p5n-e sli not recognizing 2nd vga

[amerikanight]

Wondering if anybody has any ideas or if Ive missed something. Im trying to setup a 2nd BFG 8800 GT OC in SLI and I cant get it to see the 2nd vga. Below is my setup:

Asus P5N-E SLI
C2D E6600 (back to stock 2.4 ghz for this)
2xWD Raptor 150gb R0
1xSeagate Barracuda 300gb
Plextor PX-55SA SATA dvd/cd writer
Creative SB X-Fi Fatality Pro
Thermaltake 600w Purepower
*2x BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512

So, Ive tried plug and play, didnt work so I loaded the latest version of ntune and nforce drivers. Both are all in one application now but I see nothing to "check to activate sli". Nothing under tune vga or 3d settings.

So then I flashed the mobo BIOS to rev 1002, which should be the latest according to the site. Nothing.

I tried both cards independently and they both work. I tried uninstalling the primary vga, rebooting as a new found device, installing it, powereing down, installing the 2nd, rebooting, and nothing. I also tried the same thing but plugged both cards in at the same time. When windows loads, the device manager only seems to want to load drivers for 1 video adapter.

Device manager only shows one vga even when both are plugged in. Whats weird though is that both cards fans run so I would think the slot is good and theres enough power to the card... but I cant get it to see the card. The sli bridge is on, the bios setting for sli aperture i set to (Auto) because the only other option is (disabled) and Ive tried both PCI and PCI-e as the main boot device with same results.


Any thoughts??

 

[amerikanight]

Okay weird update...

I reinstalled windows to get a fresh start and just like that I was able to see the SLI options and configuration. I start up the machine this morning and... GONE!

I did get a BSOD though which propted me to disable the JMBmicron sata controller... so... (dumb) question... does the sata controller use the same bus?? Could this be why the SLI was gone after I disabled the JMBmicron??? Hard to tell without reinstalling windows again because if enabled, the screen magically goes to BSOD before windows can boot. Cant even get into safe mode... had to disable through the BIOS.

 

[Cybercraig]

Start with the simple stuff. Did you flip the SLI card around between the slots to dual-card mode? Does SLI show up when posting as Enabled? (Disable quick-boot to check everything) Have you split your 12v leads to balance the power supply rails? 600w should be enough gas for what you have. You should not have conflicts with the JMBmicron by just going to sli mode. What O/S are you running?

 

[amerikanight]

Im running WinXP x86 and have the card flipped to "dual" (which is silly to begin with). Im thinking of looking again at how my peripherals are powered... just as you indicated to better balance the power feeds from the rails. Good point on the quick-boot, I hadn't thought of that yet but the pessimist in me thinks it will not show during post. Interesting because I finally had it up and running and I havent changed anything since it mysteriously went away, so that led me to believe it was a mobo issue... Im going to try and power down everything but the cards and my main RAID for booting... and see what happens. It was up and running (and impressing the H3ll out of me) for a good 6 hours... and then bye bye.

oh and another weird thing... nvidia control panel will sometimes flicker like crazy on the file tree to the left trying to refresh or something and sometimes just loses grip and closes altogether. maybe it IS a power issue... not too little but not evenly distributed...

Thanks for the info!!!

 

[amerikanight]

yeah, no matter what I do now, i cant get the 2nd card to register. However, the fan is still turning.... d@mmit!!

 

[amerikanight]

just dropped in a 780i... and all is well with the world again... must have been the flip card

 

[amerikanight]

just dropped in a 780i... and all is well with the world again... must have been the flip card