Need some ideas on hardware issue(mining)

[Decimus]

Ok so I can not seem to figure out what the problem is on this new rig and hoping you guys can help me out with ideas. I have installed Win7 Ult on the hard drive without any GPU's attached, updated bios, installed all the windows updates, and here comes my issue. I plug in my GPU's and I can not get it to boot with more than 2 GPU's in. Specifically the first and second PCIe16 slots. If I plug in the PCIex1 slot I get past the Bios screen put it stops with a blinking cursor immediately afterwards. if all 4 are plugged in I can't get any display at all. Tested each GPU and each slot and they are all working properly by themselves it is just when I try to run them all together. I am running out of ideas

Specs:
Z87 ASRock Extreme4
LEPA 1200W PSU,
4xSapphire 280x Dual-X
4gb single ram
G3220

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. This one is driving me up the wall. The only thing I could think of is that the PSU isn't putting out enough power for 4 but there should be no way that a 1200W LEPA 80+ Gold can't power even 3 GPU's. . .? I am wondering if this a motherboard issue since I didn't have any issues at all last time. . . Frustrations galore on this one.

 

[nullzero]

Its most likely your PSU. 1200 gold is cutting it close with more then 2. Assuming each card can draw up to 375 watt at full load. There is a reason all the good +1200 watt platinum PSU are out of stock or over priced....

 

[Mike_Shaffer]

Decimus,

This is from page 35 of the manual for the Z87 Extreme 4,

"2.10 SLITM and Quad SLITM Operation Guide
This motherboard supports NVIDIA® SLITM and Quad SLITM (Scalable Link Interface) technology that allows you to install up to two identical PCI Express x16 graphics cards. Currently, NVIDIA® SLITM and Quad SLITM technology supports Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / 8 / 8 64-bit OS."

And later on page 38,
"2.11 CrossFireXTM, 3-Way CrossFireXTM and Quad CrossFireXTM Operation Guide
This motherboard supports CrossFireXTM, 3-way CrossFireXTM and Quad CrossFireXTM that allows you to install up to three identical PCI Express x16 graphics cards. Currently CrossFireXTM, 3-way CrossFireXTM and Quad CrossFireXTM are supported with Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / 8 / 8 64-bit OS."

Also, I don't think the Z87 chipset can handle 4 PCIe cards because it doesn't have enough PCIe lanes. Also see,
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1039993475

This board has only 3 PCIe in a x8/x4/x4 configuration. Since you've tried three, you can possibly try the primary graphics setting and you may have to disable the intel integrated graphics.

Sincerely,

 

[collegeboy69us]

not familliar with the LEPA brand, but you should at the minimum be able to run 3 GPU's from that PSU with no issue, the power draw of a 280x is around 250W, in theory you should be okay with that PSU, but running it at full load like that 24/7 might take its toll if the PSU is a cheap chinese brand.

 

[mkrohn]

plugged directly in or risers? non powered risers are horrible for mining.

I never do windows updates on my mining rigs because too many goofy things happen.

Ignore the PSU spec folks, you'd be shocked what I've pushed 500w and 750w into. If the PSU were an issue the problem would happen when you start mining and actually use the power.

plug 1 card in at a time and get it mining
plug second in and start mining
plug third in and start mining
4th would be risers. I have issues at times when trying to use 4+ cards as well and I just haven't figured it out because I prefer the non hanging aspects of 2 cards per rig

 

[Decimus]

This are in 3 16x16 non-powered risers and 1 powered 1x16 riser. My other rig has non-powered risers and it works just fine.

I try adding one at a time but as soon as I add the 1x16 riser I get stuck after loading up and if I add a 3rd 16x riser I don't get any video output at all.

 

[mkrohn]

This are in 3 16x16 non-powered risers and 1 powered 1x16 riser. My other rig has non-powered risers and it works just fine.

I try adding one at a time but as soon as I add the 1x16 riser I get stuck after loading up and if I add a 3rd 16x riser I don't get any video output at all.

For giggles try what I said without any risers in use and just report back... This may sound stupid to you but its called troubleshooting

 

[Carbon_Rod]

This are in 3 16x16 non-powered risers and 1 powered 1x16 riser. My other rig has non-powered risers and it works just fine.

I try adding one at a time but as soon as I add the 1x16 riser I get stuck after loading up and if I add a 3rd 16x riser I don't get any video output at all.

I will almost guarantee it's the risers.

This is darn near the same issue I had, different board though (mine was a Gigabyte Z87X-D3H). Could not get it to boot with video even with 1 card on a riser. I tested with an old Gigabyte Z68 board and it worked fine which is why I applied my flawed logic and thought it would work on a similar Z87 board as well. So I bought a couple of the Z87 boards when they were cheap. I do, however, have 2 other systems on MSI Z77A-G45 boards and they both run fine with 3 cards each on x16-x16 non-powered risers. I ended up buying 4 more of those boards before they disappeared. (Guess I gotta start cashing out to cover some of these impulsive purchases... lol.)

Now that I think about it, I will state one caveat... the cards running flawlessly on the MSI boards are 7950's. However, my testing on the Z87 board was done with 7970's which require a bit more power. The same could probably be said of the R9 280X's.

However, I had some mild success because the Gigabyte Z87 boards also have an option in the BIOS to downgrade the PCIe slots from version 3 to version 2 or version 1. I set them at PCIe 2.0 and was able to get at least 1 card working with a riser. I think it also ran with 2... but it was a couple weeks ago so I can't remember how far I got in my testing. You may want to try that if your board has that option as well.

 

[mkrohn]

I will almost guarantee it's the risers.

This is darn near the same issue I had, different board though (mine was a Gigabyte Z87X-D3H). Could not get it to boot with video even with 1 card on a riser. I tested with an old Gigabyte Z68 board and it worked fine which is why I applied my flawed logic and thought it would work on a similar Z87 board as well. So I bought a couple of the Z87 boards when they were cheap. I do, however, have 2 other systems on MSI Z77A-G45 boards and they both run fine with 3 cards each on x16-x16 non-powered risers. I ended up buying 4 more of those boards before they disappeared. (Guess I gotta start cashing out to cover some of these impulsive purchases... lol.)

However, I had some mild success because the Gigabyte Z87 boards also have an option in the BIOS to downgrade the PCIe slots from version 3 to version 2 or version 1. I set them at PCIe 2.0 and was able to get at least 1 card working with a riser. I think it also ran with 2... but it was a couple weeks ago so I can't remember how far I got in my testing. You may want to try that if your board has that option as well.

rule #2 in troubleshoot is don't ASSUME anything and rule it out without properly testing it.
rule #1 is try the most retarded things you can think of

 

[Gorilla]

rule #2 in troubleshoot is don't ASSUME anything and rule it out without properly testing it.
rule #1 is try the most retarded things you can think of

Haha, rule #1 is so true. Stupidest problem I ever had was a bad IDE cable. It took me a whole day to figure that one out and it was of course the very last thing I tried.