DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR problem with SLI

[GreedyBumps]

I have newly built and running with Windows x64. Problem is I cannot get SLI to work at all. Both video cards work very nice by themselves. I have checked bios version of both and it is the same.

The problem:
When I boot with both cards and jumpers set to SLI (and of course with the bridge) I get post and black screen with loading Windows x64 but after that the screen stays black.

The problem is the same no matter what drivers I use. I finally settled on 76.80 after extensively searching the net. I plug in the display (DVI, Dell 2005) into the upper card into the left plug (if you are looking at the back of the case).

At this point I am at a loss. I thought that if SLI did not work Windows would still load and that SLI just will not be recongnized. What am I missing?

I am thinking next step to flash bios from one card to the other using nvflash but it appears that this fix typically addresses the problem of second card not being recognized in Windows - so not necesserily my problem.

What surprises me the most is that this build is pretty much directly of the anandtech guide so I was hoping that things would work much nicer together.





System Specs:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA4000BNBOX - Retail

eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail x 2 (but trying to boot with just 1 at a time)

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250R0 250GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM

OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K - Retail

ENERMAX EG565AX-VEFMA2.0-SLI ATX12V 535W Power Supply - Retail

 

[GreedyBumps]

Update:
Reflashed the cards to the same bios with nvflash 5.13 and still no dice - I am very puzzled by this. Anyone else build a system like this one?

 

[rise]

i think you need to boot into windows with both cards but not in sli mode, can you do that?

if so, then you change the setting in the nvidia control panel to multi or sli core, whatever it says, then reboot after changing the jumpers/bios back.

sorry if i'm not very clear as i happened across a situation like this at dfi.street but i didn't pay close attention as i don't have the sli , yet

keep us posted, i'd like to know

 

[GreedyBumps]

When I boot the system with both cards installed but jumpers in non-sli mode and no bridge I in fact do get the boot. When I go to nvidia settings the message under multi-GPU changes to "You must remove and graphics cards that are not compatible with NVIDIA SLI technology before you can enable SLI"

I searched DFI boards and can find similar issues to mine but nothing that is exactly the same.

 

[rise]

hmmm. i wonder if its an x64 issue?

ya know, it wouldn't hurt to PM rollo here as hes an sli'r with a lot of experience with it. he has a different board though. ronin too, hes a mod over at nv forums. just search there user names and PM them. maybe nvforums too?

wish i could help.

edit nm, not much there

 

[GreedyBumps]

Thanks for the suggestions. I decided to bug people on DFI boards and will likely be calling EVGA folks tomorrow. It is just strange that system works just fine with no SLI and that SLI would not let Windows boot. x64 just doesn't have much following yet so not too many people running into the same problems.

 

[GreedyBumps]

Update: Spoke with EVGA tech support and they said that they just do not support x64 SLI. This is really strange since I have seen other brand cards work in SLI with x64 and DFI Lanparty board. Does this guy know what he is talking about? I thought that drivers were not necessarily "manufacturer"-based.