SLI problems

Q

quadman78

n00b
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
26
:mad:
I put together my new system yesterday, and everything was going great till I tried to add my two BFG GeForce 8800GT's. I get nothing but a black screen when I put them both in. I have tried putting each individual card in each of the 3 16x PCI-e slots and the work fine individually. I did every update I can think of...bios, video cards everything...and looked everywhere in the bios but can't figure this out. Any suggestions?

MSi P7N Diamond 780i Motherboard
Q6600
2x2gb corsair dominator 8500 1066MHz
Corsair TX 750 Watt
ZEROTherm Nirvana
2 x WD Caviar 500 GB HDD

Thanks
 
Thats actually all I want...I have two 8800GT's...as soon as I plug them both in at the same tille, I only get a black screen.
 
How were you able to verify the second PCI-E slot on the motherboard works? I didn't think you could insert a single video card in the non-primary PCI-E slot and have the computer POST.

Anyway, when you put both cards in, you know you can only hook up the DVI cable to the monitor with the top card, right? And you are using the SLI bridge to connect the two cards together?
 
And make sure you are using the left side dvi plug, look at the card from the back side. The one closest to the mobo.
 
I believe I experienced the same problem last night after replacing the primary card in an SLI config after receiving a new card via RMA. And, I have some suggestions below but will first explain what I experienced in case it is, in fact, different than what you are experiencing.

My SLI config is 1 BFG 8800gts in the primary slot with an EVGA 8800gts in the secondary pci-e. After pulling the primary card (PCI-E slot 1) and replacing it with the exact same card, XP forced me to reinstall the drivers. But, alas, I figured it'd be a simple reboot once the drivers were installed. Instead, upon reboot, I saw the bios and the windows load screen followed by nothing once the OS booted the drivers (I conclude this I could see the startup (bios,etc.) and the initial windows loading screen for the first few seconds & the hard drive sounded as though it was continuing to load into windows after the screen went blank).

On a hunch, I moved the dvi cable to the other headers with no luck (if my memory serves me correctly). I then decided that I would change the initial boot device in the bios from PEG 1 to PEG 2 (PCI slot 2) and plugged the dvi cable into output 1 of the secondary card. Finally, this resolved the matter (see comment at end regarding changes in bios). Under the belief that this was the result of the drivers confusing the primary/secondary card given the pull/reinstall of the primary card, I uninstalled the drivers for the 2ndary card (which had the effect of uninstalling the drivers for both cards). I then went back into the bios, switched the primary card to PEG 1 and booted. Again, I was able to get all the way into windows with the dvi cable plugged into the primary card. XP recognized the cards, reinstalled the drivers and things have been back to normal since with the dvi cable plugged into the primary header of the primary card.

My recommendations are contained in the above explanation. But, a few points:
(1) Several posts above indicate that you can only use the primary dvi output from the primary card. However, this is not always the case as the OS can get confused as to which is primary for purpose of drivers. As I experienced last night, it was the 2ndary card that was functioning as the primary output (& my PC seemed to be perfectly happy running with the monitor plugged into the secondary card).
(2) First, try plugging your dvi cable into the primary output of the secondary card. Once you can get in the OS, you can then uninstall the drivers, etc.
(3) If plugging the dvi cable into the primary output of the secondary card does not initially work, reboot, go into the bios and set the 2ndary card as the initial boot device. Hopefully, this will work if (2) did not.
(4) Once you're able to get into windows (ie. see windows....my PC was clearly continuing its boot, I just wasn't able to see anything once the drivers loaded), uninstall the drivers through the device manager.
(5) Go back to the bios, set the initial boot as the primary pci-e slot & reboot. Swap the dvi cable to the primary output of the primary card.
(6) Reboot. You should now be able to get back into windows where the drivers will reinstall.

Hope this helps. On a final note, I'm not sure how much of an impact changing the initial video card was in the bios. It just happened to be part of the process that ultimately led to resolving my issue so I felt I should put it in. It may very well be that changing the dvi cable to the secondary card & uninstalling the drivers will do the trick without making any changes to the bios.

Chris
 
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