Added 2nd video card and crossfire now windows is super slow to load

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b9er

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I just added a 2nd 5970 and hooked it up via cross fire.. windows is super slow to load. Took it about 20 mins just to see the desktop. All I see is a black screen and my mouse pointer. I can move it around and stuff too..

Then finally it flashed the desktop on but everything is going so slow.

Any idea what is going on? The cards are different in that one is an asus the other is a sapphire but that shouldn't matter.

Something with the drivers maybe?
 
Solution
darkguset



Did you visit your motherboard's manufacturer site for a newer BIOS or driver hotfix like i said earlier?
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solidnickel

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Does not matter which brand of cards with ATI, I used a visiontek 4870x2 and a XFX 4870 in tri-fire mode for the longest time. (Nvidia is a different story, I try to match the brands up with them)

Use CCC and disable crossfire and see if the system speeds up
 
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b9er

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I honestly can't even get CCC open.. I tried to open it already about 10 minutes ago.. The desktop finally came up and a driver installation box came up that says its searching preconfigured driver folders for "video controller"

i'm getting windows errors "superfetch has stopped working" and other crap like that..
 
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b9er

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The driver installation keeps popping up even tho i've killed it twice. It's stuck on "searching preconfigured driver folders" for "video controller(vga compatible"
 
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ragingmercenary

ragingmercenary

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I would try JofaMang's advice. I can't really gather what would be causing your problems. It sounds like either the combination of the two 5970s is causing something, you don't have enough power, something may be overheating, or perhaps some of your RAM modules aren't seated properly. It's possible you may have dislodged them a bit when installing those big cards.
 
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b9er

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ok cards are working fine by themselves in both slots.. could just be the PSU I guess. Seems sorta odd that it would cause this.. seems like if it couldnt draw enough processing power it wouldn't boot at all..

still sorta leaning towards driver issue..
 
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ragingmercenary

ragingmercenary

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If all the hardware works ok, then it is most likely a software issue. Since the drivers you had for the single 5970 were working fine, they should also be fine for the two cards in crossfire since they are all pretty recent, though I would recommending installing the 10.6 Catalyst Drivers if you can. Have you run antivirus and spyware scans lately?
 
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darkguset

darkguset

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It sounds like a driver issue. Remove old drivers, cleansweep and reinstall. That should fix the problem. Also, is it slow when going in safe mode? If not, it is obviously the drivers and not your PSU or VGAs.
 
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b9er

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ok with 1 card in i'm installing 10.6.. Once that's done I'll throw the other back in and see if that works.. Is there any crossfire specific things I should do before I throw the 2nd card in?
 
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ragingmercenary

ragingmercenary

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No, nothing crossfire specific. Just make sure that you do a few things when you install a new driver.
1. Uninstall the old driver.
2. Run DriveSweeper in safe mode then reboot.
3. Install the new driver and reboot once more.
 
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b9er

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no dice still not working.. got the new drivers installed and working and windows was booting fine and all that.. add the 2nd and crossfire and it just goes into super slow boot mode..


also is super slow to boot to safe mode..
 
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Bluescreendeath

Bluescreendeath

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Yes, must be the PSU. A 5970 (basically two 5850s in performance) has a power draw of up to 300 watts at stock.

Two of them makes that up to 600 watts for the graphics cards alone. Add in the CPU, mobo, HDD, DVD drive, RAM, etc and your PSU definitely can't handle it...
 
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darkguset

darkguset

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I believe you can rule out the drivers then.

Try this: Try different cables for powering the VGAs (i don't know if your PSU has single or multiple rails) but it is worth a shot as one could be defective or some other reason to not handle the load.

Also it is worth checking your motherboard (did you flash to the latest BIOS?) and check the manufacturer's website for other people with similar problems.
 
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darkguset

darkguset

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I will have to disagree with you. No VGA draws maximum power while just booting into Windows. So his 5970 will not draw 300W+300W. Not even close. Actually his power supply is a really good one and if his system is not overclocked it should cope with the rest of the setup fine.

Now what the condition of the PSU is... that is another story... it could be faulty, old, worn out, etc etc etc...
 
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b9er

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My CPU is OC'd to 3.6ghz..

Only thing that is making me believe it could be the PSU is that after windows takes forever to even get to the login screen I'm getting BSOD now.


The PSU should be in fine condition. Only 1 year old.
 
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