ASUS P8Z77-WS + GTX680 SLI results in weird startup lockups

[mudy]

Hey guys,
Having a bit of an issue here. I hope someone from ASUS could figure this out.

After I installed the GTX 680s x2 in a SLI configuration my system freezes as soon as I enable SLI or as soon as I boot my system to windows with SLI enabled. I have connected my cards in the blue slots available in the motherboard, which runs on PCIe 3.0 x16 & x16 due to PEX chip in the board. I have tried 3 re-formats and re-installation of windows but as soon as I enable SLi after drivers installation (tried all 3xx.yy versions) next reboot results in system lockups (YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0620bo5MFk). To troubleshoot each items I have plugged minimum components to my system;
1. P8Z77 WS
2. i7 3770K (no overclock)
3. 2x EVGA GTX 680 Signature ED. (at stock clocks & settings)
4. Intel 520 240GB SSD (OS drive)
5. Standard Keyboard & Mouse.
6. Dell U3011 monitor

When I run my system with only one card installed, it can do 3 hours of Unigine Heavenz and 3 hours of MSI Kombustor/Furmark stability test (each card tested for 6 hours, i.e., 12 hours of my time wasted on testing). At this point, I think there could be no reason to test other parts of my system like PSU or SSDs because - exactly the same setup with 2 GPUs on SLI = system freeze and exactly the same setup with 1 GPU on Single card = stable system.
With this, I can only point to the motherboards as a faulty component here.

Sorry for this long post but I tried to be as detailed as possible. There are ppl having similar issues with this combo specially (Z77 WS boards with GTX 6x0).

Any help or solution would be appreciated!!!

 

[mudy]

Anyone!!!

 

[lopri]

You have a rare motherboard. There is no problem running both cards with SLI disabled? Have you tried switching slots around? The PEX chip is a switch, it doesn't generate PCIe lanes. You may need to use the top two slots (blue + black).

 

[lopri]

Also it wouldn't hurt to shut off other PCIe-related devices in the BIOS for the trouble-shooting. IGP, LAN, Virtu, or other stuff that you don't use or can shut safely shut off while testing.

 

[mudy]

You have a rare motherboard. There is no problem running both cards with SLI disabled? Have you tried switching slots around? The PEX chip is a switch, it doesn't generate PCIe lanes. You may need to use the top two slots (blue + black).

I have tried without the SLI Bridge as well as not enabling SLI from the driver level, however, the issue doesn’t happen until you restart most of the times. With regards to different slot configuration, I haven’t tried yet. I should, eh? I will try that as soon as i get home. But I really do not want to use the second PCIe 3.0 slot as doing that will cover the PCIe x1 slot where I connect my sound card.

I have disabled all extra features from BIOS which i don’t use like HD Audio, Firewire, Marvell Sata, ASMedia eSata, etc. However with this board, there is not option to disable internal GPU. You can only select the source of primary display, which is set to PCIeX, I think that sort of disables the internal GPU as in my device manager I do not Intel HD4000 device.

 

[Zxian]

Have you tried booting without your sound card? What model of sound card is it?

My guess is that there is some sort of conflict along the PCIe lanes, either due to the sound card or the PLX chip. Try using the x16_1 and x16_2 slots with no audio card. The x16_1, x16_3, x16_4 and x1_1 slots all have shared IRQ assignments. If that setup works, then plug your audio card into the x2_1 slot.

Also, make sure that you disable the #0 LAN adaptor, as it shares an IRQ assignment with the second x16_2 and x1_2 slots. The #1 LAN adaptor is independent of the PCIe IRQ assignments.


Stress testing your video cards is not time wasted. Troubleshooting can be tricky, but you need to be thorough. It could be that nothing is faulty, per-se, but rather that there needs to be some sort of BIOS or driver update in order to get things running smoothly. You're dealing with fairly bleeding edge technology here - expecting things to work smoothly out of the box is, sorry to say it, somewhat naive. My 7870 still has issues with sleep and triple monitors (not even Eyefinity). The 12.6 beta drivers are better than any others, but still not perfect.

 

[mudy]

Good point Zxian!! I'll try shifting the sound card to PCIe x1_2 slot and move up my second GPU to PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16_2 slot. I think, ATM, all slots populated are sharing the same IRQ (i.e., PCIe x16_1, PCIe x1_1 & PCIe x16_3 they all share same IRQ. Hmmmm..this could be the very reason why my system is freezing!!! So I should leave first GPU as it is on PCIe x16_1, and then move up my 2nd GPU to PCIe x16_2 and audio card to PCIe x1_2 slots, despite these lanes share same IRQ, it'll be one less device sharing same IRQ. In other words I'll shuffle around the cards as soon as I reach home.

Thx buddy, a very good point brought up!!! Much appreciated!!!

But in the long run I hope a,simple bios update would fix this,issue, or else having all the bells whistles doesn't make sense. Also how would anyone use a quad setup if this is the case!!

 

[mudy]

WOW!! So true! Switching The second GPU to the PCIe x16_2 slot really fixed the issue. But I'm at a loss, as in I spent 400 bucks for the flexibility of choosing pcie slots but looking at the matters at hand this doesn't seem to be the case. Could this board still be deemed faulty??

Also another issue i just noticed was when I used -ve offset either the system doesn't boot or freezes during startup or BSODs with 7E error code (I'll leave this for another thread).

 

[Zxian]

Sadly, the term "incompatible" and "faulty" are not the same. Your motherboard and video cards are likely all fully functional. Due to the way the BIOS or drivers are made, they are currently incompatible using the original layout you had chosen.

As I said before, a BIOS or driver update may resolve the issue at some future date. These things take a bit of time to test and debug, but I would definitely write a support ticket to both ASUS and nVidia telling them about the situation. Describe the original setup, the symptoms, and then a configuration that works. Bug reports do actually get read from time to time!

One thing to check, just to make sure it isn't the PLX chip is to install a single card in the x16_3 slot. Will the system boot normally? If it does, then the hardware is fine, but it's just a driver/BIOS incompatibility.

 

[mudy]

Thx Zxian!! +1 for your tips on the IRQ stuff!! I'll have more in depth look when I have more time later during the weekend. Now time to advise other fellow users at other forums!!

Cheers!!