Asus A8N-Sli Premium - SLi probs with 2x GeForce 8800GT - Asus

Hi all - trying to install dual XFX GeForce 8800GT (512) into my trusty Asus but it won't even POST. I get as far as the splash screen (Press Del to enter setup). I have tried each card in the blue slot & it will POST, install the other card - hangs again. I have been into BIOS to check settings - all seem OK. The GPU have proper power supplies. All other cards removed apart ftom jmicron sata2 controller.

Any ideas?? :cry:
Thanks
MarkT

Message quoted 1 times

Add a reply

Register or log in to remove.

noneoftheabove wrote :

Hi all - trying to install dual XFX GeForce 8800GT (512) into my trusty Asus but it won't even POST. I get as far as the splash screen (Press Del to enter setup). I have tried each card in the blue slot & it will POST, install the other card - hangs again. I have been into BIOS to check settings - all seem OK. The GPU have proper power supplies. All other cards removed apart ftom jmicron sata2 controller.

Any ideas?? :cry:
Thanks
MarkT

I had the same thing happen with 2 9600 GTs. I had to put both cards in at once with the bridge on. The widows driver instaler that runs would not make it show both cards. I had to wait till it got done and then i went to the Ninida Driver page and got the SLi driver instaled and restarted.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Mr Missbot

Mr Missbot wrote :

I had the same thing happen with 2 9600 GTs. I had to put both cards in at once with the bridge on. The widows driver instaler that runs would not make it show both cards. I had to wait till it got done and then i went to the Ninida Driver page and got the SLi driver instaled and restarted.

thanks for that but the problem is long before I get to any driver updates . . with 2 cards in the machine won't boot - just hangs on the splash screen . .

:pt1cable:

Reply to noneoftheabove

First suspect - sounds to me like a power issue. Any beeps or series of beeps? Does your PSU have the pci-e connectors or are you using the molex adapters?

Second suspect - it could also that your overclock settings are failing. Is the CPU and RAM on stock settings?

Though it could be a very very rare chance that it could be that your mobo only has PCI-E 1.0a which the 8800GT were incompatible with. Some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8800GT#...ith_PCI-E_1.0a

Message quoted 3 times

Reply to HundredIslandsBoy

HundredIslandsBoy wrote :

First suspect - sounds to me like a power issue. Any beeps or series of beeps? Does your PSU have the pci-e connectors or are you using the molex adapters?

Second suspect - it could also that your overclock settings are failing. Is the CPU and RAM on stock settings?

Though it could be a very very rare chance that it could be that your mobo only has PCI-E 1.0a which the 8800GT were incompatible with. Some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8800GT#...ith_PCI-E_1.0a

thanks . .
no beeps, new Jeantec 700W Storm psu with pci-e connectors. Cards brand new & out of box @ stock settings. PC not overclocked
will check wikipedia . .

Reply to noneoftheabove

HundredIslandsBoy wrote :

First suspect - sounds to me like a power issue. Any beeps or series of beeps? Does your PSU have the pci-e connectors or are you using the molex adapters?

Second suspect - it could also that your overclock settings are failing. Is the CPU and RAM on stock settings?

Though it could be a very very rare chance that it could be that your mobo only has PCI-E 1.0a which the 8800GT were incompatible with. Some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8800GT#...ith_PCI-E_1.0a

update . .

thanks again . .
so wikipedia says my new graphics cards won't work with a pci-e v1 board . .
the Asus site doesn't specify the type of pci-e slot just says it is a 16x slot and runs @ 8x x2 in SLi mode
the XFX cards are 2x GeForce® 8800 GT Alpha Dog 512MB DDR3 Standard (PV-T88P-YDF4)
the XFX site says "PCI Express or PCI Express 2.0 compliant motherboard" in system requirements for the card . .

more ideas??

:fou:

Reply to noneoftheabove

did you plug in the molex power near the one pcie slot for using 2 graphics cards

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to mindless728

page 6-5 in your manual

Reply to mindless728

mindless728 wrote :

did you plug in the molex power near the one pcie slot for using 2 graphics cards

Hi - yes I have

:ouch:

Reply to noneoftheabove

HundredIslandsBoy wrote :

First suspect - sounds to me like a power issue. Any beeps or series of beeps? Does your PSU have the pci-e connectors or are you using the molex adapters?

Second suspect - it could also that your overclock settings are failing. Is the CPU and RAM on stock settings?

Though it could be a very very rare chance that it could be that your mobo only has PCI-E 1.0a which the 8800GT were incompatible with. Some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8800GT#...ith_PCI-E_1.0a

further testing has revealed that the problem is solved with more power! The story of my life!!
Running one GT8800 on an old Dell 250w psu allows the machine to boot normally. I don't think I will be running many benchmarks with this setup!

This means problem solved but also means that the Jeantec Storm 700w psu isn't up to the job . . . should I whinge at Jeantec?

thanks to all who read and/or replied . .

:bounce:

Reply to noneoftheabove

Update - no progress actually. Have purchased 1000w psu but still can only get the system to run with 1 graphics card running off an external psu.
The new psu is also Jeantech but surely shoulde be able to handle this load??

:fou:

Reply to noneoftheabove

Further update - the whole thing got weirder. When running one GPU off an external psu the system will boot but only the GPU connected to the onboard psu seems to respond. With both GPU connected to the internal psu the system hangs on the splash screen. With both GPU connected to the external psu the system seems to boot normally but there is no output on the monitors!
When I boot into Windows only 1 GPU is recognised, scanning the system will not revela another.
I have used 2 different SLi bridges (both ways round) and am totally confused now.

Any ideas - thanks.

Reply to noneoftheabove

My earlier SLI usage prompted me to use a Single 12v rail P/S, presently a Silverstone OP1000w w an 80A 12v rail, more than adequate for 2 8800GT in SLI, which I do have by the way.

Are you absolutely positive the 2 8800GT from XFX are identical models, I did get a set of BFG not at the same time that were manufactured in 2 different manufacturing facilities, and they didn't want to cooperate until I BIOS Flashed them both to the same BIOS.

NOTE: [BIOS Flashing a GPU voids your warranty, I knew that from the beginning and I'm not suggesting you do that, I'm just relating that there could be a difference somewhere in the 2 cards and if they're not identical your ASUS will have a problem with them.]

You can run GPU-Z on both the cards individually and get a read out on each one to compare both of their settings if they're not identical, contact XFX about it.

Its not impossible to acquire bad hardware, it happens unfortunately all the time, you could have 2 GPUs that work independently but not in SLI, or it could be a M/B issue, I'm assuming this is the first time you've attempted to run SLI on this M/B, Right? The M/B has never run SLI successfully with other GPUs has it?

You've already stated you had the SLI slot molex additional power plugged into the M/B thats very important, does the M/Bs CMOS setup have any SLI related settings that have to be enabled, I had an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, but I don't remember its setup parameters, but it seems there was some setting in the setup pertaining to SLI.

Just throwing out a few ideas here.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to 4ryan6

4ryan6 wrote :

My earlier SLI usage prompted me to use a Single 12v rail P/S, presently a Silverstone OP1000w w an 80A 12v rail, more than adequate for 2 8800GT in SLI, which I do have by the way.

Are you absolutely positive the 2 8800GT from XFX are identical models, I did get a set of BFG not at the same time that were manufactured in 2 different manufacturing facilities, and they didn't want to cooperate until I BIOS Flashed them both to the same BIOS.

NOTE: [BIOS Flashing a GPU voids your warranty, I knew that from the beginning and I'm not suggesting you do that, I'm just relating that there could be a difference somewhere in the 2 cards and if they're not identical your ASUS will have a problem with them.]

You can run GPU-Z on both the cards individually and get a read out on each one to compare both of their settings if they're not identical, contact XFX about it.

Its not impossible to acquire bad hardware, it happens unfortunately all the time, you could have 2 GPUs that work independently but not in SLI, or it could be a M/B issue, I'm assuming this is the first time you've attempted to run SLI on this M/B, Right? The M/B has never run SLI successfully with other GPUs has it?

You've already stated you had the SLI slot molex additional power plugged into the M/B thats very important, does the M/Bs CMOS setup have any SLI related settings that have to be enabled, I had an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, but I don't remember its setup parameters, but it seems there was some setting in the setup pertaining to SLI.

Just throwing out a few ideas here.

thanks - never had SLi in the mobo - has had a Radeon X1650 in it
have contacted SFx who seem happy to blame the PSU
will check the GPU BIOS with GPU-Z but the cards have consecutive serial numbers and are both made in China and version A.0 according to the boxes.
the mobo autosenses SLi status but I have manually set it to dual card SLi with auto aperture etc

will post again - am going to contact Asus too for opinion . . .
Should I try returning the cards to dabs as faulty?

thanks

Reply to noneoftheabove

update:
this is with each GPU in turn running off internal psu, the other off external psu
I can't get past POST splash screen with both GPU running on internal psu
no monitor signal but pc will boot with both GPU on external psu
both GPU have same BIOS (62.92.16.00.84) and revision (A2)
bothrunning at PCI-E 16x @ 8x
other entries all the same including 'NVidia SLi: Disabled'!
mobo now set to autosense SLi

I guess the PCI-E bus speed of 8x means the mobo is sensing 2 GPU but the reason why SLi won't run is not clear . .

going to log problem with Asus now!!!

Reply to noneoftheabove

update:
No sensible response from Asus yet.
XFX say they are not aware of any problems with these cards and the mobo
it seems the issue is not the psu

Hmmmmm . . . perhaps I should return the cards or get a new mobo - but that means rebuilding the machine and reloading windows.

Does anyone have an SLi setup which works with the mobo? If so what are the cards!!!

Reply to noneoftheabove

update:
it's the sATA controller! Remove it & everything works fine . . .
www.startech.com part no. PEXSAT2IDE2 . . .
grrrrrr . . . all the video I want to edit with the SLi display is on the RAID attached to the controller . . .
am now going to check the BIOS versions for this card . . .

Reply to noneoftheabove

update:
damn sATA controller . . .
there is a new bios but the tool supplied (jm36xupd.exe) doesn't seem to work - it recognises and backs up the EEPROM (8kb) but won't back up the BIOS and says no falsh recognised. The instructions on their website (http://www.jmicron.com/Product_JMB366.htm) are fairly woeful . . I shall start another thread . . .

Reply to noneoftheabove

update:
new thread started - jmcron sATA thread
have emailed Asus & jmicron . . .

:hello:

Reply to noneoftheabove

Only solution - remove sATA controller . . .
Sigh . . .

Reply to noneoftheabove

Focus On

Asus A8N-Sli Premium - SLi probs with 2x GeForce 8800GT

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Asus - Asus A8N-Sli Premium - SLi probs with 2x GeForce 8800GT