Complete System Freeze when enabling Crossfire

[Frostea23]

I currently have two 7950 Boost edition cards crossfired together.

While I was trying to install the latest Catalyst display drivers (13.12), when it got to the display driver installation, my system completely hangs.

The only way to resolve the issue was to physically remove the crossfire bridges. With the bridges off, I was able to install the display drivers, but when I put them back on and try to open CCC and enable crossfire, the system hangs again.

And by hang, I mean the system completely freezes, nothing responds, and my speakers make a slight buzzing noise (looping sound).

I have already tried re-installing my OS, hoping that might resolve the issue, and then installing the Catalyst drivers, but the system will freeze 100% of the time if the bridges are on since the installation process tries to enable crossfire by default if it detects them. I am concerned my cards are damaged.

Would the next step be to try to re-seat the cards?

Just tried to reseat them. Cleaned out my case while I was at it. Same issue still occurs.

[Cyrops]

So it was working fine before you tried installing drivers?
Try different drivers then.

[TwoNineMarine]

It sounds like a driver issue if they worked fine before you attempted to install the new drivers.

Chances are they are bugged and can cause that to happen.

Have you hit up their forums to see if anyone else is having issues?

[Str8Tripa]

To be completely honest the only way to fix is to throw them out and buy gtx I have 3 hd7970 reference cards and I saw the amd rep at my local and my problems are making him scratch his head I have had enough im gonna be crushing the gpus with my truck and handing them to the dealer to give to the rep!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Warning: Please post constructively, this is not a real solution and does not help the OP at all.

[Nuckels]

To be completely honest the only way to fix is to throw them out and buy gtx I have 3 hd7970 reference cards and I saw the amd rep at my local and my problems are making him scratch his head I have had enough im gonna be crushing the gpus with my truck and handing them to the dealer to give to the rep!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Why would you ever use a reference card tho? Aftermarket cooler, msi twin frozr's ftw.
Edit: well unless you wanna overclock and have full voltage control I guess but then you replace the cooler.

Anyway back OT: I am assuming they are identical cards, not different brands with same gpu?

[Frostea23]

Why would you ever use a reference card tho? Aftermarket cooler, msi twin frozr's ftw.
Edit: well unless you wanna overclock and have full voltage control I guess but then you replace the cooler.

Anyway back OT: I am assuming they are identical cards, not different brands with same gpu?

Yes, they are identical cards, same brand, same model.

To respond to others. It no longer matters what drivers I install, older or newer. My system 100% of the time freezes when enabling crossfire. I've tried 13.9, 13.12, and 14.3 Beta. I'm rather dismayed that something is terribly wrong.

I may just bite the bullet and buy a single R9 290 or GTX 780 to replace them.

[TwoNineMarine]

Yes, they are identical cards, same brand, same model.

To respond to others. It no longer matters what drivers I install, older or newer. My system 100% of the time freezes when enabling crossfire. I've tried 13.9, 13.12, and 14.3 Beta. I'm rather dismayed that something is terribly wrong.

I may just bite the bullet and buy a single R9 290 or GTX 780 to replace them.

Have you tried rolling the system back?

If you have a backup I'd maybe try that, ideally just before you attempted to use Crossfire.

[Erous]

Could be simply a bad bridge or bios problem. Did you or can you try a different bridge?

I would also try resetting your bios to default and see if that helps. Maybe a conflict with the 2 pcie slots.

[Frostea23]

Have you tried rolling the system back?

If you have a backup I'd maybe try that, ideally just before you attempted to use Crossfire.

I already reformatted my drive and then re-installed Windows, so nothing to rollback anymore. Issue still occurs.

- - - Updated - - -

Could be simply a bad bridge or bios problem. Did you or can you try a different bridge?

I would also try resetting your bios to default and see if that helps. Maybe a conflict with the 2 pcie slots.

I don't have another bridge to try. I will try getting a hold of another.

As an aside: I also reseated and switched the cards with each other to no avail.

- - - Updated - - -

Update: I took out and flipped my crossfire bridge, and it is working again. Does not make a whole lot of sense to me since it was working before.

I'm going to keep an eye on it and see if the issue replicates.