Water Cooling 2 x 2900XT's

cuke2u · 25 Oct 2007 at 10:05

Hi, my system is below in my sig, the only change I've made is too install water cooling over the past couple of days. Since then I've not be able to get into the bios screen, nothing is displayed at bootup and my LCD briefly switches off, I can see it's gone into the bios setup by my little post LCD screen. If I try to wake the Dell I get the message that it isn't receiving any input, however I leave it to continue booting it will go inot Vista fine and I get a picture and can run benchmarking, games, whatever.
It all worked ok before installing WC so I've thinking perhaps the cards aren't initialising themselves at startup, perhaps because of no fans?
I have tried all the DVI outputs, disconnected the crossfire links to no avail.
Many thanks for your help....
ChrisC

weescott · 25 Oct 2007 at 11:39

Having no fans on the cards shouldn't matter. Perhaps the cards are not seated properly?

cuke2u · 25 Oct 2007 at 20:43

weescott said:
Having no fans on the cards shouldn't matter. Perhaps the cards are not seated properly?

Hi, thanks for your help but I sure that the cards wouldn't work at all if that was the case,
Cheers...
ChrisC

Marci · 26 Oct 2007 at 12:52

Dismount both waterblocks, inspect cores and any other surface components around the blocks' mounting bolts / nuts. Sounds like you've done some damage during mounting of the waterblocks.

w3bbo · 26 Oct 2007 at 13:00

Try using one card at a time to eliminate the possibility of a crossfire incompatibility with your startup issues.

cuke2u · 27 Oct 2007 at 15:29

Hi, to those who have kindly replied to my post, please read it again, if the cards were damaged they wouldn't work at all. They worked before installing wc, if I'd damaged anything whilst installing the waterblocks then the card wouldn't work in vista, run games or 3d benchmarking software. The only thing that doesn't work is the post screen.
Thanks...
ChrisC

ChrisD. · 27 Oct 2007 at 15:32

I'm pretty sure that the initial BIOS bit is handled by a different IC then the main core. I'm no expert, but it sounds to me as if the bit that displays the cards BIOS (normally can't see it) and initial display until the driver takes over is knackered.

Like I say I'm not expert but that's the way it seems. Have you tried clearing CMOS?

cuke2u · 27 Oct 2007 at 17:20

MilanoChris said:
I'm pretty sure that the initial BIOS bit is handled by a different IC then the main core. I'm no expert, but it sounds to me as if the bit that displays the cards BIOS (normally can't see it) and initial display until the driver takes over is knackered.

Like I say I'm not expert but that's the way it seems. Have you tried clearing CMOS?

Hi, thanks MilanoChris, yes I think you might be right about that IC, if that's the case then swopping around the two cards might work. I've tried connecting a fan to the card in the first slot but that made no difference. Problem with clearing the cmos is that my PC might not boot again afterwards then I'd be stuck.
One other thing I could try is to work out the necessary key presses that would change around which card is intialised first and make the second one the main card.
What's your take on that?
ChrisC

ChrisD. · 27 Oct 2007 at 17:28

chriscatt said:
Hi, thanks MilanoChris, yes I think you might be right about that IC, if that's the case then swopping around the two cards might work. I've tried connecting a fan to the card in the first slot but that made no difference. Problem with clearing the cmos is that my PC might not boot again afterwards then I'd be stuck.
One other thing I could try is to work out the necessary key presses that would change around which card is intialised first and make the second one the main card.
What's your take on that?
ChrisC

It's a gamble mate, is it worth taking though? Thing is, you'd ideally need it fixed in case something goes wrong and you need access.

Maybe someone with the same board can find out for you.

cuke2u · 28 Oct 2007 at 12:01

MilanoChris said:
It's a gamble mate, is it worth taking though? Thing is, you'd ideally need it fixed in case something goes wrong and you need access.

Maybe someone with the same board can find out for you.

Hi, thanks again for your help. Actually I've thought of pulling the power leads from the 1st card then just lifting it out of the PCI-E socket, I would have thought that the motherboard would then cause the second card to be used?
ChrisC

cuke2u · 28 Oct 2007 at 13:01

Hi again, ok that did, I have a display at post and in the bios setup, changed the setting to initialise the second card 1st and now running crossfire ok.
Thanks again for your help...
ChrisC

SBD · 28 Oct 2007 at 13:13

I am very happy we could help lmao

.... would you consider RMAin the card cos when it comes to selling them on not many ppl are gona want a card that wont let them look at the bios. I would tbh as you have 2 cards.

cuke2u · 28 Oct 2007 at 13:34

SBD said:
I am very happy we could help lmao .... would you consider RMAin the card cos when it comes to selling them on not many ppl are gona want a card that wont let them look at the bios. I would tbh as you have 2 cards.

Hi, possibly, although it would only happen if I were to replace them with something better. Don't think I'm likely to do that for a while now

after all the effort, and cost, this has taken me.
Thanks...
ChrisC

Predator · 30 Oct 2007 at 14:45

Do you have any pics of your setup? I'm looking in to water cooling my 2 2900Pro's and its proving to be a real nightmare to decide on what kit to buy.

TIA

UnusualSuspect · 1 Nov 2007 at 01:01

NM. Re-read your original post.