Topic: Has anyone gotten the Gigabyte B250 Fintech Mobo to work with 10+ GPUs? (Read 247 times)

If someone finds this one, I posted my solution here:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/how-to-possibly-fix-gigabyte-b250-fintech-not-booting-with-more-than-9-gpus-5323807

Hi,

I reactivate this thread since my issue fits quite well. I am using several Gigabte Fintech boards and got my first one with problems now. It works well, but as soon as I put in a 10th GPU, it does not post anymore. To make it a bit shorter: I switched the boards with a working 12 GPU Rig with the same board and suddenly the rig posted and hashed. The "defective" on the other hand did not even post in the 12 GPU rig. And as soon as I disconnected 3 GPUs, it booted normally. It is not bound to specific PCIe ports, it does not matter which are connected, as soon as it is more than 9, it does not post. So its not the PSU, riser etc. it seems to be the board. All my other Fintechs work fine woith 12 GPUs.

Do I have a defective board?

What I tried, without success:
-Loaded defaults in BIOS
-Reflashed recent BIOS
-Flashed old v3 BIOS
-Checked every setting and deactivated all unneccessary devices
-Mining mode is enabled, 4G decodeing is enabled, primary video device is integrated GPU etc...

Is Link Speed Gen2 fixed, when mining mode is active? Because I was not able to change it to Gen1, it kept resetting after reboot.

I also swapped the CPU and RAM an checked all the cables.

Is there anything I can do or is my board just faulty and not able to run with more than 9 GPUs? It seems strange because this board worked for months with 6GPUs now and I would not expect it th just be fine except for the last 3 GPUs.

Thank you in advance for any help!

so i was reading online that pcie x1 slots are routed through chipsets generally.  the b250 chipset on this board has a max of 12 pcie lanes so that seems pretty spot on with the amount of gpus this mobo can run.

 I can run 9 no problem so I need to figure out what is occupying the other pcie lanes.  Is there an easy way to find out whats on those pcie lanes or is it only possible by disabling certain things in the bios and seeing if that frees up a pcie lane? 

I have so far tried disabling all sata ports, lan controller, audio controller.  I guess i can try disabling the usb ports but then i wouldnt be able to control the bios afterwards.

actually, what is your storage?  is it via sata port or via usb stick?  maybe the storage device is hogging the pcie lanes.

G3900 was fine

which cpu do you use?

No problem here for running 12 RX on this great motherboard !
Much better than the biostar who's doing pcie errors in loop on Windows ...

so i converted the ssd to gpt right from windows.  I changed the "storage boot option control" to UEFI and when i booted into windows I confirmed that the BIOS mode was UEFI.  but when i tried to connect the 10th gpu it still wouldnt work.  Is there a setting that I missed or am I misunderstanding you completly and I am changing the wrong settings?

I do think the issue is the pcie lanes being occupied.  I think the cpu is running with 8 1x lanes and 2 4x lanes but I don't know how to force it to run at 16 1x lanes, or perhaps i am misunderstanding the possibility of that.

From another forum it was suggested that I do not have enough available pcie lanes which makes sense.  I took a look at the intel site for my processor, g4400 (https://i.imgur.com/oFKUggx.png) and it states that the processor can do 16 lanes at 1x or 8x1 + 2x4.  so this makes a lot of sense.  i have 9 gpus running fine but not 10. so it must be using 8 lanes at 1x and 2 and 4x.  how do i change it to 16 lanes at 1x?



thanks for the suggestion. ill give this a shot.  Can i convert my partition and keep my windows exactly as it is or will i have to reinstall windows?

you should install Windows 10 on a GPT partition and boot your Windows installation using UEFI bootloader, yes. CSM should be disabled. otherwise you'll have many kinds of strange issues while trying to make your 6+ GPUs rig work.

if you've installed Windows using MBR partition scheme, you can convert it to GPT using MBR2GPT tool.

Yes csm is enabled. When I turn off mining mode it is enabled.

What do you mean by installation media type? Like the USB drive I used to install windows has to be formatted a certain way? Or are you referring to the BIOS option "Storage Boot Option Control"? I have that setting on legacy.  Should I change it to UEFI?

I'm sorry for dedicating an entire post to this troubleshooting issue but I've spent an entire day frustratingly trying to figure this out and I have exhausted all the resources I have found online

I've tried so many different BIOS settings and I can't get more than 9 GPUs working on this board.   Has anyone else found a working solution?

I have tried the f1 and latest BIOS versions.  I have the two molex cables connected to the mobo (not sure they are necessary with power risers).  Turned off mining mode, enabled 4g encoding. tried gen 1, 2, and 3 and also tried turning off the 24-119 entries in combination with each gen link speed.  With the latest version of the BIOS I could post with gen 1 link speed but windows wouldnt load (or it loaded but the screen was just black).  I couldn't even load more than 6 GPUs on the latest BIOS, aka when I connected the second PSU it wouldnt post.  

Anything else that I missed?