M17X R2 Crossfire Problem

Hi everyone, I have a prob getting crossfire to work on my m17x r2. It originally came with a ati radeon mobility hd 5870. I purchased another 5870 card from ebay with a fan, heatsink, 240 watt psu and crossfire cable. The problem I'm having is when I install the the new card and sync the two cards the computer wont boot up. I turn it on and all the lights come on but the screen stays black. I can't even turn it off by pushing the power button, I have to remove the battery. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong and what steps I need to do to make it work.


Thanks

 

Will the machine POST if you put the newly bought card in alone? Try reseating the new and old video card as well as the CrossFire cable (watch for sharp bends in the cable - especially on the 2nd GPU). When you do a reseat, make sure you drain the capacitors by removing all power sources and pressing and holding the power button down for about 30 seconds. Also, if you press and hold the power button down for 4 seconds, the machine should shut off when it is connected to a power source.

 

That's probably defective card, because if the mobo wouldnt support crossfire for some reason, the second gpu just wouldnt show up, and startup would go normally.

What you can try is, use both separately to make sure both work in primary slot.
If both work, try to use them the opposite way you are trying to use them now. -> If you had new card in slave slot, try it in master and put the old one in slave.

Thats all i can think off.

 

Have you tried with only the new 5870M and seeing it POSTs with that?

 

If the new one posts alone this could also be a power issue.

Since i have dual GPU i always had 240 PSU so dont know much about this, but.....
can you just put a 240 on the laptop and it will be ok? Thought you'd have to update something to make it identify it? Could be an easy thing if u have to make changes.

If not you might have power issues with two GPU's since CPU and 2*GPU might be a bit above the orignal PSU power.
You've added 30-40% of what the original psu should deliver.

I might be wrong about putting on another more powerful PSU on the r2 when its not the original to that laptop. Could be that as long as its orignal alienware its no problem.
Someone else here would know.

 

The card may not have the right vBIOS. I'm thinking the same as Tsunade_Hime, if the new card completes the post on the main slot then there could be something else.