No SLI option

[ozzeran]

Hello all, I am not getting a SLI option in the Nvidia Control Panel.

I recently tried SLI for the first time, I have performed the following troubleshooting:

Verify in Device manager that both cards are shown.

I then uninstalled the drivers, ran driver sweeper, rebooted and then reinstalled latest non beta drivers. Still no SLI option.

I then swapped card slots, performed driver cleanup, rebooted, new drivers, still no option.

I took out my previous card and left new one in, works fine, so no issue with it not working.

I only have one SLI bridge to try but it was new from the motherboard box.

Specs:
Athlon II X4 635
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3
(2) Evga GTX 460 1gb cards
Coolermaster 750watt PS
Running Win7 Home Premium 64 bit.

forgot to add that I updated the motherboard bios as well.

Anything else I could check? I'm really bummed it won't work, I figured this was plug and play these days, SLI has been out for years.

Thanks!

 

[Outamyhead]

Could be a bad PCI-e slot, have you tried the other slot with just one card?

 

[Dan_D]

I've run into this. I ended up having to reformat and reinstall everything. That was the only thing that resolved it for me.

 

[ozzeran]

I haven't actually tried the 2nd slot by itself yet.

Dan, I have read about doing that too, bit of a drastic step, but I may try it.

Did you leave the 2nd card in and then re-install Windows?

 

[Dan_D]

I haven't actually tried the 2nd slot by itself yet.

Dan, I have read about doing that too, bit of a drastic step, but I may try it.

Did you leave the 2nd card in and then re-install Windows?

Yep. I left all the hardware installed and configured the same. I initially tested it by slapping a spare drive in one of the hot swap bays, then disconnecting my SSD. I then installed Windows and enabled SLI. It worked perfectly. I then went back and reinstalled on my SSD. No one has been able to tell me what the deal is. I've had this problem once. No one could point me to a cause for it or a reason. The solution seemed to be the same in every case.

BTW Driver Sweeper won't help. It's too out of date these days to be of much use.

 

[magoo]

I would try the following:

Make sure both cards are functional in the primary PCI-e slot individually.

Install both cards. Install the bridge. Connect the monitor to the primary card in the first DVI slot.

Uninstall the current drivers, using the uninstaller from nvidia

Reinstall the drivers and perform a "clean install" by checking the appropiate box.

Should be GTG.

If you want a good driver cleaner, go to drivercleaner.net, costs a donation, but is the best and is update frequently by the author.

 

[Dan_D]

I would try the following:

Make sure both cards are functional in the primary PCI-e slot individually.

Install both cards. Install the bridge. Connect the monitor to the primary card in the first DVI slot.

Uninstall the current drivers, using the uninstaller from nvidia

Reinstall the drivers and perform a "clean install" by checking the appropiate box.

Should be GTG.

If you want a good driver cleaner, go to drivercleaner.net, costs a donation, but is the best and is update frequently by the author.

Probably won't work but it doesn't hurt to try. I've been there and done that. I've also found this problem isn't all that uncommon either.

 

[magoo]

Probably won't work but it doesn't hurt to try. I've been there and done that. I've also found this problem isn't all that uncommon either.

Me too, but I never had to reformat my HDD to make it go.

 

[Dan_D]

Me too, but I never had to reformat my HDD to make it go.

I only did once. Normally reinstalling the SLI bridge on the one or two occasions it's happened was enough, or reinstalling the second card did the trick. In one instance I had no choice but to reformat.

 

[ozzeran]

I would try the following:

Make sure both cards are functional in the primary PCI-e slot individually.

Install both cards. Install the bridge. Connect the monitor to the primary card in the first DVI slot.

Uninstall the current drivers, using the uninstaller from nvidia

Reinstall the drivers and perform a "clean install" by checking the appropiate box.

Should be GTG.

If you want a good driver cleaner, go to drivercleaner.net, costs a donation, but is the best and is update frequently by the author.

Already tried it.

I might format Windows tonight, seems like people have resolved this issue with various fixes. It doesn't make sense to have to re-install Windows, but computers/technology are weird sometimes so.

 

[Dan_D]

Already tried it.

I might format Windows tonight, seems like people have resolved this issue with various fixes. It doesn't make sense to have to re-install Windows, but computers/technology are weird sometimes so.

Yeah, you shouldn't have to do that. I went through the registry and removed all things NVIDIA, but that didn't even work.