[rolldog]

I've been running an EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked GPU and I just installed a 2nd card to run SLI (same exact card but the new one has an EVGA ACX cooler on it). I put it in the 2nd slot, which is where it says to put it on my Asus Maximus VI Formula MB. When I first powered on my system, it installed an Nvidia driver, but my PC doesn't recognize my card. According to Nvidia, to enable SLI, you must select SLI in the Nvidia control panel, but an SLI option isn't where it says it is. Actually, nowhere in the Nvidia control panel is an option for SLI.
Is there a different driver I need to use or does something need to be changed in my BIOS? When I go into my BIOS, under PCIe configuration, it shows my original card in slot 1, now running at 8x instead of 16x (when running SLI on this MB, it says slot 1 and slot 2 will run at 8x, instead of 16x, which it does when running 1 card).
So this makes me think the MB recognizes the 2nd card, but something isn't configured right. I have both slots set for GEN3, and if I boot without the SLI bridge installed, it still doesn't recognize the card.
Here are the specific details for each card. One card, the new one, has a slightly higher base clock than my older card, but I didn't think that would make much of a difference since I have my older card OC'd.
These are both EVGA cards.
New card: Part Number: 03G-P4-2884-KR
Old card: Part Number: 03G-P4-2883-KR

Does anyone have any suggestions to get these working, or at least getting the 2nd card recognized? And just so you know, I'm running a Corsair AX1200i PSU so I should have enough power. I have my original card watercooled, and I plan on watercooling the 2nd card, but I just want to make sure it's working first. The 2nd card is also a tight fit because the tubing from my 1st card runs to my Z87 chips waterblock next, which is right between the 2 cards. I thought about unhook in my first card and just running the new card by itself to make sure it's working properly, but I'd like to exhaust all my other options first since it's going to be a pain in the ass to remove the card from my waterloop so I can run the other card by itself. Would it make any difference if I uninstalled all my drivers running my 1st card, installing both cards, and then reinstalling the drivers when I have both setup? Or would uninstalling Precision X, which is what I use to OC my card, and try to set them up running at their base clocks or up the levels on the old card to match the base clock of the new card since the new card has a slightly higher base clock?

I know this is a long post, but I wanted everyone know exactly what I have and what I've done to reduced the back and forth initial questions. Please, I hope someone could provide some suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Magical Eskimo]

Have you done a wipe of all nvidia drivers and reinstalled?

 

[MrTOOSHORT]

Remove the drivers.

I remove the PhysX driver, then the graphics driver.

Then I use ccleaner to remove any other trace of NVidia registry files( which only gets a couple )

Then I use driver sweeper to get all the old Nvidia files out. Then reboot, then install the newest drivers.

 

[hanzy]

If the complete driver wipe with CC cleaner does not work:
Is the card showing in device manager at all?
Obviously make sure you are using the correct cables\connectors at the PSU, good connections
Try reseating the GPU
You can try another SLI bridge(long shot I know)
If you can try the GPU in another mobo
You may have a defective PCI slot. Has happened to me on an EVGA X58 mobo.

 

[rolldog]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll try some of these things when I get home in a bit. I didn't remove any of the Nvidia drivers, so I guess I could do that running off the GPU on the MB, actually the processor, and I'll report back with what I've tried, the results, etc. I think I have everything to try all of these if needed, but I'm hoping it's the drivers. When I turned on my PC initially, it automatically installed some Nvidia driver that wasn't there before which makes me think the MB is recognizing it.

 

[rolldog]

This sucks. I uninstalled all the drivers, ran CC Cleaner to remove the junk, reinstalled new drivers, and the new card still isn't being recognized. I switched the 8 pin and 6 pin power cables that go into each card, but the 2nd card still can't be seen.

I changed the PCIe slots in the BIOS to Auto instead of Gen3, I reseated the card, but nothing.
@hanzy, the new card is not showing in device manager, but I know I'm using the right cables. I even switched them out for another set just in case moddy.com messed one up one of the cables when they sleeved all of thrm.
Tomorrow, I'm going to try this new card either in another system if it'll fit (it's REALLY OLD, something like 5 computer years. If that doesn't work, I'll try pulling out the older card, put the new one in its place and see if it works when I try running off that card on its own. The fans on the ACX card spin, so I know it's getting power. This is more frustrating than I thought it was going to be.

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[hanzy]

Yeah it is a huge pain to swap cards in a water cooled setup. Makes me dread having problems. I know the feeling.

I just looked up your mobo. Can you try the card in the bottom most PCI slot? The board is supposed to supp. 3 way. That should save you some time with the trouble shooting.

Are you on the latest BIOS for the MB by the way? If not it would be worth it to update to the latest version. A "hail Mary" I know, but worth trying. Plus, on these newer mobo's its so easy to do.

Then the only thing left to do is try the card in a different computer. If it works you know it is the PCI slot

The card not showing up in device manager is what makes me think it is either the card or the slot. In my experience if it is drive or software related the GPU will show there but with some sort of error message.

