Tech Support : R9 270

[zychmyback]

Hello Folks! Looking to get some help with a problem I have with a card I own. I have two cards right now. An EVGA GTX 950, and a Radeon R9 270. The GTX 950 works great, no complaints. But for whatever reason, there is a lot of instability in the R9 270 Card. Here are the details:

Bitcoin Client Software and Version Number: I've used two versions of Claymore Zcash Miner. First version: 12.5. Second Version: 9.2. Neither of them works with this card.

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

System Hardware Specs: CPU: AMD FX 4350 Quad 4.2GHZ
                                  RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
                                  Storage: Corsair Force LE 2.5" 240GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive; 173GB Free

Description of Problem: The issues I'm having is several with this card. Most Drivers (So far after troubleshooting anything older than Catalyst v14.1) causes the card to enter BSOD upon any real load to the card. The exact title of the BSOD is "Thread Stuck In Device Driver." Which is an endless loop error caused by the drivers. This is why I don't have this problem with older drivers. The older drivers cause a collateral problem. Since these drivers are nearly 4 years old, Claymore isn't able to use this card. Claymore recognizes the card, but the speed of the card is 0Sol/s. Claymore explicitly states that Catalyst 15.12 is required. However if I use 15.12, I get BSOD error messages. By fixing the driver issue or finding the correct drivers that don't cause BSOD, I should be able to use this card without any issues.

Troubleshooting Already Completed: I've downloaded the drivers for at least half-dozen different versions of the video card drivers. So far versions 13.12 and 14.1 work without any issues. But Claymore runs into issues with older drivers. The different versions of Claymore that I've tested are version 12.5 & 9.2. I use DDU to uninstall drivers when necessary. I still have logs from DDU. I still have logs from Claymore. If anyone needs to see those, I'd be happy to include those.

Any Related Addresses: None.

Any Related Transaction IDs: None.

Screenshot of the problem: Nothing wrong with Client.

Log Files from the Bitcoin Client: Available upon request.

[1714825669]

1714825669

[adaseb]

Normally if you get BSOD when windows loads it usually means your GPU has bad solder joints.

Its garbage or needs the temporarily "bake gpu in oven" to get it working again.

However I am surprised since your GPU works with an older driver. Try mining something with the older drivers like SHA256 or Scrypt and see if it actually works.

[zychmyback]

Thanks for your response!

Wanted to update the topic to see if anyone had any more thoughts on what the problem could be.

My original troubleshooting steps proved to be inconclusive. I decided to take out my primary GPU and attempt to get the R9 270 up and running without help. Here are the things I've tried:

1) Originally tried the newest most up-to-date drivers that Radeon has on their website. They installed just fine. However, once I enter the O.S. (about 5-6 seconds upon loading any profiles), I'm greeted with a black screen that never recovers and displays the desktop. So I uninstalled those drivers.

2) Flashed the Bios with the most up-to-date version of the Bios on Gigabyte's website. It appears a lot of people have this black screen issue with R9 270s and updating the Bios is one suggestion. This did not work.

3) Lastly, I tried the oldest drivers that the R9 270 is supported on. Version 13.12. These drivers will not install properly. Once Catalyst begins installing the display drivers (still during the installation), the black screen issue appears. My only solution is to restart my CPU. So my original conclusion was incorrect.

As of right now, I just have a brick that labeled "AMD."

Does anyone else have any other suggestions or fixes for this issue?

[adaseb]

Did you take apart that GPU in the past to replace the fans or thermal paste?

[QuintLeo]

For your AMD card, try the 15.12 or 16.9.2 drivers - if it STILL fails, you probably have a bad card.

 Did you check to see if the fan was running? You MIGHT have an overheating issue.


 "Bad solder joints" is a VERY VERY TINY probability, especially if the card EVER worked at all.



 It is NORMAL for the screen to go black for a few seconds at a time SEVERAL TIMES during driver installation. If you aborted out due to this, your drivers probably never got installed AT ALL.