hitman Posted February 14, 2009 Posted February 14, 2009 Had it working for a few minutes before it conked out on me. Anyways, I cant get SLI re-enabled for some reason, as the option is gone. I troubleshot everything down to the single card/drivers, and both video cards work. I have enough power to power both cards at the same time, but I dont have the option to enable SLI in the control panel anymore. Any ideas? Heres my thread at the sli forums: http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=33791
thereminqblank Posted February 14, 2009 Posted February 14, 2009 What Windows are you using? XP or Vista? Might be a silly question, but it's something I worked out the hard way a few years ago when I first tried SLI. After Windows XP is installed, you need to install at least SP1 before installing the nVidia drivers for the SLI option to appear. If you installed the nVidia drivers before the Service Packs, you'll need to uninstall then reinstall the nVidia drivers to get SLI again. Not sure if this is you're problem as you mentioned you had the SLI option at some point. "Unholy Roller" [sIGPIC]http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/images/userbars/A-10C_UserBar_01.gif[/sIGPIC]
Vault Posted February 14, 2009 Posted February 14, 2009 Have you made sure the GPU is seated in the MB correctly? Short of any loose connections I'd second guess a faulty card. Are you getting two GPU's show up under device manager? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers?. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
hitman Posted February 14, 2009 Author Posted February 14, 2009 Both cards are operational, I just cant enable sli because the option is gone from the nv control panel. Also tried beta drivers and current drivers, as well as older drivers. Drivercleaner didnt seem to help much.
Vault Posted February 14, 2009 Posted February 14, 2009 Hitman you can't turn SLI on because Nvidia/Vista isn't detecting one of the cards. You only get the SLI option when both cards are detected. Check and recheck everything. Pull both cards out the MB and place each card into the MB one at a time and see if you get out-put on both cards. Look for a program called GPU-Z and try to enable SLI through that. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
hitman Posted February 14, 2009 Author Posted February 14, 2009 (edited) I have GPU-z, and I do have output on both cards. I tested them individually last night to make sure my power supply can supply power to both cards with each power cable. Both cards perform good in stability tests and in 3dMark Vantage individually. Trust me, Ive tested these things out pretty well last night. I just cant get them to SLI. Edited February 14, 2009 by hitman
Vault Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 OK I see, That is very strange. Don't really know what to say. Everything seems above board there. You didn't mention it so its worth asking are you running the latest version of your BIOS?. You've been overclocking your system do you think that may have something to do with this problem? Maybe try clearing CMOS?. Have you connected the SLI bridge to the correct connections? (I've done this myself before) Sorry if you've already tried this but it's worth asking. Keep at it bud, like most PC problems when you suss it out you'll kick yourself. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
CyBerkut Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 Well, since you're apparently approaching the "grasping at straws" stage of troubleshooting, ... Does it make a difference if you back off of the overclocking on the one (watercooled) card? Granted, I don't think that should be necessary, but since the cards aren't co-operating as is, maybe getting them closer in frequency would do the trick. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] There's no place like 127.0.0.1
hitman Posted February 15, 2009 Author Posted February 15, 2009 (edited) OK I see, That is very strange. Don't really know what to say. Everything seems above board there. You didn't mention it so its worth asking are you running the latest version of your BIOS?. You've been overclocking your system do you think that may have something to do with this problem? Maybe try clearing CMOS?. Have you connected the SLI bridge to the correct connections? (I've done this myself before) Sorry if you've already tried this but it's worth asking. Keep at it bud, like most PC problems when you suss it out you'll kick yourself. The latest BIOS for my mobo is F4, Im running F3. Updating the BIOS caused me to lose both of my optical drives, which in turn caused me to reformat. I dont really want to reformat. Ive notified Gigabyte of the problem with the BIOS, but I havent heard anything else from them about it. I can try a different sli bridge slot, but Im fairly certain I have it in the correct place. Plus Ive heard you can run SLI without the bridge with a slight performance hit...I havent tried it, and I dont want the performance hit, so I keep the bridge onboard. Well, since you're apparently approaching the "grasping at straws" stage of troubleshooting, ... Does it make a difference if you back off of the overclocking on the one (watercooled) card? Granted, I don't think that should be necessary, but since the cards aren't co-operating as is, maybe getting them closer in frequency would do the trick. Neither card is overclocked at the moment, I cant control the clock speed of the second one. They both underclock themselves when idle...I have noticed this. Edited February 15, 2009 by hitman
Vault Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 Refer to your MB manual to be sure you have connected the correct SLI bridge to the correct connections. Please don't connect to any other bridge connections without reading the MB manual first, I don't want to be responsible if your GPU or MB goes. It's worth it for a long shot but also clear your CMOS. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Vault Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 Ive heard you can run SLI without the bridge with a slight performance hit. I didn't know this but I can confirm this is correct I just tried it. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
hitman Posted February 15, 2009 Author Posted February 15, 2009 Verified the bridge is in the correct position, reset the BIOS. No change.
