Topic: Any ASRock 970 Extreme4 owners out there? Problems with GPUs (Read 13853 times)

had some problems with booting 5 gpus(4x1070+1080ti).just disabled sound,1394 and serial port.
then system was starting but rebooting after 5 sec of working.
i booted in a safe mode, uninstalled nvidia drivers with DDU.and then - installed them again.
system booted succesfully, but when i start mining 5th gpu is droping.i'm just checking in nvidiaprofileinspector in @common@ - multidisplay performance mode.
that's all - all 5 gpus are in work.

Manage to get all 4 card running on this motherboard with 1x to 16x power riser on all card, The cards are running fine but I cannot understand why one of the card temperature is not reading correctly (temp -103.5C). I've tried a lot of different suggestion on this post but still no luck.
I have tested all the card and they all work as should.

Anyone else having this issue? Its been really hurting my head all week.

Specs:
- Ubuntu 12.04
- AMD Sempron 145 Sargas
- G.SKILL Ripjaw 4GB
- EVGA SuperNova 1300W G2 80 GOLD
- Sapphire Radeon 7950 OC (Dual-X)

https://i.imgur.com/vWGcQVM.png

I have a couple rigs with these boards.  All with 5 GPUs.  All the rigs use risers on all cards.  Three X16 unpowered risers and obviously X1 risers in the X1 slots.

Every board seems to be different in the combo it likes.  One you have to short the presence pins on the second X1 slot one you dont.  One you need powered risers on the X1 slots one only needs one X1 slot powered.


Easiest way is to just have all the parts ready and just try it out until you get it running.

I think you can do that, but you will have to make the last one 1x to 16x if you want to add more than the 3 later on.

ammi84, I think you have your nomenclature backwards on the board. PCI E 1 is the one closest to the CPU.
It seems that SLOT 4 (the middle 16x slot) has issues when you have 4-5 cards. I understand it is bc the power and bandwidth to the rest of the cards are directly related to that slot? I believe when you go to BIO, SB refers to that slot (and the rest) while ND refers to PCI-E 2 (first 16x slot), which I increased to 1.4V each--not sure if that was needed.

Currently, I have two boards with 5 x R7 240 hooked up on each (YACoin is awesome btw!). My test on unpowered risers definitely failed. I have two 16x to 16x (PCI E 2, PCIE 4) and the rest are powered 1x to 16x risers. HOWEVER, on the second board, I am getting away with the PCI E 1 1x 16x riser UNPOWERED. I think it helps that I have a low 45W Sempron CPU. My PSU is a 550W logisys.

What I love about YACoin is how it is such a CPU, GPU hybrid coin. It is pretty profitable with both depending on the CPU and depending on the GPU. But AMD CPUs are terrible for it compared to intel. I bought an ASRock H81 PRO BTC, and I am pretty pleased. I got 6 R7 240s (ALL UNPOWERED) with the same 550W PSU, and I have had no problems whatsoever. Plus, I am mining with my CPU. I just have two mining programs running--nothing special to set that up.

Many thanks to robbertone for the invaluable assistance! Give me a YAC address, and I'll send some your way.

Hi,

got 5 GPUs running with the 970E4 Board

But i have to plug 1 Card direct on the Board



Slot 1, 3, 4, 5 work with powered / cutted x1-x16 Riser
Slot 2 has to be plugged direct

Can i use a x16-x16 powered/cutted riser to get it workin or will the card not be recognized?

Thanks :-)

Hey guys owner of a Asrock 970 extreme here in need of some help. I am currently running 2 Sapphire 280X cards straight from the board but i will be adding a third one in a few days (waiting for a new psu) and i'd like to get some risers so that the cards won't be sandwiched together. Which should i get though? Will 3 unpowered 16x to 16x work?

I run Asrock970 ex4 with 5x R9 290 all on 1x16 powered risers...I had to short presence 16x slot (the on in the middle)..Once I done that system was detecting 5 cards but one kept getting SICK in CGMINER so I short presence 1x slot on the right from this 16x slot (the one in the middle - they are only 5 so it's easy to find) since that action everything seems fine (24h from then)..I still wonder if shorting the 1x slot was necessary or is it just bad card (it shouldn cause it was ok on this board for more then 1 month until i decide to upgrade it from 3 cards to 5 cards)...