 

[rolldog]

I have an older computer laying around, but I've pulled parts from it here and there. Hopefully I'll have enough to try and run the card on it. Since I bought this 2nd card off Ebay from someone who upgraded to a 900 Series card, my window of opportunity to return it is slowly getting shorter. I have a feeling I might need to drain my loop and see if I can get the card working by itself in slot 1, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

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[Emmanuel]

Here are some issues I can think of:
-the PCI Express slot you're using for the 2nd card is either disabled in the BIOS or via a jumper on the motherboard
-the card isn't properly seated
-card is dead

Before dismissing card not properly seated, I had an issue with my motherboard and case. Whenever I screwed in an extension card to the case, it would unsit the card just enough from the PCI Express slot to not offer the option for SLI but the 2nd GPU would still show up in Device Manager! So my recommendation is to unscrew the GPU, push down on both sides of the GPU and boot into Windows, see if that makes any difference. Also, I see you're watercooling your cards, make sure tube tension is not pushing the cards out of the slot.

 

[MrTOOSHORT]

Good news it's an evga card, so you can use the guest rma procedure if needed or just return the card back for refund:

http://www.evga.com/support/guestregister.asp

No need for a receipt or to be the original owner, just serial number.

 

[hanzy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolldog

I have an older computer laying around, but I've pulled parts from it here and there. Hopefully I'll have enough to try and run the card on it. Since I bought this 2nd card off Ebay from someone who upgraded to a 900 Series card, my window of opportunity to return it is slowly getting shorter. I have a feeling I might need to drain my loop and see if I can get the card working by itself in slot 1, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

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Dude, did you read my edit? Try slot 3 on the mobo! Then update BIOS, and then you can try the card in a different system/slot 1.
Anyway that's what I would do.

Edit:Thanks for posting the guest RMA process mrtooshort. Definitely helpful to the OP.

 

[rolldog]

Instead of trying slot 3, yesterday I did what I was hoping to avoid and drained my waterloop, unhooked my original 780 Ti, and put the new card in its slot, and it worked fine. This new card has the EVGA ACX cooler on it, and after running it for a little while, I realized how much better having everything watercooled is. That thing was LOUD!

So, now that I know the card works, I need to determine if my PCI slot works. One thing I noticed when installing the card is how much room that ACX cooler takes up, on all sides of the card, and since my Asus Maximus VI Formula MB has the armor built onto it, you really have to make sure the card is properly seated in the PCIe slot because to ACX cooler and the armor on the MB come in contact with each other. So, I could either order the waterblock for the new card, this will give me plenty of room to work with and not have to worry about the cooler and the armor preventing a good fit in the PCIe slot, or I could find something else to put in slot 2 to make sure it works. The only other PCI card I have is a small PCI card which gives me a few extra USB3 connectors. PCIe slot 1 runs at 16x with 1 card installed. When 2 cards are installed, PCIe slots 1 & 2 run at 8x. I know 1 card is supposed to be put in slot 1, but if I move it to slot 2, should it work? If I had to guess, between the bulk of this ACX cooler, the armor on the MB, and having a waterblock on the Z87 chipset, which is right between slots 1 & 2, I think the card wasn't properly seated but once I remove the cooler and hook a waterblock to it, the actual size of the card will be smaller and it should easily be seated in slot 2.

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[rolldog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hanzy

Quote:

Originally Posted by rolldog

I have an older computer laying around, but I've pulled parts from it here and there. Hopefully I'll have enough to try and run the card on it. Since I bought this 2nd card off Ebay from someone who upgraded to a 900 Series card, my window of opportunity to return it is slowly getting shorter. I have a feeling I might need to drain my loop and see if I can get the card working by itself in slot 1, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk

Dude, did you read my edit? Try slot 3 on the mobo! Then update BIOS, and then you can try the card in a different system/slot 1.
Anyway that's what I would do.

Edit:Thanks for posting the guest RMA process mrtooshort. Definitely helpful to the OP.

I can't run SLI using slot 3, but I was able to put it in slot 1 and remove my old card, and it worked fine.

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[hanzy]

But you could put it in slot 3 to see if it is recognized in device manager. Quick and easy test. Are you saying you cant run SLI in slot 3 because you don t have a bridge that is long enough? Because that is the only reason i could think of.
Or you can take your card with the block on it and stick it in slot 2. See what happens. At the very least it should show up in device manager.

From what you're saying we just need to determine if it is the slot or the card not being fully seated. This should be easy enough.

 

[IcarusLSC]

It should work in any pcie 8 or 16 lane, just may not be able to do sli. Any option on the board or in the Bios to turn each pcie slot on/off? Check that.
Asus service sucks so you should be fine there if you need it , good luck

 

[rolldog]

It's an Asus Maximus VI Formula ROG MB, and on this board, slot 1 runs at 16x with 1 card installed, 8x with cards installed in slots 1 & 2, slot 3 runs at 4x. Here are the specs from the Asus website regarding the expansion slots, same info in the manual:

3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8 or x8/x4/x4) *1
1 x mini-PCIe 2.0 x1 *2
3 x PCIe 2.0 x1

Now, I was going to try my old card in slot 2, but my waterloop prevents me from putting it there unless I extend the tubing. During this experience, I've convinced myself to install quick disconnects in place of all my fittings.

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