PC automatically reboots when SLI enabled

viperirl

Hi folks,

I'm having an issue with my system whereby the PC automatically reboots when SLI is enabled. It happens just a few seconds after I start playing a game. When back in the desktop everything is fine. Games play fine when SLI is disabled. GPU temps all seem normal.

This all started a few weeks ago when I upgraded the drivers to the GTAV 350.12 driver. When I enabled SLI and played the game the PC would restart. At first I thought it was game specific but I see now that it happens in all games. Everything was fine gaming wise right up until the driver update.
I rolled back to two previous drivers and the same thing happens. A clean installation of the drivers are performed each time.

System: 3930K, Tri SLI Titans(original) and a Corsair AX1200 PSU. No overclocking on the GPUs.

Just before the PC reboots itself the monitor (Rog Swift) will go blank and display 'No signal' etc).

I havent tried physically moving the cards around as they are watercooled and will be a right pain to drain/reassemble etc, but I might have no choice.

I hoping that somebody might have a few other ideas before I start doing that. It seems too much of a coincidence that all this started when I upgraded to the latest drivers. Now I'm stuck with this issue even rolling back drivers.

Looks like a psu issue on one hand but I'm suspicious about the driver upgrade. Is it possible that a 'clean installation' doest always do a proper cleanup?

Any help much appreciated.

game4it70

Did you try something like Display Driver Uninstaller to do a full uninstall?

glynf

I had similar issue before, constant crashing with SLI enabled and a BIOS update sorted it.

Couple of other things to try/check:

Could be a dodgy SLI Bridge-can you try a different one?

Have you got all the 6/8 pin PCI-Express leads connected properly? It could be something simple like a loose PSU->GPU connection or faulty PCI lead.

Check that both cards are seated properly in the connectors.


Check your mobo temps-could be the cards are pulling too much power through the PCI slots.


Have you tried removing all overclocks and running everything at stock settings?

viperirl

I haven't done a bios update on the mobo(Asus Rampage Extreme IV) in ages so thats one thing to do in any case. I dont have a spare SLI bridge unfortunately. Perhaps somebody here has a spare one (Tri-SLI needed) that I could borrow just to eliminate that as a cause.

I checked that the cards are seated properly and that all the PCI-E cables are seated correctly too. The temps on all 3 cards look normal. Temps on the mobo all look normal too.

I havent removed the OC on the CPU though. Its running at ~4.8Ghz currently.

I'll try the DDU tool tonight.

Thanks.

Luck100

Before you try DDU, maybe try popping out your SLI bridge and re-seating it. I had funny problems with my SLI and that fixed it even though it appeared to be correctly seated in the first place. Also definitely put your CPU/RAM and other BIOS tweaks to stock for a quick test.

viperirl

So I've tried the following but to no avail

Ran DDU and installed the latest driver.
Reseated the SLI bridge and PCIE connectors.
Updated to the latest BIOS.

This isnt a crash to desktop, its an auto restart of the system. It happens seconds after I'm in gameplay. The game will appear to pause, the monitor goes blank and soon afterwards the PC will reboot itself. Only happens with SLI enabled.

Event viewer just reports that Windows wasnt shut down properly. (Event ID 41)

Beginning to look more like a power or cable issue now.

Luck100

Wow, that does sound like a power issue. It almost sounds like the PSU is shutting down to protect itself, but you shouldn't ever be getting close to the current limit on that PSU with your system at stock. Maybe one of your Titans or PCIE slots is going haywire under load? Any chance there is condensation or a slow leak with your water cooling?

viperirl

so it would appear that one of my titans is dead. Only two of them are now showing up in the system. Still the possibility that its a cable thing.
I noticed yesterday that when I started playing Skyrim and if I did the 'dragon shout' which is a graphical effect, that would always be the trigger the reboot. Almost as if the GPU card in question shuts down when called upon to help with the load.

I had planned on a GPU upgrade this year anyway. Almost went Titan X but due to the new monitor technology, Ultrawide and Gsync I held off until a 34 inch version with both becomes available. The 980ti and AMD offering is surely not too far away so I'm gonna see what the benchmarks are then. Heavily leaning towards a single GPU solution. SLI micro-stutter ive become very sensitive to and it varies from being a non-issue in some games to being really annoying. Consistent and smooth FPS delivery is more important to me than outright max fps numbers.

glynf

Obviously a PITA as its watercooled, but have you ruled out a dodgy PCI slot on the motherboard by swapping the cards around?

Luck100

viperirl wrote: »

so it would appear that one of my titans is dead. Only two of them are now showing up in the system. Still the possibility that its a cable thing.
I noticed yesterday that when I started playing Skyrim and if I did the 'dragon shout' which is a graphical effect, that would always be the trigger the reboot. Almost as if the GPU card in question shuts down when called upon to help with the load.

I had planned on a GPU upgrade this year anyway. Almost went Titan X but due to the new monitor technology, Ultrawide and Gsync I held off until a 34 inch version with both becomes available. The 980ti and AMD offering is surely not too far away so I'm gonna see what the benchmarks are then. Heavily leaning towards a single GPU solution. SLI micro-stutter ive become very sensitive to and it varies from being a non-issue in some games to being really annoying. Consistent and smooth FPS delivery is more important to me than outright max fps numbers.

Yeah I'd definitely wait for 980ti at this point. Could actually be quite good price/performance if AMD is aggressive with 3xx series prices. Very tempted by GSync myself but haven't pulled the trigger yet. What games do you see microstutter? I have yet to see any stutter with 970 SLI that isn't already present without SLI.