9800GX2 Problem on Vista Ultimate 64 Bit

Something wrong there

Something isn't right there, I Have one of these cards.

1 It should come up as two cards

2 The SLI option should be in the nvidia control panel

Check the following:

Vista is fully patched with SP1 and everything off Windows Update
Latest motherboard drivers installed
Latest GeForce driver installed
You didn't fit a different model card in there temporarily and forgot to take it out?!

no, there should be 2. Make sure that SLI is not disabled on your mobo. Also im sure you have the latest x64 drivers?

Kunna said:

Fellas, do u think it will make a difference if I switch the card's pcie slot?

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Are both slots 16x ? If not, this might be the reason, otherwise I don't know why from here, seems you've done everything you can.

Anyway, can't hurt to try the other slot regardless.

If you come to a dead end, you could try installing a fresh Vista on another HD or partition and see if that works ok, then take it from there. This has helped me with dead end problems in the past.

Kunna said:

the last time i've seen the multi-gpu option was with the nforce 17x driver when i received the pc... did the updates and it disappeared, so am tending to think that it's a driver bug or something

Any input welcome...

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So Vista was pre-installed before you got it? In that case, I feel that a fresh install will likely get rid of the problem.

Heck, even re-install over the top and patch everything, perhaps? Starting with an SP1 setup disc is preferable, if possible. Just don't forget to back up any important data first...

Kunna said:

Come to think of it... Maybe I should try reinstalling the old driver and see what happens before i try to switch slots?

is there anyway i could TOTALLY remove the old driver?

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http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards----Handy-Utilities_c5.html

You could try Detonator RIP & Detonator Destroyer on there, perhaps. It might just solve your problem.

If that doesn't do it for you go to msconfig (can find it in search) then go to boot, advanced options and then check "detect HAL". I've had "missing" cores on cpus, whole sound chips and other components that are always "found" when I check that option and do a reboot.

Kunna said:

OK, so over the last couple of hours i've done the following:

1- Uninstalled the driver completely and rebooted
2- After the reboot, I saw 2 graphics controllers in the device manager
3- Fresh installed the new driver and am now back to a single card in device manager

I even switched the pcie slot and the pc won't even boot so i put it back where it was...

Getting very frustrated here... feels like i'm down to 2 options:

1- There is a software problem somewhere (reinstalling windows will show that) or
2- I have a faulty card (time for an RMA )

Anything i'm missing here fellas?

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Nah, it isn't hardware buddy, don't worry. I've seen software glitches like this before and I feel your pain.

Did you try the driver cleaners?

I strongly suggest at this point that you try a completely fresh install on another HD and see if that works. At the risk of stating the obvious, don't let any older drivers touch it; put the latest straight on.

If that doesn't work, you may also want to do an XP install to use as a reference.

It's possible that the PC won't boot from the other PCI-E slot because it's possible a 4x one, perhaps? The high performance cards tend to like the 16x ones only.



Here's another alternative I've just thought of. I put the following help into another forum once, which is for XP and ATI cards, but it's not that different for Vista & nvidia:

The ATI Catalyst Control Centre in Windows XP 32-bit has a nasty habit of disappearing and then not coming back, no matter what you do, as I found out to my cost just before Christmas - when I wanted to play with all my new games. The symptoms are a missing ATI icon in the system tray, the ATI CCC option appearing at the top of the context menu when right clicking the desktop, but no response to a mouse click. Firing up Task Manager reveals that CCC.exe is actually running, but the control panel refuses to show.

Uninstalling/re-installing the driver & .NET is not likely to help and will have you tearing your hair out trying to get the CCC back. If you're lucky, CCC will open, but after the next reboot/standby, it will disappear again, for no apparent reason.

After a week, I ended up giving up on it in frustration, erasing Windows XP & installing the whole bloody lot again, from scratch. Today, I found myself in the same unfortunate situation, after temporary hardware problems caused blue screens during several Windows boots, resulting in a slightly corrupted filing system & Registry (Windows reported both of these problems and auto-fixed them). Tried a .NET & driver uninstall/re-install, including running the ancient (2003) Cat uninstaller from the AMD website, but to no avail. This time however, I wasn't gonna get beaten and found a solution to this annoying problem: two apps to do a Deep Driver Detox(tm) for my PC.

If you get this problem, you might be able to fix it in fewer steps than shown here, but these are the steps I took and they worked first time for me:


- Download the Windows Installer Cleanup utility from Microsoft. (If Microsoft has moved the page, breaking the link, it's article ID 290301, or just Google msicuu2.exe and the support.microsoft entry near the top should be the right one)
- Download Driver Cleaner Pro from Guru3D
- Install the two apps
- Uninstall all ATI software in the standard way, from the Windows Control Panel
- Uninstall the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable from the Windows Control Panel
- Reboot the computer and start Windows in Safe Mode (press F8, Microsoft article ID 315222)
- Disable any anti virus software, if still active in Safe Mode
- Run Driver Cleaner
--- Optionally, from within Driver Cleaner Pro (Tools menu), run Run Cab Cleaner (not needed, but recommended) to perform this detox
- In Driver Cleaner Pro, select everything ATI or CCC related, even if you have not installed that function eg ATI HydraVision, to be on the safe side and click Start to begin the detox
- Empty the Recycle Bin
- Reboot the computer and allow Windows to start up normally. Close any hardware installation wizards that come up
- Run the Windows Installer Cleanup utility. Select any line mentioning ATI or CCC and then click Remove to begin the detox
- Reboot the computer and allow Windows to start up normally
- Install the latest ATI driver in the normal way

The ATI icon should now magically reappear and the ATI desktop menu item will now respond, just as magically. Relief all round.

Note: if you want to go the extra mile, or if the above fails, you could incorporate .NET 2 & 3 in the detox procedure. CCC uses .NET 2, but just removing that produces errors. Remove .NET 3 first, then .NET 2.

This procedure might apply to Windows 2000 & Vista and the 64-bit OS's, but I haven't tried it.

If anyone tries this procedure, I'd be interested in your feedback. Good luck.

Running Vista 64 here with my 9800GX2 and no Issues....I'd Uninstall all your Mobo drivers in safe mode as well as your video drivers......then reinstall the mobo drivers first...reboot...then the video.....Which video driver are you using?....I found the 180.48 to be a decent driver for my setup....I tried the newer 185.20 driver and lost all ability to OC my card....sucks to say the least....your mileage may vary though.

Hope you get it working....this card delivers the goods with the right CPU pushing it.

Sorry to hear it's still crapping out

Kunna said:

FLASH UPDATE!!!!

Right so i've just done the following:

1- shut down the pc
2- cracked open the case
3- fiddled the gx2 card in its slot a bit
4- booted up and it was back to normal

Now tending to think that it's gotta be a hardware glitch, either from the card or the mobo...

Any1 know of a way to check for this kind of thing?

thanx

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Sorry to be slow, but when you say "normal", do you mean that you saw to GX2's in Device Manager after fiddling with the hardware, but only one GX2 before?

If it's a connection problem, then:

1. There's a crack either/or the motherboard or graphics card - graphics card more likely in which case it's had it and needs to be replaced.

2. Crap in the Connectors(tm). I've had funnies that required reseating the card and cleaning the PCI-E connector. I suggest blowing out the dust from your case (with compressed air if possible) and then cleaning that PCI-E connector on the mobo and card with isopropyl alcohol and a cotton bud. Before plugging the card back in, look for any visible crap in the PCI-E slot - shine one of those bright LED torches into it and look very carefully, those babies really show up everything! lol

These GX2's are heavy, awkwardly bulky cards and any misalignment will cause problems. I swap out my graphics cards fairly often and I've had to reseat the GX2 several times to make the PC boot properly. I've even had the blue light on the GX2 come on and the PC beep normally and then... nothing. Reseating it (twice) fixed it. It doesn't help that the card snags a bit on my mobo and it's hard to latch down...