Topic: 5 GPU setup issues (Read 850 times)

For some reason, maybe the firmware got corrupted on the cards that wont work anymore.  I had that happen to a couple of my Sapphire 7950's when I was trying to find the best hashing rate.  I over did it with one of my configs and 2 of 3 cards firmware corrupted.  They had the firmware switch on them, so I powered down and moved the switch to the second position and they worked again.  I then moved the switch back and reflashed them both.  I had created a usbkey to boot dos from to flash the cards.  See if that helps.

I searched around for some pics of the card to see if you have the firmware switch on the card, but I could not find an pic that was clear enough.

Here is a pic of the switch on the top of my 7950 card.

I have the GD55 versikon of your board, and I jsut spent a ton of time getting linux to run on it.

At first, only 3 card showed up.  Only cards plugged into the 16x ports worked directly and w/ powered 16-16 risers.  The ones in the 1x-16x risers wouldn't show up.

Solution:
Updated to latest catalyst beta drivers on linux.

Result: all 5 cards show up (3 powers 16-16 riser, 2 unpowerd 1x-16x riser.  No dummy plug, no other tricks needed

This mobo shouldn't need the short trick in the above post.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/list-of-motherboard-that-require-shorting-pin-a1-b17-for-pci-e-1x-to-work-36061 check out this thread

Alright I have found that 5 cards is probably too much for this system.

Here is what I did, I unplugged all the cards and just plugged them in one at a time to see which would work. Only 2 of the 5 would work on their own and give video to my monitor.

All these cards are new so I don't understand why they are not working on their own. I have two cards working on the system and when I plug in another one the computer will load and then freeze shortly after. I have ordered the dummy plugs as well as been looking at shorting the 1x port as described in other posts. Any other ideas?

No each card is not showing up on its own. I think maybe the risers are bad, they were showing up when I installed windows 7 but as 7970 instead of 280x. I then read that windows wouldnt take more than 4 cards so I installed windows 8 now only seeing 2 cards. I am fine with just running the 4 if power is a issue. Yes mobo has plenty of power and each card has its own power source as well. I read online about using dummy plugs for the other gpus and shorting the 1x slot using a wire. Thanks for your help. Im open to suggestions.

Oh and I am not using any splitters.

Does each card work on it's own w/o anything else plugged into the mobo?

Are you sure they're getting enough power? (COUNT the load wires (yellow) going from PSU to card, do NOT use any splitters)

IMO, 1600w is not enough for 5 cards.  Each card is rated for 300w.  1600 * 85% efficiency = 1360w.  you also have to pay attention to the power output per rail.

Alright I built this for litecoins but same principal.

Here is my setup.

1600 watt psu http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007W5TV6K/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=onsimobicomps-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B007W5TV6K&adid=0TSSEEV0RC81HPVBKQD4

Mother board MSI Z77A-GD65- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007QWIA52/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=onsimobicomps-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B007QWIA52&adid=0PFP81V7KE692HCNM2EZ

5 of the rx 280x- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FLMKNE0/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=onsimobicomps-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B00FLMKNE0&adid=1RHD3XK1P1GDBP3WPQ5V

Intel Celeron Processor

8 gb of ram

32gb ssd card

running windows 8

used a shelf from lowes for the case

using 1x to 16x risers for the cards

Mobo here http://www.coinminingrigs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/6-gpu-bitcoin-mining-hardware.png

My issues
1. I can only get 2 cards to show up on the mobo. They are plugged in using 1x to 16x risers, non powered I have 5 cards in a row. Only number 1 (the monitor is attached to it) and number 5 will show up on the device manager.

I am using 1x to 16x risers gpu number 1 is in the 1x (black) slot next to Military Class 3, then I skip the 16x and plug card 5 in the next 1x slot. I tried plugging in the other 3 cards into this same slot but they do not show up when the computer boots. They power on, the fan runs but I get nothing.

I tried plugging the cards directly into the 16x slot and nothing works at all the screen just loads black. I unplug from the 16x slot and it comes back on.

The cards that I can get working are set up great. Im getting about 1450-1500 kh/s from the two. So getting all 5 working would make my day.

I followed this guide to build the set up and it led back to this forum http://www.coinminingrigs.com/ please go to the 6 gpu guide thats the one I used. I only got 5 gpu's due to using the 1600 psu

Here are some questions I was asked when working with a guy on skype,

1. Yes everything is plugged in correctly. Each gpu has both 8 pin slots plugged in. The psu has 6 power slots for gpus I am using 5 of them.
2. Each card turns on and the fan runs when plugged into the gpu but only the 2 will show up and work.

Feel free to throw ideas at me. I have cgminer working great with the two cards and really want the other 3 up and running. Its been nothing but issues since I got this miner. First was 7 day delayed shipping due to weather. Then had issues with windows 8 setting up correctly and finally only 2 of 5 cards are working. I am hoping within the next few days I can get that resolved as well.