Odd Problem with my new R2

Hey guys. First post here about my R2. Long time reader.

To start, since this morning, everything has been running great, until now. For some reason, my video cards are acting up. I dont know why, but I am only getting about 10FPS running Vantage Performance setting with 1 5870, and when I enable CrossfireX, I get about 15-18 FPS. Earlier this morning when I was running Vantage, I was getting over 50FPS in the first test with Jane Nash. On top of that, the video cards are making a weird noise (screeching kinda noise, alternating from one card to the other in Xfire mode).

So far I have done this:

- Checked CrossfireX cable, looks good.

- Windows just installed clean, with latest drivers

- VBIOS is up to date along with system BIOS.

- I have also tried the Dell drivers, with no go.

I am not sure what the issue is. My system should not even be close to getting that low FPS. I am thinking maybe the primary video card is bad? Or the Crossfire cable? If anyone can shed some light on this that would be great.

I read through a lot of the threads with people who were having similar issues, but there problems were resolved by the VBIOS and BIOS updates.

Also, before anyone guesses, Stealth Mode is off, and the adapter is plugged in and charging. Since now, I have also have had one lockup/freeze.

Thanks for everyones help.

 

Sounds like fan/heating issues. I'd avoid running them as much as possible until you find the problem. Screeching is usually a fan thing (unless the chips themselves were capable of making that sound, in which case it's haunted and I would salt and burn it).

 

LOL. Haha. Well, since you just mentioned temps, I didnt check that yet, so I just decided to, and I found some interesting info.

I ran GPUZ, and my temps show 46C, which is good. BUT.......my clocks show 300/400.

I thought, well, they probably wont kick up until i stress it, but I opened vantage while GPUZ was running, and they remained at 300/400. So I think I found the problem here.....

The only thing now, is how to fix it?

 

perhaps, an overclock will do? i run my caddies at 799/1100.
to check: turn your lappy around, and smell the gpu fans (i know ounds weird, but...) if you notice that something has been fried there... maybe they supplied you with some kind of flawed gpus. things happen.
also try to OC your gpus, how will they react on it?
from my personal experience i was getting poor fps untill i enabled 5% bios OC + messed with Tstop + gpus OC (they run 800/1100 mhz for me atm)

 

Well, I fixed the issue......

The problem was the ATI PowerPlay. For some reason, it was disabled. I figured that was a good thing anyway, but for testing, I said let me try enabling it, and both the settings for battery and AC power were already set to Max Performance.

After enabling it, my cards are running perfectly again. I dont know how this would cause my cards to get stuck at 300/400. What makes me wonder even more, is how PowerPlay settings did not reset to factory when I reinstalled drivers and cleaned with Driver Sweeper.