SLI prob?

[Solaris17]

ok so i got another 9600 for my b-day....and i hook up the sli cable and i start to game artifacts all over the F$% place so i google it some say driver some say bridge....so i take the bridge off sli works great only prob is it hits performance because it runs off of bus for communication. so i try again same problem so i try each card indavidually they work fine at this point i am all sorts of um wtf? so i talk to a bfg freind of mine and he says he will grab some cards and test them to try and replicate my prob...and he goes on to say if it cant be fixed he will personally test 2 cards to make sure they work and pa for shipping both ways. thats cool but i wanted to try a few more tweaks in my bios so i do no dice, so then i try each card indavidually again..the new one my girl got me artifacts instantly. so im like damn ok so i look at it than i take it apart one of the ram chips didnt have tim..bingo..ok she gets home from work and we go back to BB and get a new one no probs right? so i plug it all in and boot...intresting the icon doesnt pop up saying i have a sli capable system but i go into control panel and their it is so i hit enable...screen goes black(normal) but it doesnt come back....so i hard boot...still no icon so i try to uninstall drivers it freezes...ok fione so i reboot and try agian...it uninstalles askes me to reboot....so i reboot windows installs 174.74's ok sure...than tells me to reboot...and i do she gets back to the desktop and i think iv struck gold you have an sli capable system w0ot!! so i click on it and hit enable...screen goes black than comes back yay o no aero is disabled nvidia CP is locked up i wait and it jus closes......um ok i run gpu-z sli disabled and i get totally the wrong readings....any idea whats up guys? im excited but i cant figure it out!!

iv tried

checkdisk
reg clean
driver cleaner
disk clean up
installing 174.88's
174.93's
reseating cards
switching bridge around
switching card slots

still no go im so F$% confused

[Squirrely]

So it freaks out when you try SLI? Strange...

Hmm, maybe try the first release drivers. Also can your PSU handle the load? Can you tell if which PCI-E power cable is on which rail? (If your PSU has multi rails) If a lot of things are on the first rail, might be too much of a power draw. I think Nvidia has the notification which says your card is underpowered, but it doesn't work sometimes, lol (From what I have seen).

So each card works fine individually after you got the new one?

Hope it gets fixed, as 9600gt's have great SLI scalability. :D

[Solaris17]

So it freaks out when you try SLI? Strange...

Hmm, maybe try the first release drivers. Also can your PSU handle the load? Can you tell if which PCI-E power cable is on which rail? (If your PSU has multi rails) If a lot of things are on the first rail, might be too much of a power draw. I think Nvidia has the notification which says your card is underpowered, but it doesn't work sometimes, lol (From what I have seen).

So each card works fine individually after you got the new one?

Hope it gets fixed, as 9600gt's have great SLI scalability. :D

the 6pin connectors arent spliced off of anything their their own wires. i have a 700w OCZ gamexstream 4x +12v rails 18A on each pretty sure it will power these beasts..it powered the first 2 fine except one was defective.

[Cold Storm]

Well, I think it might be the board itself... but you'll find that out when you get the other board... the p5n board...

[Solaris17]

ok so im still having the same prob and i still need some help im totally stuck and im having such a hard time :(


iv tried


safe mod booting(installing uninstalling driver cleaner)

tried booting with driver signing enforcement off

tried enabling sli with sidebar closed and in windows classic theme

tried pulling out a stick of ram so i only ran 2 gigs since alot of ppl r having probs with 4

tried my sli apeture size in my bios (off/auto)

tried 174.74whql
174.74 beta
175.12
175.16
175.64
175.70's

all were an epic fail

tried 5 diff 9600GT's
treid 3 diff mobos
treid 2 diff bridges with and without bridge still the same

treid updating windows after a format b4 trying to enable sli this includes SP1

formatted 4 times

and in the end...only works when i run xp x64 :(

[newtekie1]

Have you tried a new SLI bridge? Perhaps your SLI bridge is bad?

Edit:Nevermind, I see you did. Tried a fresh install of Vista?

[Solaris17]

tried 2 bridges..both of which work fine in xp :( and i tried it without a bridge still same thing.

and yes sli will work without a bridge incase anyone reads this and doesnt know

[JrRacinFan]

Is that Vista 64, Sol?

[Dia01]

Is the system detecting both of your cards, device manager, temp readings etc? Might be a silly question though?

