HIS x1650xt crossfire problems

I've installed and reinstalled different versions of drivers and still have the same problem. The box for crossfire under Catalyst control center tab for crossfire, is greyed out. The whole tab dissappears when only one card is in, and both cards work fine individually. Running Cat v7.1 atm. It's like it knows there are 2 cards but I still can't enable the option.

The only set of drivers I couldn't install were the ones that came with the video cards itself. I cannot seem to get by the fact it terminates with the message "Try installing standard VGA drivers before installation", whether or not drivers are already installed. I am stumped. There are no MOBO options for enabling both PCIE slots nor do I need a master/slave b/c its this "native" crossfire.

The Setup:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
MSI K9A Platinum (ATI xPress 3200)
2GB (1GBx2) Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 PC-6400
2 HIS Radeon x1650xt IceQ Turbo PCI ExpX16 (bridged with 2 bridges)
Rosewill 550w PS
Audigy2
74G Raptor 10K SATA HD

yes i see that and im wondering if the native crossfire engine is bad on one or both the cards. Should I send them back for replacements? That may be it, IDK