Fatal1ty FP-IN9, SLI VGA POST Error

Hi Guys, i'm having a problem at the moment trying to setup SLI on my motherboard. I've been asking around on the slizone at nvidia and to save a lot of typing I thought it be quick to cut/past. If any one here has any ideas please let me know, even if you think it needs an RMA.


I recently decided that I thought it would be cool to go SLI with my MSI 8800GTX OC card seeming that the prices have now dropped to sub £100. That's when all my trouble started. What was supposed to be a cheap upgrade is slowly starting to mount up!

System setup is as follows:

Case: Antec 1200
PSU: OCZ GameExtreem 700Watt / Thermal Take Through Power 450Watt VGA
Motherboard: Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI
CPU: Intel Q6600
Cooler: Artic Freezer Pro 7
RAM: 4GB OCZ Reaper PC8500 SLI
Graphics Cards: MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD-OC / EVGA 8800GTX
Hard Drives: 2 x 200GB Maxtor Diamond 10 Strip Raid, 1 x WD 74GB Raptor

Now for the head acke I’ve been trying to fix. I set on the motherboard the SLI card from Normal to SLI Mode and install each card to its PCI-E with the first powered by the OCZ 2 x PCI-E 6PIN and the 2nd with the ThermalTake 2 x PCI-E 6PIN, place the SLI bridge connection on and power on. All the fans kick in and after a short moment I get a POST error with one long beep followed by two short beeps (VGA Error).

I have tried the following, swapping the MSI to the top and EVGA to the bottom and also ensuring the cards are firmly placed (including the SLI mode card) and ensuring all 4 x PCI-E 6PINS are firmly in place with no joy. Now each card works fine when SLI is disabled and boots fine. Called Abit and as they are closing up shop the support person didn't have much to advise other then filling in an RMA quick before Abit disappears. Having read the forums on here I’ve noticed a few post's mentioning that BIOS's on the cards sometimes cause problems, can this hold true in this case? BIOS versions bellow.

MSI: 60.80.08.00.35 (latest version 60.80.0E.00.00)
EVGA: 60.80.06.00.01 (latest version 60.80.13.00.13)

I was thinking though that if this is a bios error (would make sense as the EVGA bios is 2006 where as MSI is 2007) would flashing the EVGA with a copy found on the MSI do the trick. There are no identical bios versions that match with these cards as they are both different manufactures. Now I know they are different manufactures and clock rates but in essence these cards are all based on Nvidia's PCB design so they should be the same with different stickers slapped on them? If its not a good idea then how about I flash the EVGA from Rev 1 to 10 incrementally and test at each stage till they work or go straight to Rev 10? Also should the over clocked msi always be on top or bellow?

Update: Just so you all know I successfully flashed my EVGA to the latest BIOS and booted fine in Normal mode (whoo hoo I thought). Shut down, changed SLI card to SLI Mode and fired the system up but received the same post error.

So I thought a little bit more, looked over the bios of the EVGA compared to the MSI using Nibitor 5.xx and made the decision to flash my EVGA with a backup rom of my MSI card, and by god it worked! All excited I tested the EVGA, shut down my system and proceeded to change the SLI card to SLI mode and connect/install both the cards... (I think you know where this is going now with my luck!) Didn't work, so I’m looking at all those people with different branded 8800gtx who can run sli and think why cant I?

When you changed your SLI card to SLI MODE you did a full clear CMOS ?

For me i had to do that simply because my windows instalation wont reconigze my VGA card´s in SLI. Only one. After the clear cmos everything went just fine.

Change the SLI Card to "SLI Mode", make a full clear cmos (change the jumper and turn on the motherboard). After some 10 sec turn off everything and change again the jumper. Configure your customized BIOS settings and enter windows.

:)

Thanks but unfortuantly that didn't work. I even looked out for the SLI LED which is supposed to light up on the motherboard but no joy. I think the 2nd PCI-E is dead and board needs replacing.

So I purchased on ebay last night a BFG 680i SLI board for £60 (£54 with discount voucher) and will return this an an RMA and sell it later. How do I file for an RMA? :rules:

if it's under a year old try going through your vendor first.
if over a year old http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/contact/technical.php