[hat]

Imma email my uncle real quick and ask him what driver version he uses for his SLI setup, I'll have you try those

[Solaris17]

yup vista x64


vista reads both cards...and b4 i enable sli both are working correctly gpu-z detects both and i can get clock/temp readings from each one


mobo drivers are upto date

if treid switching the cards around


both work fine by themselves

when i hit enable screen goes black(supposed to happen) screen comes back nvCP is frozen and when right clicking on the desktop i have no option to re open it..it also dissapears form the control panel

only option is reinstalling


iv
1.cleaned the reg manualy
deleted stray .dll's manually

reinstalled drivers

rebooted

made sure they were installed correctly rebooted again

than i try to enable
and its a never ending loop im not sure what to do...i mean iv done it b4 fine no problems...and i dont think im that dumb..i mean im doing EVERY trouble shooting step available to figure it out on my own...but i had to post it up..because i must be missing something.

[Dia01]

yup vista x64


vista reads both cards...and b4 i enable sli both are working correctly gpu-z detects both and i can get clock/temp readings from each one


mobo drivers are upto date

if treid switching the cards around


both work fine by themselves

when i hit enable screen goes black(supposed to happen) screen comes back nvCP is frozen and when right clicking on the desktop i have no option to re open it..it also dissapears form the control panel

only option is reinstalling


iv
1.cleaned the reg manualy
deleted stray .dll's manually

reinstalled drivers

rebooted

made sure they were installed correctly rebooted again

than i try to enable
and its a never ending loop im not sure what to do...i mean iv done it b4 fine no problems...and i dont think im that dumb..i mean im doing EVERY trouble shooting step available to figure it out on my own...but i had to post it up..because i must be missing something.


How long have you waited while the control panel is frozen?

[newtekie1]

Try it on a clean install of Vista.

[Solaris17]

Try it on a clean install of Vista.
this is a clean install not 2 hours old.

How long have you waited while the control panel is frozen?
like 2 min it goes away by itself

list of stuff iv tried and facts


safe mod booting(installing uninstalling driver cleaner)

tried booting with driver signing enforcement off

tried enabling sli with sidebar closed and in windows classic theme

tried pulling out a stick of ram so i only ran 2 gigs since alot of ppl r having probs with 4

tried my sli apeture size in my bios (off/auto)

tried 174.74whql
174.74 beta
174.88's
174.93's
175.12
175.16
175.64
175.70's

all were an epic fail

tried 5 diff 9600GT's
treid 3 diff mobos
treid 2 diff bridges with and without bridge still the same
reseating cards
switching bridge around
switching card slots
checkdisk
reg clean
driver cleaner
disk clean up

treid updating windows after a format b4 trying to enable sli this includes SP1

formatted 4 times

cards are proven to work

both have their respected power plugs plugged in

both power cables are on a seperate rail

i have an OCZ gamerxstream 4 rails 18amps each 74amps total my psu pools the amps and delivers were needed my rail voltaes are stable and above regulation ie 3.3v is 3.35 etc..

[warhammer]

Are they the same brand cards? and are you running std bios.

[Solaris17]

all BFG 9600GT OC ED iv flashed tham with all sorts of bioses

both original gen 1 bios's both with my veryown modded ones and GEN2 bios files.

[JrRacinFan]

Well, I have heard of driver problems with Crossfire in Vista x64 but have not read up on much with SLi in it though. I beleive its just a driver issue.

[warhammer]

That is a very weird problem have you tried SLI zone http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?

[Mussels]

are you running vista SP1? it may be helpful to go to SP1 and get all winupdates before installing the driver.

[Solaris17]

yup i fully updated b4 even trying to install the drivers as that was reccomended in the slizone forums

[Solaris17]

anyone?

[newtekie1]

Is your PCI-E frequency set to 100? Are both cards installed in the machine with the SLI bridge connected when you first load the drivers?

[Solaris17]

yup pci freq set at 100 bridge is connected when first installing drivers iv even tried it the other way without the drivers

and iv treid force enabling sli in the registry

iv disabled uac iv even tried it with it on all combinations of driver signing enforcement

uac on<DSF off
uacon<DSF on
UAC off<DSF on
UAC off< DSF off


still no go

[newtekie1]

The card on the motherboard is set to SLI? Perhaps there is just an conflict between BFG cards, ASUS motherboards, and Vista. Something we just aren't seeing.