Now i'm building new rig cause I want to run 10 cards and I wonder shall I order new mobo excatly the same, or some with 7x slots so I will run 6 cards in it and 4 cards in the current 970 ex4. what do You guys think? do you know any ~cheap mobo that can run 6x r9 290 with no problems (i don't care if i have to short the slots, I just don't want any card to keep dying during mining)...

What options I can switch off in bios to free some pci-e lines ?

Im not sure if you can mine CPU and GPU at the same time.  Im su9re its possible but I dunno what problems it might cause.

With Windows you are probably gonna have to do some tweaking to get all your GPUs to work.  Like make up some dummy plugs, and make sure you run the two MAX_ALLOC... commands.  Forget exactly but youll find them if you search.

If this will be a dedicated mining rig I suggest using Litecoin BAMT.  It seems complicated but its really alot easier and my BAMT rigs run 24/7 for months.

So right now I have two R7 240s plugged directly into the 16x lane slots. I have a third plugged into the last 16x slot via a 1x to 16x UNpowered riser. This set up seems to be working fine. However, when I tried to add a fourth riser to the pcie3 (which is 1x slot) via an unpowered risers, I get errors. I have windows 8.1, and the device manager says one of the gpus is disabled due to not working properly, but it seems like it is the first one? I think pushed it with the unpowered risers.

I tried the fourth gpu in pcie1 (1x slot), and the fan didn't turn on, nor was it recognized at all.

The R7 240s have a tdp of a mere 45W according to manufacturer. The CPU I'm running is kind of a beast at 125W, and I have it mining, so usage is at 99%. I suspect I can get away with a fourth unpowered riser by using a smaller CPU (Sempron). Otherwise, yea I think I need to get powered risers.

If you dont need a PCIe power connect and your pulling all of the power from the slot then you def need to power those risers.

I am going to attempt to install 4 R7 240s in a 970 extreme4 tonight. I will let you know how it goes... I am going to try with unpowered risers in all but the first slot (240s dont need a separate pcie power connector btw). Thanks so much for the info!

I use X16 risers in all three X16 slots and I run 5 GPUs on this board.  After building a few rigs for friends and my own few rigs I have come to the conclusion that each mobo / GPU is different and you just gotta see what it is gonna take to make your setup work.

One mobo want the X1 presence pins shorted one doesnt.  One will run with all 5 cards on a 1.09V BIOS one wont, one wants powered risers in the X1 slots one doesnt care.

Just gotta figure it out.  Easiest way is to pay attention and figure out what you have done already.   Just going at it switching things around will get you no where and aggravate you.  If you want to check the powered risers part then check each card remembering which ones you have done.  Write it down so your not trying the same thing over and over again.

You have to figure out which combination of powered / not powered risers, presence pins, BIOSs, etc will work.
[/quote]

I agree with you may I can add some of mine.

I start only with one card connected via a 16 to 16 riser.(I ALWAYS with  a 16 x16 riser  for this first card in the primary pcie X16 slot).
Risers 16 x16 unpowered and x1 risers powered and I to experienced that some times the power molec of certain risers should not be connected.
I use windows 8 as OS.
Always start with a clean OS windows 8.
Than load  the latest catalyst drivers for your GPU.
Than start installing the second GPU with the 1x riser , If this one is reconised, than restart the system and install the third gpu withe 1x riser. etc.
This goes on until you reached the last 5th card. Maybe this is not always necessary but for me it works without any stress

Do'nt change the ranking of the cards, you cannot change the risers to put them in an other slot.

If the system will not instal the card during process, please start up en retry this several times until its see in windows.
If the fan speed suddenly goes up during install just restart the system. Do not change anything.
Do not change the installed risers and the cards attached to them. In order to make this easy just number the cards with a label attached on them.

If all finally works than make a back up an image on the disk so you can always recover. Make a note or photo of the cards with their exact place on the board. Never change that. If it is changed however start the whole procedure again if the system does start anymore.

In my experience every card is unique and need via the pcie slot a fixed installed position.

It is possible to connect a six card to the system with the mobo Asrock H81 pro BTC ( a much easier board to install)  but in that case the procedure of the last GPU (6th) installment differs a bit.

I have used also gigabyte GA 277X-UD3H mobo.

