XFX R9 295x2 problems

Kalmado

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 14, 2014
Messages
293
I bought a second hand XFX R295x2 here and I'm having some major issues and can't get the card to work properly. First, my specs...

4690k (OC reset)
16GB 2133 DDR3
Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK (Bios is current)
Lepa G1200 80+ Gold power supply (Enermax OEM)
lots of fans in a Phanteks Enthoo Pro

The owner told me the card was working and was his daily driver. Said he has had it under water and sold the gpu with the Koolance block on it, but also sent the stock cooler setup.

The Problem

Installed the card into pci-e top slot. Turn pc on. Cooler LED lights up, fan spins, W10 starts. As soon as you enter W10 (or BIOS) the fan speeds up to 100% (stupid loud) and display drops forcing to use on board. When checking Device Manager, sometimes the gpu is not displayed, most of the time it's listed as "Microsoft basic display adapter". When trying to install official drivers it usually freezes when trying to detect hardware, or will say there isn't any hardware installed.

Troubleshooting

Switched to second pci-e slot. No difference. Tried dvi to hdmi cable and mini DP to DP, no difference. Slots work with RX 460, RX 480, GTX 1080.

One thought I've had is even though Outer Vision's psu calculator says for my build it's running at approximately 893 watts, it may be the psu. I've had it for roughly two years and it's seen a number of changes to my build, but never had issues. Is it possible it's not up to the task of this gpu? Closest thing I have psu wise to test is a Corsair CX750 which I feel is not good enough.

I'm just at a loss. I've reset the AIO for this twice, tried reseating I don't know how many times, etc. I just don't know what to do. I know many would say the gpu is toast, but the seller has perfect heatware and has communicated with me greatly. I really hope someone can point me in the right direction. Thank you.
 
is there any way to determine if the aio pump is working>, can you hear it or see water movement in the window?
 
is there any way to determine if the aio pump is working>, can you hear it or see water movement in the window?
So about that, when I disassembled the stock cooler I noticed there was some liquid on the shroud. I immediately thought that possibly the gpu thinks it's overheating sending the fan to full speed and therefor shutting itself down. I can hear the pump and feel movement in the tubing though. I wasn't planning on doing a custom loop but I may have to ahead of schedule.
 
I can confirm as a current 295x2 owner (not for much longer though) going to bios and during boot the fan goes up to 100% so thats normal operation currently. Ive also looked all over the settings and have found no settings for the pump. I'm using the current 17.1.2 drivers, non whql.
 
liquid in the shroud cant be good. did it get shipped during/through the freezing cold? corsair says:

"Storage temp for our AIO coolers is -20°C to 70°C. Operating temp range is 5°C to 50°C"

when you reseated the block did the tim contact look good?
 
Just piggy back the green/black off the current PSU and run the 295 off the CX... maybe just one feed if it doesn't like heavy 12v load and nothing else (some much older PSUs needed balanced loads on all rails or they'd be shitty). At least you can eliminate PSU issues this way. And as long as you ground 'em I've never had issues with dual power (e.g. dual PSUs powering a single card). As long as they're decent which they seem to be in your case. Been running dual psus for 9 years? Or more lol.
 
Just piggy back the green/black off the current PSU and run the 295 off the CX... maybe just one feed if it doesn't like heavy 12v load and nothing else (some much older PSUs needed balanced loads on all rails or they'd be shitty). At least you can eliminate PSU issues this way. And as long as you ground 'em I've never had issues with dual power (e.g. dual PSUs powering a single card). As long as they're decent which they seem to be in your case. Been running dual psus for 9 years? Or more lol.
I probably won't get a chance to test until Sunday as it's a friend's build with the CX750. If the card doesn't do what it's currently doing then I would think it's my psu that is the issue.
liquid in the shroud cant be good. did it get shipped during/through the freezing cold? corsair says:

"Storage temp for our AIO coolers is -20°C to 70°C. Operating temp range is 5°C to 50°C"

when you reseated the block did the tim contact look good?
I barely ran the card when I tore it back down so I can't say if the TIM contact was good nor bad. For what it's worth, MX-4 is being used.
 
Today both gpus show in Device Manager. When going to load the latest driver I receive an error that the driver is not digitally signed. When trying to install an older driver it states driver error contact AMD. This is so confusing.
 
Today both gpus show in Device Manager. When going to load the latest driver I receive an error that the driver is not digitally signed. When trying to install an older driver it states driver error contact AMD. This is so confusing.
make sure you got the new 17.2.1 that was whql'd on feb 22.
 
I will try when I get home from work in 8 hours. When I shut the pc down the monitor dropped signal but the pc stayed running. Motherboard had code A0 and I had to do a hard shutdown. Now I'm thinking maybe the motherboard may be the culprit.
 
