Dual evga GTX 285 ssc 2GB Won't boot

[awesome86]

Hello everyone, I have a ga-ex58-ud5 with core i7 920, 12gb ddr3 and I have installed Snow Leopard retail by using the kakewalk bootloader. Everything goes smoothly with only one card - even got 3d working out of the box, but when I put the SLI cable it won't even boot anymore.

Does anybody have the GFI strings or something similar that would allow me to boot with dual cards?

Thanks!

[aquamac]

Do you have vista or windows 7 installed to get the second PCI address from device manager?

[awesome86]

Yes!!! I do have Windows 7 on the other hard disk. I'll try to get that information now.

EDIT: I'm trying to find where to look for that information. If you could tell me, it'd be faster, thanks!

[awesome86]

Um, I didn't know where to look, so I kept comparing to see if I found something different, and here's what I found:


Is that it or something else? If not, please, tell me where to look, thanks!

[aquamac]

Look under Location paths, not Location Information. There is a walkthrough here for OSX, but if you have windows it saves a lot of fitting/removing your cards and fiddling around. Post back here with your results for each card. It will look something like this:

PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0300)#PCI(0000)#PCI(0200)#PCI(0000)#PCI(0000)#PCI(0000)

[awesome86]

Sorry about that! Here it is:


Video card 1: PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0300)#PCI(0000)
Video card 2: PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0700)#PCI(0000)

Thanks!

EDIT: Please, remember I'm a newbie at MacOSX, I don't know how to do much stuff, so, a little step by step of what should be done would be immensely appreciated.

[aquamac]

Here is a link to the GFX string for your cards and motherboard.

rapidshare.com/files/378237160/2_x_GTX_285_Gigabyte.zip

The video ram will not report right yet as Apple have not released a 2 gig card yet. If there is an option in your bios to boot from PEG 2 you may have to set to this. I include a fixed com.apple.boot.plist, so you should just have to swap this over with the one you currently have. I don't now anything about kakewalk, but if you have an extra folder your com.apple.boot.plist should be in there.

[awesome86]

Hi, thank you so much for the file. It's unfortunate that it didn't work though.

I replaced the boot file with yours, and inserted the in.plist and out.hex in the same folder as the boot file (/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/).

When I tried to boot, the same error occurred: didn't even boot. Meaning that if I type nothing, while it's loading on the grey screen with the apple logo, a text shows up saying that I can turn my computer off or something.

If I go into -v it hangs at ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin::pushCPU_CSTData. To make it work again, I remove the sli cable, remove the power plugs from the second video card and everything works fine.

Sorry, it just occurred to me that I might have given the wrong idea, each gtx 285 that I own is actually 1GB, I meant total when I said 2GB.

Thanks for the hard work anyways, but I'm kind of unsure if there is a solution for this or not.

[aquamac]

Is there anywhere in the bios to set the second graphics card as the first card?

[awesome86]

I checked the bios again and the only option there was about PCI was the option to select which slot to start first. I selected the second slot and the same problem occurred

I was hoping that there was an answer for my issue, apparently there is not.

Thanks for the hard work mate..

[lordsmoove]

I don't have an evga card, but I'm using two 285's and used the above files in the zip and for the first time was able to boot up with both cards powered and SLI cable connected! On the downside, I have no graphic acceleration, can't watch videos, and only single monitor support. Prior to that I could use one card in the top PCIe slot and get a fully powered experience.

I'm using 10.6.3 and everything else is OK. I know I'm close just got to figure out the last component. I saw someone's picture of two 285's with monitor support and I know it can be done.

Forgot to mention, I am using a Rampage II Extreme with i920, 6GB Corsair. Maybe it is the X58 board that is limiting my second card but I could have swore I saw someone using it with two cards...

Thanks for any help.
DJ