8800 Ultra Tri SLI

[trisliguy]

I bought a custom computer with three 8800 Ultras about a year ago but unfortunately only two of the cards now appear in the Device Manager:

I was just wondering if anybody could help me figure out why one of the cards isn't appearing? The specs of the machine are as follows:

1 x Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1100 MCE HVR
1 x SONY-NEC Optiarc AD-7173A 18x DVDRW Black OEM
1 x 750Gb Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD753LJ 7200 32mb Cache SATA II
2 x 32Gb Samsung 2.5" ATA SSD Drive with SATA converter
3 x BFG Nvidia 8800 Ultra OC 768Mb PCIe HDCP
1 x OCZ DDR2-1000 2x2048MB ReaperX 4GB Dual Channel Kit
1 x Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Retail (4x2.40GHz 1066FSB 8Mb) 95W
1 x Asus P5N-T Deluxe 780i SLI (nVidia 780i - 1333 FSB Penryn)
1 x Enermax Galaxy Modular DXX 1000W PSU
1 x LiquoCool Antarctic TX (CPU+Chipset+2VGA)
1 x Lian-Li V2100B Plus Black CASE (NO PSU)
1 x Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit DVD OEM
1 x Safe Stable Overclocking (5-40% - CPU/VGA)
1 x extra 3rd graphics cooling
1 x chipset not cooled

I understand the motherboard possibly isn't the best choice, and would look into changing it if this was recommended. I can provide more photos/details if that would help.

Cheers.

 

[spathotan]

Does the card show up in the Nvidia control pannel/sli manager?

 

[trisliguy]

Don't seem to I'm afraid..

 

[spathotan]

You have 2 of the cards for SLi and one of them for PhysX it looks like. Disable PhsyX GPU and see if it re-appears.

 

[boulard83]

i agree, Maybe one of the card is used for PHYSX but if it was ... its supposed to show in the hardware monitore ...

its weird .. defetive mobo-gpu ? or a simple driver issue ... DRIVERSWEEP mobo-gpu driver and reinstall ?

 

[boulard83]

3 x PCIe x16 (blue @PCIe2.0 x16 mode, black @PCIe x16 mode) supports SLI Technology
2 x PCIe x1
1 x PCI

from asus, your mobo PCI slot

 

[trisliguy]

Thanks for the replies guys. I disabled PhysX GPU acceleration but unfortunately still only two cards appear in NVIDIA Control Panel System Information and Windows Device manager:

As you can see in the above screenshot I also tried installing the latest drivers from the nVidia website, but that didn't seem to solve the problem..

What else can I try to investigate the problem? Is there anything else I can try with drivers/configuration? How could I go about establishing if it's down to a faulty motherboard/graphics card?

Cheers.

 

[RavenXE]

Maybe it's a cmos issue. Try clearing your bios, load defaults and see what happens...

Nice rig by the way

 

[boulard83]

DRIVERSWEEP mobo-gpu driver and reinstall newest.

not only the GPU driver, reinstall fresh MOBO driver in order to be sure that every driver is ok.

+1 Raven, reset default BIOS

 

[spathotan]

Uninstall all the nvidia drivers, thats GPU and chipset. Make sure you have the new ones to be installed sitting on the desktop or what not, because uninstalling the chipset drivers will warrant no internet.

 

[trisliguy]

It was a physical connection issue I think. The cables were so tight between the graphics cards and the PSU it must have been breaking the connection. I re-reouted them so there's more slack and all three cards are working now..

 

[boulard83]

hey ! happy to read it

 

[trisliguy]

Cheers for your help anyways.