As mentioned in an earlier post - during games I get the occasional
reboot (happens every few days plus more frequent lockups) and the
monitor goes into standby and does return until i force another reset.
Set up a VNC server on the PC and following the more recent reboot - i
connected to it and logged in via my other PC.
Got a message from nVidia software/drivers saying that one of my
graphics cards had been removed and therefore SLI was unavailable. I
then went into Device Manager and according to that I only had one of my
6800GT cards connected.
Anyone experience anything similar and/or suggest fixes. The last time I
returned my PC to Mesh Computers all they did was alter some BIOS
settings and replace an SATA cable!
System: A8N SLI Delux, XP4000+, 2 x Inno3d Geforce 6800GT, 2 x 200MB
SATA HD, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW Dual Layer, Audigy 2ZS, HEC 550W PSU (1 x 12V @
18A and 1 x 12V @ 17A)
Mal
I have had EXACTLY this same problem since I first built my SLI rig back
in December 2004.
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
FX-55
2 x eVGA 6800GT
5 hard drives
DVD+RW/DL
CD-ROM
Audigy 2ZS
Adaptec PCI SCSI card
Enermax EG701AX v2.0
You will note that my power supply IS listed on the Nvidia SLI-certified
list.
I have noticed that while it often locks up like this in games, it will
also happen during normal use of WinXP (e.g. while web browsing).
What I have found over six months of this is the following:
- This can happen while running games. Some games are more likely to
cause this crash. FS2004 is one that I have found that will often do
this in full-screen mode, if I have the system in SLI mode.
- If I am not running games, the crash will still occur, usually before
24 hours is up, but definately by 48 hours. Even if the system is
sitting idle.
- Running a game in SLI mode definately accelerates the time it takes
for the crash to occur. However, if, say, my system has been up an
running for 24 hours, a game is more likely to crash as you describe
than if it has been freshly rebooted.
- The time-dependency is not a temperature issue - i.e. the system comes
to stable temperature pretty quick (and I have many fans providing
adequate cooling). Of course, when playing a game, the video card fans
speed up!
- The system is very stable WHEN NOT IN SLI MODE. I.e. the crashes that
you describe above do NOT occur for me when in "standard" video mode.
It's only after activating SLI mode that the crashes that you describe
occur.
I've had a very frustrating experience with this since I built the
system. The fact that the system is only stable for long periods when
SLI is deactivated means that I usually run in single card mode, and
have to reboot into SLI mode to play a quick game. I hate doing this
because it can interupt background work that is going on - it's clearly
not convenient.
My assumption is that there is some kind of a "memory leak" in the
driver, which would explain why time seems to be important, even if not
actually running a SLI game. Having said that, I do not see the RAM
consumption increasing...
My approach for the last six months has been to hope that new ASUS BIOS
updates and new NVIDIA driver updates would fix this. But, that was 4
or 5 BIOS and video driver versions ago. I'm running the latest release
of both, and still have this problem.
Note that back in February I went through the long process of trying to
figure out what piece of hardware was suspect by removing addin cards,
etc., one by one until the system would last under SLI mode. I got down
to an essentially bare system, and still no improvement....
I share your frustration. But, I do not think this is a power supply
issue...
The only thing I can think of trying is adjusting the memory timings. I
am running four sticks of 512MB DDR400 RAM, at 400 speed. I have them
running at the factory designated timings. These are KingstonValueRAM,
and these same units are listed on the ASUS CVL (compatibility list),
which is how I decided to buy this RAM. Note that I also ran long, long
RAM tests, tried running in DDR333 mode, tried removing two sticks,
swapped sticks, etc. Still lack of SLI stability. I cannot find
anything wrong with the memory at all.
I have considered reducing the timing of my memory (i..e slowing it
down), as early "Tom's Hardware" reviews suggested this was necessary
with beta versions of the board. But, I'm not familiar with which
settings to tweak, and by how much. You wouldn't think I'd have to do
this, though, with both my testing and with Asus' recommendation...
I have also tried swapping the place of the two video cards - no help
Any other ideas?
