Bounty - Help w/ 5 R9 290 rig

[Lucky Cris]

Yes, all are the same identical cards. I waited 4 months for them to all be in stock just so I'd have all the same cards.

[Lucky Cris]

lol, I have a Thermalink temp control unit set-up no worries. Plus the hot air is directed out of my window via vents - well, at lease they will be once I start mining!

The AX1200i won't power all 5 cards, but I have them all connected to it just trying to get up and running. I'm getting a PSU2PSU dongle (whatever it's called) to power another 850w. So once I can get set up... 3 cards will be connected to the 1200w with the mobo, and the remaining 2 on the 850w.

I'm sure I'm not mixing up the power supplies - it's pretty tidy in there.

K, thanks! I have all 5 cards plugged into it... should I disconnect all but 3? My husband built me a closed case (can't wait to post my pics) and I have 6 120mm fans connected to another PSU so the only things I have connected to the main PSU is the board, a SATA hard drive.

Closed case for 5 cards rig? Hmm...

And you said you got a dedicated PSU just for the mobo and your HDD/SSD? Why?

How exactly are you connecting your GPUs to the power? Are you making sure you aren't mixing the power supplies?

[Lucky Cris]

k... 13.12 is the same as 13.25, which came on the disk with the cards. That resulted in a blackscreen...

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/previous/detail?os=Windows%207%20-%2032&rev=13.12

[bowen151]

If you can get 4 GPUs to show up in your device manager when using windows7 then theres a strong chance the 5th will appear when you move up to windows8.

Source: I had 5 280x running off an MSI Z77A-G45

I ran into all sorts of problems and windows 8 was the only OS that would let me utilise the 5th card. This may be down to some other components I used of course, maybe even bios verisions and UEFI options couldve been the culprit.

Also I had to return a number of 290s due to the dreaded black screen issue. They would basically crap out after a while doing anything at all, even when idle.

If windows 8 fails you then you may want to try BAMT or something of a similar flavour.

[Lucky Cris]

k... 13.12 is the same as 13.25, which came on the disk with the cards. That resulted in a blackscreen...
Looks like the closest I can get is 13.9, which lists "Display Driver ver. 13.152"

Which should I try?

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/previous/detail?os=Windows%207%20-%2032&rev=13.12

[Lucky Cris]

Windows 8 I intend to try as well, eventually - I'm just several thousand into this and don't want to invest more right now.

I wonder if I update the BIOS on my board if that'll work? It just takes windows so damn long to install I hate getting the black screen of death!

If you can get 4 GPUs to show up in your device manager when using windows7 then theres a strong chance the 5th will appear when you move up to windows8.

Source: I had 5 280x running off an MSI Z77A-G45

I ran into all sorts of problems and windows 8 was the only OS that would let me utilise the 5th card. This may be down to some other components I used of course, maybe even bios verisions and UEFI options couldve been the culprit.

Also I had to return a number of 290s due to the dreaded black screen issue. They would basically crap out after a while doing anything at all, even when idle.

If windows 8 fails you then you may want to try BAMT or something of a similar flavour.

[dazza12]

As mentioned above, BAMT (or SMOS) is worth a try. Download it, install to a usb stick and boot the PC from the stick.

If all cards work, then you know the hardware is fine and it's then worth exploring software options (driver, OS etc).

If it doesn't work, then you know it's hardware - most likely the risers.

Regarding Windows 8, bear in mind you can download 8.1, install and use for a period of time without a key. This will give you enough time to confirm whether it's working or not.

[Lucky Cris]

Regarding Windows 8, bear in mind you can download 8.1, install and use for a period of time without a key. This will give you enough time to confirm whether it's working or not.

Oh shit! lol, I didn't even know that!

[Starscream]

Windows 8 I intend to try as well, eventually - I'm just several thousand into this and don't want to invest more right now.

I wonder if I update the BIOS on my board if that'll work? It just takes windows so damn long to install I hate getting the black screen of death!

Could help giving you a visual while loading. Though I wonder when you said you got black screen does it mean the PC crashed or is it still loading just no visual? I have that issue with my R9 290 btw.. There's no visual at all, but windows loads fine. Luckily I had an old HD 6850 lying around which I used to access windows and install TeamViewer. So now my rigs are headless and mine flawlessly.

[bowen151]

Should be 90 days or so for the windows trial.

[Lucky Cris]

I'm going to create a restoration disk before preceding. Maybe I can restore from it if the black screen happens again.

[Lucky Cris]

I can almost bet Windows load just fine - just no pic. Same thing happened with Ubuntu as well.

In windows I can start it up in safe mode but it won't let me uninstall or reinstall drivers, so I'm left with reinstalling the entire OS.

Windows 8 I intend to try as well, eventually - I'm just several thousand into this and don't want to invest more right now.

I wonder if I update the BIOS on my board if that'll work? It just takes windows so damn long to install I hate getting the black screen of death!

Could help giving you a visual while loading. Though I wonder when you said you got black screen does it mean the PC crashed or is it still loading just no visual? I have that issue with my R9 290 btw.. There's no visual at all, but windows loads fine. Luckily I had an old HD 6850 lying around which I used to access windows and install TeamViewer. So now my rigs are headless and mine flawlessly.

[dazza12]

Just a thought regarding the black screen.

Is there any chance one of the other cards have become the 'primary' card? Next time you get a black screen try swapping the DVI connection to one of the others.

[Lucky Cris]

that's a good one - I tried it. Even got the black screen with one card connected.

Just a thought regarding the black screen.

Is there any chance one of the other cards have become the 'primary' card? Next time you get a black screen try swapping the DVI connection to one of the others.

[Lucky Cris]

Should be 90 days or so for the windows trial.

I'll be doing this later tonight

[Lucky Cris]

Any idea which version of AMD Catalyst to try?

13.12 shows it has the 13.25 Display drivers

13.9 shows Display Driver ver 13.152

[Starscream]

Any idea which version of AMD Catalyst to try?

13.12 shows it has the 13.25 Display drivers

This is fine.

[Lucky Cris]

WTF?!

While waiting for the drivers to download, I updated MSI Control Center - and guess what! Monitor went black and jumped off. Switched power off, uninstalled it in safe mode and trying to boot back up now. I don't understand what the MSI Control Center has to do with it - I hadn't even installed the AMD drivers and this happened!

[Lucky Cris]

Any idea which version of AMD Catalyst to try?

13.12 shows it has the 13.25 Display drivers

This is fine.

Okay - Will install as soon as I'm back in... looks like MSI Control Center was the culprit this last go round. Uninstalling it from the control center in safe mode got me back to where I see the Windows logging in screen, but it jumps back to black.

Nothing - blackscreen, monitor isn't on

[Lucky Cris]

What the hell. Windows launched start up repair on my ass and of course you cancel it. I'm not sure why I got the black screen this last go round - MSI Control Center should have nothing to do it.

Would changing the screen resolution have anything to do with this?