A8N-SLi Deluxe and Reboot...

[PsychoMadMan]

Ok....I posted here about 4-5 months ago about A8N-SLi DLX in SLi mode.

My system is:

A8N-SLi DLX (1008)
AMD 3700+ San Diego
1 GB Kingston 400 MHz
2 BFG 6800 GTs
2x WD 80 GB ATA/100 in RAID 0 on a PCI Silicon Image 680 RAID controller
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
16x DVD-RW Drive
Enermax Noisetaker 600W PSU

Ok. I play World of Warcraft for about 10 min then the screen goes blank. Monitor then flashes "Analog" "Digital" back and forth b/c it lost signal... Then the pc reboots itself but the screen doesn't come back up.

Alot of the time too when I try to boot my PC one of the GFX Cards doesnt boot up. And I have to press the Power button to totally turn it off, and I have to do that like 5x before it boots.

Also sometimes my pc boots, and both of the GFX cards have the red light on them, but when I boot up it doesn't see that there is 2 cards it only sees one (in the SLi config menu of the driver)

I had the problem before about 4 months ago. Put a desk fan on the open case and it worked fine. Now it doesnt. I jsut reciently bought 2 NV Silencers for my BFGs. Didn't help. :/

Does neone have any ideas what it could be? I think I have replaced everything in the pc... the first time. Could it still be the mainboard...2 bad mainboards in a row? If it is does anyone know if the DFI SLi board have enough room in between the GFX cards to allow for NV Silencers?

Is there something that I am overlooking maybe? If I remove the fan...it either just does what I said faster or it locks up totally and makes a annoying screaching noise through my speakers.

I really have had it! PLEASE HELP!

 

[PsychoMadMan]

Will someone plz help me?

 

[PsychoMadMan]

I took each card out one at a time. Still does it... Any ideas? I'm thinking of buying a DFI SLI-D. Can someone one tell me if my 2 6800GTs with NV Silencers will fit?

 

[openwheelformula1]

I only saw the title of this thread. I didn't actually read the contect of the original post. But there were driver issues with Marvel Ethernet from Microsoft Windows Update. That caused mine A8N Sli premium and A8V Deluxe to reboot/freeze randomly. Give that at try.

It looks like you have A8N Sli deluxe, be aware of Nvidia IDE SW drivers, my suggestion is Not to install them.

 

[PsychoMadMan]

I disabled the Marvell LAN controller in BIOS, and I had problems with the IDE driver so I reinstalled XP when I got the PC.

 

[openwheelformula1]

ez plug being used?

 

[PsychoMadMan]

yes

 

[openwheelformula1]

After reading your whole thread: gave me a headache btw. You should really clean up your grammar so we can read quicker with better understandings.

I would check:

1. Nvidia Geforce Drivers: Did you update to the latest? Did you clean up the old driver thoroughly? If time permits, I would do a fresh install w/o irrelevant programs.

2. Bios: Did you update to the latest? Don't enable PEG overclocking, just set it to auto or normal. I can't remember what the options are, but set the SLI mode to dual graphic or auto.

3. SLI chip: Take it out and reinstall firmly. Remember one side for single card and the other for SLI.

4. 6 pin power plugs: Are you using adapters? Or does your psu come w/ two dedicated connecters? Make sure you don't hook too many fans or other crap to the same line.

What have you done to troubleshoot your issues?

 

[akugami]

openwheelformula1 pretty much covered the basics.

Make sure you have the latest video card drivers and your motherboard has the latest stable BIOS.

Check to make sure the software settings and BIOS settings are correct for SLI mode.

Reseating devices, not just the graphics cards but the memory as well and check all your plugs and all devices are seated firmly.

Does your PSU have a 24pin power plug or 20pin? The A8N series seem to like lots of power and some people have trouble when using a 20pin PSU or using an adapter with a 20pin PSU. Do both of your video cards get enough power? SLI mode requires plenty of juice and you'll need to make sure both of them gets power from the extra 6pin power plug.

 

[PsychoMadMan]

Sorry about my original post - I wrote that at midnight...

Anyways I tried everything you guys said no luck. My PSU is a ATX 2.0, so it has 24 pins and it has the two 6-pin plugs for PCI-e graphics cards.

There is another problem I forgot to mention...when looking at pictures and things on the net i get wierd colored flashing lines. Its hard to explain...almost like artifacting only it flashes. It even happens in the BIOS screen. I'm thinking its the VGA cards now, but I'm not really sure.

I've done everything I could think of. I called BFG, and they are going to setup and RMA for me to send both of the cards back. I'm crossing my fingers that the cards are the problem.

Before I send them back I'm going to borrow my friend's 6600GT and see if that fixes it. If so then I'll RMA the cards if not then...back to the drawing board. I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks so much for the help thus far.

 

[openwheelformula1]

That definitely sounds vga related. Yeah let us know if a single 6600GT fixes the problem.

 

[akugami]

I'd also reset your motherboard to default and check both your video cards in single card mode one at a time. If possible do it in your computer as well as your friend's computer. If they work fine, it might be your motherboard that's bad and will require a RMA.

 

[PsychoMadMan]

Tried that what you guys said. The 6600 works in mine, but the 6800s do the same thing in my friends. I did an RMA yesterday.

Thanks for the help!

 

[akugami]

Good luck and let us know how the RMA turns out. Hope your system gets up and running fine after the RMA.

 

[PsychoMadMan]

Got 1 of 2 cards back...The held up the other one for whatever reason...bad idea picking BFG because of their tech support. I also have to say I do not recommend them at all. All they have done to me is screw me over continuously. They said that a Supervisor was to call me yesterday about not getting the other card never heard any thing from them.

My PC is STILL doing what its been doing, but my comp ran perfectly on 1 MSI 6600; it was compeletely flawless no lockups, no restarts. Once I installed my 1 6800 that I got back it starting restarting again with in about 20 min of gaming. Also the color in videos are all washed out and are really nasty still. All the artifacting like stuff is gone, but it's still restarting, and videos are still washed out. I have no idea what it could be. Is there some problem between the A8N-SLi Dlx and BFG 6800GTs? What from the 6800 could be so drastically different from the 6600 that it makes my PC unstable?

 

[akugami]

Power draw between the 6600 and 6800? If you have another PSU you can borrow from someone it would be a great tester to make sure it's not the PSU. It's quite possible even though the PSU you bought should work fine and handle any power concerns that it is flakey and not handling the power requirements of the new video cards. Putting in a different PSU in the same system and if the problem still persists then it's not the PSU.

 

[PsychoMadMan]

I put in a Antec Truepower PSU that is 550 Watts. Its the older ATX standard, but it still did the same thing. I have no way of getting another ATX 2.0 PSU to test with

 

[akugami]

First, uninstall everything except the DVD drive, a single video card and a single stick of RAM. Don't use RAID, just use a single HD. Install your system with the latest BIOS and use the latest drivers after installing Windows.

Run memtest86 and test your RAM one stick at a time then test it with both sticks of RAM installed (making the assumption you have a 2x512MB kit). http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1676084&enterthread=y for more info on memtest.

Run prime95 and test your CPU. I'd run prime95 for about 6 hours minimum with 24 hours being your target, a good way is to leave it running before dinner, checking when you go to bed, then check it when you wake up.

If it passes these two tests you can definitely rule out the CPU and RAM. Install 3DMark'05 and run it in a loop overnight (at least 6 hours hopefully) to see if the CPU shuts itself down. If it runs fine then you can rule out the video card. Try installing WoW and seeing if you can play it.

If it runs fine still at this point. Add back the 2nd hard drive and run some tests to see if it's ok. Then add back the sound card and see if it's ok. Last, try adding back the 2nd video card. If you're still ok at this point then all parts seem fine. Last, try running it in raid again. If the problem persists at this point, then it's likely a raid problem (likely bad drivers).