How To: Enable SLI on pre-i7/i5 hardware

[tdbone1]

i still need help with my above stated problem.

 

[MadBoy89]

I'm going to try a new PSU tonight and see how I go.

Will post update then.

MadBoy89 - thanks for the Skype offer. Might take you up on it later if I have no luck

bb

Np, My offer for Skype is still standing, feel fre to call me at any time.

PS; But i think the PSU is not the problem.

tdbone1, i can try and help you ? U use Skype ?

 

[Glendor]

I'm back, but I'm glad I was away...

Good Lord, it sounds like you folks have been suffering. I just checked in on the progress, and there must have been 15 pages of new posts since I looked away. It appears there has been some progress, but a mixed bag of results. I'm going to keep dragging on with the 257.15 drivers and the .08 slipatch till this gets worked out. Can't afford to brake my only PC at the moment.


Good Luck Everybody.

 

[Glendor]

Hi mates!

NVIDIA included special routine to detect OUR patch! And that was done in very lame way So when driver detects patch - it calls special function to crash you system. Yes, you understood that correct - special function that only crash when finded our code in windows kernel. We already know everything about that, and easily can bypass that check.

H0ly Cr@p! I just realized the implications of this, and I'm really cheezed off at nVidia. Imagine if Ford sold you a new oil filter that was programmed to clog if it detected non-Ford brand oil in the engine. Looks like my next off-the-shelf card is going to come from AMD

 

[largon]

I'm running dual GTX470s on 258.96 with SLIP 0.8b and Forceware Patch v1.1 (the one that disables nVIDIA's malware). Everything works, no crashes and performance is no less than what you'd expect.

Tested in Metro 2033, Crysis Wars, Starcraft 2, Fallout 3, Unigine benchmarks all work with no problems.

 

[cracken]

Hi, I hope this thread is appropriate for my question...
I have a P7P55 motherboard and I will want a SLI configuration. I wanted to know of the possibility of changing the Bios chip, I´m looking more information about this, however I can´t found anything. The question is: If I buy a BIOS chip from "P7P55-PRO" and I put this in my "P7P55D", ¿ Is totally compatible ? ¿ Will I have any problem?
I would appreciate any contribution. Sorry for my bad English

 

[bbjayo]

Success!!

MadBoy89 you're right about the PSU. I don;t think it was the issue but it was a 560W Silverstone so I probably needed to upgrade anyway.

Out of desperation, I reinstalled win7 64bit. I run a pretty minimal install anyway so this wasn't a huge issue for me.

-Installed updates, and saw both cards installed with one disabled by windows. This is normal with the standard VGA driver.
-Installed 260.63 and rebooted.
-Blue Screen just before login window.
Installed SLIPatch 0.8b and rebooted, blue screen on SLI OS

I could think of nothing else to try except maybe biios settings. So I went into bios and loaded optimal defaults. Also changed "Init First Display" to PCIE - not sure if this does anything

-Rebooted and it made it to the login screen but with the standard vga driver obviously intalled (low res screen)
-Installed 260.63 and rebooted
-made it to the login screen. I login and start seeing messages about PC being SLI capable and another one telling me that I'd forgotten to attach the SLI bridge. All looking good.
- installed forceware patch v1.1 and rebooted.
-Made it to login screen and enabled SLI OK.

So, it took a while. Probably didn't need a new PSU or a reinstall of Win7 but I got there.

Didn;t have time to install any games but I ran the Call of Juarez DX10 Benchmark and it gave me an exact 100% increase in Min, Max and Avg FPS.

For now, I can confirm that the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P motherboard is compatible with SLIMod.

Thanks Everyone,

bb

 

[zhuniao]

