9800GT SLi setup problem in windows 7

[kyledoo]

Hello, I finally decided I would at least try out the 9800GT's in SLi. So I went up to micro center, bought the card, installed it, and.... nothing.. its not finding the SLi system. I can get it to recognize both cards, and can use them both as seperate adapters. I am running on an X58 board that is definitely SLi capable. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the latest nVidia drivers and nTune software, but cannot find anything relating to SLi, nor does windows show a message like nVidia said it should "found SLi capable system". I am running win 7 64 bit.
one card is a 9800GT 512Mb PNY EE edition
the other is a 9800GT 1GB BFG EE Edition.
What am I missing?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Edit: don't know if it matters, but my board is an ASRock X58 Extreme

 

[kyledoo]

bump. i'm still having this issue. can't figure anything out. Let me know if more info is needed. Again, the cards are two different manuaftuers and two different memory sizes, but i had understood that it was possible to SLI these, but it would down clock/ decrease the memory to that of the lesser card(i'm fine with that, i got a great deal on the 1gb)
Another update: I did try another SLi bridge, and it didn't fix the problem

 

[Mousemonkey]

Do you see anything like this in the Nv control panel?

 

[kyledoo]

no, i only get the option to enable Physx, which I have enabled. There is no mention of SLi on the side or inside the window. I do have control panel set to Advanced view.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Which slot do you have the second card in? Is there any options in the BIOS to enable dual cards? I have not used an X58 board so I'm just chucking questions out there I'm afraid.

 

[nforce4max]

Swap the cards around to test for a dud second make sure your drivers are close to date but not the very latest.

 

[nforce4max]

Which slot is the bottom card?

 

[Mousemonkey]

According to the manual you have to use the blue slots for SLi or Crossfire.

 

[kyledoo]

hello, thank you for the responses, sorry I could not respond sooner, it was a late day today... Anyways, my board has 3 slots, the blue ones are the x16 lanes and the bottom orange one is x4. I am using the top two (blue). I have swapped the cards, which did not fix anything. I have confirmed that both cards work on both slots, and I have used two different bridges. If there is an option somewhere, I am missing it. Half the reason for me choosing X58 was its excellent Xfire/SLi abilities and now I can't even figure it out!
About the drivers thing.. I do have the latest ones right now(196.21) what is the point of getting older ones?
I have found other people having this same problem on here and other forums and mostly their problems have either gone unresolved or were figured out but they didn't post what they did!!

 

[nforce4max]

hello, thank you for the responses, sorry I could not respond sooner, it was a late day today... Anyways, my board has 3 slots, the blue ones are the x16 lanes and the bottom orange one is x4. I am using the top two (blue). I have swapped the cards, which did not fix anything. I have confirmed that both cards work on both slots, and I have used two different bridges. If there is an option somewhere, I am missing it. Half the reason for me choosing X58 was its excellent Xfire/SLi abilities and now I can't even figure it out!
About the drivers thing.. I do have the latest ones right now(196.21) what is the point of getting older ones?
I have found other people having this same problem on here and other forums and mostly their problems have either gone unresolved or were figured out but they didn't post what they did!!

Why slightly older drivers is due to users complaining of issues and nvidia has pulled them due to bugs.

 

[kyledoo]

So I thought of something else.. power. I think this might be the issue. I am running an i7 920 with no overclock, 3gb of ram, 2 7200 rpm hard drives, and the two cards. My PSU is 530W with 2 12v rails, one 20A and the other 17A. Is this enough power for the setup? If not, then would something like a 4870/4890 perform ok with that power supply? I know eventually I will need another power supply, but I was hoping to NOT spend $300 on this upgrade...
Newegg power calculator says I should be using at least a 640w. I just think it is kinda weird that it won't even give the option to enable, since I assume at idle, I would be drawing nowhere near 500 watts.

 

[AsAnAtheist]

I doubt it's the power it's more then sufficient, 9800 GT EE editions wont use the full 75w from the PCI-E lane for sure. Even if they did the 530w should provide enough power unless ofcourse it's some off-brand POS.

Can you tell me what brand/model the power supply is?

 

[kyledoo]

I doubt it's the power it's more then sufficient, 9800 GT EE editions wont use the full 75w from the PCI-E lane for sure. Even if they did the 530w should provide enough power unless ofcourse it's some off-brand POS.

Can you tell me what brand/model the power supply is?

its a raidmax.. not the greatest, but apparently it tested pretty well, one of the reasons I bought it.

 

[nforce4max]

Power calculators are like looking into a crystal ball, As for raidmax only on old comps from don't require much power. You need however a new psu that is a higher quality like antec or enermax. I use an antec ea650 however it isn't perfect.

 

[kyledoo]

Power calculators are like looking into a crystal ball, As for raidmax only on old comps from don't require much power. You need however a new psu that is a higher quality like antec or enermax. I use an antec ea650 however it isn't perfect.

but would it simply not being high enough quality cause an option not to be preset? Crashes, reboots, glitches, etc. I can see, but not the whole option being disabled. Any other ideas? on the board it says SLi Certified...
I know i've asked this before, but should my setup work with one card being slightly different(vRam)?

 

[Mousemonkey]

I have had the situation where there was not enough power available so although the enable SLi option was available no matter how many times it was tried it would never allow it, the screen would just blink on and off a few times, so it could well be a power issue.

 

[kyledoo]

I have had the situation where there was not enough power available so although the enable SLi option was available no matter how many times it was tried it would never allow it, the screen would just blink on and off a few times, so it could well be a power issue.

If I could get that option to show up and I got those results, I would go out and buy a new PSU. I am hoping one of my friends will let me use his to test my card, he has 75A on the 12v, and if it doesn't work with that, its a different issue I assume.

 

[nforce4max]

If I could get that option to show up and I got those results, I would go out and buy a new PSU. I am hoping one of my friends will let me use his to test my card, he has 75A on the 12v, and if it doesn't work with that, its a different issue I assume.

It is worth a shot however I would go ahead and get a better unit from a reputable brand. People should NEVER get cheap when it comes to a psu I learned the hard way like every one else.

 

[Mousemonkey]

In another thread the OP was having a similar problem which they appeared to have fixed by replacing the PSU for a meatier one but alo updating the BIOS as the X58 boards need a licence by way of a "cookie" in the BIOS, maybe yours might be corrupted some how?

 

[nforce4max]

In another thread the OP was having a similar problem which they appeared to have fixed by replacing the PSU for a meatier one but alo updating the BIOS as the X58 boards need a licence by way of a "cookie" in the BIOS, maybe yours might be corrupted some how?

That is worth a shot plus some people have fooled the forceware to enabling sli on some older intel 775 x48 boards but that is a thread for another time. It is risky but go ahead and update your bios.

 

[kyledoo]

That is worth a shot plus some people have fooled the forceware to enabling sli on some older intel 775 x48 boards but that is a thread for another time. It is risky but go ahead and update your bios.

Ok, I updated my bios and still nothing.. I'm about ready to just take it back and bite the bullet on a different card...

 

[nforce4max]

Ok, I updated my bios and still nothing.. I'm about ready to just take it back and bite the bullet on a different card...

Try a different psu. Your unit may not be good enough as mousemonkey had said. I have two 9800gt s my self in sli and I had to use a antec ea650.

 

[notty22]

I would use gpu-z to check the cards, I'd be curious to see screenshots from both. Maybe one of them(the older one) is not exactly the model you think it is ?

 

[kyledoo]

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theres the 2 cards in gpuz

 

[Mousemonkey]

I notice you are using a very old driver, the 196.34's work just fine with no heating or OC issues.