Elpida memory 290 owner. Now, why does it blackscreen ? Because for some freaking reason, the card ships with a stock memory clock of 1200 Mhz. This causes blackscreens 9/10 times at boot since Afterburner isn't running yet to underclock it. The fix is to obviously alter the VBIOS and change the default settings definitely.

 

You don't have to worry about fucking up your flash, because as you know, there are two VBIOS installed on the card (namely "normal" and "uber"). So if you do fuck it up, just push that switch thingy on the card and try again. Then if you fuck it up again, it's the master race natural selection at work and you should just go buy a console. Don't complain here if you don't understand how flashing BIOS'es work.

 

STEP 1) 

 

• Download GPU-Z. 
• Open it (duh)
• Locate the BIOS serial number
• Click on the little arrow next to it
• Select "save to a file"
• Name the file "hawaii.rom" (it will name itself automatically)

 

STEP 2)

 

• Download Hawaii Bios Reader, the whole ZIP
• Extract it, then go to the "RealeaseBin" folder
• Run Hawaii Bios Reader under Admin mode
• Locate the '"Hawaii.rom" BIOS file 
• Open it

It will probably look something like this :

 

 

Now, go to the Powerplay tab

 

 

Please edit the values according to the screen below, you'll want to change every 1200 mhz value in the MEM tab into 1000 mhz

 

It should then look exactly like this 

 

 

STEP 3)

• Save your new modded VBIOS file under another name, something like "MODHawaii.rom"
• Download ATI WinFlash
• Extract it 

 

FROM THIS POINT, YOU SHOULD HAVE EXIT AFTERBURNER OR ANY OVERCLOCKING SOFTWARE

 

FINAL STEP)

• Copy the MODDED Hawaii.rom BIOS file into the folder containing ATIWINFLASH
• Run ATIWINFLASH in admin mode
• Screen WILL flicker, dont shit your undies yet
• Click on "load image"
• Locate your modded rom file
• EXIT EVERY OTHER PROGRAM, ATI WINFLASH SHOULD BE THE ONLY ONE OPENED
• Click on "Program"
• If everything goes alright, it will flash the new vbios and then ask you to restart your computer
• Restart your computer
• Enjoy your working R9 290, without blackscreens and with the latest drivers.

 

I hope this was useful for people like me, who got R9 290's which are still very capable cards, and could not enjoy them without being constantly harrassed by the stupid blackscreen issues. I take no responsibility if you fuck up your card, tutorial is quite clear about the steps. You're grown up and therefore responsible for everything you're doing.

 

 

 

 

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[Guest Generallee]

Update :

 

Computer has been on since redacting the tutorial, the fix is working perfectly

Just installed Crimson without a single problem.

[hasanperto]

hello pictures are not showing, can you re-download the tutorial for settings or is there a ready mod rom