hi,guys. great pleasure to find this forum and those men dedicated to SLI hacking. hats off to all of you doing contribution and credit to this forum!
I spent a whole day reading throgh all those pages, and followed anatolymik the Great (in my mind)'s instruction, installing win7 x64 and sli patch 0.8 , Forceware 258.96 and moded forceware b3 by anatolymik. I hit the gold! Almost everything goes as smoothly as expected.
I post this thread not only for paying homage to those SLI-hacking enthusiasts but also for other reasons: providing some extra-information to make our patch better and report my test results.
ok, first, from the first to the last pages, i find many people testing sli patch in 2-way builts like gtx280s, 460s, but no one testing it in 3 or 4ways. so, i want to do some tests different in multi-gpus mode.
Here is my bulit: QX 9650, Gigabyte ep45-extreme ddr2version, Inno 3d gtx 295x2 in quad sli, adata ddr2 800 2gx2, WD 1t hard drives x2 in Raid 0, antec quadrro 1200w PSU.
after successfully activating the sli mode, i did some benchmarks like heaven and 3DV. the modded-driver patch works perfect, boosting performance by over 80%. it is awesome inspiring.
in the phase of game testing, i ran metro 2033, mirro edge, Batman, dirt2, Bad company2 , call of duty modern warfare, Jericoh, Crysis warhead and Crysis. But i encountered a problem- heavy stuttering in game, varying from game to game, especially in Crysis. it gets frozen for almost 1 minute at random intervals, but it is ok in benchmark testing, but not in the actuall game.
also, when i am editing my reply i get a blank screen.
this is all information i think useful for improving our hacking-work.
at last, i hope the patch can fix bugs in multi-gpu mode.
my appreciation to all of you.

 

[tdbone1]

im still having those major issues.
if someone would give me a hand i would appreciate it.

 

[Triton.se]

I also notice moments where graphics stands still for seconds. Yesterday for example when I was watching replays in F1 2010. EDIT /// Happens more and more, 3-4sec interrupts in GFX while rest of rig plays well...

Currently stability testing system @ 4203MHz with Prime95, I found out that AUTO vs Normal for CPU and MCH Reference differ, Normal seems better.

Anatolymik, what's cooking ? How is the installer progress going ? We want new drivers to play with !

 

[iTek]

Sorry to be a pain...

I have a P5Q Pro with GTX 460 on Windows 7.

Can I upgrade to SLi or not?

(At the moment I am at work but I have downloaded slipatch 0.7, slistring v2 but no graphics card drivers, can someone point me out if these are the correct/up to date files)

Thanks,
Gary

 

[MadBoy89]

Sorry to be a pain...

I have a P5Q Pro with GTX 460 on Windows 7.

Can I upgrade to SLi or not?

(At the moment I am at work but I have downloaded slipatch 0.7, slistring v2 but no graphics card drivers, can someone point me out if these are the correct/up to date files)

Thanks,
Gary

It all depends on which Win7 are you ? x32 or x64,
if u are on Win 7 32 bit, u need SLI patch 0.7
But if u are on Win 7 64bit, u will need SLI patch 0.8

U need only SLI patch OR slistring, not all.

And there is no Warranty that it will work.

List of things u Need :

SLI patch 0.7 or 0.8 depending on 32 / 64 bit

NVidia drivers ( try with latest ) > Nvidia

Forceware patch 1.1 > Link

From yesterday i am having problems with random freezing....
SLI detection normal, but when i boot in SLI enabled mod i it freezes ...

WTF , where is the problem....
In forceware patch ?
What is causing freezes ???
System freezes , not in games....

 

[iTek]

Thanks very much, it is indeed 32bit.

 

[MadBoy89]

Thanks very much, it is indeed 32bit.

Np ; lets hope u will have more luck then i have had.

im still having those major issues.
if someone would give me a hand i would appreciate it.

Do u remember on which drivers did u run when u used SLI ?

Success!!

MadBoy89 you're right about the PSU. I don;t think it was the issue but it was a 560W Silverstone so I probably needed to upgrade anyway.


bb

That PSU i enough for your PC

 

[Triton.se]

i read nvida may face early grave: many year's supply of damaged cards to laptops. np, just a company, the know how floats.

 

[bbjayo]

From yesterday i am having problems with random freezing....
SLI detection normal, but when i boot in SLI enabled mod i it freezes ...

WTF , where is the problem....
In forceware patch ?
What is causing freezes ???
System freezes , not in games....

Anatolymik has said that SLI Patch has issues with 260.63. I guess we just have to wait for his newest release.

What forceware version are you using?

bb

 

[anatolymik]

I'm finishing. Installer works good. Now i'm working on x32 code

 

[Triton.se]

this time, instead of just saying "it's done" ...tell more about features etc damn, might have to learn ruskie ! da !

 

[bbjayo]

I'm finishing. Installer works good. Now i'm working on x32 code

Great work mate - we all owe you

 

[tdbone1]

MadBoy89

i not sure which drivers i used.

but if i remember right that sli 0.8b never worked with 257.15 i had to use the 0.7.

when i uninstalled the 0.7 and then installed 260.53 or 260.63 then installed 0.8b then the beta3 slipatch it wouldnt work.
it might be because of the 0.8b and not even the newer drivers.
the instructions for the newer 260.xx drivers were to use the 0.8b though so thats what i used.

can i use the 0.7 sli-mod and beta3 sli patch with the 260.63 or does it have to be the 0.8b slimod which never did work with me from the beginning.

you are the only one that has even tried to help so i do appreciate man.
thanks.