This is how it appears in device manager on my system using windows 10. My asus motherboard is showing code A0 as well but everything is working properly.

295.PNG
 
no the 295x2 is a pita i have had many simular issues setting mine up. try a different pcie lane.
 
Tried the bottom pci-e slot and the fan didn't go nuts. Open device manager and there are the 2x290. Start loading up drivers. Open Chrome and then the fan goes nuts and drops display. I then noticed liquid on my desk where my case is. Probably about two ounces of coolant. So I unplugged the psu connections but left the gpu in and turned my pc back on. Just listening to the lines there is an occasional (sort of) squirting noise. My Corsair H80iGT does not do this. My conclusion is the AIO isn't working correctly and the card is shutting itself down. And to answer the question before about temperature when it was shipped, it was a little cold. Also, the seller shipped USPS and the package was banged up a little. We all know the carriers don't give a crap if a package says fragile (which it did). Probably got damaged during shipping. The seller did put insurance on it so I'll contact him and see what we can do.
 
sure. however just to let you know it will always show up as 2x 290's in device manager as that is pretty much what the card is.
 
yup the aio is damaged, it shouldnt be leaking at all. so whats happening is the when the gpu ramps up at all it overheats and shuts down to save itself. hopefully its ok when you get it sorted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N4CR
like this
I've tried googling to find if there is a replacement AIO but couldn't find anything. If anyone has a link that would be awesome. Or, a beginners guide for building a custom loop. Might as well put that Koolance block to use.
 
I've tried googling to find if there is a replacement AIO but couldn't find anything. If anyone has a link that would be awesome. Or, a beginners guide for building a custom loop. Might as well put that Koolance block to use.
i doubt youll find a replacement aio unless you find someone selling it used on fleabay. since you already have the full block you could just do a basic loop for the gpu and then expand later, if price is an issue. hit up the watercooling forum here, lotsa good stuff.
 
Yeah just diy it... May find someone jerry rigging the AIO and bypassing the pump etc to save you some $ lol. An aftermarket block would be best though I'd presume...
 
I bought a second hand XFX R295x2When trying to install official drivers it usually freezes when trying to detect hardware, or will say there isn't any hardware installed.

That's a bad card. I dunno if you got it that way or it got that since, in my years I have not seen many cards come back from this problem/defect.
 
On the bright side, once you get it running it's still a very powerful card for games that have good crossfire support. I'm still rocking mine, waiting to how good Vega is.
 
On the bright side, once you get it running it's still a very powerful card for games that have good crossfire support. I'm still rocking mine, waiting to how good Vega is.
Yep! Bought as a holdover until Vega. I'm constantly buying and selling hardware and was using a rx 480 4gb. At 1440p it started struggling so I wanted some more juice.
 
sure. however just to let you know it will always show up as 2x 290's in device manager as that is pretty much what the card is.
In win 8.1 only one R9 290 shows if you aren't running something that has an xfire config. At least for my setup.

upload_2017-3-22_7-46-47.png
 
Huh, forgot all about ulps, haven't touched the setting for a long time since I haven't had problems. Now I have to look some more, since I disabled it in the registry, but still only have one showing up. and, my radeon settings doesn't allow xfire in any game profiles. (last version, haven't loaded the latest for me:a, yet).
 
Haven't used that for a long time, either. Sigh.
 
Well, glad I threw my $0.02 worth in this thread. Turns out either my 1st pcix16 slot in my sabertooth z97 is bad, or 17.3.3 is borked for 295x2's, moved my gpu down to the second x16 slot loaded 17.2.1 back up, (17.3.3 wouldn't load this time for some reason) and I can see 2 r9 290's in device mgr now, didn't have to manually turn off ulps manually, either. Time to start shopping for new mboard/cpu/ram, I guess.
 
Well, glad I threw my $0.02 worth in this thread. Turns out either my 1st pcix16 slot in my sabertooth z97 is bad, or 17.3.3 is borked for 295x2's, moved my gpu down to the second x16 slot loaded 17.2.1 back up, (17.3.3 wouldn't load this time for some reason) and I can see 2 r9 290's in device mgr now, didn't have to manually turn off ulps manually, either. Time to start shopping for new mboard/cpu/ram, I guess.

295s are wired i have to move it around in all of my computers before i find a mobo slot it likes.
 
Odd since it worked fine 6 months or so ago when I rma'd the last one. I'm careful about not letting windows install any hardware drivers, and until I tried 17.3.3 (although, to be honest, I didn't pay attention to it's xfire state since I got the new one in) I hadn't seen that xfire (or the second gpu) was gone. I just wanted to xfire andromeda. Now, I guess I wait for a stable-on-295x2's version.
 
Back
Top