When Even Hardware Screws You

[Norgy]

I have a rig that's probably in the 6000 dollars bracket.

I bought an eVGA GTX 980, and to compliment it, I bought an MSi GTX 980 Gaming card as well. The cards are probably not clocked equally. I think the latter is clocked a bit higher.
After I installed the card, booting was impossible. Even from the Win 7 DVD.
It sticks on the splash screen and nothing happens. I have a feeling this is a BIOS issue, 'cause it kicks off again once I remove and reset the CMOS battery. Normally SLI-ing two cards even with different clocks would be easy. I think my BIOS is too old, despite it being one of the top MBs in the Z87 series from ASUS.

If anyone has something on this, it'd be much appreciated.
How do I get this to work?

[viper37]

A few things first.

Boot with one card only, the old one.  Does it boot?  Perfect.  Get a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard.
Asus site with Z87 motherboards
To flash your BIOS, put the file on a USB stick, boot into BIOS, go for the last menu in advanced settings, you'll see an option, EZflash, I think it's called, or something like that.  Do it, reboot, readjust your BIOS settings or simply load 'optimized defaults'.

Now, let's try the the other card.  Does it work alone?  Yes?  Perfect.

Do SLI cards still require a connector?  In the past they used to, today I do not know.  It's a little piece of plastic that sits on top of your two cards, linking them.  Sometimes, it can look like a mall ribbon.  It comes with the motherboard, IIRC.

It doesn't matter if the cards have different clocks, they will auto-adjust to the slowest one.  Unless you overclock your slowest card with MSI After Burner.

Ah, naturally, if one of the cards doesn't boot as standalone, it is likely defective.

[viper37]

Also, did you try to plug the monitors in both cards?  You might have picked the wrong one, inadvertently.

[DontSayBanana]

Also, did you try to plug the monitors in both cards?  You might have picked the wrong one, inadvertently.

Or even plugged into the integrated video; even I've slipped up, had a forgetful moment, and done that.

[dps]

Hmm.  Given the thread title, I was hoping Norgy had invented a sexbot.

[Norgy]

I think I have done just about what I can.

I got both cards to work.

Both are recognised.

I even got Windows to boot with both installed. But when I SLI them, Windows apparently hates me.

I upgraded BIOS. I think I am stuck with one card.

[Grey Fox]

More Power.

[Norgy]

I have 1200 watts of Corsair AX 1200i.

[viper37]

I think I have done just about what I can.

I got both cards to work.

Both are recognised.

I even got Windows to boot with both installed. But when I SLI them, Windows apparently hates me.

I upgraded BIOS. I think I am stuck with one card.

I don't think it's the BIOS, since computers support SLI/Crossfire since, well, since it came out 10 years ago?
Given the recent hardware, it should support it, so long as the board as two PCI-E x16 lanes (wich it has, otherwise you couldn't plug the card in ).

But it never hurts to upgrade a BIOS.

[DontSayBanana]

I have a rig that's probably in the 6000 dollars bracket.

I bought an eVGA GTX 980, and to compliment it, I bought an MSi GTX 980 Gaming card as well. The cards are probably not clocked equally. I think the latter is clocked a bit higher.
After I installed the card, booting was impossible. Even from the Win 7 DVD.
It sticks on the splash screen and nothing happens. I have a feeling this is a BIOS issue, 'cause it kicks off again once I remove and reset the CMOS battery. Normally SLI-ing two cards even with different clocks would be easy. I think my BIOS is too old, despite it being one of the top MBs in the Z87 series from ASUS.

If anyone has something on this, it'd be much appreciated.
How do I get this to work?

Which Z87 motherboard do you have?  Based on what you've said, it's sounding to me like a BIOS configuration issue where one or both cards are trying to take exclusive control of video, but as many differences as there are in mobo BIOS configurations, I couldn't even guarantee what settings you have available without knowing which variant of the mobo you have.  Is it the Z87-A, Z87-PRO, Z87-Deluxe, or is it something else?

[Darth Wagtaros]

Either my video has died or my whole computer has died.  Either way it is: angrifying.

[Norgy]

The Z87 Deluxe Dual. It was supposed to be the bees knees when I bought it.

[DontSayBanana]

Which PCI Express slots are you using?  Apparently the 3.0 slots support SLI and Crossfire, but the 2.0 slots only support Crossfire...

[Norgy]

Supposedly, all the three PCI-E slots were 3.0, but it could be that once again I have missed some driver updates from Asus or Intel chipset updates.

I'll check again. Thanks for the tip, mate!

[viper37]

Either my video has died or my whole computer has died.  Either way it is: angrifying.

if the computer turns on, all the fans are spinning, the power supply too, then it's the video card.