Videocards not working together

So I decided to upgrade my videocard from a single 4870, to xfire 5870s. The problem I have is that when I am only using one 5870 it works fine, but when I install the second one, my computer wont display anything and I can't do anything with it. I know that both the videocards are version A02 bios.. are they not compatible with each other? Do I have to flash them both to a different bios for them to work?

 

You know both contain the updated VBIOS? Then it might be two different versions of the card (one that's Clevo & one that's ES), which would cause problems.

 

Faulty crossfire bridge?

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk 2

 

Also make certain you have a 240W power supply, some single GPU setups included a smaller power supply, so make sure you have enough power going to the laptop.

Just some thoughts...good luck to you!

 

Wouldn't matter if I had my crossfire connected or not it would still not boot up. Yes I know they are both a02 because I checked the stickers on the cards.. I bought both cards from dell also so I'd hope to assume the sent me the same type... Any way I could tell what type of cards they are? I'll check my power supply but don't think it's an issue. Checked power supply and it's 240w

 

I haven't done this before, but I have an idea: Take the second cardand swap it onto the heatsink for the first card, then pop it in the first PCIe slot and see if it boots. If it boots, then we know it's something with the crossfire (very unlikely), with the BIOS (not VBIOS), or it's an issue with the second PCIe slot (possible).

 

I've taken the second one and put it in the first slot and it still boots fine alone. I've even tried swapping them and it wouldn't boot that way.

 

Have you resetted your bios after installing the 5870's?

worth a try if you haven't done it yet.

Just unplug the power supply, remove the battery, open the bottom and close to the cpu fan connector there is another small connector. disconnect it and let it disconnected while pushing the power on button for >10sec. In this way you will perform a full power drain and your bios will be resetted.

Now reconnect everything back as it was and power up your laptop. If it worked and it will boot up, go in bios an set up date and time since they will be resetted as well as any other personal option that you had configured before.

Hope this help.

 

I've had a second xfire cable for a little while and decided to try see if it would work with it and still no luck, have yet to power drain it. I guess ill do that 2 morrow and see if it does anything. Are you talking about the connector to that little battery ?

 

Yup, the little button battery connector. Which BIOS are you running for your R2?

 

I have the a10 bios

 

Hmm. Run the power drain and all & see if that resolves it. Otherwise, it may be a motherboard hardware issue. You've determined both GPU's are working, you stated your crossfire cable is fine, you have the correct BIOS, VBIOS, and the 240W power adapter. I can't really think of anything else other than double checking the VBIOS version of both cards using TechPowerUp GPU-Z. Mine VBIOS version is 012.020.000.027.037640(113-B96101-104).

 

Alright I did the battery drain and it didnt work. After that I decided to hook up to external monitor and the boot screen came up with f2 and f12 options but it wouldn't let me choose them.

 

Definitely sounds like a motherboard issue now.

 

Ughhhh really don't wanna change that out haha. But I guess if I spent that 300$ on that videocard I'll have to. Any tests I can do to prove I have a bad one?