New R7 260x - PC wont reboot

[Biggusdoggus]

Hey all

I realise there's a lot of threads on the inter-web around this issue, although there seems to be a variety of symptons, so as a last ditch effort I'll post something here in the hope that there will be a breakthrough.

I bought a R7 260x card to replace my HD5670, and at the same time replaced my HDD with a new SSD, so did a fresh Windows 7 install.

2 Windows reinstalls later, and countless AMD Driver removals/reinstalls/custom installs/late nights/bad words later, my PC will not reboot (hangs on the black Welcome screen where the Windows logo pulses once then just freezes), yet if I shut down and start up again it's fine.

I fully realize it's almost the perfect "first world issue" - shutting down and starting up instead of restarting is not exactly going to bring down civilization.

But still - a new SSD and video card brings a certain amount of keen anticipation, and when things don't go swimmingly (especially when my old HDD and card worked fine), it can make an individual....sad.

As I said, I have tried everything, including installing v13 drivers (after a full uninstall using DDU), only installing the driver and not the Control Centre, uninstalling the evil Windows Update KB something-or-other, and following AMD's own "fix": Intermittent Installation Issues With the AMD Catalyst

Nada - nothing fixes it. And yes, if the AMD drivers are uninstalled the PC reboots just fine.

Is there anything else I can do? Or am I best to simply stop worrying about it and hope the next update of AMD drivers will fix it?

 

[essenbe]

Please upload the http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-help-support/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

You may try to run a startup repair and restore to a point before this started happening. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html and system restore http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

 

[Biggusdoggus]

Please upload the http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-help-support/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

You may try to run a startup repair and restore to a point before this started happening. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html and system restore http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

Thanks. Start-up repair didn't do diddly, restoring it doesn't work (not that I have one now anyway, but even when I did it didn't fix it.)

I'm beginning to wonder if it's the combination of the specific card (R7 260x), the AMD drivers, and Windows.
In other words, if I had bought a different card would I have the same issues?

 

[essenbe]

Probably. I don't think that is the problem. I would stay away from Beta drivers for now. Do you still have the install on the old hard drive?

 

[Biggusdoggus]

I havent been installing beta drivers - they've all been full releases.
Do you mean the "Windows old" folder on my old hard drive? Then yes.

 

[essenbe]

No, never mind then. I just thought you had the complete installation on another hard drive we could use to test. When you try too boot Windows, what message do you get? Do you know what mode your sata controller was in when you installed Windows (IDE, AHCI or Raid)? Have you tried to boot into safe mode? What changes have you made in BIOS? If you can get into bios, see what mode the sata controller is in and give me the values of your +12V, +5V and +3.3V.

 

[Biggusdoggus]

Ok, I'll do that. Just a reminder, though, when I uninstall the AMD drivers, the PC restarts with no issues. As soon as the AMD drivers are installed, when rebooting it gets to the black Welcome screen, the Windows logo pulses once then freezes, then it goes no further.
I have left it for 30 minutes just to make sure. The "hard drive active" light lights regularly every second or so, but no indication it's doing anything.

 

[dsperber]

My own impression is that your motherboard is relatively old, your memory is relatively slow, your CPU is relatively old and slow, you're running a 32-bit Windows, and your new R7 260x video card is relatively hot with very very fast memory.

Sometimes you just can't put that fast a video card in a machine with an old/slow BIOS and memory and expect it to work, or work perfectly. I tried to put an HD5770 (which isn't the world's fastest) into a custom-built machine using a Supermicro C2SBX board, and it wouldn't even boot. Beep-codes indicating graphics problem. Put back my original slower card, and it works perfectly. Apparently the BIOS and hardware just couldn't handle the newer architecture of the card, even though the card is supposed to "run in older PCIe mode for compatibility, if required".

Maybe it's time for you to consider a motherboard/CPU upgrade to go with your new R7 260x.