2 LTC BOUNTY: Need help with R9 290 miner

[pilotchup]

Hello,

Long time viewer of this forum, first time posting. I have spent weeks working on this miner I have been trying to make work... it is a headache to say the least.

Hardware:
MSI 990FXA-GD80
Sempron 145
8GB ram
SSD
3x 850W Corsair RM PSUs
16x to 1x powered usb 3.0 risers (awesome)
6x R9 290s reference cards

It has been a lot to get to this point, but now no matter what I try nothing works. I am finally able to get 5 cards detected and mining great in xubuntu, but when I add the 6th card the OS wont even boot. It just is a black screen with a blinking white cursor in the top left. Doesnt matter which 5 cards are plugged in, they work.. but no matter which card I add as the 6th it does not work. Using latest AMD driver, 3.7.2 cgminer. Works great with 5 gpus. Won't boot with 6.

Tried disabling USB 3.0, Firewire, Audio in bios, doesn't do anything. Tried 13.10 xubuntu and 12.04 and 13.04. Tried different versions of AMD drivers. Its not a power issue. This is just so frustrating! Don't know what to try. If you can get me with this 6 one working, I will GLADLY give the bounty. I might even kiss you.

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[Scrilla]

I couldn't get all my cards running on Windows, so I used BAMT booted off of a usb flash drive and it worked. Try it. Otherwise, it might be a power issue. What is your auxiliary power on your mobo (Ex: one 6 pin, 8 pin, 8+4, etc.)?  Are you using powered or un-powered risers?

[Wipeout2097]

I don't care about the bounty, but I had to give my opinion when I saw "headaches" and "frustation".

My suggestion: give up. It's not worth it to keep banging one's head against the wall. Either return one card, or buy another base system and 4 more cards, even 270x's.

[pilotchup]

To Scrilla:

Tried BAMT, its a no go. Windows didn't work either, cant get more than 4 cards in that. Its definitely not a power issue, I have 3x 850 with not more than 750 on one PSU, and I have a dedicated 50A breaker. Aux power on mobo is 8 pin and yes I am using powered risers.

To Wipeout2097:

I have thought about that as a last resort, but I just have made a frame that took a long long time that is very nice and takes 6 cards. After so much time invested in this, I really want to see 6 cards work and I know its been done. I have 6 7950s working great, but these r9 290s make no sense.



I am thinking about buying a different motherboard than the MSI 990FXA-GD80 I am using. I am thinking of getting the MSI z77a-GD65 and getting an intel processor (not sure which one I need yet though, I know I read something somewhere that it needs to be an Ivy Bridge but I have been out of the loop on the latest intel processors for a while now). I think that might solve this problem but who knows ><