If you ever use other boards , please start with the chip-set info of maximum lanes, than use the info of the mobo architecture of the slots and maximum lanes they can handle.
Start counting the slots to be use starting from the lowest (x1 or x4) than decide which slots above need to be used. In that case be certain that slots are not blocked if a slot with a higher number of lanes is used. Some times a 16x slot needs shorting to recognize the GPU.

Than start in the same way as described.
If the system finally does not work please start all over  with a clean windows 8 newly installed, do not continue with the old windows 8 OS already installed.

My advice: Work with a fixed scheme and be patience.

I use X16 risers in all three X16 slots and I run 5 GPUs on this board.  After building a few rigs for friends and my own few rigs I have come to the conclusion that each mobo / GPU is different and you just gotta see what it is gonna take to make your setup work.

One mobo want the X1 presence pins shorted one doesnt.  One will run with all 5 cards on a 1.09V BIOS one wont, one wants powered risers in the X1 slots one doesnt care.

Just gotta figure it out.  Easiest way is to pay attention and figure out what you have done already.   Just going at it switching things around will get you no where and aggravate you.  If you want to check the powered risers part then check each card remembering which ones you have done.  Write it down so your not trying the same thing over and over again.

You have to figure out which combination of powered / not powered risers, presence pins, BIOSs, etc will work.

I got to try this your procedure..I am installing 3 msi 280x and 1 HIS 280x..system works but everytime I am trying run CGMiner, got 510C temp and freeze right away. 

msi first 16x to 16x
his first 1x to 16x

third msi 16x to 16x
fourth msi 16x to 16x

all powered..still can't run cgminer..I thought it was motherboard.

I use the same board with 5 gpu's type  r9 290 cards.

No shortening needed for a Asrock 970 extreme 4

I use two 16 x16 riser cables on the first en second 16x slots. The are working than at x8.

The last  16x slot can only be occupied with an 1x riser cable, because an 16 to 16x cable in this last slot  would block the pcie x1 slots from working.
the other x1 slots can now work with  x1 risers (see manual).

Install one by one starting with the first x16 x 16 cable than the other 16 x16 cable on the next 16 slot and than a x1 cable in the last 16 slot
Always easy continue to install in this hierarchy

It some time takes a lot of energy to customise a system.It is although strange  that the same type of board is not always working the same way.


Good luck

I have two rigs with 5 7950s one using the 970 EX4 and one using the 990 EX4.  Theyre both the same.  You just have to figure out which combo of risers, no risers, powered risers, not powered risers, short/no short presence pins, which card to hook monitor too, etc.

Any more than 4 cards HAVE to boot into failsafe mode.  4 and under and you can boot regular but over 4 you need failsafe.

Took me almost a week to figure it out thats why I havent touched my rigs in months.

Hi guys!

Well, I've made some improvements lately, since I'm running my rig on BAMT. It was able to run for 4 straight days without problem, and just crashed a few hours ago.


Hi Will2117,

Have you double checked your risers?

What works for my motherboard is that I use all the slots except the second PCIe16x (the second blue one). I did not have to short any pins.

PCIe 1x #1 Powered riser 1x to 16x
PCIe 16x #1 Unpowered riser 16x to 16x
PCIe 1x #2 Powered riser 1x to 16x
PCIe 16x #3 Powered riser 1x to 16x

If you have a spare USB key, try BAMT, it's way faster to install (drivers are already installed) and pretty stable.

How did you do this? Can you review my post above and shed some light for me?

Thank you!

Hi,

At one point I had 3 out of 4 cards detected by my device manager and cgminer. Now only slots 1 and 5 are detected and no matter how I configure the rig the mobo will not detect any other cards. I even attempted to reset the CMOS, clear all amd drivers and sdk. Reinstall app sdk 2.9 and amd driver 13.11 beta to support the 280x. The cards that are detected are being detected as the right hardware so I know the drivers are fine. My powered risers(1x-16x) are all working and my psu(two corsair 750w w/add2psu) plugs are all connected.

WHAT AM I MISSING?

Running on windows 8.1, which I do not think would cause any issues. I have read that others have used this mobo successfully without the need to short the A1-B17 on the mobo pcie slots.

I’m going crazy trying to configure this thing to run properly.