Vault Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 Reformat and prey you get it back. Sorry I couldn't help bud. Good luck & I hope you get it fixed. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
thereminqblank Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 Maybe something has gone wrong with the bridge? Could explain why you had the SLI option before and now it has disappeared? "Unholy Roller" [sIGPIC]http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/images/userbars/A-10C_UserBar_01.gif[/sIGPIC]
hitman Posted February 15, 2009 Author Posted February 15, 2009 Well it seems now that my motherboard is bad..or my cpu or power supply. It wouldnt boot up after my last post, wanted to reset my overclock values. Took the motherboard out of the case, mounted it externally on plastic, with memory and cpu attached. Wouldnt do anything different with all the ram taken out, but it wouldnt do anything but reset if I took the cpu out. This is all very strange as it was working just fine a few hours ago, sans the sli problem. My first ex58 did the exact same thing when I first tried to install it. Right now its kinda hard to isolate the cpu or motherboard, but Im going to assume the power supply is fine.
Vault Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 (edited) Considering you had an unknown SLI fault I'd be very suspicious of the MB. If you don't have any duplicate components for testing you're pretty screwed for troubleshooting the MB & CPU. I highly doubt it's your PSU, those TT Toughpower 1200's are bulletproof. The only thing you can really do now is to try popping the battery out and setting the jumper on the CMOS to clear your BIOS again. If your system still wont POST I'd RMA the MB. Edited February 15, 2009 by Vault [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
hitman Posted February 15, 2009 Author Posted February 15, 2009 I did all that, sent a request for an RMA. This is the 3rd gigabyte mobo Ive been through already. Damn newegg...if I bought this thing locally I would have it replaced asap.
thereminqblank Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 Is there no chance you could get a refund from Newegg then? Going through 3 mobos doesn't give much hope for finding one that works... "Unholy Roller" [sIGPIC]http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/images/userbars/A-10C_UserBar_01.gif[/sIGPIC]
hitman Posted February 16, 2009 Author Posted February 16, 2009 Ive had this thing over 30 days, and Ive tossed some parts away that I didnt need since I was under the assumption the mobo was working.
shadowze Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 HI dude, Sorry to hear you are having problems with your SLI rig One thing tho , the x58 mobos have a "cookie" (data bytes ) stored in the bios , the graphics driver checks this cookie to see if you are allowed to run SLI on the board ( as in have they paid nvidia a cut per mobo for enabling SLI on it) Maybe yours got mangled / damaged on bios update and thats why SLI option is denied to you. I will assume that the BIOS settings were defaulted after bios updated , cos this can cause some weird ass problems. Best of luck mate
hitman Posted February 16, 2009 Author Posted February 16, 2009 The gigabyte board was authorized for SLI and crossfire, I know about the cookies. Just wont post. Im submitting an RMA for the board today...and if they dont fix it, Im going to be one highly pissed dude.
Brute Posted March 1, 2009 Posted March 1, 2009 Well it seems now that my motherboard is bad..or my cpu or power supply. It wouldnt boot up after my last post, wanted to reset my overclock values. Took the motherboard out of the case, mounted it externally on plastic, with memory and cpu attached. Wouldnt do anything different with all the ram taken out, but it wouldnt do anything but reset if I took the cpu out. This is all very strange as it was working just fine a few hours ago, sans the sli problem. My first ex58 did the exact same thing when I first tried to install it. Right now its kinda hard to isolate the cpu or motherboard, but Im going to assume the power supply is fine. This is pretty much what happened to me. I first started having troubles with my crossfire option being grayed out upon booting into windows. Then my comp wouldn't come out of a standby state. Then I had trouble with my system not starting at all even with the PW button pressed multiple times and then suddenly starting on its own. I swapped my oldie FSP Epsilon 700 for Corsair HX1000. Cleared CMOS and removed one of the vid cards. Far from fixing the problem my system now requires several restarts to even get trough POST, and won't boot into Windows normally, only in 'safe mode with networking'. It's been getting progressively worse as days pass. I think my Asus P5WDH is a goner.
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