Gigabyte GA-8i915P - Dual Video Card Setup

G

Guest

After much frustration, I am unable to get quad display working.

I've tried everything I can think of and no joy. Any help would be
appreciated.

System specs:

3.2 Ghz Intel Proc
2 gigs Ram
2 SATA 300 gb Maxtor HD
2 Asus Extreme AX550 256mb PCI-E Video Cards

Things Tried:

Updated Windows - Ver 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
Basically, I've installed every update for windows I could find.
Updated MB Bios ver f9
Swapped monitors (Samsung LCD Digital) - both work fine
Swapped video cards - both work fine
Checked seating on video cards - seems fine
Checked settings in Bios - no apparent setting for activating secondary
PCI-E slot
Set dip switches according to manual - all on
Even tried dip switches at all off - no change


Have installed as per the motherboard manual and have had no luck.
Manual clearly indicates that quad display is available, but it appears that
windows doesn't even see the second card (as per device manager).

Any suggestions? Place of purchase for components has no clue.
What have I not tried?

Thanks in advance.
 
G

Guest

Thanks Rich,

However, I'm not trying to run the cards in SLi - essentially two video
cards working as one.

What I want is two fully seperate video cards - in theory to run 4 monitors.

Thank you for the effort though. (I was actually aware of that link you
posted.)
 
G

Guest

Again, thanks for the links. Not what I'm looking for.

I'm actually quite familiar with dual head as I've been running dual
monitors for over 6 years now. Pretty familiar with most tricks.

My real problem is the fact that my motherboard or the OS isn't recognizing
the second video card. The second I can get it to see the second card, I'm
can make it jump through hoops.

But thank you for your efforts.
 
G

Guest

Again, thank you. That is some great information.

However I'm NOT trying to run in SLI mode. I'm trying to run it in Quad
Video mode. Two very seperate video cards. According to the motherboard
manual, this is very plausible. So they say.

I've set everything up as per instructions and the OS only recognizes the
first video card.

But thanks again for the effort.
 
G

Guest

I assume you have updated the Powered by ATI cards drivers from the AsusTek
site..
http://support.asus.com/download/download_item.aspx?product=9&model=EAX550 Series&SLanguage=en-us
And have checked out the online PDF manual for any last minute revisions or
info for the card..?
http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/pciexpress/onboard.html
Your mobo seems to be co-validated, but wasn't tested with the X550, not
sure if that would be an issue or relevent..?
I also noticed that there are a lot of Gigabyte boards with the 915 chipset,
socket 775 some 16 possible configs.. Searching the Gigabyte site, I used
your limited info from your original post and found 8 possible models and
none of the 8 updated the BIOS to f9, I think f7 and FE were the top update
range for the 8 models scanned..

Well, checked the other 8 and no f9 BIOS updates for all now, 16 possible
models scanned with no f9 BIOS update found.. So, something isn't right..
Where did you get the f9 BIOS update..? This is where I looked, see link
below.
http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/Manual_List.aspx?CPUType=Socket+775
Click on your exact model # for your board, click on BIOS and see for
yourself..
Any comments..?
The Everest diagnostic utility tool may help you to ID your mobo's model #,
it's free..
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
Post your results..
j;-j
 
G

Guest

Holy smokes man. You are certainly dedicated.

After reviewing my original post, you are very correct. My bios is not F9,
but rather F4. Blame it on fat fingers. Sorry if you've been sent on a wild
goose chase.

Best I can tell, the F4 is the latest bios.

As for the drivers and last minute manual, I most certainly have.

I'm starting to lose faith. I've sent an email to Gigabyte, but it could be
quite a while before I get a response from them.

Once again, thank you for your effort.
 
G

Guest

I have a Supermicro motherboard and running a quadro FX 1300 in the 16x pci-x
slot and a geforce 6660 in the 4x pci-x slot.

In 32bit windows xp I had a lot of success with using the quadro drives for
both cards

In 64bit windows xp was sometimes a bit tricky. You have to enable the
monitors when they are turned off and turn them on... very strange ... vista
64 is the same way.

Vista 32 is okay but its having a lot of trouble with 3d games (word of
warcraft) .. same as vista 64.. both hang up on boot of the game, sometimes
bsod. I tried disabling the transparent windows in vista which sometimes
keeps it from locking up but still sometimes BSOD
 
G

Guest

Hey Ryan,

Did you have to correct any of the settings in XP (32bit)? Was there
anything in your bios that you had to change so that the second card was
recognized?

I certainly have noticed stability issues, but that's almost expected.
Those I can normally work out with time.

Thanks for the response.
 
G

Guest

Nope, no need to configure bios settings on the supermicro motherboard. It
automatically defaulted to the geforce 6600 as primary video card ( i think
this can be changed in the bios but i never cared)

In XP it was stable as all hell, I could even stretch warcraft accross all 4
monitors (of couse it gave me 2fps in the game but looked rather impressive)
without it crashing the game, or OS.

Now I am lucky to get the game started in vista before the whole system
freezes or bsod. .. i guess they have their reasons for pushing the release
date back to jan2007
 

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