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

[s{orpion]

nVidia/sli data

i am running evga 780i with 8800GTX in sli...

currently at work...
won't be home for a few hours yet...
but, if you tell me how to gather the data needed i will send it to you this evening.

 

[sinister_steve]

i am running evga 780i with 8800GTX in sli...

currently at work...
won't be home for a few hours yet...
but, if you tell me how to gather the data needed i will send it to you this evening.

Man I sure hope this is duable..ive read so much on others trying to mob the 8800 series drivers for intel ...most say they cant get past the drivers checking if you have nvidia chipset, and then it wont let sli enable...and that it checks every bootup...damn nvidia..

 

[bluevelvetjacket]

Thanks scorpion.

It might be easiest to let me remote control your PC as it takes some trickery.

I sent you a PM.

And also sinister, I really do too. I really don't understand what everyone else is talking about though and hope someone can enlighten me, as I haven't encountered any encryption and I haven't encountered any automatic driver replacement of any files. Obviously it still takes doing and tinkering but it should still be just as possible as it was before. It just takes changing the supplementary detection code they added.

 

[sinister_steve]

hmmm hope so..bluevelvet...Whenever you need back on my comp just let me know...steve

 

[wolf2009]

Hey guys i remembered something, i was trying to make this automated setups of softwares once to try and slipstream into windows xp cd so that they would install automatically when windows was installed from that cd .

SO i came across this software that would monitor all the registry changes, folders created and what options i selected during the installation(while this software was monitoring the installation) that would take place during software installation and recreate that afterwards when i ran the file that it made and my software was installed with just one click. So i guess if u monitor with this software while installing nvidia drivers on a sli mobo and run the same file on a non-sli mobo , lets see what happens then ?

i think solaris may have used this kinda soft while making his utility dvd.

 

[bluevelvetjacket]

Good idea, but it won't work unfortunately. The code is in the drivers and checks for SLI capable motherboard on every bootup. So monitoring what it does in the install procedure won't help unfortunately.

There used to be a registry setting that could be enabled (MB_Enable) to force enable SLI (it only did some rudimentary checks rather than in depth checking of the hardware). That is how the previous modded drivers worked. But nVidia removed the setting from their drivers which is why its been so difficult to make new drivers.

Thanks for the input though.

 

[Mussels]

Hey guys i remembered something, i was trying to make this automated setups of softwares once to try and slipstream into windows xp cd so that they would install automatically when windows was installed from that cd .

SO i came across this software that would monitor all the registry changes, folders created and what options i selected during the installation(while this software was monitoring the installation) that would take place during software installation and recreate that afterwards when i ran the file that it made and my software was installed with just one click. So i guess if u monitor with this software while installing nvidia drivers on a sli mobo and run the same file on a non-sli mobo , lets see what happens then ?

i think solaris may have used this kinda soft while making his utility dvd.

brilliant suggestion. it may not give us 100% of what we need, but it WILL give us hints - especially if you can make it work on a reboot, and see what the detection code does.

 

[Holi]

Hey! Any news on the drivers? been following this thread a few days now and was hoping to be able to use my 2x 8800gt cards on my x38 motherboard Im running Vista 64 so if you get drivers for it ill test it out for you Was hoping that i wouldnt have to change to Vista 32. Thanks for the help.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Ok so, are these drivers mainly being on under Vista or Windows XP SP2/3? I want to make a suggestion that you may have to disable driver signature enforcement if on Vista while booting.

 

[sinister_steve]

Ok so, are these drivers mainly being on under Vista or Windows XP SP2/3? I want to make a suggestion that you may have to disable driver signature enforcement if on Vista while booting.

I have tried them on xp32 will you still have to disable the driver sig, more than likely blue velv or sol already new this tho..? I dont know if bluevel or sol are any closer or not from two days ago when I let bluevelv on my comp but we didnt get anwhere that day...Hope to here some good news soon tho...Steve

 

[bluevelvetjacket]

@Holi: If usign Vista x64 you have to disable Driver Enfrocement to install unsigned drivers as JrRacinFan said. You can do this via command line using bcdedit or using EasyBCD. However, I haven't modded x64 drivers unfortunately yet as each set takes really long and I'm still figuring out what parts do what. So the more platforms I mod drivers for (each set being slightly different - with a big difference between Vista and XP drivers) the longer it takes and with no guarantee the changes actually work . So I'm going to limit it to Vista x32 and XP I think right now. Especially since x64 is very picky with driver enforcement.

