HELP - SLI Rig (2 x XFX 6600GT)

[skb3]

I hope someone can help, I have been trying to get this working for days now...

Just got another XFX 6600GT, and wanted obviously have 2 cards running in SLI but they never get detected by the motherboard, the following message should appear but does not:



Also when I select the properties for the display, and select the SLI multi-GPU option I get:

"You must remove any graphics cards that are not compatible with NVIDIA Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology before you can enable SLI."

...but they are both compatible, both are XFX 6600GT (PCI-E) cards.

I am also using an ASUS A8N-SLI motherboard, and made sure I have installed the latest BIOS (1006), connected the extra molex into the motherboard for the EZ-plug and changed the selector card to DUAL-VIDEO CARDS. I also remembered the bridge adaptor.

Also been through installing latest NForce drivers and NVidia drivers for the graphics cards (tried both 66.93 and 71.89)

I did notice that the BIOS version on the cards were different:

Card 1 : Bios 5.43.02.23.04 (VA.1 W10/04 on the serial label)
Card 2 : Bios 5.43.02.57.00 (VA.5 W02/05 on the serial label)

Could anyone help please b4 I put both cards on ebay along with my motherboard and buy a DFI LanParty and a GEForce 4 6800 ULTRA instead.

[Firelord]

How about flashing the older BIOS'd card to the newer BIOS off the newer card?

[Dooms]

I would recommend flashing them both to the same version (gerenaly the latest)

[Butcher]

If you just got them you might want to send them back and ask for new matching cards - flashing the bios will invalidate your warranty.

[skb3]

Could you please tell me how I am to flash the Bios'?

[Butcher]

You can download a program to flash the bios, called nvflash or such. I would strongly advise against it unless you're comfortable with bios flashing and not afraid to invalidate your warranty. It's very easy to toast your card with a bad flash.

[Firelord]

flashing the bios will invalidate your warranty.

Can't say I have ever seen anywhere that says flashing your gfx BIOS invalidates your warranty....

Can't see it being any different from motherboards

[skb3]

Would flashing the bios solve the problem, i.e is it down to the different Bios versions that I cannot get them to work in SLI?

[Firelord]

I would suspect the different BIOS's is the problem

[oralpain]

Probably.

Get NVFLASH and put it on a bootable disk
unistall video drivers and shutdown
Take out the card with the older BIOS
Boot with the nvflash disk
save bios to disk
turn off computer and swap video cards
boot form disk again and flash second card with the bios form the newer card
turn off computer and put both cards in
boot to windows and install drivers

[Butcher]

Can't say I have ever seen anywhere that says flashing your gfx BIOS invalidates your warranty....

Can't see it being any different from motherboards

Because it's not a manufacturer supplied bios you'd be flashing - making random modifications to the hardware tends to invalidate your warranty.

[oralpain]

Most video card manufacturers have BIOS files you can download.

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

Another vote for the BIOS.

If at the very basic level the two cards are sending out not quite the same signals to the motherboard its bound to create problems. Different BIOS revisions will change how the cards work.

As long as you aren't stupid and decide to refuse your house or something when the flash is taking place 99/100 you will be fine.

[skb3]

CHEERS Guys! Got it working at last and you were exactly right, I used the Bios from my new card and updated my old card with nvflash. nvFlash complained at first that the rom image and the adaptor had differrent PCI Subsystem id's, but there was a switch to overload this, I must admit I was afraid of frazzling my card, but it WORKED!!

The only problem the GPU temperature reads 0 for both cards but ambient temp for both cards reads 52 degrees.

[Steve]

Because it's not a manufacturer supplied bios you'd be flashing - making random modifications to the hardware tends to invalidate your warranty.

But is IS a manufacturer supplied BIOS... a newer one. A BIOS with modified timings or for a different board WOULD probably invalidate the warranty, but I'd say not in this case.

Anyway, glad you got it working skb3. It looks like you'd actually have to start hacking the BIOS to get temp monitoring to work, but you're probably better off doing without.

[skb3]

Thanks Kez, what I am more interested in is controlling the fan speeds on both cards, b4 I added the new card I had Gainward's EXPERT tool installed, and I could change the fan speeds on the GPU card. Would anyone know if the tool can be used for 2 cards, if not then could they recommend another utility? As you can imagine the noise from the 2 cards can be irritating.