MSI R9 280x RMA

[watercooled]

No, not overclocking, just full clocks i.e. not the idle clocks used when you're just on the desktop or playing simpler games. I'm aware of an issue with some cards where the flickering occurs only when the memory is at idle clocks, which can be fixed by manually modifying them.

Another long shot, but have you tried plugging the PC/monitor into different power sockets? (I'm thinking along the lines of a grounding issue)

[pioneertrini]

Hi, yeah I tried it on different sockets same thing. Been reading up on the flicker issue. I have got in contact with msi but no reply. It looks like a known issue on many r9 280x surely I should be refunded for this or allowed to exchange, I just want another graphics card now.

Is it possible the fix for 2d can fix for in game too?

[watercooled]

I'd say it's unlikely because the card should be running at full clocks anyway in-game.

I've personally not come across this issue affecting this card (note that searching for [insert GPU] [insert problem] will give you a load of results for pretty much any card), like I say I've encountered a similar issue affecting only 2d mode which is generally fixable with the latest drivers/BIOS. If it does turn out to be the card, it sounds like a faulty output stage rather than the GPU itself. However I've not heard of this issue with MSI cards either (I have an MSI 280x myself), so it's possible you've just been unlucky and got two faulty cards in a row, maybe from a bad batch?

[pioneertrini]

True I see what you saying. Possible I could have got 2 bad ones but then again the first one I got in Feb this one in July so 5 months difference not sure if they would be from the same batch? also the first one worked perfect for the first 6 weeks then the problem started. This card the problem was there right away. The problem is scan can't see the fault because they don't sit down and look at the screen or the fault just doesn't show up for them and when it was returned to MSI they just agreed to replace, they didn't actually confirm it had that problem or if they did scan hasn't told me. If I send this back and the problem isn't found scan will charge me for couriers and testing, retesting. Last possible hope is that my sister has an old pc from 3 or 4 years back she said she will bring it down so I can test the motherboard or msi get back to me with something helpful. I will let you know what happens with the other motherboard. As always thanks for your replys and help I appreciate it m8

[watercooled]

Yeah having a spare PC to test would definitely be a good thing to rule out other issues. I've had a few frustrating issues myself that I never really got to the bottom of.

One was, after playing with Ubuntu, I rebooted into Windows and my Xonar sound card was outputting horribly distorted sound. It was a while ago so I can't remember the exact steps I followed but I managed to fix it by physically moving the card to another PCI slot. I never got around to figuring out why what was presumably a software-initiated issue persisted through power cycles and into another operating system. The card was fine, the PCI slot was fine, but for some reason they stopped working properly together.

I mean it may have been something as simple as some volatile memory on the card had been mangled by bad Linux drivers and moving the card just gave it time to discharge, or the sound card has some storage I'm not aware of which was modified, but it had me scratching my head at the time...

Edit: Out of interest I've just searched for the issue I was having and it seems I wasn't the only one. Typically, I couldn't find that when I was having the issue myself! If you're interested, not that it's completely relevant. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1519109

[pioneertrini]

read the thread, it's crazy the number of things that can happen, I'm usually a console gamer but I've always loved pc games strategy,mmos stuff like that. It's for this reason I haven't built a pc always nervous about what parts to buy or what can go wrong. I did like 6 weeks research until I settled on the parts. Anyway maybe some good news I hope. I've been playing rome 2 and no jumps/flickers. I said previously that I had been getting them on games because I linked the problems with the last card to the new one So now that I'm thinking maybe I havent got the flicker in game on this replacement card. So it looks like this one is only flickering in 2d. I will continue testing but what can be done for this as I installed the new drivers bios. I saw people talking about vbios in a thread, what are vbios are they different from the normal bios and drivers?

[watercooled]

VBIOS is the BIOS present on the graphics card, Video BIOS.

To try the xml mod, be sure to back up any original files before modifying them so you can easily copy them back if it doesn't work.

You're looking for the file located at C:\Users\(username)\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles.xml

Open the file to edit using notepad and search for the following lines:

Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0"
Property name="Want_0" value="15000"
Property name="Want_1" value="150000"

Also make sure you're looking at MemoryClock not CoreClock. And before changing anything bear in mind these are just the values present in my config file - yours will probably be the same but be sure to use the higher value from YOUR config, or let me know if you're not sure.

Basically what you need to do is copy the value from where I've highlighted '150000' into where '15000' is (so they both contain the higher number). Be *very* sure to copy it exactly, replacing the existing number, and don't have any additional/missing zeros which could cause problems or potentially make the system un-bootable. Then save the file and reboot the computer, and see if the issue persists.

If it doesn't work, revert to the original file you backed up and reboot again. If it does, note that I see this as more of a bodge/troubleshooting measure than a proper fix as it may make the card run hotter at idle amongst other things, so I'd be contacting MSI to let them know about the issue.

Out of interest, if you run GPUz, what memory manufacturer is listed under 'memory type'? It will probably be Hynix, Elipda or Samsung, for example.

[pioneertrini]

Hi m8, I can't seem to find the file, I think its different on my computer. I found a video on youtube of someone doing what you said or similar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pzTsvu5WxQ but I just can't find it.

[watercooled]

Oops sorry it should be at C:\Users\(username)\Appdata\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles.xml

You might need to enable displaying hidden file/folders. Alternatively, just type the following into the start menu to get to the directory:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ATI\ACE\

[Menome]

True I see what you saying. Possible I could have got 2 bad ones but then again the first one I got in Feb this one in July so 5 months difference not sure if they would be from the same batch? also the first one worked perfect for the first 6 weeks then the problem started. This card the problem was there right away. The problem is scan can't see the fault because they don't sit down and look at the screen or the fault just doesn't show up for them and when it was returned to MSI they just agreed to replace, they didn't actually confirm it had that problem or if they did scan hasn't told me. If I send this back and the problem isn't found scan will charge me for couriers and testing, retesting. Last possible hope is that my sister has an old pc from 3 or 4 years back she said she will bring it down so I can test the motherboard or msi get back to me with something helpful. I will let you know what happens with the other motherboard. As always thanks for your replys and help I appreciate it m8

Just thought I'd pop in to say I'm having the exact same issue with my R9 280x card, with the screen flickering at seemingly random intervals both in 2D and 3D modes. My searches for fixes showed there are others with the same issue too, so I don't think it's just us two being unlucky with a faulty batch. I've tried all the usual fixes of up-to-date stable and beta drivers, my VBIOS is up-to-date and I've tried the fix of creating a custom user profile for 2D mode in the Catalyst control centre with no luck.

I'm in the middle of arranging an RMA with Scan and hopefully replacing it with an entirely different card and paying the difference, so I'll try and remember to pop back here to let you know how it goes.

[watercooled]

so I don't think it's just us two being unlucky with a faulty batch.

As I said, search the net for an issue and it's highly likely you'll find people reporting the same, regardless of the component; it means very little when it comes to judging how common an issue is. I have the exact same card as the OP, and know of others with it, and this thread is the first time the problem has come to my attention - if it was some super-common problem plaguing them, it's likely we'd be seeing tech websites reporting it.

[Mick@SCAN]

This thread has now come to a conclusion, pioneertrini if you require further assistance please contact Scan directly via our website https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/sup...px?QueryType=R and we will be happy to provide further advice.

Thank you watercooled for providing further assistance to the OP.

Kind regards,