Second fan on 5870 not rotating even with Corsair 1000W Supply??

[tehdrizzle]

I am at a loss and have no idea why I would be having this issue at this point. I have 2 Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X graphics cards and a Kingwin 1050w power supply that I purchased from Newegg. I installed everything without a hitch and the fan on the second card will not spin when they are both hooked up to the 6-pin PCI adaptors. If I switch the cards around, the same thing will happen and the fan on the second card will still not spin. I already sent 1 card back via RMA to make sure it wasn't the card. I just don't understand why the fan on the primary card will spin but not the second, and if I take the primary card and switch it with the secondary card the fan on that card will not spin either. I even went out to Best Buy and picked up a Corsair 1000w power supply to see if it was the supply and got the same results with that power supply, the fan on the second card will not spin. I had no idea that 5870s in crossfire need over 1000W. Below is my system setup.

Asus M3A32MVP-Deluxe Mobo
AMD 955 @ 3.4Ghz
8GB G-Skill DDR2 @ 800Mhz
Zalman 9900 CPU cooler
4 WD 500GB 64MB Cache Enterprise hard drives
Asus DVD-RW
Asus DVD-Rom

Any ideas on why this would be happening is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-Paul

 

[bystander]

Does this happen in fullscreen mode in a 3d game?

I'm unsure about the fan, but when you are at the desktop, the 2nd card goes to sleep until crossfire is used, which is only with games in fullscreen mode. Although, during bootup, mine would both spin.

 

[bystander]

If this is not the issue, it sounds like the motherboard may have a problem with it's 2nd PCIe slot.

 

[tehdrizzle]

Does this happen in fullscreen mode in a 3d game?

I'm unsure about the fan, but when you are at the desktop, the 2nd card goes to sleep until crossfire is used, which is only with games in fullscreen mode. Although, during bootup, mine would both spin.

Hi bystander,

The thing that is really odd is that I just upgraded from 2 4850s in crossfire that ran with no issues and both fans spun fine on both of those cards.

When I boot the PC only one card's fan spins but the card will get hot so I know that the card is not in sleep mode. Even if I switch the card to slot 3 the fan will still not spin. I can get to the desktop and see that they are both registered and active. No matter what I do in CCC with the fan speed for the second card nothing happens. I've even left the card out of the slot while it was still hooked to the 2 6-pin power connectors and the fan wouldn't spin, yet again switching the cards would yield the same results for the primary card in the second card's position. The fan won't spin on the second card if it is in slot 2, 3, or out of the PCI-E slot, but the same issue happens with the primary card if I switch it with the second card.

 

[bystander]

What PSU do you have? If the PSU is not powerfull enough, the 2nd card may not be getting enough juice.

 

[tehdrizzle]

What PSU do you have? If the PSU is not powerfull enough, the 2nd card may not be getting enough juice.

I tried a Kingwin 1000w power supply, and then the Corsair HX1000 which both resulted in the same issue.

 

[bystander]

The only thing that seems to be left is the motherboard.

 

[tehdrizzle]

The only thing that seems to be left is the motherboard.

That's what I was thinking, but when I put the 2 4850's back in they both operate fine and both fans spin.

 

[bystander]

Check to see if there is a bios update for your motherboard

 

[tehdrizzle]

Check to see if there is a bios update for your motherboard

I actually just recently updated the bios to 2104 which is the most recent and was made in preparation for my upgrade to the AMD 1090T. I appreciate your help in trying to figure this out!

 

[madass]

Blow your drivrs with driver cleaner, instal one 5870 then install the other.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

Blow your drivrs with driver cleaner, instal one 5870 then install the other.

If this fails, I'd contact Sapphire. It's possible that they may have seen this if it is not an issue unique to your system or hardware.

 

[jerreece]

Ouch. Bought a 1000W Corsair @ Best Buy? I bet that was a pretty penny.

Best Buy: Corsair 1000HX $229
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+-+1000W+ATX+CPU+Power+Supply/9358312.p?id=1218090910767&skuId=9358312&st=corsair&cp=2&lp=13

NewEgg.com: Corsair 1000HX $279-$50 Instant = $229 - $20MIR = $209
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007

Wow, Best Buy, I'm impressed. Never seen BB competitive on that type of product.

 

[jerreece]

Not getting the fan to spin on the card in the second slot makes me think it's a power issue. So I can see why you'd try a different power supply. Switching the cards around proves that both cards actually work.

I too would wonder if there's a problem with the second PCI-E slot on your motherboard. The fact that your old video cards both work, of course makes you think the slot is fine.

[strike]Have you tried opening MSI Afterburner or something similar to see if you can manually adjust the "fan speed" setting on the second card?[/strike] I wonder if it's possible there's some glitch causing the fan speed to zero out due to a low idle temp? Wouldn't make sense to do so on purpose of course.

I see that you already tried using CCC to alter fan speeds. Sounds like it is time to contact Sapphire or your motherboard maker for help. Something obviously is buggy.

 

[tehdrizzle]

Best answer selected by tehdrizzle.

 

[jerreece]

Best Answer picked, does that mean you got it working?

Happy Gaming!

 

[tehdrizzle]

Yes indeed. Finally go the thing working and with the 750w supply too! Went through and wiped all drivers with Driver Sweeper and then installed the 10.3 drivers and hotfix which seemed to resolve the issue and now the card works great! My scores are up in all benchmarks and I've been spending all day playing all of my games on max settings .

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar