Topic: {BOUNTY}Can Not get board to see more then 2 GPU's (Read 18722 times)

hi all. I have issue like that. Please help.

My system,

Asus Z87A MOBO
5x R9 280X dual-x GPU connected with 1xto16x powered risers
3.0 ghz intel pentium
4gb ram
32gb ssd with 64-bit win 8.1 pro.
1050W coolermaster hybrid 80+ gold psu
775W thermaltake 80+ bronze psu

All 5 cards installed but it detect only 4 of them.

2 of pci-e 1x (short ones) works.
2 of pci-e 16x works
1 of pci-e 16x the middle one won't work (pciex16_2)

If 3 gpu installed like before to 3 of pcix16 (long ones without risers), it detects all of them. I tried one by one install of cards but not works. Please help. Thanks from now.

Shorting PCI-e presence PINs worked for me in most cases.

Will try this today, thanks for the help everyone. If it works you get paid!

pull all cards out and install card in PCI-e 1 (blue)nothing else. Load up BAMT. Make sure BAMT sees the first card. Shutdown. Install second card on PCI-e 3. Load Bamt, does it see it, yes, shutdown. Install last card on the 2nd PCI-e (black). Use PCI-e 1x closest to the white PCI-e, load bamt and see if it sees the 3rd card. I think if PCI-e 1 and 3 are pop. it shuts  off white and first 1x slot. It was explained to me this is more of an ART than a science, with some of these boards. Only way it can be PS is if he got an older PS that is only 430 or so. 6950 will draw somewhere between 160 and 200 watts, according to how they are clocked.

I doubt it's the PSU... Probably has soemthing to do with the mobo.... You can find cheap MSI GD70's and they'll run at least 5 cards

Have you looked at your power supply? I would check with a multimeter if you haven't already. I just had a rig partially fail because of a burned out modular plug on my PSU. Same thing may have happened here? I don't know, but good luck.

To be honest in your position I'd just get some different boards.
A friend of mine has a 5x5870 rig built around one of these:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-990fxa-gd65-amd-990fx-s-am3plus-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-raid-sata-pcie-20-(x16)-atx

Could be worth a shout to get a little more density too.

Nope cant get the to work on 2 mother boards as a matter of fact, a 970A-d3 as well. My other boards took them fine.

I like to disable all unused stuff in the bios on my rigs, onboard sound, network adapters and so on.

Look at page 3-21(?) of your manual. it says something about sSata / & PCIE1_1 detection...

Auto: The sytem auto detects the occupied  PCIE1_1 slot or eSata/Power eSata Connector. When both are occupied, only PCIE1_1 will work

eSata: if eSata (JMB controller)  is enabled, PCIE1_1 will be blocked and you can connect eSata/Power eSata devices

It's the only thing I can see that could explain something.

can you get two cards working using one of the 1x slots ?

So far no luck with any of it, I even tried to mix the two solutions togther

This is the slot configuration of this motherboard:

1 - PCIe 2.0 x16_1 slot (single GPU 16x, dual GPU 8x)
2 - PCIe 2.0 x1_1 slot
3 - PCIe 2.0 x1_2 slot
4 - PCIe 2.0 x16_2 slot (8x only, 2nd GPU)
5 - PCI
6 - PCIe 2.0 x16_3 slot (black, 4x or 1x only)


The manual says your's doesn't have it, but some BIOSes have a PCI Express configuration menu as detailed in the screenshot below, you will need to go in and specify that the video card slots are 8x, and other GPP slots to be used for video cards are correct width (1x or 4x for the black slot, 1x for others) AND some boards have a BIOS option such as "GPP Slots Power Limit" which can be set to 75W power (some boards default to 25W power, not enough for a video card). Without this option, general purpose slots may be power limited:



There is a motherboard switch called "EPU Switch", it's default is disabled, but in enabled it "intelligently monitors power consumption". Switching it to the other option may help.

There is an advanced BIOS option "initiate graphic adapter" this should be set to PEG/PCI (PEG: PCI express graphics first).

The next thing is to cable each card to real monitors (or at least cable each to the same multiple-input monitor). This test is even better than dummy plugs. The cards may not start without a monitor connected.

This motherboard uses the AMD 990X chipset and SB950 southbridge.

Whereas the 990FX allows 2x16 or 4x8 PCIe, the neutered 990X allows 2x8 PCIe crossfire, and has additional PCIe ports that are not specifically for video cards.

AMD 990X Chipset
The ideal foundation for your ultimate PC

With support for up to 2 AMD Radeon™ Premium Graphics boards with AMD CrossFireX™ technology and advanced technology like SATA 6Gb/s to accelerate your connectivity, the AMD 990X chipset is an ideal fit for your FX processor and your ultimate PC.

Here is the block diagram for the FX chipset, I wasn't able to find one for the "X":



Here is a comparison of features:


Note the number of PCIe channels, 42 vs 26. This indicates that one of the 16x channels in the block diagram is removed from the northbridge, but other PCIe details are likely the same.

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Regarding shorting hot-plug pins, this shouldn't be required in the black slot, all PRSNT2# hot-plug pins on the motherboard should still be wired to detect a card (pins B81, B48, B31, B17). Detection only needs to be forced by shorting (B17 to B16 ground) when using an adapter such as a 16x to 1x.  If nothing else works, a 16x->1x with molex power and the pin shorted will be the final option to try to get a third GPU working.

If you're sure you shorted the correct pins and they are actually shroting (not loose or disconnected), then it's probably a limitation of your motherboard. Like I said, my MSI Z77A-G45 motherboard turns off a 1x slot when the adjacent 1x slot is populated. It's possible your board may do the same (go from 16x/1x/0x mode to 8x/0x/8x mode)

Bamt still only shows the 2 gpu's on the x16's, the third card runs its fans but is just phantom to the system.

You shouldn't need to go to the hardware store. Find some junk molex/sata power adapters and use the wires on those. Also my BTC address in my sig is valid.

Alright let me go to the Hardware store and get some decent wire to use. If it works where do you want your btc sent?

You likely need to short the PCI-E presence pins.




It's all motherboard dependant. Some motherboard don't need presence shorting at all. Some need only 1 or 2 slots shorted, Some need all of them shorted. You will only need to short the slots that have the detection problems though. My EVGA 790i Ultra SLI motherboard needs all the slots shorted to detect cards on 1x risers. My Asrock 890GX Extreme4 only needs the 1x and the middle 16x slots shorted. My MSI Z77A-G45 has 7 PCI-E slots. Only 6 can work at the same time; 1 pci-e slot turns off entirely if the adjacent 1x slot is populated, and the 2 middle slots require presence shorting as well.

What I use for a wire is find an old molex to SATA power adapter (or any other adapter with similar wire thickness and you don't plan on using it), and cut off about a 4-5 inch long piece of wire. Strip off about a 1/4 inch on each end, and use your finger to bend 8 strands of wire off to the side; cut off the rest as close to the shielding as possible. Twist em together and insert each end into the proper holes on the PCI-E slot before you plug in your riser. When plugged it, they should have some resistance on being pulled out, though likely won't be much. You should be able to insert almost all of the bare wire into each hole if you cut it appropriately short.

I am running 6950s 3 of them on a Asus M5a99x evo. I have tried windows and BAMT, no matter what it will only pick up the cards in the pcie16x slots. If I put them on extenders they read fine, but if I try adapters to change PCIe sizes I can't get it to pick them up, I even tried the molex ones. I run bamt it reads 2 Gpu's and I run windows 7 and it picks up 2. Anyone have any Ideas how to fix this?

Bounty of .5 Bitcoins