[Solaris17]

nope sli worked fine on thi set up with xp x64 and x32 their are no sli options in the bios other than apeture size which is auto and off and iv ried both...now te selecter card i have to enable sli is in the right opt its set to dual card mode (sli)


and a problem i found is ppl have trouble with 4gb ram so i treid oly 2

and iv not only flashed both cards with gen1 and gen2 bios's but iv also tried a bios lash to make them oem nvidia card (non bgf) and xfx models

[JrRacinFan]

Just by chance Sol, try out an underclock by at least 100mhz on the mem on each card then enable SLi. Post back with results.

[Solaris17]

yup treid that saw it online as a possible solution 100mhz on core and mem fail

[JrRacinFan]

Mmk, what's your northbridge and/or MCH volts set for>?

EDIT: I am still really really thinking it is totally a driver issue.

[Solaris17]

idk im oc'd to 3.6ghz so their higher than normal and everythings totally stable and sli wa perfectly sable for the past week in xp x64 so im not sure thas te issue but ya for facts perposes their both over volted and relatively cool 35C max its cooled with MX-2 and a lapped NP with a 80mm blowing right on it.

i just want it to work with vista because though i loved sli in xp i miss dx10 and cool special features etc i cant be without im addicted :(

[JrRacinFan]

Really cannot think of any other items for you to try. SP1 installed? Try out 174.12's?

[Solaris17]

yup sp1 is installed i installed all updates(checking een after sp1) b4 even trying to install he drivers iv tried

tried 174.74whql
174.74 beta
174.88's
174.93's
175.12
175.16
175.64
175.70's

[JrRacinFan]

Try these but you may have to disable driver enforcement on every boot.....

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17552
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=177424

[Solaris17]

yup pci freq set at 100 bridge is connected when first installing drivers iv even tried it the other way without the drivers

and iv treid force enabling sli in the registry

iv disabled uac iv even tried it with it on all combinations of driver signing enforcement

uac on<DSF off
uacon<DSF on
UAC off<DSF on
UAC off< DSF off


still no go
did

[JrRacinFan]

But with 174.12's installed? Try them out if they don't work then I promise I will quit bothering you. :D

[Solaris17]

174.12's dont support the 9600 only the 174.16's and iv tried those

[erocker]

I might as well ask if you tried taking your physx card out to try it that way?

[Solaris17]

yup did alot of this b4 i even owned it

[JrRacinFan]

174.12's dont support the 9600 only the 174.16's and iv tried those

Are you positive?
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_9600_gt_sli_performance/page2.asp

[Solaris17]

http://www.driverheaven.net/windows-xp-linux-nvidia-display-drivers/155076-geforce-release-174-16-whql-candidate.html

did they use a modded inf? or are they just wrong? ^

[erocker]

Mabye it's time to try a different PSU as well? Your problem perplexes me to no end!:confused:

[Solaris17]

the psu is new 700w OCZ gamerXstream with 74amps total im not sure i follow?

it works fine in XP vista should be any diff specially since i probably only draw 500w MAX from the wall

[erocker]

Ok, it's new, just wanted to make sure one of the cables wasn't messed up or anything. So, SLi works with XP and not Vista atm? Hmmm....

[Solaris17]

ya xp X64 sli works NP vista= no go :(

[Dia01]

Have you tried enabling 'show sli visual' and play a game or something to definately see if it's not working? Sometimes the 'sli capable system' icon appears for me also and sometimes not, do you have ntune installed?

[Solaris17]

i dont think your understanding the problem the icon means nothing to me sometimes i get it sometimes i dont....gpu-z says sli is disabled and unavaulable...and in the nvCP when i enable sli my system goes back to like drivers werent even installed and sli doesnt enable.

and no i dont have ntune installed i never use it i find it toally useless..and my benchmarks say sli isnt enabled i can tell by the score.

[Squirrely]

Jeeze Solaris, this is quite confusing!

Could it be power off of one of those PCI-E power cables? I know Nvidia CP fusses at you if your card is underpowered, but you never know if it doesnt detect it. Have you tried switching around PCI-E power connectors? Just trying random ones. Heck, even try a Molex to PCI-E adapter on a totally separate 12v rail, to make sure it isn't a power draw issue.

I'm stumped if that doesn't work. :shadedshu

[Dia01]

Mate, I don't have any ideas either. Same as you, the SLI icon doen't mean anything to me either. I have never been able to identify SLI enabled using GPUZ but I know SLI is working, haven't tried the program for awhile though. I don't use ntune either. Wait as long as you can when the screen goes blank may take awhile for the system to respond when enabling sli.

