[MattV1988]

Okay, this is very hard to explain but I'm going to try to explain it the best way I can. I have an ASUS R9 280X, Windows 7 64-bit. Running driver 14.12 AMD Catalyst Omega Software. And this is the 3rd time this issue has happened to me. Actually, this is the first time it's ever happened to me while I was playing a game (Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition) the other two times it happened while I was browsing the internet. It doesn't happen often, but when it does I can't pinpoint the cause of it.

Anyway, what will happen is the screen will flicker once, then the Windows 7 skin will change from transparent blue to sort of a thick milky gray-ish blue. Same thing happens to the taskbar. It also locks even though I have it on auto-hide. My GPU will then go from 60, 70, 80, even 100% usage! The temperature will then climb from 45, to 50, to 55 and that's as high as I let it go before restarting the computer. So far, a reboot is the only thing that solves the issue. What the hell is causing it?! I should also mention that I have MSI Afterburner running in the background as well as HWMonitor. Could that cause any interference? Has anyone ever experienced anything like this before? Any feedback will be much appreciated. It is driving me crazy!

This is my hardware:

AMD FX-6300 3.5Ghz
ASUS R9 280X DCU2T
8GB RAM 1999.9 MHZ
MSI 970A-G46 Motherboard
Coolmax 700w PSU

Note: I did not build this rig myself. I had it built at Fry's Electronics.

 

[Depauville Kid]

First step to diagnosis would be to return everything to stock default settings, close out afterburner. See if that works.

Next step would be to roll back your driver to the one you had before Omega.

I don't know the issue, I've never had that happen, but my suggestions are where I would start.

Third step would be a windows restore. After that, I would begin investigating hardware issues.

 

[Gamester3333]

Um dude... It's running winSAT. just disable the service and you'll be fine.

 

[Depauville Kid]

When I said return everything to stock, I also meant any CPU overclock you had too. Return any bios tweaks back to default while you're at it. Probably not related, but I always prefer to start from square one when issues like this arise.

 

[Depauville Kid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gamester3333

Um dude... It's running winSAT. just disable the service and you'll be fine.

I didn't think winSAT would crank up GPU usage, but other sites says it certainly can. I would try this gentleman's suggestion and disable it. Good advice... Hopefully that's the cause.

 

[MattV1988]

Thanks but, the thing is, everything is running at stock settings. I never overclocked my CPU or my GPU. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to that stuff so I feel it's best to not even mess with it. This is my first gaming PC after all. The only thing I did was setup a fan speed profile on MSI Afterburner and also limited the FPS to 60 FPS on RivaTuner, but I don't think that would cause an issue. Would it? =/

Anyway, I'll try what Gamester3333 suggested and disable WinSAT.