SLI getting disabled some time after bootup

[duh FooL]

I have a weird problem.

 

If I play any games or benchmarks right after I boot up, SLI is enabled and working.

My 3dMark06 scores are a shade over 7K and if I enable show load balancing, I get the bars on the screen.

Both cards heat up, with one being ~5C hotter than the other.

 

:sad:

However, if I leave my PC alone for a while and then come back (longest I've left it was about 30 min), my performance drops to that of a single GPU.

3dMark06 score drops to roughly 5.5K and I no longer see the load balancing on my screen.

Also, I notice that only one card is heating up and the other is at normal idle temp.

 

I'm running the 91.47 drivers, but it still occurred using 91.31

I've check both cards by themselves and have had no problems when running singly.

 

I'm not overclocking them either.

One thing I did notice is that when this is occuring, I always drop to a black screen after running a 3D benchmark or playing a 3D game.

I have to hit ctl-alt-del to get the Windows Security window to come up and hit Escape to be able to see the desktop again.

 

:confused:

Any ideas?

[duh FooL]

As I was browsing the net to find people with similar problems, I stumbled upon this.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=20104

 

I tried to see if it would fix my problem with the black screen that I encountered and apparently it was also the cause of my SLI being disabled.

 

I'm guessing that the Java app was causing the nVidia drivers to not detect that I had a 3D app running.

 

The reason for it to be delayed... cause I wouldn't always run Azereus at the same time :tooth:

 

I haven't tried installing Java 6 yet, but now I know to exit any Java apps when playing.

[davidk21770]

2 Things:

 

1. Boot to safe mode, uninstall the drivers, run driver cleaner, reboot to safe mode, reinstall the drivers, reboot to safe mode again to let the drivers recognize the cards and configure themselves. NOW, you can boot to full-up windows. Driver cleaner will remove all nVidia drivers, so you'll also need the rest of the nVidia drivers (video, audio and nForce) so be prepared... (and it's probably to good idea to uninstall them all instead of just the video at the 1st boot to safe mode).

 

2. Your PSU seems underpowered for these cards. Are you sure that they're not dropping out because they're not getting enough power and the processor faults. Check that you have enough power on each rail to supply the max of what's hooked to the rail. (Not just overall power supplied -- the power supplied by each rail is limited).

[duh FooL]

Thanks the reply.

 

1. Already did this when trying to solve this issue (several times in fact).

2. I doubt it's my power supply since it has three different +12v rails and the symptoms aren't the same.

 

Making sure no Java app was running solved my problems.

It not something that's obvious, at least to me, since I didn't equate running a Java app with messing up hardware.

 

I did install Java 6 Beta and it does not have this issue, in case you need to run Java apps while playing your favourite game.