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System instability after installing 980Ti SLI setup

W

Wag

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 29, 2006
Messages
1,584
Went from a 3 OG 6GB Titan SLI setup which I had for over 2yrs with no problems, to a single EVGA (non-sc) ACX 2.0 980Ti for about a week- had no problems with it so I purchased a second. That's when all my problems started.

Right away my system started locking up, shutting down. Anything I did. Lock ups, shut down. And when I mean shut downs I mean the power supply would spontaneously power down (I then had a Antec HCP-1200 1200w PS, should have been more than enough). I removed a card- and ran on one card- spontaneously power downs. Switched cards- power downs. Power downs on the windows desktop. Never had this with the OG Titans (unfortunately I sold the Titans when I bought the first 980Ti thinking everything was OK).

Thinking my PS was the problem I contacted Antec they sent me the newer HCP-1300 for free, installed it yesterday. Same thing. Installed both cards- power downs. Except for this....Stopped overclocking my CPU (i3770k @ 4.4GHz). First time, ran Valley- power down in 5 minutes even at normal CPU clock speed. Reboot. Second time, ran Valley all day, over 6hrs+, no problems. Not a one.:confused:

Any ideas? I'm truly stumped here. It's got to be 1 of 3 things- The CPU (which I highly doubt, because I've been highly stable @ 4.4GHz for ~3yrs no problems). The 980Tis (maybe), but why would they both be causing my PC to shut down when the first one worked fine for a week when the first one installed worked fine for a week? Or...(the one I think), The 980Tis somehow fried my motherboard.

I'll game some @ stock CPU speeds (Witcher 3 especially hardlocks me) and see what happens.
 
Could be the motherboard. Try the newest 980ti by itself in it's current PCI-E slot and see if it still gives problems. If so, change to the other slot; Still having problems, then it's the card -- Else it's the PCI-E slot.

Test 'em like you would, if you were testing for bad RAM.
 
OK, played a bit more with cards in SLI @ stock everything speeds (CPU and cards) and again shudowns.

Removed the newer of the 2 cards (the one that started all the problems), left the older card in slot 3 (still a x16 lane slot) and played for about 2hrs no problems whatsoever.

Next test, will remove that and put the newer of the two cards in slot 3 by itself and see what happens.

Don't know what else to do at this point. Am beginning to suspect it's either:

a) The motherboard or

b) The 2nd 980Ti
 
Played with the newer of the 980Tis in Slot 3 for ~40mins. No problems. Will play more tomorrow.

Will try putting the Newer card in the 8x slot and then maybe both cards in 8x slots.

Good idea. I have 4 4GB dimms, so I'll try 1. Although they all look good. I don't think that's the problem. I already shuffled them around and re-seeded them.

Still narrowing it down between the 980Tis or my motherboard (I can't figure what else it could be). Everything else was fine with the OG Titans.

I'm not going to upgrade at this point. No point considering Skylake is right around the corner. I have a Sandybridge. At worst I will end up with a refurbished Sandybridge SLI motherboard. Problem is I currently have a prestige $250 motherboard with like 8 SATA devices. (and some drive bays on top of that). Good luck finding a Sandybridge SLI board with all that for cheap.
 
I think I sorted it out. My motherboard is toast. PCI-E slot 1 and 4 are dead. Any SLI 980Ti config in Slot 1 causes shutdowns, anything in slot 4 doesn't work at all (I couldn't even get a single card config working in there).

Unfortunately I have EVGA 980Ti ACX 2.0 fan configs so I have to stack the cards directly right on top of each other in slots 2 (8x) and 3 (16x). That makes the top card insanely hot - like 85C+ at stock settings during intense gaming. The bottom card is like 60C. lol

No point in upgrading a Sandybridge mobo when Skylake is so close.
 
There should be enough flexibility to place some kind of spacer between them to spread them apart some.
 
RamonGTP said:
There should be enough flexibility to place some kind of spacer between them to spread them apart some.
Click to expand...

I can't. My motherboard is screwed. The only working slots appear to be PCI-E slots 2 and 3 which are directly right next to each other. Otherwise if I put a SLI card into slot 1 it causes my PS to shut down, in slot 4 a card doesn't even show up.:(

So I'm stuck with it. It's a Sandybridge board. No point upgrading it until Skylake arrives.
 
What Ramon was suggesting is putting something between the cards in their current slots to just add an extra 1/8" of air space.
 
Logan321 said:
What Ramon was suggesting is putting something between the cards in their current slots to just add an extra 1/8" of air space.
Click to expand...

Like what? They're directly on top of each other. Not sure what I could fit inbetween that wouldn't interfere with the top fan's spinning.
 
