A8N-SLI "Losing" My Second Video Card?

[BeefcakeVA]

Running two BFG 6800GTs on my A8N-SLI Deluxe board. Running the cards in SLI fine for a month or more now. Unplug the cards to "service" the POS fan on the chipset and when I plug them back in SLI is detected and all is fine.

As soon as I reboot, however, Windows loses my second card and claims I have only the one. Is there some arcane secret to reattaching this SLI bridge? I've plugged it in all different ways and cannot for the life of me get the system to recognize the second card. I've swapped the cards in the slots several times now and they both work great individually. Ideas?

 

[BroadbandGamer]

You've probably done this, but did you make sure SLI was enable in the BIOS?

 

[BeefcakeVA]

Yes, I did. Had it set on auto (card thing was set to dual) but even tried setting it to SLI only. Didn't help unfortunately. Frustrating thing was that it worked fine until I had to take the cards out.

I'm thinking that maybe there is something wrong with my SLI bridge... not making the connection or something.

 

[BeefcakeVA]

Got SLI working again just fine. Boot up today (without changing a thing of course) and Windows can no longer find my 2nd 6800GT, i.e. it says the second card has been removed and it no longer shows up in device manager.

Anyone have a clue how/why Windows would be "losing" my card?

 

[Aquila76]

Any chance the serviced fan or replacement is somehow hitting the 2nd card or keeping it from fully seating? Maybe the 6-pin power plug to the card or the additional Molex to the mobo is loose?

If the physical connections are OK, double check the BIOS setting for SLI and also in the "Advanced" > "PCI PnP" section (I think) there's an option for Init Display First, make sure that's set to PCIe, not PCI.

Lastly, I'd try removing the driver with Driver Cleaner and deleting both cards from Device Manager, then letting the system rediscover the cards again and reinstalling the driver on the next boot.