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I seem to have consistent problems running more than 3 GPUs (3 cards that is....I have many 2x 5970's working) in a single system.

Whenever I add a 3rd graphics card to a system, they almost always blue screen on me.  It does not seem to matter what brand of MOBO, what type of GPU, etc.  I use Win7, mostly 64 bit. 

Has anyone else had issues like this? 

I would really like to figure out what is going wrong, as I could increase my density greatly by making use of the idle PCI slots. 

Thanks in advance. 


PS - as a sweetener, anyone who gives advice that leads me to getting a 3+ GPU system stable will get a 5 BTC bounty. 

have you tried setting the PCIE Latency to 96 in the Mobo bios? 

I have not.  But I will certainly give it a shot. 

What drivers?  What SDK? What board?

All over the board.  This is an issue I have had with all of the set-ups I have tried. 

I will get the specifics on one of the configs and post it. 

do they BSOD under load or while booting into windows ?

When I used to run windows for my miners I had 2 5970s in one rig and it would always crash CGMiner. Turned out to be the PSU.

They only BSOD once mining begins.  Otherwise they seem fine. 

that surely points to the PSU then ?

What wattage is it ? have you got another one you can try ?

I doubt yochdog would underpower his rigs.

But the crashing is odd, I've had 6 on 1 rig before, all on extenders, and 1 on a PCI to PCIe adapter.

I'd be interested in what the BSOD says. 11.6 with SDK 2.5 should be stable.

not saying he's under powering as much, more that the PSU might be faulty.

Or it can't handle 3 GPUs sucking power once mining starts, maybe "stage" the mining process by starting 1, then 2, then the 3rd instead of all at the same time.

What's the message on the BSOD ? atimag ?

I will try this.

The rig I am testing with has a 1200W PSU for 2x 5970, and whatever random card I throw in the 3rd slot.  I don't think power is the issue.  

I believe atimag is correct.  I will have to wait to look at it tonight. 

driver version will help too, had problems with the latest cats and had to take an earlier version

You already have 4 GPUs running, 2 in each 5970, your problem is getting the 5th GPU running.  Please remember, the number of graphics cards is not always the same as the number of GPUs.

First, I would use catalyst 11.12 with win7.  Anything lower version than that I couldn't get past 4 GPUs to mine with on win 7, same issue as you are having, it would blue screen at the start of mining.  Since you have 2 5970s in there already, that is 4 GPUs, anything you add brings it over that.  Took me forever to figure that out with my 6 x 5870 rig.

If that doesn't work then use cgminer to start with no cards/GPUs active.  Bring each GPU up to mining speed one at a time.  If each GPU(core) ramps up to mining this way, your power supply can't handle the inrush when they all start.  If one of them doesn't ramp up, then you have a borked GPU(core).

I will try this also tonight and report back.

Ya, I know the GPU count was off, but I was more thinking it was a problem loading the 3rd physical slot, as I had the same issue trying to run 3 5850's.  2 would work great, then the 3rd would crap everything out. 

Well, a quick way to check if it's a hardware or software issue is to try starting it up with BAMT or Xubuntu 12.04.  Both are pretty fast to get up and mining from a downloaded image, BAMT can be up and going in about 5 minutes if you are familiar with it, Xubuntu takes a bit longer.

But loading up a different OS with different drivers will tell you if it is a hardware problem, or a driver/OS problem.

Use GPUz and compare the BIOS of the gpus.  Basically, mixed bioses will often cause the crashing on Windows.  Make sure you're running 11.12.  If anything, wipe the machine and start from scratch.  Put the drivers on a thumb drive and install 11.12 before letting Windows connect to the internet, otherwise it will download AMD drivers from Microsoft Update and you'll be on something later than what you want. 

I had a laptop with Vista using a custom ATI driver because the one Windows was installing kept screwing up the display, the latest update. After I installed the custom driver, Windows still tried to update to the latest and I had to disable the ATI driver install option in the update manager after I turned off auto updates. I did a lot of wiping and reinstalling.

12.04 or 11.04? I vote 11.04 because most of the guides around here are based on that version of Linux. I haven't seen a guide yet on 12.04. Are the Kernels different? But yeah, build a Linux based flash drive for just such emergencies, will help in diagnosing (and maybe turn you on to linux full time). :D  Kano's guide is pretty fool proof for USB creation.
If you don't like Kano's guide there are more here: How To's and Guides Mega List (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83146.0) ;D

It sounds a lot like a power issue, the draw is too much. Try keeping the memory clocks lowered but don't overclock the cards and see how that works. Windows ACPI drivers are hidden from the kernel and they monitor the hardware, and then talk to the kernel as needed. I'm not sure if you can turn off the ACPI in Windows. (ACPI driver is a Genuine Windows rootkit. :D )

On Windows I had better luck running 5+ GPUs using the 12.x drivers but it was never stable for long periods of time if at all.

You may not want to hear it but if you want to run more then 4 reliably you might have better luck jumping to Linux. I have run 8 for weeks on end with anywhere between 4 (4x5970)and 6 (2x5970 4x5870) physical cards and everything works great.

I run many, many 6 GPU rigs under Windows x64, 11.12 drivers.  They run stable for weeks at a time.  They only time they get restarted is to update cgminer when I need to.  I don't think the OS is the issue, rather its some combination of either the drivers, gpu bios, and/or board.

Did you ever get this up and running?

No, I have not had the time to work on it......have been setting up BFL singles and new GPU systems. 

I will circle back to the trouble systems once I move our operations into a new space. 

I am still having issues.....I recently tried to get 4x 7970 working, but for whatever reason the 4th GPU is not getting recognized. 

Anyone with experience on this issue that wants to help would be greatly appreciated! 

I'll work on this for you right now and document the steps I'm going to take on a new rig. :)  I just bought 8 7970s and will be running them on Win7x64.

This would be fantastic......which 7970 did you buy? 

i have 1200W PSU also, have you tried drawing some power off MB?

dark and hard to see, but

https://i.imgur.com/WEXpX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/flhde.jpg

(yes it's dusty also)

Use CAT 11.12. Using 12.x will only allow 4 cards/cores max, then blue screen on the 5th. I had the same problem with EVERY generation of card using Windows 7 x64 (as Windows 7 x32 only supports 4 cards/cores regardless).

I use 11.12 for EVERY rig, every Card generation (5/6/7xxx) and run up to 6 physical cards per rig without issues, yet 12.x on the same hardware = bluescreen with 4+ cards.
(SDK 2.1 for 5xxx Rigs, SDK 2.4 for 6xxx Rigs, SDK 2.6 for 7xxx rigs - Drivers always 11.12)

Do I get paid now ? (also, perhaps for the BAT file/shortcut help ?)

1EgNTCmAJmNy9KyBvAofExvNjmxwGVC7Nx


I always seen to miss out on the yochdog bounties ;) .....LOL

Win7 x32 = 4 cards/cores regardless.
Win7 x64 = 8 cards/cores, must use CAT 11.12 (11.12-7970 Edition is available and I use it as well).

Go back to the PCIE latency advice, if the mobo BIOS supports it. It worked for me. Every mobo will have bandwidth issues at different numbers of GPUs, and mine had it at 4. More commonly it's at 5. Changing PCIE latency from 64 to 96 fixed it for me.

A mixture of good ideas and basic troubleshooting:

• Do a clean re-install of Windows. It could be that simple!
• If you don't want to re-install Windows, do a clean re-install of your drivers with ATIman, here: http://atiman.go-board.net/ (http://atiman.go-board.net/)
• Your RAM might be bad. Run Memtest86+ overnight and make sure the RAM is alright. http://www.memtest.org/ (http://www.memtest.org/)
• When you mine, do you mine one card at a time (for testing) or all at once? Instead of mining with all cards and causing BSoD, try mining with single cards at a time. See if the 3rd card alone causes the BSoD, or if the 5970's have something to do with it.
• Are you using a custom BIOS on any of your cards, by chance? Undervolting/overvolting? Underclocking/overclocking?
• Test the 3 cards you intend for this rig in a completely different rig, to make sure that the issue is definitely card related, and not related to motherboard, RAM, hard drive, or PSU.

Hey all

It turns out to have been a bad PCIe extender.

Now have 4x 7970's up and running perfectly happy.....no issues at all.