BIOS Screen Doesn't Show Up With Crossfire

[a_zidane]

Hi. I have a Rampage Formula motherboard with 2x 4870x2 in crossfire (using vista 64bit). The problem is that with crossfire, windows will only display on monitors connected to the graphics card furthest from the cpu (the other one won't display anything) ... BUT when starting the computer, when windows isn't loaded yet, they BIOS displays on the other graphics card. It would suck if I had to unplug my monitor every time I want to access the BIOS... does anyone know how I can display the BIOS on the same graphics cards that windows does? Thanks!!

 

[truprecht]

I'm having the same problem. Just installed a 2nd HD6850 GPU and the VGA splash/BIOS screen will not display, but Windows (7 64-bit) shows up fine. I tried disabling CrossfireX and it still did not show at boot. It surprises me, because it worked fine with just 1 HD6850 GPU, and I did not install new software or move the monitor cable to a different port - juar installed a 2nd identical card with a crossfire bridge cable. MB is Gigabyte P55A-UD3.

 

[alyoshka]

Have you guys tried:
1: Exchanging the cards? The one in the second slot goes to the first and the first goes to the second slot.
2: A new CF Bridge?
3: Booting into windows and setting the First Card as the Primary Display?

Let us know which of the option have been tried.
Other details of the setup would be a plus, like how many total monitors connected, to which cards and how(DVI, HDMI,DP)etc

 

[truprecht]

Thanks for the reply, and sorry for the slow response - I was out of town for a few days.

More setup info: Only one monitor connected, to the first card, via DVI. Monitor is Acer x233H 1920x1080.

When I first installed the first GPU 8 months ago, I connected it to the monitor with an HDMI cable and found it would not display the splash/BIOS screen, just Windows when it loaded. Then I switched to a DVI cable, and the splash screen showed up as expected. 8 months later I added the 2nd GPU and the CF bridge, leaving the DVI cable in place on the first card, and it won't show the splash screen again.

I've not tried a new CF bridge or switching the cards. I was hoping there was a SW solution before I take the machine apart or buy another CF bridge.

 

[alyoshka]

A CF bridge is not that expensive and worth the try. It could be that by the time that monitor comes fully on, the BIOS splash has already passed by, you can try that by hitting DEL as soon as you press the power on button without necessarily seeing anything on the monitor, if it get's into the BIOS and display turns on, I see no problem.

 

[truprecht]

I tried switching the GPUs. First I tried putting just the 2nd card in the first slot, booted, splash screen showed up like it used to. Put the (former) 1st card in the second slot without the CF bridge, booted, no splash screen. Added a different CF bridge cable, no splash screen. (I forgot I had a 2nd CF bridge I hadn't returned yet.)

I also tried hitting Del while booting to see if the monitor just needed to "catch up". It went to BIOS, but the screen stayed black. I know it was in the BIOS because it rebooted when I typed ESC, Y, Enter - the sequence of keystrokes required to exit the BIOS.


FWIW, this is the GPU in question:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353

This is the MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412

 

[truprecht]

Also upgraded to 10-31-2011 release of driver and CCC. No change. I noticed the two cards have different BIOS versions - 013.012.xxx.xxx vs. 013.007.xxx.xxx. Seems like an unlikely cause to me... and I'm not sure how to update the GPU BIOS.

When booting, it also doesn't show the Windows "swirling bubbles" animation - the screen is black until the Windows login screen shows up.

 

[truprecht]

FWIW, I finally corrected this problem by updating the BIOS on the motherboard (from version F10 to F11).