Wag said:
Like what? They're directly on top of each other. Not sure what I could fit inbetween that wouldn't interfere with the top fan's spinning.
Click to expand...

Like a rubber eraser wedged between the two. The front of the card isn't all fan, it can be done.
 
Wag said:
OK, played a bit more with cards in SLI @ stock everything speeds (CPU and cards) and again shudowns.

Removed the newer of the 2 cards (the one that started all the problems), left the older card in slot 3 (still a x16 lane slot) and played for about 2hrs no problems whatsoever.

Next test, will remove that and put the newer of the two cards in slot 3 by itself and see what happens.

Don't know what else to do at this point. Am beginning to suspect it's either:

a) The motherboard or

b) The 2nd 980Ti
Click to expand...

The motherboard was fine before the second card. I am guessing you have a faulty card...
 
RamonGTP said:
Like a rubber eraser wedged between the two. The front of the card isn't all fan, it can be done.
Click to expand...

I'll cut an eraser off a pencil and see if I can fit it inbetween there.

I really don't think it's the 2nd videocard. It seems to work fine by itself as far as I can tell. I wouldn't know for sure until I get a new motherboard/system.
 
RamonGTP said:
Like a rubber eraser wedged between the two. The front of the card isn't all fan, it can be done.
Click to expand...

I'll cut an eraser off a pencil and see if I can fit it inbetween there.

I really don't think it's the 2nd videocard. It seems to work fine by itself as far as I can tell. I wouldn't know for sure until I get a new motherboard/system.

My motherboard is now stuck in the Gigabyte bios loop- after I shutdown I have to hold the button to turn off or it turns itself back on by itself. This is new. It never did this before. I even reflashed the bios/reset the CMOS and it's still doing it.
 
I stuck some little foam expandable earplug things inbetween the cards and it didn't make a bit of difference- top card hits 85C right away. The bottom card stays ~70C. I guess I won't be overclocking until I get a new motherboard. Until then I won't know if a card is bad or not either.

Skylake can't come soon enough. When's the first chips, motherboards supposed to hit?
 
It would be terribly ugly, but you could try a PCI-e extender until you get your new board.
 
HeavensCloud said:
It would be terribly ugly, but you could try a PCI-e extender until you get your new board.
Click to expand...

Interesting. As long as I move the cards away from each other I don't really care how it looks. They're only ~$6. I won't burn out my 980Ti with one will I? Who makes a decent one?
 
Wag said:
Interesting. As long as I move the cards away from each other I don't really care how it looks. They're only ~$6. I won't burn out my 980Ti with one will I? Who makes a decent one?
Click to expand...

They're all China crap, but get one of the powered ones. They're fine for crypto-currency usage, so I'd imagine they're fine for gaming.
 
Now I'm not so sure if my motherboard was the issue after all. Every once in a while when running the cards the video sort of flickers out (and not the normal screen to black thing that Nvidia cards do, something else). Yes my motherboard is kaput after the fact, but it could be one of the 980Ti's killed it.

I guess I'll find out once get my Skylake system setup. At least the components will be warrantied.:(
 
Maybe the Mobo is no giving you enough juice through the secondary PCIe slot.. Did you check its specs..? As mentioned above, I would try an extender with a dedicated molex connector..
 
Who makes your motherboard? Granted it might be out of warranty but they may still fix it for a small fee.
 
I would rma that second 980ti...sounds like that was the start.

Also if you have a 3770k that is an ivy bridge.
 
As I said before I should technically RMA both cards but I doubt EVGA would let me. The first card has a really loud coil whine.

I'll probably just RMA the 2nd card this week just to be safe and then do the first card at a later date.

Yeah, Ivy Bridge. I'm more interested in the new platform, not so much the CPU. I probably won't get a big improvement, but now that my motherboard is fried I might as well upgrade anyways.
 
your psu has 8 12v rails, my old corsair hx1000w psu was basically two 500w psus in one and when I tried to load balance the cards it would shutdown the pc on some games, I'd try a new single rail psu if I were you.

try to connect the vga cables to a different connection meanwhile, keep in mind that psu design is 5 years old, it might give trouble with new more powerful graphic cards.. my older corsair surely did
 
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You're talking about the HCP-1300? That PSU only has four 12v rails and it's design is a little over a year old.
 
Or Seasonic the higher power ones have single rail, that's why I go with Seasonic. However before you do all that I was thinking it's possible something got corrupted somewhere have you thought about reinstalling Windows? I know it looks like something got fried but I've seen some odd hardware problems disappear with a re-install (ok rarely but it's relatively cheap to try except in your time).
 
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