M2N32-SLi & Vista Ultimate & SLi Enable ?

[chuck1]

Hi All,

Just want to know if anyone here have the same problem with an SLi setup and Vista Ultimate on the M2N32-SLi mb.

I just had my faulty M2N32-SLi replaced, so I trying to decide which OS is better for this board. Setup as follows:
-M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wifi (bios 1903)
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 Socket AM2 2.80GHZ 64bit CPU
-2GB Ballistix Tracer PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 RAM SLi
-XFX 8600GT SLI 1GB DDR2 PCI-Express x16
-XpertVision (or Palit?) 8600GT SLI 1GB DDR2 PCI-Express x16
-SLI Bridge connector
-Nvidia Forceware 175.16 driver

XP x64 Install:
I initially installed the system using XP x64 and everything was flawless: OS, CD drivers, NVidia drivers. I enabled SLI technology without a glitch. Played a few games with SLI enabled...just cool !

Vista Ultimate x64 Install:
Now I am trying to re-setup the system with Vista Ultimate x64. Everything installed ok: Vista, ASUS CD Drivers, NVidia drivers. A few things I noticed:
1) During Vista install, near the very end, the display went blank and no activity. I reset the PC after waiting 20mins. It got to the desktop and appear OK (perhaps it could not initiate the reboot properly or something)
2) When installing ASUS CD & NVidia Forceware drivers, it seems to get to 50% very quickly, then sits there for 30-60secs. But eventually completes and prompts to reboot. I think this was the same for XP, but it was not obvious as I used the "Install All option" (XP only), which rebooted itself when it needed to.

Anyway, after the NVidia Forceware driver install, on reboot, the system detected GPU SLi Enabled System (message pops up in the toolbar area (by clock)). I then click on the message to go into the NVidia Control Panel -> Select "Advance Options". I then select "Enable SLI Technology" then click "Apply" button.

It flickered the screen once, then it just went blank with a flashing cursor at the top left corner of the screen. The hard disk led was fully on, so I guessing it was doing something. I left it going until hard disk led is no longer fully on. It never returned to the Vista desktop so I had no choice but to reset the PC after 20 mins.

On return to the Vista desktop, the NVidia drivers appear to have been "lost" or "de-installed". "NVidia Control Panel" option is also no longer in the list when you right click on desktop. "Device Manager" showed exclamation mark against each 8600GT display card.

I re-installed the NVidia drivers again, and repeated to "Enable SLI Technology" in NVidia Control Panel...still the same.

I tried applying older CD drivers (169.25) that came with cards...still the same.

I even re-installed OS using Vista Ultimate x32 edition instead...still the same.

Has anyone had this problem ? Any Fixes ?

Many Thanks for any advice and your time.

[CMB]

Do you have vista SP1 ?
nvidia used to have sli vista hotfixes, but I think they are now incorporated into SP1.

[chuck1]

Hi CMB,

Thanks for your reply.

I have Vista x64 as it came out of the retail box (no SP1 included).

Are there issues with running SLI without SP1 ?
Are those SLI hotfixes still available?

Cheers.

[CMB]

I am not sure exactly what they were...might be just performance related, but they are available in the sp1 update/download from Microsoft.

http://blogs.nvidia.com/sli/2007/12/...ndows-vis.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows..._hotfixes.html

Edit
Here it mentions 2nd card not running in dx10 games.
http://support.microsoft.com/search/...2&mode=r&lsc=0

[chuck1]

Hi CMB,

I clean re-installed Vista x64 and updated with all updates including SP1. I also installed the 2 hotfixes (KB945149-x64, KB936710-x64).

With 175.16 drivers, it just would not let me Enable SLI from NVidia Control Panel. It would hang up on the 2nd flicker and just give me a blinking cursor. I reboot, and I find "!" and error code 43 against BOTH 8600GT cards in Device Manager.

