Crossfire suddenly causing 3D crashes

[SoulsCollective]

Hey folks
Have come across a very, very strange issue.

I've been running sig rig for nearly six months now, with no issues at all. I left my machine for just over a week while I was away out of the state, and ever since I got back I've been having issues with 3D crashes. At first I was only playing one game - Neverwinter Nights II, that I got in the Steam Christmas specials - so I put it down to an application issue, particularly as NWN2 was supposed to be quite buggy anyway. Once I finished the campaign in NWN2 and started firing up other titles, though, I noticed that almost everything was starting to bug out and crash.

I initially thought it might be a heat issue, so checked temps, but no problems. Next I thought it might be something to do with my OC, so I tried first off running FurMark and Heaven, then doing Linpack and Prime runs, then Memtest - everything checked out OK, no issues. In case they weren't picking up the issue, I tried running everything stock - CPU, RAM, GPUs, etc etc - problems remained when gaming. Next I thought driver issues, so I uninstalled, ran Driver Cleaner, and re-installed the latest 10.12 package and Catalyst App Profiles - problems remained.

Finally I thought it might be one card going bad, so I disabled Crossfire in CCC, leaving just the top (primary) card doing the work - problems fixed. To confirm, I disabled the first card via jumpers (my mobo, the Classified, allows you to disable PCI-E slots) leaving just the second card running - problems remained fixed. Enabled the first card again - problems remained fixed. Enabled Crossfire - problems reappeared.

This one has kinda stumped me. For no apparent reason, having Crossfire enabled now crashes any 3D app within minutes. Each card works perfectly individually, the problem only comes when Crossfire is enabled. These problems persist with a fresh, clean driver reinstall after running Driver Sweeper, and are occuring on a machine which never had any previous history of problems - just started happening out of the blue.

The only thing I can think of that might have changed things is my installation of Win7 SP1, but I haven't read of anyone else having problems with it and it seems unlikely that it would have such a specific effect.

Any ideas?

[Nikolasz]

Go try with new fresh instalation on hdd that you dont use to check if graphics and hardware is ok.
Too bad this happend to you.

[Johnny87au]

im guessing bad Crossfire bridge, Also try 10.5 drivers

[slaveondope]

im guessing bad Crossfire bridge, Also try 10.4 or 10.5 hotfix drivers

10.4 roger that

[SoulsCollective]

This is confusing the bejeezus out of me.

10.4, 10.5 and 10.5a, each with their respective Cat App Profiles (and only their respective CAPs) causes the same issues. Clean install of each, after Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode. I've tried rolling back to a System Restore point before I installed Win7 SP1, with no change, and I've tried each of the two Crossfire bridges I have by themselves, again with no change.

I'm starting to think it might be a PSU issue - except it seems extremely unlikely that things like LOTRO, NWN2, Civ4, CoDBlOps, MoH etc could be loading my PSU up more than Linpack + Furmark.

[Johnny87au]

Very odd.. Have you tryed running Furmark/kbuster on each card invidivdually?? Also tryed difference slots? Could try a flash with one of the ASUS vbios?

[Loque]

fresh windows 7 install, sp1 might have borked something..

[SoulsCollective]

I've tested each card individually, but not in different slots - full-cover WC blocks on the cards makes moving them around an absolute pain in the rear.

I think the next thing I'll try is a reinstall of Win7 - SP1 installation is about the only thing I can think of that might have made a difference, primarily because it's the only thing I've changed with my rig. We'll see.

[Toolius]

Had similar issues too after update to Sp1..
ramdon crashes in games appeared out of the blue. Never had a issue before it.
5970+5870 tri fire.
Fresh install and 10.5 without win 7 sp1 and im good so far
cheers and kind regards

[Johnny87au]

I've tested each card individually, but not in different slots - full-cover WC blocks on the cards makes moving them around an absolute pain in the rear.

I think the next thing I'll try is a reinstall of Win7 - SP1 installation is about the only thing I can think of that might have made a difference, primarily because it's the only thing I've changed with my rig. We'll see.

Theres your answer there, Sounds like its Sp1..

[SoulsCollective]

Currently on a fresh install of Win7, minus SP1 - so far, no issues. Will keep testing.

Had similar issues too after update to Sp1..
ramdon crashes in games appeared out of the blue. Never had a issue before it.
5970+5870 tri fire.
Fresh install and 10.5 without win 7 sp1 and im good so far
cheers and kind regards

Were your crashes also "software" crashes? Error messages like unknown register, driver could not be read, etc etc? None of mine were the traditional "hardware" crashes (like flickering lines, system needing hard reset, snow over screen, jumbled colours, ec), which is why I thought it might be software-related.

[Johnny87au]

So seems like Sp1 has issues..