Crossfire not working on M17x R2

Ok, i know there are some topics on this as i have seen them in the past, but i cant get the forum's search function to work. it always saysathe search is invalid. I have the Alienware M17x with crossfire 5870's. I do not think the crossfire is working, the air coming out of the second GPU's vent is never hot like the main GPU, and the HWInfo report below confirmed that. In game the other gpu was consitently around 20-30 degrees hotter. Infact, in HWInfo the moniter cant even read the core frequency of the second card, and when you look at the info panel in hardware info it cant even determine the amount of memory the second card has. In the catalyst control center tho, both GPU's are picked up and displayed in the information section. I am running the 10.12 drivers, latest VBIOS, and have installed the profiles. In the attached HWInfo file are the results from me starting up andp laying Battlefield Bad Company 2, and yes crossfire is enabled in CCC, and i even checked off the option for it to show the crossfire logo but i have yet to ever see that in battlefield or any other game i have played. (Such as Civ 5, crysis warhead, company of heroes, etc.)


Thanks

 

Does GPU-Z see Crossfire as enabled or disabled?

Also, make sure your power plans in the CCC control panel and windows settings are set to high performance. Lower power settings sometimes disable cossfire.

Also, try Furmark Multigpu. If crossfire is indeed working then that will definitely bring up the temps on the secondary card.

You may have to end up reseating your CF cable so if nothing works be willing to open up your laptop to have a look.

How long have you had the laptop? Has Crossfire ever worked?

 

According to GPU-Z it is enabled. I will try what you suggested. I have had the laptop since August before goingto college. I always assumed crossfire was working, the games i played ran at high details. i rarely play crysis, mostly just COH and BFBC2, that is probably why i hadnt noticed crossfire might actually not be on, i guess the 5870 is a beast as a single card to. How would i go about reseating that cable? Would that void the warranty?

 

If you're using the 10.12 driver set, make sure you also install the CAP 4 profiles. Those are probably what you're missing. If CCC + GPU-Z are reporting Crossfire as active, you have no physical issues with your system.

 

I ran Furmark multigpu and the second GPU is not being utilized. it is literally sitting there at 0% and its temps do not go up. The core is idling at around 99mhz @45 degrees. I have 10.12 installed, and installed the CAP profiles from the game.amd.com website. Is there another website i should be using?

 

has crossfire ever worked for you or not? If it has not then open it up to see if you even have a cable in there and then remove the cable and cards (both) and reinstall them and try again. Do a power drain trick where you remove the battery and power adapter and hold the power button down for 10 seconds.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...l-compunds-gpu-cpu-m17x-r2.html?highlight=cpu

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/523915-pics-cooling-mods-done-tx-4-clip-mod.html

 

I am not sure if it ever worked, its not something i checked. I will open up the system, but i just want to be safe, opening up the system down to the GPUs does not void the warranty right? i have 3 years left on the warranty.

 

just to confirm something.

I had 10.12 before, with the latest CAP, .. and crossfire was working with Crysis and Civ V. (the games used to crash regularly though due to the fact that i had faulty Master card). but the logo was shown.

this problem just started to happen? did crossfire ever worked for you before?

it might be a bad crossfire cable (or might be not plugged in correctly) or bad slave card (if its a hardware problem)

edit: i would do the following before opening up the system and every other software fix failed

1. take a back up.
2. re-spawn to an earlier state (with minimum changes)
3. if the problem persist, and you dont want to open up the system, just call up dell and let them replace your cards since you are on warranty, otherwise if you want to open it up, .. check the crossfire cable if its bluged in correctly, if it is, than you have no other option but to call up dell to replace it

 

Ok update, i got the problem fixed, The slave card was not working properly, the tech replaced the card and now crossfire is finally working i my games are running ridiculously smooth. So this is what an M17x feels like? haha. Thanks guys!

 

When I have Crossfire enabled, I can start a game and play for a few seconds smooth as butter. Then a crazy flickering begins. The machine doesn't crash and the game still runs but of course it's unplayable with the flickering. And this is repeatable. Of course the only solution for me has been to disable my Catalyst AI (I guess effectively turning off Crossfire?) and the result being everything being done by one card and things not running nearly as smooth.

Does anyone have any ideas whats going on here? I'm flashed with latest system and vbios, and running the latest drives from Dell.

is it possibly a bad slave card? Bad cable? I'd love to know if there is a soft fix before having a tech tear into this thing and damage it.

Thanks.

 

I got what you are talking about only for one game: NFS Shift.

Disabled the crosfireX from CCC and it works in single GPU mode. Other games have no problems.

It is difficult to know exactly what is your problem, but if it happens to most or all the games, you should contact DELL and let them troubleshoot your system. It maybe the same reason you spoke about, you have a bad slave or bad cable.

 

I have lived with an intermittent problem where if my M17x gets unplugged before shutdown, the next boot up my Crossfire stops working. Both cards show in Device Manager, etc, no problems there, no errors, nada. What I found was that simply uninstalling one of the two cards in Device Manager, rebooting, Crossfire then became active. Yes, it's not supposed to do that. I figured I would hold off until the likelihood of getting a pair of 5870s was good that I would really push on Dellienware for a full card replacement

You just might be seeing something similar (and I have reseated both cards, made sure the Crossfire cable is clean and secure, etc).