SLI won't stay available on MSI Eclipse SLI mobo with 2 EVGA GTX 280s

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oldbushie

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I've tried a number of things and SLI just won't stay available in the Nvidia Control Panel when I'm using Vista 64. The menu for it keeps channging to PhysX only.
The video cards I have:
01G-P3-1282-AR: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0292267
01G-P3-1284-AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130368

My computer build: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=7725125
The one time I got SLI working and ran 3dmark: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=577760

The first time I enabled SLI, I ran 3dmark Vantage to test it and everything seemed to run fine. Then on reboot, I got some strange errors about the video cards and I had to reinstall the drivers, after which SLI disappeared. I only got SLI to reappear after switching the video cards so that the slowest card was on top and installing one video card at a time. But even after that, SLI disappeared upon reboot (no errors that time though).

Overall list of things I tried:
1. Switching the video cards.
2. Testing each card by itself on both DVI ports with no problems.
3. Updating the BIOS on the motherboard.
4. Trying both the 180.48 stable Nvidia drivers and hte 180.84 beta Nvidia drivers.
5. Switching the SLI ribbon to the second ports on the video cards.
6. Doing a full clean of the Nvidia drivers using Driver Sweeper before reinstalling them.
7. Verifying that everything looks fine on the motherboard itself and that there are no warning lights.
 
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Hi! I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the mixing of two GPU units in SLI, even tho the same basic model & brand, with two different specs is the problem. If you can match up the lower card to the higher cards specs, it just may work, i.e. the 621 core clock card overclocked to 648, memory clock from 2268 to 2322, etc.
 
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I was told that as long as the only difference is the clock speeds, I shouldn't have a problem. What do I use to overclock/underclock an EVGA video card though? I tried EVGA Precision but it only seems to let me change the clock speeds of the primary card.

Edit: I tried overclocking the specs to be identical to the faster card, so the system sees no difference between the two. I then reset Windows and I still don't see SLI showing up.
 
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Try the software from nVidia's website under - "Other Drivers & Support" - "Software" - "NVIDIA System Tools with ESA Support" (Version 6.03). Your edit shows you have tried EVGA's software, nVidia's may be better? I am at a loss as to any other suggestions other than I hope someone else can chime in with some ideas for you. Contacting nVidia & MSI support might be worth a try. Although a hassle, it may be best to remove all the nVidia/EVGA card drivers & utilities & start fresh with the nVidia WHQL 180.48 driver package & then installing the 6.03 tools.
 
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Okay, I think I finally got it stabilized. I did this with 180.48 drivers and making sure to turn off the power supply when installing any hardware:
0. Disabling all antivirus/antispyware apps (Adaware, Kaspersky)
1. Cleanly installing the slow video card
2. Overclocking it with EVGA Precision
3. Installing the fast video card
4. Enabling SLI and PhysX
5. Rebooting twice to make sure SLI stayed
6. Attaching the SLI ribbon while fully powered down
7. Bringing up the machine again
8. Victory... for now.

Here's hoping it actually stays this time.
 
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Well, it was stable until I ran 3dMark Vantage again... I think pushing the video cards to their limit screws up the SLI formation somehow. Hopefully better drivers will fix this.
 
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The new 182.06 drivers are out. Hopefully this one solves things for you. Be sure to uninstall the old driver, PhysX, etc., reboot, install the new driver, then install utility 6.03 again. Keep us posted.
 
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I have 2 GTX 280 running in SLI with the new driver 182.06 vista 64 bit and everything works just fine. 8-))
First remove the physx software , than the nvidia driver with ad / remove programs in the configuration panel.
Restart you PC than install the new driver (182.06 vista 64 bit) and the new physx software (9.09.0203) is automatically installed with the driver. This is how i did it.
I use evga precision 1.4 tool for my GPU's and GPU-Z and there it is confirmed that sli is working as well in the nvidia controll panel.
My motherboard driver is 1.4B3.
CPU = i940 at 4083MHZ 177.6x23
Mem= 12GB Corsair XMS3 1333 at 1420MHZ.
PCI fix at 37.3.
 
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That's pretty close to my computer setup, I'll have to try again soon. I really hope it's not because the two video cards are slightly different from each other, but everyone seems to concur that slight differences in clock speed shouldn't make a difference if the BIOS and video card types are the same.

Edit: I updated both the motherboard BIOS and did a clean install of Nvidia's drivers using Driver Sweeper, and still no luck. I'm thinking of just waiting for the next big thing from Nvidia before I try again, maybe it'll help to have two video cards that are identical. The 295 looks interesting, but it's not much of a step up from the 280, and frankly even one 280 is enough for most games.
 
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When mixing 'n matching two differently clocked (but essentially the same) GPU's, place the slower GPU in the primary PCIe slot. According to nVidia, it the driver should downclock the second GPU to match.

Hope this helps
 
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I'll have to try that again with the new drivers. Also, when I go  through my motherboard's Live Update it suggests this VGA driver as one thing to install:
"NVIDIA
Current Ver. No installation Online Ver. 7777
Update (29.21MB )
Support
Devices For all of MSI VGA cards. "

I'm guessing I don't need it if I have the official Nvidia drivers installed, but maybe I'm wrong and it's for the motherboard's interface with video cards.
 
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