Dual ATI Setup Help

[Khane]

Just a quick question, i just got my new pc built with dual ATI HA4870's in it, tho it's not setup for CrossfireX yet because they didn't supply any pci bridges with the cards, Windows has stopped the 2nd card from working..
"Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"
"Description:
Windows was able to successfully install device driver software, but the driver software encountered a problem when it tried to run. The problem code is 43."

I'm not sure if this is just because the bridge isn't installed or if there's a setting somewhere that needs changing? I'm running Vista Ultimate 64-bit and on a Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 mainboard.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hi,

You don't always need a Xfire bridge, i had 3 ATI cards in Xfire at the start of the year, go into ATI CATALYST, there is a setting in that to enable Xfire, just tick a box and restart.

 

[Khane]

we did try that when we had it running yesterday and it had the box disabled and was saying it wanted the bridges installing, i just ran the Reliability Monitor and found it's giving the "tv_configmgrerr43" error which the ATI website sais could be caused by not having enough power and a few other things, yet it was working fine till i got it home from the shop.

 

[Waynos_Face]

What kind of Power Supply have you got???

If you saw it working and it was fine, was it running a game?????

As the idle and load power consumption will be different, you will need at least 800W for those two bad boys.

I had ATI 3 series cards on a MSI K9A2 Platinum board and didn't need bridges, but i suppose that board might,

Does it need an extra 4 pin power connector on the motherboard to run XFire as some do???

 

[Waynos_Face]

On the top right of the motherboard is an extra connection to power Xfire, black 4 pin, needs a molex in it.

 

[Khane]

the tower has an 850w psu in it (Antac) tho the cards are both 1gb versions not the 500mb ones, i don't even know if Xfire was even active when i tried running a game because i never had an option to enable it.

 

[Khane]

\o/ just found out the problem, both the cards are Crossfire Edition and one apparantly has to be Crossfire Ready for it to work as a slave >.<

 

[Waynos_Face]

That makes little sense, every 4870 is Xfire ready....

Doesn't matter which one is in which slot.

Edit: hey was just looking at some reviews of the 1GB cards, they use upto 350W each!!!!

So an 850W PSU is gonna be borderline.

once you take into account;

Processor upto 100W for any Intel, upto 175W any AMD
Motherboard upto 100W
HardDrives and DVD 50W
Fans and USB 25W

Then soundcard, wireless card, Joystick, keyboard, mouse, it all adds up.

Not sure about Antec PSU, some on here don't rate em.

 

[Khane]

everything in the case is powered up and running fine with this psu, i think now it might just be that i need the crossfire bridge cables, and there's no xfire power connector on this mainboard, the book doesn't even mention xfire anywhere in it.

 

[Alf]

I have a Antec Quattro (850W) and i havent had any problems