Confusing R9 290 Problem

[JakeMnz]

So after a while of testing and making threads on this site I finally deduced that the problem with my PC is my GPU and I could not be any more confused. My plan is to upgrade to the 480 when it comes out, but if you guys can help me save $200 I would love that.

 

Long and confusing explanation incoming..

 

The issue started when my computer would randomly crash while playing intense games like GTA V and Warframe and oddly enough, while watching YouTube videos or Twitch streams. My computer eventually got stuck in a boot loop, so I reinstalled Windows. When I did this I would get met with one of several problems. Boot loop, a black screen telling me to insert a drive with bootable media, a black screen with odd green and yellow squares (I'll attach a picture as soon as I can find the one I took), or I would boot into Windows repair which would lead to a boot loop. In my BIOS after installing Windows my boot options are my SSD and Windows Boot Manager. Booting from my SSD gives me the "boot from bootable media" error and booting from WBM will either boot loop me or boot me into repair which once again leads to a weird boot loop (by boot loop I mean my PC keeps restarting but never displays anything on my monitor). After posting a few threads and asking some friends I was told that it's either a CPU, GPU, or RAM issue. Both my CPU and RAM passed multiple trouble shooting tests that did not require Windows. Testing my GPU without Windows was difficult and I don't think I was actually able to do it. I couldn't test it in Windows because my computer would just crash, so I assumed it was GPU but I was told that made no sense because I got several BSOD's supposedly relating to CPU errors, specifically CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT. Today a friend lent me his rig where I tested my SSD and GPU with his Mobo, CPU, and RAM with the hope that it would fail and I put his GPU in my PC with all of my hardware and HDD. I managed to install Windows with his PC but ran into the issues I had before and could not boot properly like I had hoped. Then I tested my PC and everything worked perfectly and I was able to install the Nvidia drivers and reboot the PC into Windows several times with no problems. That would mean that this has to be a GPU error as it is the only variable in this test that caused issues. With that in mind, how could a GPU error cause my computer to not recognize Windows? I don't even know what to ask, just what the hell is wrong with my GPU?

[JakeMnz]

Found the picture

[Sky Daddy]

what's your power supply?

[JakeMnz]

1 minute ago, Sky Daddy said:

wha'ts your power supply?

I tested this with a CX600M, a CX850M, and an EVGA 600 B, none of which gave me any problems.

[Sauron]

Just to clarify, we don't know if the 480 will be faster than the 290.

Just now, JakeMnz said:

Booting from my SSD gives me the "boot from bootable media"

This cannot be caused by the gpu. Did you try booting again fro your pc with your gpu?

[TheRandomness]

2 minutes ago, JakeMnz said:

I tested this with a CX600M, a CX850M, and an EVGA 600 B, none of which gave me any problems.

All three are slightly awful. Before replacing it, try reinstall drivers and also reset any overclocks or factory overclocks.

[Sky Daddy]

did you just get a 290, if yes what gpu did you have before

 

if no, did you only recently start getting issues

[JakeMnz]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Just to clarify, we don't know if the 480 will be faster than the 290.

This cannot be caused by the gpu. Did you try booting again fro your pc with your gpu?

Either way its $200 for a new 480 or $250 for a used 970. And yes I did, it did not work.

1 minute ago, TheRandomness said:

All three are slightly awful. Before replacing it, try reinstall drivers and also reset any overclocks or factory overclocks.

I did this months ago. No drivers work and it was overclocked once for less than a day then reset to factory speed.

[JakeMnz]

3 minutes ago, Sky Daddy said:

did you just get a 290, if yes what gpu did you have before

 

if no, did you only recently start getting issues

I've had the card for about 2 now and I just started having these problems last year during the summer. This is the only GPU that's been run in the system.

[Sky Daddy]

5 minutes ago, JakeMnz said:

I've had the card for about 2 now and I just started having these problems last year during the summer. This is the only GPU that's been run in the system.

replace the power supply immediately

[JakeMnz]

14 minutes ago, Sky Daddy said:

replace the power supply immediately

Like previously stated, this issue has been persistent through 3 different PSU's, it's not a power supply issue.

[JakeMnz]

Just to be sure that it was my GPU, i reinstalled Windows to the SSD again with my friend's 750 Ti, then put my 290 in and tried to install the drivers. Now I know the screen is supposed to go black a few times during display driver installations, but I've been stuck at a black screen for about 10 minutes now. From my experience installing display drivers this has never happened so as far as I know this is another error that I can attribute to the GPU since it once again is the only thing to change during the test.

[d3anio97]

39 minutes ago, JakeMnz said:

Just to be sure that it was my GPU, i reinstalled Windows to the SSD again with my friend's 750 Ti, then put my 290 in and tried to install the drivers. Now I know the screen is supposed to go black a few times during display driver installations, but I've been stuck at a black screen for about 10 minutes now. From my experience installing display drivers this has never happened so as far as I know this is another error that I can attribute to the GPU since it once again is the only thing to change during the test.

Looks to me like it's your 290 then... If only it coulda held out till the new lineups were out on either side of the GP fence!!!