Crossfire and Windows XP x64 - help

[Goreblast]

Before I state the problem here is a breakdown of the system hardware.

Intel x6800
Tuniq Tower w/ Delta fan (up to 150CFM!!!!)
Asus P5W64 WS Pro
4x1GB GSkill PC8000 HZ
Sapphire X1900XT Crossfire Edition 512MB
HIS X1900XTX 512MG
Areca 1230 w/ 4xNEW 36gb Raptors
2xOLD 36gb Raptors
Soundblaster Xfi
Tagan Dual Engine 800W PSU

I have installed Windows Professional x64 Edition on a RAID 0 array. All updates, and most recent drivers for all enabled hardware.

Catalyst drivers installed are 7.2 and directX9.0c. All is fine until I enable Crossfire. At this point I should point out that the two graphics cards have run in crossfire mode without problem in Windows XP Pro before I had a motherboard change and RAID array failure.

Once Crossfire is enabled and you try running any of the Futuremark 3DMarks there is either a directX error or the system hangs with a black screen or you get a BSOD due to one of the ATI dll files. The system freezes if the Catalyst Control Centre when you try to change either 3D or video settings.

It there a problem with 64bit systems?
As stated the same system ran this fine under XP Pro.

Any help appreciated.

[Biscuit]

raid 0, crossfire and windows 64bit! are you insane? a mate of mind had a similar problem and he found no way round it i think its just a windows 64bit problem.

[shaithis]

RAIDed at the hardware or OS level?

I ran WinXP64 with Crossfire 1950s and RAID 5 (hardware) for a while without issues (other then too many games didn't work well with CF...)

[Goreblast]

Hardware Raid using the Areca 1230 card.

[shaithis]

I can't see it being the RAID then as I run with an Areca 1210 and it (was) fine.

I did have a lot of issues with the Catalyst drivers though....You might want to remove the slave card, get rid of all the drivers (there are some programs that do this for you) and then install the drivers fresh for just the master card....

Then make sure everything is fine before adding the second card back in.

Had to do that a few times myself and have since completely given up on dual gfx cards......In fact my setup was almost identical.

My best advice would be to sell the X1900s and buy an 8800GTX

[Goreblast]

The thing is that the mobo I have either runs the (counting from slot nearest CPU) PCI-E slots as 16-0-4-0 or 8-8-4-8. The Areca is a x8 device and the 8800 needs a x16 slot.

[shaithis]

The areca runs perfectly fine at 4x......4x PCI-E has a maximum throughput of 1GB/s in each direction.

[Goreblast]

I am giving up after trying several versions of the Cats and several installations of the operating system.

Windows XP Pro 32-bit here I come.

[Colossous]

I had the exact same problem with an X1900XTX and XP 64 bit, tried countless drivers but as soon as they loaded in - blackscreen !! It worked fine with 32 bit and i ended up staying on 32 bit !!!