What about uninstalling the drivers, removing one card, reboot, install the driver again, turn off, install 2nd card again, reboot and let windows automatically update the driver for the second? Like I said, out of answers sorry. Let us know if you work it out though.

[Solaris17]

yup tested a molex connection wiped out my fluke meter and measured the power out put and switched around the 6 pins all checked out...i wait for the black screen and my desktop does infact come back but when it does my drivers are borken :(

[Dia01]

yup tested a molex connection wiped out my fluke meter and measured the power out put and switched around the 6 pins all checked out...i wait for the black screen and my desktop does infact come back but when it does my drivers are borken :(Does the "Display driver has stopped responding' appear? Infact forget the question, I don't know what's happening!

[CHAOS_KILLA]

intel motherboards suc arse, thats my 2cents

[CHAOS_KILLA]

if i were you, just take the card back and get your money back aswell, wait till nvidia's GT200 series or maybe ATI HD4800 series, shouldnt be too long, time flys by, well for me I guess

[Solaris17]

the cards cant be bad iv been through 6 making sure :( it works in XP just not vista...their awsome cards and id love to keep them...besids id rather not wait for the new series..im going 9800GX2 next 2 of them infact...i dont want to be an early adopter anymore because if the drivers suck so bad on a seasoned card like the 9600GT than i sure as hell am not going to try something as new as the upcoming series.

[erocker]

Well, it has to be a problem with Vista 64bit and your combination of hardware. There is nothing else I can think of, especially since it works with XP.

[Solaris17]

well thats the thing 3 mobo's 3 diff procs 2 diff sets of ram 2 diff PSU's 2 diff bridges i think iv narrowed it down to vista x64 because iv tested on multiple platforms.

[erocker]

Have you searched for every hotfix possible?

[Solaris17]

yup even re downloaded all of them though SP1 must have taken care of it as each and everyone says it "doesnt apply to my system"

[Mussels]

how about this: try another copy of vista. you are using vista x64, but is it business, home premium, etc.

Its possible the version you're on doesnt like SLI, or you even have a bad disk (Vlited, bad slipstream etc)

[Solaris17]

ultimate x64 retail copy no slip stream :(

[Mussels]

is it possible theres bios options in the way? i know that many mobos even today, default to "PnP OS: no" in the bios settings.

Go through every menu and have a look - there could be a setting that XP ignores yet vista doesnt.

[ntdouglas]

Its been a good month in a half since I put this thing together, but I do remember I couldn't boot with both cards in. I had to boot with one card in, load driver, reboot for stability, shutdown, install second card, boot windows again second card enabled, enable sli,reboot and it was there. If it doesn't work try whole procedure over with the other card.:p Seriously.

[warhammer]

Try asking the question here www.vistax64.com or MS

[Solaris17]

ill look again but i set that stuff manually every time i reset the cmos..and i have a save bios feature that i restore after im done.

[Mussels]

ill look again but i set that stuff manually every time i reset the cmos..and i have a save bios feature that i restore after im done.

try it on defaults then, in case one of the settings is what breaks it.

All i can really keep thinking is that its an OS/software problem. My test (sounds like you've done this a million times already) would be

Install vista
install SP1
Install DX9c (latest)
Install video drivers
test

Under no circumstances should you install any antivirus or drivers for other apps (such as your modded creative drivers) while testing this out.

[Solaris17]

ya no anti virus or firewall installed amt..because i reformat so frequently to test this out..and i dont install my modded sound card drivers..it seems like a waste of time to set up and customize an installation i wont stick with for more than 2 days.

ill try stock settings i suppose. ill load the fail safe defaults and try your list for about the 50th time...hopefully i can figure this out :(

[ntdouglas]

Have you tried both cards by themselves? What are your 3dmark06 scores? Single card and sli?

[Solaris17]

in vista 10k 1 card 16k 2 and yes tried both cards by themselves

[ntdouglas]

in vista 10k 1 card 16k 2 and yes tried both cards by themselves

If your getting 16k with 2 cards your sli dude.

[Solaris17]

no no im not anymore i was just giving you the scores..im at like 9k atm..because im not running OC'd

[ntdouglas]

no no im not anymore i was just giving you the scores..im at like 9k atm..because im not running OC'd

But both cards are working and your getting a higher score with 2 cards. I don't understand I guess.:confused: