Bitcoin Forum

This GPUs and this board is driving me crazy, before i post my problem, let me post my system hardware:

CPU: Intel i7 4770k
8 GB RAM
6 x GPU Sapphire R9 280x BF4 Edition
1 PSU 1300w + 1 PSU 1000w
Motherbard: ASRock H81 BTC Pro

This is my problem:

If i plug 1 GPU, no problem, 2nd GPU no problem, 3rd GPU plugged no problem... 4th GPU plugged in and when windows start loading before the desktop GUI shows up, randomly any of the GPU 1st,2nd,3rd or 4th start to spin the FAN at max, the system get freezed and black screen.

Also when i install Catalyst 14.4 or 14.6 beta using only 1 GPU on the board, after driver installation and reboot, i receive no signal image on my monitor when windows GUI loads, i have no clue WTF is going on. If i hit the power button, system turns off so windows does load but the graphics is not showing.

It seems to only work with Catalyst 13.12 and with only 3 GPUs, a 4th GPU is not possible.

I have tried all this possible solutions:

1) Tried on Ubuntu: after Ubuntu install and restart, while Ubuntu loading 1 of the GPU FAN spin out of control system get freezed
2) Windows 7: can run only 3 GPUs with Catalyst 13.12 only, if i install Catalyst 13.11 it does recognize all the GPU with exclmation symbol on 2/6 GPUs, so only 4/6 works
3) Windows 8 and 8.1: Same as #2

When Windows 7, 8 and/or 8.1 load without installing any GPU driver, windows recognize the whole 6 x GPU at device manager but of course, as standard VGA card only, problem arise when i try to install the drivers. This also took me to think the 290x i bought might had the wrong BIOS version, so i made a backup of the original BIOS and tried with different BIOS, same problem, afterall rolledback to original BIOS

Before i got this R9 290x Sapphire, i was running 6 x R9 280x without problem on this same ASRock H81 BTC Pro board, with the exact same PSU and unpowered risers

So my question here is, can any of you have any idea what the f*** is going on cause its been over 48 hours of madness without a solution.
Please help

have asked asrock support with this ?

i think only they can able to track the specific problem for those changed gpus

To start off test with linux, Burn PIMP onto a flash drive and boot up, if it shows up with the correct amount of GPUs, then its a windows/driver issue your having on your main build.

the two molex for the MB should come only from one psu, i think your problem is HW related

i have manage to make work 4 x GPU by connecting each individually Molex cable to each Molex connector on this pci slot config: pci-1 / pci-2 / pci-3 / pci-6 if I connect on pci-4 instead of pci-6 it will not recognize

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

Max i ever got out of these boards wax 5x with window 8.  I didn't try for days though.  I ended up splitting between two boards when i was GPU mining

First update your mobo bios to 1.5.(I had 1.3 installed and it won't take 14.4 or 14.6 w/ 290/x, just blackscreen during installation. After bios update, worked fine)
Then change the PCIE link speak to Gen1(for 290 or 290x. 280x don't matter).

If you use Win7, the official driver will support unto 4 cards, 5 for Win8.
To use 6 cards, you need to use a modified driver (.inf file).

Thanks, i have the 1.3 bios version which was downloaded directly from the UEFI Bios internet connection, i searched for BIOS update and there was none... it seems to be 1.3 is the top, but ill look arround for the 1.5 version, will try that and report back again.

Im having those blackscreen when Windows GUI load, GEN1 is the only way to go, if i set to GEN2 artifacts graphics shows up

im quiting on this board, purchased an MSI board that can support 7 x GPU, this board does not work right with 290x, so my suggestion to all you googlers looking for solution, if you got a 290x... sell your board and buy the MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING