2nd Radeon 4870 will not link.

[Uzen]

Hi, i just recently bought a 2nd radeon 4870 hd 1gb diamond for crossfire. I installed the 2nd card and it says the first card is enabled but the 2nd says disabled adapter instead of linked.... i have tried different drivers e.i. 9.12 8. something. 10.5 10.7 and same thing. I have tried different bridges. i have tried reversing the cards and same thing. I know both cards work for sure so the problem isnt there. My mobo drivers are up to date. Same goes for my mobo bios. And crossfire is enabled in ccc.

My rig is amd phenom 9600, msi k9a2 cf mobo. 4 gigs 800mhz dd2. cp-850 antec psu(850 crossfire/sli supported). so it shouldnt be a power issue.

I have looked in device manager it shows the card just like ccc, and hwmontior. In the device manager it doesnt show the card having any errors so im not sure what to do. i have post on desktopreview.com. but that led me here.

The only thing i can think of being the problem which i dont know how to fix is 1 of the gpus bios diver date is 2009/02/11 and the other is 2008/10/16. not sure if that would be causing it to be disabled.

Please help thanks a lot any input.

Also the screen looks shaky. when both cards are in.

 

[petteyg359]

Make sure you're only using one bridge.

 

[OnDborder]

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697 Uzen

When you installed the 2nd card, did you attach the bridge along with it?
If so, don't.
Try uninstalling the catz, use a drivercleaner next, install one card>install drivers>reboot>shutdown>install 2nd card(without the bridge(s)>fire it up and let it find/install drivers for the 2nd card>shutdown>attach bridge(s)>fire it up and enable crossfire..
Hope this helps..

 

[Uzen]

i have tried 1 in slot one 1 in slot to and both non of those set up worked.

when i tried letting windows install the driver it has told me it failed before so we will see

Thanks for the replys

well i did what you said and im stuck at the part where i try to install the drivers with out the 2nd card having a bridge, it doesnt want to install by its self it just keeps trying to install the audio drivers for, the first card. then i went into the device manager, and tried to update the drivers on the 2nd card but, it said that it couldnt find any drivers that were better then the ones that i alrdy have, i did update cause i couldnt find a place to install only saw update. In device manager it shows the 2nd card having code 10 which means that the card is unable to start...

Unless you mean to install the drivers again instead of installing from windows. So im not sure what to do on that part.

 

[Tweak-venetica-]

i'm still new here but have extensive knowledge from my day, might i ask are you using 4GB of memory ? if so try installing a x64 OS to address more memory, had the same problem with my hd 4870x2 and it's a interlinked adapter , even though it's 1GB per GPU for work space it's still addressed , so if you have more than 4GB and don't have a x64 OS thats your problem 2 much memory 4GB already isnt used only 3.25 then the 1GB on the card is allowed but once you get more it just stops addressing. and welcome to OCF

goodluck

 

[Uzen]

lol to the last poster i was quite confused by ur post but from what i got from it i will respond as best i can. Currently am running windows xp pro 64 bit. with 4 sticks of 1 gig ram for a total of 4. the video cards are both 1 gb each.

and to the person i was talking to before. when i was unable to install the drivers for teh 2nd card because i was confused on how you wanted me to do it. i tried just going ahead to the next step, and i put the bridge in, and it still shows code 10, and does not show the card in ccc, so i can enable crossfire so im not sure what to do. Please tell me what i did wrong, or if you have any other thoughts i would love to here them.

Thanks for all the replys.

 

[Tweak-venetica-]

try windows vista or windows 7 x64

 

[Uzen]

i personaly do not like windows vista, and windows 7. crippled my cpu a lot, i have a slow quad core, so i would like to avoid win7 at all posibility, but if worst comes to worst i will go to win 7

 

[Uzen]

well i got it to link in windows 7. 64. but its still not using the 2dgpu..... in 3dmarks or starcraft 2

so im not sure what to do from this point. it says its working but its not

Yes i am playing on full screen, yes i have ccc enabled in crossfire, yes i have ai on standard.

But i dono what to do from here

 

[Tweak-venetica-]

oke download msi afterburner , then under settings use OSD and monitor your memory and GPU speeds on both cards , if both kick into 3d mode then they both working , if one stays at 0% let me know i'll figure something els out

 

[OnDborder]

"In order to enable CrossFire, the AMD video cards need to be installed into slots EX1 and EX4."
http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/msi-k9a2-platinum-amd-790fx-motherboard.html
What slots are you using?

 

[OnDborder]

and to the person i was talking to before. when i was unable to install the drivers for teh 2nd card because i was confused on how you wanted me to do it. i tried just going ahead to the next step, and i put the bridge in, and it still shows code 10, and does not show the card in ccc, so i can enable crossfire so im not sure what to do. Please tell me what i did wrong, or if you have any other thoughts i would love to here them.

Thanks for all the replys.

You only need to install the drivers for the first card at first>shut down>install the 2nd card>reboot>let the drivers "automatically" find the 2nd card and install>reboot>shutdown>attach bridge>reboot>enable crossfire>check the status with gpu-z program.

 

[Uzen]

both of the gpus are being used but the load never goes above 18 % on either of them..... and im lagging like crazy. i have to have all my graphics turned to low. in starcraft 2. and as far as 3dmarks goes my score is the same with 1 card as it is with 2

 

[OnDborder]

Have you tried each card separately on 3dmarks? About the same score with each?
Did you acquire these cards new or used?

 

[Uzen]

yes i have tried both seperate in 3dmarks, scores were the same.

I bought the card of craigslist used.

 

[OnDborder]

Well if you followed the previous suggestions, maybe the next step would be to flash the bios on the second card to an original bios from techpowerup http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+4870&interface=&memSize=0

Cuz, crossfire shouldn't be that difficult if you followed the previous suggestions.
The cards are in the 1 and 4 pci-e slots?

 

[Uzen]

i followed all the advice that you gave me. I also used msi after burner to monitor it.
as far as pci slot 1 and 4 ur looking at the wrong mobo. mine only as 2 slots. so i cant do that.

http://www.google.com/products/cata...7dEYbGiQSllPWyBg&sa=image&ved=0CAgQ8gIwADgA#p

this is the motherboard that i have.

Thank you for all your replys and help

 

[OnDborder]

That eliminates that for a problem.
Are you sure there is not an option in the BIOS for crossfire?

 

[Uzen]

Yes i have searched and searched my bios settings, and there is nothing. i even had a friend look just to make sure i didnt over look it. ill look again and let you know what my mobo says

 

[OnDborder]

Are both cards Diamond brand?
Try using 8.10 catz(drivers) with the install procedure dictated above.

Edit: I think this might be in your manual. http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/918/msimanualpg9.jpg