980M SLI issues

So I just installed a second 980M into my M18x R2, went to enable SLI and now I have constant driver crashes when doing absolutely nothing even remotely graphics intensive. I've tried fresh install, several driver versions, problem is the same. I had no issue running this card as a single card before. Now, I can't run it in SLI at all without it crashing every 30 seconds. Ideas? If it is fried I give up, I will not be repairing this machine.

 

Well with the fresh install and trying multiple driver sets it kind of rules out software no? I know its a pain but you could pull them out and swap the gpus and check if the one you just added is fine with sli disabled. While at the same time contact clean connections, reseating them, checking sli connector(maybe try a new one), check heat sink contact with memory vrms, exedra ... I'm sure with how many alienware machines you own and with how many gpu swaps you've done it probable isn't any of those but you never know you might have missed something???

 

Had the same exact thing. I was thinking it was a hardware issues, but when gaming or benching everything works fine. During browsing only the driver chrashes. In windows 10 I didn't get any errors so I down grade to windows 7.

It chrashes and reports an error about 'kernel driver crashed'.

It propably has something to do with power consumtion and P-states switching. When the crashed' occured in HWINFO64 the GPU power reading is greyed out.

I did the following and it seems to be ok for now.

Either disable SLI when browsing

Or

- Disable from audio devices all the nvidia audio outs (mine had 8!)
- Delete or don't install the HD audio driver
- From the nvidia controls panel - 3D settings set performance to 'prefer High performance'


Also tried @j95 throttle free 353 driver and with those the black screen never happens. Also these drivers also don't report power consumtion, so I have narrowed it there. Driver/power related issues

 

Aren't you using very old chrome with SLI bug?

 

Chrome is updating automaticaly. I have version 53 and still had black screens

 

I never use chrome, only firefox. Disabling nvidia audio outputs did not work. changing power setting from optimal to max performance did not help. Removing HD audio driver also did not help my case.

I am experiencing something very similar. No issues when gaming or benching, but when browsing on firefox or navigating windows, boom random crash. Your suggested fixes did not work. What a strange issue. J95's 353.00 throttle free driver has solved the issue for now.

 

Not even disabling SLI just to be site?

I struggle with this thing last night. I was on 368 and did what I discribed. Also I think I removed the physx software from the control panel. Through in nvidia CP physx options are still there.

Currently running 372 drivers with the above fixes and using chrome. Alltogether with no issues.

I tried twice the following.
- set maximun performance
(Problem still there)
- disabled nvidia hdmi audio from audio play back devices one by one (8 in total)
(Problem still there)
- Removed HD audio driver and reboot
(Problem still there)
- Removed physx and reboot.

Problem solved (for now)

 

So it's not just me. That's good to know. I tried the following before reverting from 372.90 to 353.00:
1. Change from Optimal to Max performance
2. Disabled Nvidia HDMI audio devices
3. Removed nvidia HD audio driver
The problem persisted with SLI enabled, disappeared when using single 980M. I used DDU and went to 353.00 without issues any more. So strange.

 

Give another go to the 372.90 and don't install the physx software. I even installed geforce expirience and don't have any issues. I hope someone else with 980m SLI can confirm this problem to his m18x R2

OR

Install everything, and from the Nvidia control panel, select as physx proccesor, the primary GPU (1). Found an old post that the same thing happend with the 580m SLI.

 

Neither of these options worked for me. It happened less frequently with PhysX uninstalled, but they happened none the less. DDU and back to 353.00 for now.

 

Good luck man, Im getting nervous to perform this upgrade. Im going to probably wait and see how the new AMD card is going to do.

 

So small update: I ran DDU, downloaded 373.06, modded INF myself (did not wait for J95 like I usually do), and installed only the drivers for video and HD audio. No GFE, no PhysX, no 3d vision. I do not have this problem of freezing and crashing every 3 seconds any more, which is nice.

 

I use 385 and no issues so far. Installed physx, gfe and blah blah.

 

I did the same with the latest drivers and installed everything. I had only one crash upon opening windows. Seems to be a driver problem, I cannot pinpoint anything else.

 

Anyone willing to try UEFI and windows 8.1 to see if the problem with the driver persists? I will do it myself next week to see if it can be a help.

I installed stock nvidia bios back and set the machine to adaptive. It produces 2 chrashes upon start, and then its all ok.

 

Have you tried a clean OS install? Also have you run a /sfc scannow in admin command as well?

My own system is a bit twitchy with windows 10. On occasion I've had boots with corrupted AW control centre not working, firefox not able to start and kaspersky stuck in a reboot loop. Even the audio headphone/speaker switcher glitching. I've only been able to solve this by basically clean installling windows then once I installed everything and did a sfc check creating an image of the installation. Also switched to using sleep mode rather than shutting down the laptop outright. This basically stopped the issues for me tho if the OS acts up I'm able to rely on the clean backup to fix things.

I've had this occasionally on cold boots even when I switch the GFX win10 sometimes gets stuck just before the login screen or it hangs on login. Have no idea whats causing it on my own system the SSD's and RAM are all only a year or so old. This also sometimes seems to cause bugs on my system as well necessitating a rollback at worst.