Unable to sli

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wintermute

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
119
Greetings,

I'm currently having a issue setting up sli on a evga p55 sli mainbostd with two Galaxy geforce gtx 460s super oc. The system detects both cards however it freezes or loses signal after enabling sli in the nividia control panel. I've tried using the latest nvidia drivers including the drivers which came with the cards, but the problem persist. Any help would be great. Thanks.
 
Hi Wintermute,

Have you tried this program?

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

It clears out all left overs from previous drivers wich can couse problems with the new ones.
First uninstall your drivers then reboot in save mode ( F8 before windows boots )

In save mode run driver sweeper and select the search value. ( ati, nvidia )
After the search press clear and the program delete the files and will promt you to reboot.
Reboot and again start in save mode.

Make sure you have the drivers ready to install becouse you can't go online to download them in savemode. Now install the drivers and after that reboot into normal windows.

Try enabling sli.

Good luck.
 
Hi Nathalex,

Thanks for replying. This is a new build from ground up, so there were no letfover drivers.
 
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Wow all that typing..... ( just yoking )

You did install the sli bridge? ( sorry, but I have to ask )
 
Please list system specs.
Is anything overclocked?
Did you try inverting the GPU card's order?
Are the power cables attached?
If all else fails.....delete all nvidia graphics drivers, sweep it out in safe mode.....reinstall the most current nvidia driver.......try again.

One of your cards may be defective.....try them one at a time.....
 
Greetings magoo,

Both cards are functioning properly and inverted, nothing is overclocked, all power cables and bridge properly attached, with the latest Nvidia drivers (258.96 WHQL). System details as follows;

EVGA P55 SLI mobo
Intel Core i7-875K Lynnfield
8GB Mushkin Enhanced Blackline DDR3
x2 Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 Super OC
WD Caviar Black 1TB
CORSAIR TX Series 950W
Windows 7 64-bit Pro
 
Okay, I ran driver sweeper in safemode, rebooted, went back into safemode and installed the video drivers, rebooted again, then I went to nvidia control panel to enable sli screen flashed in and out of the desktop and lost signal to the monitor. =(
 
test out the cards.
I have gtx460 sli myself and ran into 2 defect cards out of 3.
msi gtx460 giving me driver error(nvidia driver has detected problem.....etc)
gigabyte gtx460 giving me constant flash and lose signal to monitor.
Also new build from ground up.

Test out cards one by one.
 
Does that P55 board require you to connect a molex onto the motherboard?

In other words is there a molex male connector on the motherboard proper? If so did you plug that in.
I just built a new system for my son on an EVGA P55 SLi FTW 200 MB and I noticed that plug right on the MB, haven't seen that in a while, but it is meant to give the board more juice to the PCI-e connectors if you SLI.......if it's not connected it could be causing the problem.

Like this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Image...57-KR LGA1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
where it says additional power connector? You'll have to find the picture where the board is shown looking down from the top.

Lastly, does the MB have three PCI-e slots that are 16x/8x? If so put one GPU in the primary slot, the one closest to the CPU and try the second GPU in each of the other PCI-e 16x/8x slots...the lowest 16x/8x combo will require a long SLi bridge....it may be one of the slots is bad?? Is this an EVGA board that has jumpers that enable/disable the PCI-e 16x/8x slots? Maybe one got swapped to disable by mistake?
 
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magoo said:
Does that P55 board require you to connect a molex onto the motherboard?
Click to expand...

There are no additional molex power connection on the mobo.

magoo said:
Is this an EVGA board that has jumpers that enable/disable the PCI-e 16x/8x slots? Maybe one got swapped to disable by mistake?
Click to expand...

Negative. There is no jumper either.

Aside, I've ran both cards in the secondary PCI-E x8 slot and they both worked. At this point I believe the problem is with either the sli bridge, PSU or mobo. And as I stated above, I don't have the spare parts to verify...:confused:

Anymore idea's would be great...Thanks.:)
 
wintermute said:
There are no additional molex power connection on the mobo.



Negative. There is no jumper either.

Aside, I've ran both cards in the secondary PCI-E x8 slot and they both worked. At this point I believe the problem is with either the sli bridge, PSU or mobo. And as I stated above, I don't have the spare parts to verify...:confused:

Anymore idea's would be great...Thanks.:)
Click to expand...

If you ran both cards in the secondary slot and they worked......did one all by itself work in the primary slot?
If they won't work in the primary, then the board is FUBAR and has to go back.
It's not the cards, if they both work; and it's not the PSU if the board and cards work otherwise.
You need to test the primary slot ALONE and if it's shot, send the board back.
 
I agree, your board is fubar or at least the part that allows you to do SLI! I had a problem when I went from a 5870 to twin 470s in SLI with a Gigabyte P55-GD80. Both cards worked on their own but as soon as I went to SLI, no deal. Gigabyte even gave 3 SLI connectors with that board and neither would allow me to keep an SLI configuration. My problem would be that I popped the cards in and installed the drivers and during the first run I could enable SLI, but once I turned off and than on the computer or restarted, my resolution went to 640 x 480 and I would get a window that said that "nvidia cannot detect a graphics card". Being that both cards worked on their own, I bit the bullet an got an evga P55 FTW 200 and it solved all my problems with SLI.

The added benefit to switching boards was I was able to push my i7 860 to 4Ghz, my previous Gigabyte only allowed be to do 3.6.
 
what slot is set as primary in the bios?
sometimes it doesn't matter but with some bios it does.
Make sure pci-e slot 1 is set as primary graphics slot.
Just an idea before you rma the board.
 
Nathalex said:
what slot is set as primary in the bios?
sometimes it doesn't matter but with some bios it does.
Make sure pci-e slot 1 is set as primary graphics slot.
Just an idea before you rma the board.
Click to expand...

I don't think that is a BIOS option.....maybe way back when.....

However it IS labeled on the MB itself, generally the closest to the CPU.
 
talking about the bios...maybe a bios update will fix the problem.
My vcore dropped 0.9v when under load and after a bios update ( that didn't adress this problem ) the problem was gone.
 
Nathalex said:
talking about the bios...maybe a bios update will fix the problem.
My vcore dropped 0.9v when under load and after a bios update ( that didn't adress this problem ) the problem was gone.
Click to expand...

Good idea.........Maybe our friend just should call EVGA support and see what they have to say, they are very good about helping with things in my experience.
 
Both cards worked fine in primary slot as well... Yeah, I think flashing the bios is a good idea too - sort of a last ditch effort before RMA.
 
Wierd.....

both cards work fine in the primary slot alone.
both cards work fine in the secondary slots alone.

BUT.....when SLi'd.....FUBAR'd

Again...assumption....the monitor and cable are OK, and the monitor was plugged into the master GPU DVI slot?
 
I'd flash the BIOS right now, hopefully it works. It'd suck to get a b-stock board from EVGA, they seem to have an influx of them so that's probably what they're going to return to you.

Edit: You didn't test the SLI cable? I would suggest picking one up from your local computer shop or something and giving that a shot before flashing anything.
 
I have very similar setup as yours and I am running into similar problem. Google and you will find that quiet a few others are running into same problem.

Updating the bios may or may not solve your problem.

I think the bigger problem is the poor support for 460 in sli in Win 7 64 bit. They need to get drivers out there that actually work.

Have you tried running it in 32 bit?
 
That's not true about the drivers. I have them sli'd on windows 7 x64 and get 80% to 90% improvement in the latest games like battlefield bad company 2, metro 2033 and dirt 2.
 
hmm... got a real [insert body part] scratcher here... maybe check the SLI bridge pin contacts to ensure nothing is bent or stuck in there which could cross a connection... next up, there are some newish beta drivers.. 259.32.. maybe give those a go?
 
I'm having a similar issue on my dual 2gb 460 setup. Both cards work, I even have monitors on each, but sli won't turn on. I take the same cards to my roommate's dfi x58 board and they work fine. They just don't seem to like either my windows install or my evga x58 board.
 
very weird.. I wonder if this has anything to do with Nvidia's peer to peer writes being blocked at the driver level on non authorized chip sets.. it being buggy and randomly shutting SLI down by accident? probably not.. but just a random thought.
 
nanobeast said:
I have very similar setup as yours and I am running into similar problem. Google and you will find that quiet a few others are running into same problem.

Updating the bios may or may not solve your problem.

I think the bigger problem is the poor support for 460 in sli in Win 7 64 bit. They need to get drivers out there that actually work.

Have you tried running it in 32 bit?
Click to expand...

It's NOT the drivers as other systems work just fine....you are trying to blame the drivers for your cards artifacting, which just ain't so.
Both of your cards are artifacting while the OPs are not.

The one thing you guys both have in common is the same Motherboard....but that's about it.

I beginning to think some of these cards are bad? or they just don't like EVGA boards.
 
Don't think it's the cards. if you can sli you can sli. if you can't than you can't. It's not the card or drivers. nor is it windows 7 x64. If that was the case there would be an outbreak of reports. A lot of the benchy sites are using windows 7 x64 and x58 chipsets and are reporting not problems but praises. don't know what it is but logiccaly i'd say none of the above. Tried the bios yet?
 
Another thing (among the current issue with the board) is the close proximity of the primary and secondary pci-e slots. When I booted the system up for the first time, the primary gtx 460's fan made contact with the back of the secondary card, which as a result broken off one the fan blades. So, after a week of galaxy tech support telling me they do not stock or replace broken fans, I received an email from galaxy indicating a new fan assembly was being shipped overnight from a factory in China! Now that was pretty cool.:)
 
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Nathalex said:
Don't think it's the cards. if you can sli you can sli. if you can't than you can't. It's not the card or drivers. nor is it windows 7 x64. If that was the case there would be an outbreak of reports. A lot of the benchy sites are using windows 7 x64 and x58 chipsets and are reporting not problems but praises. don't know what it is but logiccaly i'd say none of the above. Tried the bios yet?
Click to expand...

This is NOT an x58 motherboard.....it's a P55.
Also the most uptodate BIOS from EVGA the A70 pre-dates the 460 gtx cards.
 
I hope you don't mind, I sent a support ticket to nvidia regarding this issue using your specs.

Maybe we'll get an answer back in the next few days.:D
 
magoo said:
I hope you don't mind, I sent a support ticket to nvidia regarding this issue using your specs.

Maybe we'll get an answer back in the next few days.:D
Click to expand...

lol yeah. Thanks magoo, I really appreciate it.

I was reading some reviews about this mobo at Newegg and a buyer said the he wasn't able to sli (same issues as I) until he updated the bios because it's shipped with a bios date of 09/09/09.

Anyway, I'll find out if that's the case when I get off of work...
 
hmm... idk if this could contribute to the issue, but I just noticed my RAM isn't on evga's compatibility list for the P55. However, the latest bios update says it improved memory compatibility.
 
Okay, I just finished flashing the bios with the latest update and that corrected the issue. :)
 
Awesome, you have the same motherboard that other guy with this issue has. Hopefully you are both fixed now.
 
wintermute said:
Okay, I just finished flashing the bios with the latest update and that corrected the issue. :)
Click to expand...

Excellent.....that is VERY helpful news...........good to know it wasn't the cards or the drivers.

I have a P55 FTW 200 I just built for my son, and I haven't tried SLi yet, but if I have any problems, I'll have something to try as I have not updated the BIOS....I think the BIOS I have is 2 issues behind.

Thanks again for the update.:D
 
magoo said:
Excellent.....that is VERY helpful news...........good to know it wasn't the cards or the drivers.

I have a P55 FTW 200 I just built for my son, and I haven't tried SLi yet, but if I have any problems, I'll have something to try as I have not updated the BIOS....I think the BIOS I have is 2 issues behind.

Thanks again for the update.:D
Click to expand...

Hey, no problem. Thank you all for the you're help too.:D
 
I'm just curious though as to how a mainboard with "SLi" as a moniker won't SLi when you need it to............that is just counter-productive......it seems EVGA should/would be more on top of this.
 
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