Vista Ultimate + SLI + 8Gb memory

[smarteyeball]

It's an odd issue alright. And I empathise that your frustration level will be quite high by now.


Just to clarify, It was definitely XP 64 and not XP 32 that it was working on before and it was the exact same setup?

Was it an in-place upgrade or a fresh OS installation?


Are the monitors DVI or VGA connection? I had a black screen issue on 7 with a particular nvidia driver and connection (probably unrelated, just an idea)


When you installed Vista, did you install with both cards+bridge attached+8GB?

What happens when you you use only one monitor connected?

I know you mentioned you tried driver sweeper when removing/re-installing drivers. Did you also remove the physx component as well?

Was your method:

Uninstalling the drivers + physx through the control panel, running driver sweeper as admin in safemode to clean both nvidia and physx componenets.

Removing the 2nd card. Re-booting and then re-installing the drivers with one card only, single monitor +8GB and then adding the 2nd card and bridge?


If not, that's one method I'd try.

Sorry to make you repeat yourself, but I know for a fact that it should work. I've crosfired (similar enough to SLI) both 512/1GB card models + 8GB and not had this issue.

 

[Sable]

It was XP64 before hand and it was a complete format drive and install.

I've been at it off and on for so long I can't remember if I've ever done things in exactly that order (I've mixed and matched order, detail etc. to see if it worked many times), so I'll give it a go over the weekend and let you know.

One thing I think I've not done is unplugged the second monitor, so thats a possibility.

The huge plus is knowing that its possible, cos I assumed it was by lack of complaining on the net, but was never quite sure I wasn't banging my head against a brick wall for nothing. So thanks for that at least

 

[smarteyeball]

The huge plus is knowing that its possible, cos I assumed it was by lack of complaining on the net, but was never quite sure I wasn't banging my head against a brick wall for nothing. So thanks for that at least

At Least I can give you that small comfort

But sorry mate, I'm fresh out of ideas atm


Maybe an overnight run of memtest will at least rule out one possible cause. XP and Vista access different parts of the memory etc so maybe Vista is accessing a memory address that XP never did :huh:

http://www.memtest.org/

 

[Everlong]

What happens if you disable SLI in the Nvidia control panel, but leave the 8GB RAM in and both cards + SLI bridge on?

 

[Sable]

Same as with SLI enabled. Can only enable SLI if there is only 2Gb installed, but when I add the rest (the only way I've found to do what you describe) it black screens straight after the progress bar

 

[Sable]

The huge plus is knowing that its possible, cos I assumed it was by lack of complaining on the net, but was never quite sure I wasn't banging my head against a brick wall for nothing. So thanks for that at least

At Least I can give you that small comfort

Don't consider it small, imo knowing something is possible is more than half the battle. Nothing makes you give up and make do like the nagging doubt that what you're trying can't be done.

 

[Everlong]

Have you tried 4GB or RAM, but keeping it in single channel? And not going in to double channel, i.e. only putting the sticks in 1 channel.

Are you able to get in to safe mode with 8GB + SLI?

As for it being a memory voltage problem, you could try incrementing the voltage for memory by 1.

 

[Sable]

yes, I've managed to get into safe mode with both cards in and all the memory.

For the memory channel, I'm afraid I don't quite understand. Do you mean of the four slots, only using one from each slot pair?

 

[Everlong]

Yea, I mean put 2 sticks in 1 from each pair, so you don't use dual channel, only single channel, because you can boot in fine with 2GB, which means it can boot in with single channel, but then you add another stick, which I presume is going in to the 2nd slot for that pair, which is enabling dual channel, and then failing to boot.

 

[Sable]

gotcha! sorry for being thick there, hardware is not really my bag. I'm all good with it all untill it doesn't do whats expected.

 

[Sable]

I

Was your method:

Uninstalling the drivers + physx through the control panel, running driver sweeper as admin in safemode to clean both nvidia and physx componenets.

Removing the 2nd card. Re-booting and then re-installing the drivers with one card only, single monitor +8GB and then adding the 2nd card and bridge?


If not, that's one method I'd try.

Tried it, sadly no joy. booted up, black screened, stayed there for about 5 minutes and then rebooted with windows recognising it had a problem (offered to boot into safe mode). In safe mode it installed the second card, so I rebooted again but it just did the same thing.

Have you tried 4GB or RAM, but keeping it in single channel? And not going in to double channel, i.e. only putting the sticks in 1 channel.

Are you able to get in to safe mode with 8GB + SLI?

No joy with this either sadly

 

[thepizzaman]

i know this could be a little to late.... but is it possible you have a bad sli bridge? or something with the sli connectors on the card?

 

[Sable]

I don't think so since its ok with 2gb ram in it.


I have recently realised (its amazing how you can take something apart so often you actually blank some components as you take them for granted) that I did add something to the setup since it was in XP, and now in hindsight it seems obvious that this might cause the problem. I added a PCI-E (x1 I think) raid controller in order to run a mirror on the C partition. I suspect therefore that it could be a power issue after all (or possibly a driver for the raid controller?). Therefore I'm planning to put a better power supply in it to see if that sorts it out.

If that turns out to be the problem, then I appologise for wasting people time as it will be purely my fault. If not, then any additional suggestions will be welcome

 

[smarteyeball]

I added a PCI-E (x1 I think) raid controller in order to run a mirror on the C partition. I suspect therefore that it could be a power issue after all (or possibly a driver for the raid controller?). Therefore I'm planning to put a better power supply in it to see if that sorts it out.

If that turns out to be the problem, then I appologise for wasting people time as it will be purely my fault.

If that is indeed the case, then there is no need to aplogise. The simplest things can be overlooked.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[thepizzaman]

I don't think so since its ok with 2gb ram in it.


I have recently realised (its amazing how you can take something apart so often you actually blank some components as you take them for granted) that I did add something to the setup since it was in XP, and now in hindsight it seems obvious that this might cause the problem. I added a PCI-E (x1 I think) raid controller in order to run a mirror on the C partition. I suspect therefore that it could be a power issue after all (or possibly a driver for the raid controller?). Therefore I'm planning to put a better power supply in it to see if that sorts it out.

If that turns out to be the problem, then I appologise for wasting people time as it will be purely my fault. If not, then any additional suggestions will be welcome

exactly its good for us to know about this for the future anyway

 

[Sable]

Complete thread necro, but in case any of the people who tried to help with this are still around I thought I'd post up to say I finally after 2 years of poking, found out what the problem was!

Turns out, at some random point in the rebuild I had turns on HD audio in the bios, and this was the problem all along. This was only found when I reset the bios at the weekend due to messing something else up.

So, thanks again for all those that tried to help, and let this be a warning to others like me who turn things on to see what they do...