HELP! Stuck building a rig with H81 Pro BTC and 6x R9 290

[guzabi]

Hi folks,

I'm running into trouble while building a rig with this config :
- ASRock H81 Pro BTC mobo (UEFI is latest 1.50)
- Pentium G3220 CPU
- 6x Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X GPUs
- 2x Corsair RM1000 PSUs
(plus chassis, SSD, etc)

At first, I'm disconnecting everything and installing Windows 8.1 and drivers with no issue. Up and running in minutes thanks to USB install and SSD disk. In the BIOS I switched the video mode to iGPU in order to avoid looking for the active video card. I also forced PCIE to Gen1 (though problems are the same with different settings).

-> Plugging a card into PCIE#1 (unpowered 1x to 16x riser and all alims connected to PSU). Card is recognized, installed, up and running in minutes.
-> Halt, plug card #2 into PCIE#2 (which is a 16x but I still use a 1x to 16x unpowered riser and all alims connected to PSU). No second card visible (device manager or any other place of hardware monitoring tool).
-> Suspecting fried card. Unconnecting both, plugging card#2 in PCIE #1. Reboot, works. Card is ok.
-> Halt, unplug everything, plug cards #1,#2 and #3 in PCIE#1, #2 and #3. Reboot.
-> Ow. BIOS screen saying "please install the psu's 4-pin power cables to the 4-pin power connector on your motherboard". What the heck!? I did install the power cable to the molex connector on the mobo (and yes, I payed attention to the order : PSU->near-PCIE-molex->other-molex). It has power! Why does the BIOS say this?
-> If I bypass this, I boot into a black screen, nothing works.

Questions :

1 (obvious) : What is going on here? It's supposed to be an easy setup…
2 : I thought this was a driver issue, but since Windows has not booted up when I run into trouble, I guess there's something else.

Subsidiary : I'm particularly worried about cards #4-6 because they'll use power from mobo (thru PCIE) and thus PSU#1, but the power connectors on the cards are hooked to the PSU#2… Is this going to work?


Well... Anyone would care to help? It makes me a little sick to have 6 cards like this doing nothing and sitting on my desktop! :-S
Thanks in advance. Looking forward to comments.

[1713923099]

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[1713923099]

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[1713923099]

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[guzabi]

EDIT :

Tried to switch default video to PCIE (not auto). Same thing (no #2 card seen, no boot with 3 cards).
Help, please…

[Androidicus]

Be very careful using 2 PSUs on H81 Pro BTC - there thread somewhere about frying 3 mobos! Ok, found it:

http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1z99gz/fried_through_3_asrock_h81_pro_btcs/

As I recall, powering the mobo pci with PSU 1, using non-powered risers, and then powering the cards from PSU 2 can cause probs unless the 2 PSUs have a common GND.

Also, recommended (although there was some varied opinions) to use powered risers...

Can't help more right now but there is lot of info out there...

[joeventura]

I have exactly what you have

Differences:

Windows 7

Only 3 R9 290s

EVGA 1000 Watt PSU


Everything worked right out of the box, zero problems.

Try one power supply, Windows 7 Pro and 3 boards and try and get that working first.

[watneyni]

Did you guys resolve this error.  i have exactly the same and driving me crazy.

[Next BillG]

You need to press "N" when it ask you for the molex connector. You can also reset the CMOS by taking out the on board battery when the PSU is off.

[greaterninja]

Forgive me for this rush of a post as I have a lot to do.  But, I still want to help out.

I have 2 x H81 Pro BTC with 2 Power supplies on each system = 4 PSU total.

However I use 6 x 370 on Rig #1 and 5 x 380 + 1 x 7950 on rig #2.


I definately use the powered sata to molex connector.  I also plug the 2 x model into the mainboard.

I change my primary video in bios to   PCIE device.

Then I plug an HDMI cable on the video card either on the 16x slot or one of the side slots.

I found the H81 likes running primary video typically on one of the fard end PCIE slots or the 16x.

On the 380x / 7950 Rig I got an onboard screen requesting to ignore the onboard PCIE molex warning.

On the 370 rig I never got this warning.


Anyway, just for my part of the story, I do indeed use the powered molex connector on my USB to PCIE risers.  I also leave the mainboard powered with the molex too.

[Za1n]

Spend another $150 and get another motherboard, anything that supports three - four GPU's will be fine, a cheap Celeron processor, some memory, and a SSD. You don't need a case, look around the forums for examples of some open air rig setups, or even milk crate will do. You already have two PSU's, one for each rig. You will be setup and running a lot quicker and less grief overall.

I have used the H81 Pro BTC before, and while you can eventually get it to work, it is not as stable as breaking that equipment up into two rigs. You will be much happier in the long run. In the future go with 4 GPU builds and a 1250 watt PSU, most bang for the buck and less grief.

[WarrEagle]

Spend another $150 and get another motherboard, anything that supports three - four GPU's will be fine, a cheap Celeron processor, some memory, and a SSD. You don't need a case, look around the forums for examples of some open air rig setups, or even milk crate will do. You already have two PSU's, one for each rig. You will be setup and running a lot quicker and less grief overall.

I have used the H81 Pro BTC before, and while you can eventually get it to work, it is not as stable as breaking that equipment up into two rigs. You will be much happier in the long run. In the future go with 4 GPU builds and a 1250 watt PSU, most bang for the buck and less grief.

No one serious about mining should listen to any of that. If you are new, its the easy way out. Otherwise build 6 or 7 card rigs....the right way. Linux, H81, or H97 6 slot Motherboard work fine, with powered risers and motherboard running on the same PSU, use the second PSU to only power the 12V VGA connectors for three cards.

It's way cheaper than running $150+ for another motherboard, CPU and RAM to split them up.

BAD ADVICE!