Also, just an update: I figured out where most of the SLI detection code is but now I just can't figure out what the "proper" values are and which paths the code needs to take. There are many redundant checks so that adds to the difficulty. I'm hoping to collect data from users running SLI already and hopefully get somewhere.

 

[Holi]

Ok. Going to try that driver enforcement thing and try the vista 32 drivers allready posted and see what happens ill post more info.

 

[bluevelvetjacket]

OK. Well, the x64 drivers up that Sol posted will probably only give you the same thing that Sinister_Steve found in the x32 drivers:

It might show the Stereo - Multi-GPU rendering option in the Control Panel. But SLI itself doesn't work. Unless you were saying you have a SLI board and were going to try it. In which case I am going to try to make a video with what I need done. If that doesn't pan out I may just have to borrow people's computers (if they allow of course ) and do a few tests.

 

[Holi]

The driver enforsmence wasnt as easy as i thought and i didnt get to install the 32 drivers, but guess it doesnt matters. My board is not a SLI board but a friend of mine has one and i might be able to talk him in to letting me find out the things you need to find out. Just make that video and ill make it happen Thanks for doing this.

 

[sinister_steve]

tests

Hey Holi why dont you let bluevelvet on ur frinds rig with share my pc so he can figure out what he needs to know...Steve

 

[Holi]

My friend is very protective of his pc and i dont think he will let anyone he doesnt know use it. But im sure we can figure something out.

 

[bluevelvetjacket]

Thanks Holi. Its actually not really necessary at this point as I have a few other volunteers lined up so don't worry about it!

 

[Holi]

Ok good to know Good luck then and ill keep checking this forum for updates and just ask if you need me for anything =)

 

[JDocs]

Please get this right... My 680i board has been gone since January and still no replacement/repair so I need this to get SLI working on my X38 motherboard...

I'm kinda feeling cheated at this point in time as I am sure you can imagine...

 

[sinister_steve]

Hi all here is what someone said to me {they didnt want there name to be shown} on another site they said this........theirs many things u can do like myaking a Ageia driver work through a 8500gt etc... does not work as good as a ageia PPU card but the fact that it works is very promising. the inf in the agia driver is very simular to that of a Nvidia INF.
By when i mean it works it reconizes the card as a moddifed PPU, not able to test it yet though.

I have no idea what he talks about tho?hahah hopeing you guys will...Steve

 

[cdawall]

Hi all here is what someone said to me {they didnt want there name to be shown} on another site they said this........theirs many things u can do like myaking a Ageia driver work through a 8500gt etc... does not work as good as a ageia PPU card but the fact that it works is very promising. the inf in the agia driver is very simular to that of a Nvidia INF.
By when i mean it works it reconizes the card as a moddifed PPU, not able to test it yet though.

I have no idea what he talks about tho?hahah hopeing you guys will...Steve

wait if that worked it would work on a 8400GS right so a $30 PPU?

 

[sinister_steve]

sli drivers...

Hi all so has anyone tried doing the modding to see if theres a way to get the intel chipset to see the chipset as nvidia chipset ? for perhaps nvidia has not locked this part up so much? well hope this is coming along good for bluevelvet and solaris....steve

 

[JDocs]

Hi all so has anyone tried doing the modding to see if theres a way to get the intel chipset to see the chipset as nvidia chipset ? for perhaps nvidia has not locked this part up so much? well hope this is coming along good for bluevelvet and solaris....steve

That would be really dodgy as then we'd all need to modify our chipset driver's inf files to think that the '780i' device ID is actually for chipset xxx...

 

[sinister_steve]

That would be really dodgy as then we'd all need to modify our chipset driver's inf files to think that the '780i' device ID is actually for chipset xxx...

ya thats true...but its looking pretty unlikely doing it moding the drivers

 

[JDocs]

He he... Perhaps as a hack for advanced user, after all the average joe won't use these. Besides I'd stick up with that if it worked. I so don't want another NVidia motherboard... They are just wrong!