A8N SLI Deluxe Problems w/ SLI

  • Thread starter Thread starter tim.stevens
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tim.stevens

I recently had to RMA my A8N Deluxe because the chipset fan died and
the system was constantly rebooting. So, installed new motherboard,
powered everything up, and am having problems. First off, specs:

AMD FX-55 CPU
(2) NVIDIA 6800 Ultra video cards in SLI
1 gig Corsair ram (2 512 meg dimms in slots 1 & 3)

Ok, I have the selector card oriented so that the SLI side is in, I
have the SLI power connector attached to the motherboard and both video
cards have their own power connectors. I booted the system with the
video cable attached to the top card. I had no signal. I thought I'd
installed the board wrong, but out of curiosity I plugged the video
cable into the bottom card and got output... curious.

I boot into windows, and the system cannot see that I have two 6800's.
I go to Add New Hardware, try to detect new, but it finds nothing. Just
the single card. Then, curiously, the screen goes black. I shut down
the computer.

Now, I cannot get any video from either card. Interestingly, though,
the system boots up correctly and gets to windows, and I can even use
Remote Desktop to get in there and see such. It recognizes the 1 gig of
memory, but now doesn't see EITHER video card.

I've removed both cards and re-seated, tried it in non-SLI mode with
just the upper card, tried different power connectors... etc. etc. No
dice. Any suggestions on what might be wrong? I unfortunately don't
have any other PCI-E video cards to test with, nor any friends from
whom I could borrow one.

Thanks,

-tim
 
I can't remember exactly the setting I changed, but there was something
relating to SLI and I set it to "auto." Now, of course, I can't get to
the BIOS.
 
Yes, this is set to Dual, and the other settings on the SLI section are
set to Auto.

Interestingly, I tried to boot up the system last night and again the
lower video card is working. However, still just one card shows up in
Device Manager. I tried updating the nFORCE drivers, but after the IDE
installation the process fails with a rather unhelpful message of
"1155." I was tempted to flash the motherboard's BIOS, but it is
already 1015.

Any other suggestions? I'm happy to format the system if that will help
anything. I'd love to swap the video cards around and see if only the
one card is working, but unfortunately the system is water-cooled, and
doing so would take a few hours' worth of draining and re-tubing :(

Thanks again,

-tim
 
Yep, I have the plug in above the upper video card slot, the 6-pin
power connector toward the top of the motherboard, and the 24-pin ATX
power connector all on there. Each card has their own 6-pin power
connector installed as well, and each card has a green light
illuminated when I turn the system on showing that they have power.
 
Yes, I even flipped it around to see if it would matter, but it doesn't
seem to have a particular orientation. The bridge is installed firmly
and supported in place.
 
Hi Tim,
Just a couple more suggestions - Then I give up !

Have you installed AI Selector from the Asus CD ?

Have you tried clearing the bios then reset the bios settings ?
 
Also make sure you follow the instructions in the manual to setup the
Graphic Card Drivers to enable dual cards. You have to go into Advanced
settings to enable the SLI Multi-GPU.
 
I appreciate the help!

AI Selector is installed. I tried removing the battery to clear the
BIOS, but couldn't get to it (the radiator in my case partially blocks
it). I'll try to find the jumper and give that a shot.
 
yeah, the "Enable SLI" checkbox won't even appear because the system is
only recognizing a single video card in device manager.
 
tim.stevens said:
I tried removing the battery to clear the
BIOS, but couldn't get to it (the radiator in my case partially blocks
it). I'll try to find the jumper and give that a shot.
Click to expand...

Seems to me you have to try this before you move on. Did you also swap
the cards, ie put the bottom one in the top slot and vice-versa? Which
card gives you a video output then, if any? Do you have dual vid outputs
and both cards, and did you try both outputs?
 
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