SLI not detected Windows 10

[carpefinem]

Hi there!

I don't usually post but I am at a standstill with this and not sure where to go anymore.

I recently bought a refurbished MSI GTX 970 to SLI with my EVGA GTX 970. Installed the card and bridge, then no option in the nvidia control panel to enable SLI and I get the message, "To use maximum 3D performance, connect the SLI-ready graphics cards with an SLI connector."

Build:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Gaming 5 X99 Rev 1.0
CPU: i7-5820 OC @4.0GHz
Graphics: EVGA GTX 970 ACX 2.0, MSI GTX 970 OC
OS: Windows 10 Pro

Things I have already tried:
-Clean install of nvidia drivers
-Clean install of windows
-Changing seating positions of cards on motherboard
-2 Different bridge connectors
-Plugging in one monitor only and fresh install of drivers
-Disabling of Windows search for windows 10 and reboot

I am hopeful that someone can direct me where to look and how to fix this please!

 

[Barty1884]

Which GPU are you connecting to? If you're connecting both to a monitor, that's not SLI.

You need to connect the primary GPU (x16_1) to the primary monitor.

The only connection(s) the secondary GPU should have is the SLI bridge & the PCIe slot.

 

[carpefinem]

Which GPU are you connecting to? If you're connecting both to a monitor, that's not SLI.

You need to connect the primary GPU (x16_1) to the primary monitor.

The only connection(s) the secondary GPU should have is the SLI bridge & the PCIe slot.

I did try to plug in the primary GPU to the primary monitor only and leaving the second monitor unplugged/unused. The same message appeared.

 

[Barty1884]

Did you install your GPU driver *after* the GPUs were installed?

 

[carpefinem]

Did you install your GPU driver *after* the GPUs were installed?

I uninstalled the driver using display driver uninstaller, rebooted. Then I re-seated both GPU's and installed the bridge, then installed the latest driver. I also tried this same method using the "clean install" option directly on Nvidia's driver install package.

 

[Barty1884]

Unfortunately, it does appear to be a known(ish) issue with some EVGA cards:
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/30lw5z/psa_not_all_models_of_evga_gtx_970s_are_sli/

Do they work independently? You're using the correct PCIe slots? The SLI bridge is fully secure?

 

[carpefinem]

Unfortunately, it does appear to be a known(ish) issue with some EVGA cards:
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/30lw5z/psa_not_all_models_of_evga_gtx_970s_are_sli/

Do they work independently? You're using the correct PCIe slots? The SLI bridge is fully secure?

This would make sense as it seems to defy all logic as to why it won't work. Yes I checked each card independently and they work just fine, even bench marked them to look for stability issues. I double checked the PCIe slots against the manual and they are in the only locations they can be for SLI arrangement, for kicks I also tried different slots but it ended up that the one card wouldn't be seen in device manager as a result. I triple checked the SLI bridge and it cannot get more secure.

I think I might just have to RMA the card I bought and buy a single card. Unfortunate but I think it is probably not worth the time especially if it is a known issue with EVGA.