My SLI woes!

[tylerxmance]

I am having SLI troubles. Horrible, horrible troubles. Let me first begin by telling you the system specifications I think are important:

CyberpowerPC GamerXtreme 1002
MSI X58 Platinum motherboard
Quad-core Intel processor (2.66ghz)
DDR3 triple channel ram (3gb)
EVGA 1GB GeForce 9500GT <---- Came with computer
BFG 1GB GeForce 9500GT <---- What I'm trying to SLI
580W Generic Power Supply
Windows Vista 64-Bit


The computer came with 2 multi-GPU bridges. Both are labeled "MSI Multi-GPU Cross Fire Video Link Card." The bridges, however, both fit on my NVidia GPUs.

This is my situation: I installed my second graphics card and noticed no increase in performance. I then opened my NVidia Control Panel and noticed that SLI was not enabled. Upon selecting it, I was prompted that a few programs needed to be closed and that the NVidia Control Panel would close them for me. The computer idled for a bit (probably changing settings), and the screen went blank for approximately 5 seconds (expected). When the screen came back up, the computer froze entirely. Upon hard-restart, the computer showed the security screen. Upon login, the computer froze after 2 seconds, exactly the same way it had before.

The steps I have already taken:
-Switch the positioning of the GPUs
-Tried the other GPU bridge
-Made sure both cards were showing up in the Device Manager and double-checked their driver number.
-Try different drivers:
----182.20
----182.22
----186.18
-Flash Motherboard BIOS (Started with 3.0, moved to 3.4. Driver info stated that 3.xx included SLI support)
-Made sure PCI-E was selected as the "Primary GPU" in BIOS

This is the MSI X58 Platinum, not the X58 Platinum SLI (as far as I can tell), but because it has NVidia SLI-Ready printed directly on it, I figured it should work.

Does anybody have ANY idea what could be wrong? Anything I can try? I don't understand why this is happening!

 

[uncfan_2563]

do both of the video cards work on their own? try putting them in one at a time

 

[chef7734]

Thats because not all x58 support both crossfire and sli. Everyone should research whether thier board supports both or not. There are 2 msi x58 platinum. One supports sli and crossfire and the other is just crossfire.

 

[tylerxmance]

@uncfan_2563 -- Yes, I believe they do. When I switched the positioning of the video cards, it reset the SLI setting to "Disabled," meaning I was running on the other video card. Therefore, while I've never had exclusively one card in the system, I have only been using one card.

@chef7734 -- I think I was wrong about my first post--I must have the X58 Platinum SLI. Either way, I know the board is SLI-capable because it is printed directly on the board. Therefore, that's not the problem.

 

[tylerxmance]

Downloaded and re-installed X58 Chipset Driver just for kicks. No change.

 

[dyrnwyn]

Did you try to run 3d mark? I actually thought my SLI setup wasn't working at all until I did. I also deleted my driver files after uninstalling from the control panel, restarted, and reinstalled to get my setup working properly.

 

[tylerxmance]

@Dyrnwyn -- I have not tried that, but am downloading it now and will tell you how it works out. When you say you deleted your driver files after uninstalling, you mean you used the Programs/Settings app to remove the NVidia Control Panel program, then deleted all of the actual driver files (dll, DL_, ISN, ISS) from the C:\NVIDIA\WinVista64 directory (or your version of it)?

 

[chef7734]

If the bridges say crossfire do not use them. You need a sli bridge. The connector on the sli bridge is smaller than the crossfire. If it was a sli bridge you should have received a sli bridge. If you did not contact msi and they should ship on out to you free of charge. they will take the serial number and they can let you know if it is a sli board or just the crossfire.

 

[tylerxmance]

LOL.

I removed the CrossFire link for fear of screwing something up electrically. The good news is that nothing is screwed up. The BETTER news is that when I opened up the NVidia control panel to take one last look at the drivers, SLI is ENABLED and is running fine WITHOUT A BRIDGE.

On a related note, I contacted MSI and they said they'd ship one out (God knows if that'll ever happen).

 

[megamanx00]

Hah, 9500GTs in SLI on an i7. That's rich :lol:

Anyway, follow chef7734s advice. You can use software to SLI those cards, but they run a little better with the SLI bridge.

 

[tylerxmance]

Hey man, it up'd my FPS on High on Crysis from 9.5 to 22.5.

 

[chef7734]

MSI has always been good to me. If they took down your info and said they are shipping the will. I have had motherboards out of warrent ythey replaced or sent parts for at no cost. If they do not send me your address and I will get a sli bridge out to you. I am getting a tri sli bridge so I should have 3 extra sli bridges from msi.