 

[thegreat_88]

Problems....

First off, THANKS to all who are making this possible. Us nerds never cease to amaze.

I thought that flashing these 8800 gts' with overclock settings was gonna be complicated but this is stumping me.

So I have been reading the entire xdevs website thanks to google translate but can't seem to find this mythical forceware v1.1 patch that has been mentioned several times throughout this lengthy forum post. I have the "ModdedForceWare258_96_B3.rar" and the SLIHack v0.8b for Win7 x64.

I had the 257.21 drivers working with unbridged SLI and realized that maybe the MSI Crossfire bridges sent with my MSI 790FX-GD70 may work. Sure enough they did. I read about the recent upgrades to the patch and support for 258.96. This is where the trouble really starts. I installed the 258.96 drivers over the 257.21 with SLIHack still installed. rebooted. installed the ModdedForceware Build 3. Rebooted. Logged in, enabled SLI. Monitor flashes and I hear the disconnect sound followed by the blinking cursor in the upper left followed by the reconnect sound. Monitor comes back on and there are double "apply changes". The screen and keyboard freeze and eventually the monitor goes to sleep. No BSOD, but the PC is frozen. I hit the reset button and think "well I'll just uninstall the drivers and the hack and start over" No dice.

I have tried unistalling everything in safe mode, I've tried using the 260.63 drivers to check the "clean install" box that removes everything from Nvidia for you. Followed by of course a reboot. Then installing the 257.21 drivers; reboot; install SLI Hack 0.8b; reboot; enable SLI; Freeze. I have unistalled and reinstalled everything about every way I can think of.

So my question out of all this lengthy explanation; Is there a way to uninstall the changes made by the ModdedForceware Build 3 patch?

I personally think it was that patch that is keeping me from getting the previously 95% stable 257.21 drivers to work now.

I have went in and ran certmgr.exe and removed the "SLI" certificate from both locations inside of certmgr. I'm just wondering if it is just a lingering file or registry entry.

Hope this helps if anyone else is having the same problems.

PS, I've been running the system at these settings and with this installation of Win7 for sometime now 100% stable. I know OC is the first suspect but the computer hasn't locked up one time until I started messing with the 258.96 SLIhacking and that moddedforceware build. Not even when I first modded the 257.21 drivers... I should have just left it alone. If it ain't broke don't fix it....

System specs:

Motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70 (BIOS version: 1.14)

CPU: AMD Phenom 965 BE 3.4Ghz (OC to 4.0ghz 100% stable)

Memory: Patriot Viper PC3-1600 (@1600Mhz 7-7-7-20)

GFX: (2) 8800 GTS 320MB (upgraded firmware to latest and modded to lock-in OC settings {615Mhz-GPU;1450Mhz-Shader; 950Mhz-Memory} SLIed with MSI Crossfire bridge{which worked once upon a time} not sure if this helps either but I noticed that when I did the forceware build 3 install EVGA Precision stopped recognizing the GPU usage %)

Windows 7 64bit Ultimate installed on 2 Raptor 150GB in RAID 0




EDIT\\\\\\\\\\ Crossfire Bridge seems to be the issue. Uninstalled the bridge and not only does the hack work on 257.21 but I got 258.96 to work also. I used the Forceware v1.1 found here: How To: Enable SLI on pre-i7/i5 hardware
to take care of the 258.96 install. I just wonder now, why did the bridge work before? It ran great before with bridge and 257.21 installed with just the SLIHack 0.8b installed. Weird :/

 

[Velvet Wafer]

First off, THANKS to all who are making this possible. Us nerds never cease to amaze.

I thought that flashing these 8800 gts' with overclock settings was gonna be complicated but this is stumping me.

So I have been reading the entire xdevs website thanks to google translate but can't seem to find this mythical forceware v1.1 patch that has been mentioned several times throughout this lengthy forum post. I have the "ModdedForceWare258_96_B3.rar" and the SLIHack v0.8b for Win7 x64.

