GA-P55A-UD4 + ultra durable gtx 480 not compatible?

[Lug]

hey there, as the title says, i have a ud4, and recently got a gigabyte 480 for sli
now, for the most part it works great, but whenever i reboot i have to reinstall the gpu drivers or the card will not be detected at all and the screen runs in default resolution of 6/800
the nvidia drivers pop up and tell me no compatible hardware detected

it is in sli mode, with an nvidia reference 480 don't know if that's an issue?
they both appear in device manager when the drivers say otherwise.. i'm very confused!
the gpu / memory / ect are the same frequency, and it scales perfectly in sli mode when i reinstall the drivers so it does work.. just this boot issue? seems very odd!
i did try reinstalling the motherboard drivers too, but that had 0 effect
using a 1200w be-quiet psu, so plenty of juice on boot..

this is only since installing the second card, so have i done something stupid?
any input would be appreciated, thanks!

[wazza300]

Any same model card should work in sli,try using the latest drivers including beta drivers from NVIDIA site,try using driversweeper and fully uninstall the drivers,for sli I thin you have to add one card,install drivers,reboot,add second card,reinstall drivers,reboot

Oh and use latest mb bios

[Lug]

what is the latest bios for that board? i did update it a few months back but i forget the versions i have the 'unlocked performance' splash screen i believe it was f14 ?
and ill give the card reinstall a go first, thanks for reply!

[wazza300]

It's the ud4? Not ud4p?

Here's f15 bios for ud4,remember to flash with qflash

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList...5a-ud4_f15.exe

[Lug]

apparently it is the ud4, not the 'p'
i'll try the qflash now then, i had no luck with reinstalling the cards though i did note if i don't configure sli, and just leave card 2 as a physics card i can reboot just fine
but on doing so, i loose the option to set sli in the nvidia options, and again need to reinstall the drivers..
i did note the motherboard manual mentions that the pcie 16 ( main card slot ) will run at 8x mode and share 8 with the other card in sli mode, could that cause the driver to go nuts on reboot? or is that the norm ?

[Lug]

ok i flashed the bios and it went in no troubles tried enabling sli again but no joy, it's still being a stubborn moo.

i have tried installing them as admin too, that made no difference
and i have been cleaning between installs
any other ideas? or should i try removing a card again and starting over with f15?

[wazza300]

It's up to you,I think you can disable usb3 and it will run at 16x 8x,but at 8x 8x it shouldn't affect anything,seemslike NVIDIA drivers or bios as it doesn't do it when sli isn't enabled

[Lug]

yes, it really does seem like a software glitch at this point i'll get onto the nv forums and see what they think thanks for the help waz!

[Yikes2000]

yes, it really does seem like a software glitch at this point i'll get onto the nv forums and see what they think thanks for the help waz!

Is the second GTX480 bought "used"? If so, how old is it? You might try flashing both GTX480s to their latest BIOS. (Yes, you can flash video card's BIOS! Just Google nvflash.) I have two BFG GTX260s in SLI that would occasionally freeze the screen followed by "the video card has stop responding" message. I fixed it by flashing the older card with the BIOS from the newer one.

SLI works best with cards of identical brand and model. Failing that, latest or matching BIOS would be desirable. Flashing video card BIOS is not as scary as it sounds, especially in SLI setup with two cards. Just flash one card at a time, using the other, non-flashing card as primary video. That way you could always flash back the old BIOS if the new one fails. Remember to backup the original BIOS!

[Lug]

Yes, i did think about the same brand / model issue, the 'newer' ultra durable gigabyte one was b-stock because it was mispackaged and was missing the driver / utility 'prodalizer' cd but it appears to be completely functional and all the status led's on the back light up the 'ud-vga' has it's own diagnostic, and it was sealed up nicely in it's anti static bag
it 'seems' to be new, it was ordered from overclockers.co.uk

and it does work, i get noticeable sli scaling when it decides it wants to ( every other time i reboot and install drivers.. )

also, i haven't tried making the ud-vga the master card or switching them around because the top card is watercooled and the tubes will not reach to the bottom slot..

the only thing i haven't tried sofar is plugging it into another computer and seeing if it works there, which i may do at some point if i can find someone willing to let me destroy their rig to test, any volunteers? :D

honestly i hadn't thought of flashing the card's bios

will the ud-vga and a stock 480 accept the same bios?
ill check out your link now, thanks!