Earlier this month I ordered an Asus Radeon R9 270 graphics card from Amazon to replace my current MSI GTX 760 TF because I wanted a higher hashrate for Dogecoin mining. It did not turn out well, however, because I seemed to have received a bad batch (according to numerous reports from Tom’s Hardware) with the card’s temperature running upwards of 90 degrees Celsius under heavy loads. I eventually returned the card, but not before installing it and checking out how it does.
The thing is, like me, many people have had trouble installing their Asus Radeon 270 graphic cards. The problem was that after successfully putting your card into your machine, the computer would boot up fine, pass the BIOS test, but proceed to hang in there in complete blackness. An expensive monitor backlight bleed test by Asus? I certainly hope not! Like any other tech people, I went to look for help on Google. Fortunately, after a while of digging, I came upon a solution that resolved the problem for me.
The Solution
The solution that worked for me was to first remove the graphics card (or, I believe you can also go to the BIOS and set the computer to default to your original integrated graphics card if you have one, which should in turn disable the external GPU — your R9 270 in this case). Once you are booted back into your desktop, install the latest AMD Catalyst drivers. Re-install (physically) your Radeon 270 — or, if you did it the other way, change the settings in your BIOS back to using the external GPU — and then reboot your computer. As easy as it sounds, that should do it.
TL;DR: Preinstall the AMD Catalyst drivers before you install the Asus Radeon 270 card. If you already installed the graphics card, switch to integrated graphics in the BIOS menu, install the drivers, then switch back to your original settings in the BIOS.
Let me know in the comments if that worked for you or not!