Hello everybody!!

So I have a bizarre PC issue when it comes to gaming. The game will become unresponsive after a random amount of time, and will show a black screen. The keyboard and mouse are responsive. The music will continue to play into the background. When this error happens, I tab out and close down the program.

This is my first time dealing with a high-end PC, as I've always had pre-assembled ones in the past, which were low tier. The parts I bought are:

• Intel Core i5 i5-4690K.
• Asus AMD Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II OC Graphics Card (4GB, GDDR5, PCI Express 3.0)
• HyperX FURY Series 16 GB
• Gigabyte Z97X-SLI Intel LGA1150 Z97 ATX Motherboard
• Corsair Builder Series CXM 750W PSU

Steps I have took:

• Fresh Windows install on HDD
• Updated Windows fully
• Updated the basics of my processor and motherboard so everything is in working order
• Updated GPU (update: 14.12 AMD Catalyst Omega Software)
• Tested three games: FFXIV, Resident Evil 5 and Witcher 3.
• Checked for any loose cables
• Checked for good air flow

Things I should mention:

• Primary HDD has fresh Windows install, but connected to another HDD (backup music, games, videos ect)
• Backup HDD has windows installed. If this could affect the primary, then please let me know.
• All components are brand new
• No overclock has been performed or any programs of that nature installed.
• My PC has the basics and is virtually empty.
• One side case has been taken off.

I believe that's everything I can think of. If you need any extra information, then please let me know.

Thank you for reading!

Based on everything in your previous thread and the fact that you have already exchanged your GPU multiple times and now have formatted your hard drive and reinstalled everything from scratch, my advice is to find a local professional who can look at the PC in person. It shouldn't cost you that much just to have a shop spend an hour troubleshooting it.

It's likely a GPU issue, hardware not software.

@mb:I will start looking around now. The problem is the crashing happens at random times. I'll probably turn up and it won't crash, which will make me look insane, haha. This idea is probably for the best though :)
@korwin: Out of interest are R9 290 prone to breakdowns? The reviews I check were good, but who knows? Maybe these cards have high failure rate. I doubt it though because AMD are pretty good from past experience.

Sounds like the GPU.

No more than any other card. It's not a problem with the die itself (those are phenomenally rare) but there always a chance of something going wrong with the rest of the card. As MB suggested it might be a good idea to have it checked by someone with more experience initially, especially before sending parts of for warranty repairs.

@korwin: Okay. Thank you very much for the reply! It's been a very bizarre journey and one I haven't seen before. I guess I am one of those unlucky people.