MadChicago Posted May 3, 2006 Posted May 3, 2006 Hello. I recently purchased a second BFG 7800GTX OC 256MB to add to my existing BFG 7800 GTX OC 256MB card for use in SLI, of course. After installing the new system components (ie. SLI-D from Ultra-D, 2nd 7800GTX), everything seems to be working nicely, including the board POST sequence, memory timings, power, etc. The machine appears to be booting up just fine once I power up. POST screen comes up and the WinXP startup screen appears, where the little bar going across the screen under the WinXP logo is working. However, when the machine would normally bring up my WinXP login screen, my monitor remains black but the monitor is not sleeping, it just isn't putting out the login screen image. Also, I can 'virtually' login (basically login but can't see anything on the sceen) and I can here my machine logggin into my OS, but the sceen still stays blank. Does this sound more like a graphics driver or a BIOS issue to all of you?? BFG thinks its the beta forceware that I am using, but I'm not sure. Also, when I do do the reformat on this machine, is it safe to do a fresh reformat with SLI already setup, or should I install the OS in single card mode and then setup the 2nd card for SLI once my system is running smoothly?? MC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted May 3, 2006 Posted May 3, 2006 First try uninstalling your ForceWare drivers. When you come back from the reboot try out 84.21 drivers since your issues seems kind of odd. Have you checked your driver settings to confirm your SLI is properly working? Also try flashing to the latest Bios version for your board. In most cases a simple reformat/reinstall of Windows XP fixes alot of conflicts between drivers and applications, but before you do that try some of my suggestions since that Bios you got their on your board is some what old. Note: If none of the above work, take out one of your nVIDIA cards and boot into windows to uninstall the drivers and then reboot, come back reinstall and after its done, shut down. Reinstall the nVIDIA card and confirm the proper installation of the bridge and see if you can get your SLI up again. I hope to this point your login screen is fixed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadChicago Posted May 3, 2006 Posted May 3, 2006 Ok, I will give those options a try. Thanks! Most likely I am going to have to take out the 2nd card and change the board jumpers so I can get back into WinXP to change out the graphics drivers in single card mode. Before I installed the new card, the nVidia drivers appeared ready for the 2nd card to be installed for SLI and everything was running very smoothly. With 2 cards in SLI, I can't see anything thats going on when XP boots, since the sceen remains dark after the XP boot screen. So, trying to change out graphics drivers while not being able to see whats going on might become...treacherous! Also, I would normally jump right in and make the BIOS switch but, besides the screen going blank at login, everything is working rather smoothly. I'd hate to boink my system with a bad BIOS flash when it wasn't really working 'bad' in the first place (or at least I am going to try drivers first). One more question: On the SLI-D board, is it safe to install/format a fresh OS while the system is in SLI mode or should the OS be installed in single card mode?? Danke! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cronocrash Posted May 3, 2006 Posted May 3, 2006 Have you tried booting in Safe Mode and changing your video settings? Are you running dual monitors? Sometimes if the settings that the OS is trying to display cause a problem it will just display nothing. Yes it is safe to reinstall windows in SLI mode, but I don't think this problem will require that your reinstall. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadChicago Posted May 3, 2006 Posted May 3, 2006 Have you tried booting in Safe Mode and changing your video settings? Are you running dual monitors? Sometimes if the settings that the OS is trying to display cause a problem it will just display nothing. Yes it is safe to reinstall windows in SLI mode, but I don't think this problem will require that your reinstall. Good point. I will try and go into the system tonight in safe mode and see whats cooking, of course, if I am able to 'see' whats going on even in safe mode. I should point out here ( ) that I have just swapped out my older Ultra-D board as well as put in the new 7800GTX, ...but, I have just been trying to boot off the previously installed OS that was running my Ultra-D and single 7800GTX card. So, I may want to do that reformat no matter what, especially since this board has the older 06/23/05 BIOS and my Ultra-D was running the 11/14/05 BIOS. I was trying to get the OS to work with the new board and 2nd card (just to make sure that everything was working well enough) before I went ahead and did the reformat. Thanks for the input. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted May 3, 2006 Posted May 3, 2006 I don't think the Ultra-D and SLI-D are any different from each other or from different Bios version. Can you check which Bios version are running on each 7800GT? Are the both the same or different which should matter since the new Forceware drivers let's you use different bios version on the same cards now i think. I would go ahead and reformat since you really don't have anything else to lose, right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadChicago Posted May 3, 2006 Posted May 3, 2006 I don't think the Ultra-D and SLI-D are any different from each other or from different Bios version. Can you check which Bios version are running on each 7800GT? Are the both the same or different which should matter since the new Forceware drivers let's you use different bios version on the same cards now i think. I would go ahead and reformat since you really don't have anything else to lose, right? Agreed. The BIOS versions on the 2 BFG 7800GTX cards are different. However, after speaking with BFG support this morning about having diff BIOS files on the two cards, they fealt that that shouldn't make a difference anymore with the 84.xx version graphics drivers. I think my new card's BIOS file ended in xx.xx.xx.25 and the old one was xx.xx.xx.01. I will try (more for the fact of knowing) to boot into safe mode and mess with the drivers. I suppose it would be ideal to just reformat and make sure drivers and OS files are all happy with the new board. Thanks again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadChicago Posted May 4, 2006 Posted May 4, 2006 I booted into XP in safe mode, uninstalled beta forceware 84.43, installed latest official release 84.21 drivers, and checked the 'enable SLI' box in the CP and all is well. SLI rocks!!! Oblivion (especially with the new beta patch) runs wicked good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cronocrash Posted May 4, 2006 Posted May 4, 2006 grats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadChicago Posted May 5, 2006 Posted May 5, 2006 grats Danke for your recommendation! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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