I had the 257.21 drivers working with unbridged SLI and realized that maybe the MSI Crossfire bridges sent with my MSI 790FX-GD70 may work. Sure enough they did. I read about the recent upgrades to the patch and support for 258.96. This is where the trouble really starts. I installed the 258.96 drivers over the 257.21 with SLIHack still installed. rebooted. installed the ModdedForceware Build 3. Rebooted. Logged in, enabled SLI. Monitor flashes and I hear the disconnect sound followed by the blinking cursor in the upper left followed by the reconnect sound. Monitor comes back on and there are double "apply changes". The screen and keyboard freeze and eventually the monitor goes to sleep. No BSOD, but the PC is frozen. I hit the reset button and think "well I'll just uninstall the drivers and the hack and start over" No dice.

I have tried unistalling everything in safe mode, I've tried using the 260.63 drivers to check the "clean install" box that removes everything from Nvidia for you. Followed by of course a reboot. Then installing the 257.21 drivers; reboot; install SLI Hack 0.8b; reboot; enable SLI; Freeze. I have unistalled and reinstalled everything about every way I can think of.

So my question out of all this lengthy explanation; Is there a way to uninstall the changes made by the ModdedForceware Build 3 patch?

I personally think it was that patch that is keeping me from getting the previously 95% stable 257.21 drivers to work now.

I have went in and ran certmgr.exe and removed the "SLI" certificate from both locations inside of certmgr. I'm just wondering if it is just a lingering file or registry entry.

Hope this helps if anyone else is having the same problems.

PS, I've been running the system at these settings and with this installation of Win7 for sometime now 100% stable. I know OC is the first suspect but the computer hasn't locked up one time until I started messing with the 258.96 SLIhacking and that moddedforceware build. Not even when I first modded the 257.21 drivers... I should have just left it alone. If it ain't broke don't fix it....

System specs:

Motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70 (BIOS version: 1.14)

CPU: AMD Phenom 965 BE 3.4Ghz (OC to 4.0ghz 100% stable)

Memory: Patriot Viper PC3-1600 (@1600Mhz 7-7-7-20)

GFX: (2) 8800 GTS 320MB (upgraded firmware to latest and modded to lock-in OC settings {615Mhz-GPU;1450Mhz-Shader; 950Mhz-Memory} SLIed with MSI Crossfire bridge{which worked once upon a time} not sure if this helps either but I noticed that when I did the forceware build 3 install EVGA Precision stopped recognizing the GPU usage %)

Windows 7 64bit Ultimate installed on 2 Raptor 150GB in RAID 0




EDIT\\\\\\\\\\ Crossfire Bridge seems to be the issue. Uninstalled the bridge and not only does the hack work on 257.21 but I got 258.96 to work also. I used the Forceware v1.1 found here: How To: Enable SLI on pre-i7/i5 hardware
to take care of the 258.96 install. I just wonder now, why did the bridge work before? It ran great before with bridge and 257.21 installed with just the SLIHack 0.8b installed. Weird :/

CF bridges are electronically different to SLI bridges and incompatible... i bet it only worked because SLI works even without bridge... you got lucky tho, from what i have heard it may be very easy to kill you card, when youre using SLI Bridges on CF, or CF Bridges on SLI

 

[thegreat_88]

oops

Thanks for the reply. I should have known, I didn't see any FPS increase before/after. Glad I ordered an SLI bridge on freebay. Keep up the good work fellas

 

[MadBoy89]

MadBoy89

i not sure which drivers i used.

but if i remember right that sli 0.8b never worked with 257.15 i had to use the 0.7.

when i uninstalled the 0.7 and then installed 260.53 or 260.63 then installed 0.8b then the beta3 slipatch it wouldnt work.
it might be because of the 0.8b and not even the newer drivers.
the instructions for the newer 260.xx drivers were to use the 0.8b though so thats what i used.

can i use the 0.7 sli-mod and beta3 sli patch with the 260.63 or does it have to be the 0.8b slimod which never did work with me from the beginning.

you are the only one that has even tried to help so i do appreciate man.
thanks.

I have one idea.
That is now fully working for me
Instal Driver sweeper
1. ) Delete curent drivers in control panel.
2. ) Restart
3. ) Boot in safe mod
4. ) clean all nvidia sections with driver sweeper.
5. ) reboot
6. ) instal SLI patch 0.8b
7. ) restart
8.) Boot in sli mod
9. ) download and instal 197.45 drivers
10 . ) Restart and enable SLI

 

[anatolymik]

SLIPatch v0.9 alpha

http://www.xdevs.com/sli/SLIPatch_v0.9_beta.exe

Manual on the attached pictures.

Report to me