With 169.25 drivers, it actually let me Enable SLI from NVidia Control Panel. It actually returned back to the desktop after the 2nd flicker. Then when I reboot, it says my system is SLI enabled. Ran 3dMark03/05/06 and a 3D game, and then seem to work OK. I had to change the profile settings for the
game though, as this driver defaulted to Single GPU. The scores were no where near XP ones though. The difference with/without SLI was not that great (3DMark03 was 18k (18.5K with SLI), 3DMark06 was 3504, 3211 with SLI...so pretty bad).

In terms of Performance, XP is a lot better. Perhaps the new drivers are not really geared for the 8600GT breeds, more for the 8800GT onwards.

Incidently, I find that when the SLI Enabling hangs up with 175.16 drivers, with the flashing cursor, the desktop is actually still there. I think driver crashed and Vista decided to de-installed it (hence error 43). If I just "blindly" pressed the key sequence: Esc, Ctrl+Esc, Up, ENTER, UP-UP-UP-UP, ENTER this selects the "Switch User". Then I can log back in or reboot. I tried both, but the same symptoms...175.16 just don't work on my setup.

Just for curiosity, I cleaned install Vista x64 without SP1 or Hotfixes. Used the 169.25 drivers and SLI enabled flawlessly.

So I come to the conclusion that my Vista setup does not like 175.16 drivers, although 175.16 was good with XP.

I think 175.16 & Vista x64 & 8600GT SLI don't quite go together.

[millerman61]

Maybe it is a problem with both cards installing at the same time? Have you tried removing the cards in device manager, shut down,take one out, restarting and letting the one card install, then go back and install the second card and letting it install, then shut down, put the bridge on and reboot and enable sli?

[chuck1]

Hi millerman61,

Thanks for your reply. Apologies, it took so long to reply. I had been trying your advice out.

I had a go with a fresh install. And as you suggest, these are the steps:
1) With only one card in the main PCI-E slot:

a) Install Vista
b) Mobo drivers
c) 175.16 video driver
d) Reboot and waited 10mins until Vista finsihed whatever it needed to do
e) Shutdown PC

2) Now add 2nd card in the 2nd PCI-E slot:

a) Booted and waited 15mins until Vista finsihed whatever it needed to do: automatically install driver and something else...it took ages for the hard disk to settle down
b) Shutdown PC
c) Install SLI bridge connector
d) Boot up and waited 10mins for hard disk to setle down
e) NVidia Control Panel -> Enabled SLI

Result: Some success ==> It enabled it successfully after a couple screen flickers.

However, although when I ran 3DMark03, SLI was active...SLI indicators, the images on the screen is not crisp and clear...I see "tearing" lines random displayed on the screen. I installed those hotfixes again, but it made no difference.

Incidently, I found 171.16 drivers on CD which cames with the video card for Vista x64. I installed it with both cards still plugged in. After first reboot, I got the normal message that the SLI is ready to be enabled. From NVidia control panel, SLI was enabled successfully after a couple of screen flickers, and rebooted again. Funnily, I did not see the "SLI is enabled" during bootup to desktop. But SLI remained enabled in NVidia control panel.

Now when I ran 3DMark03, the images on the screen are crisp and clear. Achieved a score of 18650.

Also, I stand corrected in my last post. With single card, the 3DMark03 was about 11500 (XFX)/12500(XpertVision). So SLI actually made a fair improvement of around 50% (1.5x). Maybe the 18k result was with both cards plugged in with SLI enabled, but just ran with single CPU mode. So if SLI would still be helping out even though "Single-CPU" was selected, then this could explain the 18k result I got.

Perhaps, I should have got identical cards. Although both cards I have are same spec, the XFX has 333MHz RAMDACs, whereas XpertVision is 400MHz. I still feel something is not right with the XpertVision card. On it's own, the PC does not always boot up properly. Quite often (once every 3-4 boot ups), it gets past the Vista logo, but then does not display the desktop (just blank). The XFX does not have this problem at all and boots up every time. I also find that in SLI is better with XFX in the main slot, and XpertVision in the 2nd.

Anyway, I think I will stick with just the single XFX card for now (I should be able to use 175.16 drivers in non-SLI mode). Even though it's slightly slower, at least it's 100% stable, and the output quality also appears a lot better compared with XpertVision one.

Thanks for the advice.