If all else fails, RMA. What other Mobo would you suggest and am I missing a step somewhere to get this running properly?

Same problem overhere, did you made any progress?

Ive also red that you need to dummy-plug the middle slot.... Anybody who has done this succesfully?

The thing i read of the 22 lanes, so 5 GPU wont work is strainge to me, why do they put 2x PCI-e 1x and 3 PCI-e 16x on the board then. They should all work together right?

4 cards

Just for clarification, are you running 5 cards on that asrock 970 extreme 4?

Okay, so if anyone wonders, I have the two PCIe 1x populated, no jumping needed. 

Hello,

I'm wondering the same. Has anyone figured out? 

I have powered pci-e 1x slots.
So can you confirm I will not need to short the 1xPCI-e slots for all 5 cards to work?

I had 3 of these boards, usually ran 4 cards in them but did have 1 board running 5 cards. You are using powered risers correct? You need at least 2 of them. I ran i think 3 of the cars on 1x to 16x ribbons.

So just to clarify...

Does this motherboard require you to short any of the PCI-E slots?

Thanks

I have that exact same mobo, I used 16x to 1x or just 1x risers on all the pci-e slots, and have it working with 5 GPUs with no hassle since july 2012. Although recently it became unstable if I had a card on an specific pci-e slot, don't know what happened.

Yes.

See my thread in this forum titled "Does CPU affect how many GPUs you can run".


What ended up working for me was shorting the prescence pins on the 5th card and booting BAMT in safe mode.



But yea see my other thread.

Install the latest AMD driver, and switch cards that the monitor plugs into to overclock each card.

Also, be sure you have a good full tower case with side fans and a fan on top

Did you ever get it to work with 5?

So I got it running with 4 cards now.


3 plugged straight into the board no risers, then 1 on a X1 adapter riser.  I tried this with 5 and it wouldnt recognize the 5th card.



I would hate to have to run this with the cards plugged straight into the board.



I have read a few people say that this board was plug and play for them.  Either I am missing something or I got a bad board.

So I can get it to boot with 3 cards if they are all plugged directly into the board.  ie no risers.


I now just got it to boot 2 cards with risers.  One X16 extender and one X1 riser.  I actually had three cards installed it would only show 2.


I have again tried every combo again.  Cant get it to boot and show more than two cards.  On BAMT it says the two cards it is detecting are 1.00 and 2.00.




Did any of you guys running this board have to do anything to get your cards to show up?

Well I tried with one X16 extender and four X1's and it wont boot.


Tried with one X16 extender and three X1's and it still will not boot.


Wont even boot into the BIOS.  I tried to reset CMOS.




It does turn on there is just nothing displayed on the monitor.  I have tried hooking the monitor up to all the cards and still nothing.

Ohhh.  Didnt know that.  I also didnt know you could use X1 in a X16 slot.



I will try that and report back.



Thanks

970 boards only have 22 pci-e lanes. your running out of lanes with 5 gpu's you have to put 1x to 16x risers in a couple of the 16 slots. I usually use one card on the board and 4 1x to 16x risers with that particular board

've tried with another operating system?

I have been trying to get an ASRock 970 Extreme4 board to work with 5 GPUs (even 4 would be nice.).  The board is on the BAMT hardware compatibility list and even has a side note that it is confirmed working with 5 GPUs.


The first time I booted it I tried with 3 cards and it booted and worked fine.  So I shut it down and tried 5 cards.  It wouldn't boot.


So I went back to 3 cards and it wouldn't boot either.  I tried every combination of cards, risers (both powered and unpowered), and slots and the only way I could get it to boot was either without riser cables or with one card with a riser cable (X16 extender) in the second X16 slot.  And while I was trying different combinations trying to get it to boot sometimes it would boot but there would be no signal to the monitor.  No video.  Twice I even heard the GPUs go to 100% fan like they started mining like would usually happen if it booted into BAMT.


Weird since it booted the first time with 3 cards all on X16 extender risers.


I have updated the BIOS to the newest BIOS and I have also tried different RAM and GPUs so I know its not that.




According to the BAMT hardware compatibility list this is supposed to be a really good board to use for more than 4 GPUs.  With all the crazy stuff this board is doing I think I may have a bad board.



Any of you guys that have this board have to do anything different to get it to work?




Thanks