Cannot boot with Crossfire

[gendoikari1]

So I used to have a 5870 and a Corsair TX750w. I decided to put in a second 5870, and now I can't boot. It POSTs fine, but it hangs on the verbose boot screen. It loads the last drivers, then the top of the screen starts corrupting (blue, red and green distortion). Safe mode is the same thing, and trying Startup Repair does nothing. Fans spin up, no beeps, but I can't boot. Any solutions?

 

[Jacee]

Suggestion here? AMD Game Forums - Need to switch Primary GPU in Crossfire config

 

[gendoikari1]

Both video cards are in the primary slots on my M3A32-MVP Deluxe, everything related to that in the BIOS is set to Auto.

 

[Solarstarshines]

well x2 5870's might need a minimal of 700 watt maybe it doesnt have enough amps to sustain a boot and power both cards just saying you might have enough power but that ussually is the case when adding to much hardware

 

[gendoikari1]

It might be the amperage (the TX750w has 60A on the 12v rail), but I haven't been able to find a solid source that says the amperage requirements for 2 5870s (all they say is 600w).

 

[Snakeyeskm]

I suspect Solarstarshines has hit the nail on the head. Try removing the crossover bridge and disconnecting the power to each card one at a time using the original slots to confirm.

 

[gendoikari1]

Since I can't seem to find my screwdriver, I tried booting off another OS and seeing whether the hardware is the problem. I found my copy of Hiren's BootCD, and booted into Mini XP from there. Mini XP works flawlessly (except that it doesn't recognize my wireless adapter), so I think the problem is with my graphics drivers. Startup Repair had a "load drivers" option with the "choose OS" screen. Is there any way to load Radeon drivers that way?

 

[tezlewis]

Have you tried to load in Low VGA mode from the Advanced boot options screen? This should load up with no drivers and install windows default drivers for the eevices it detects. You can then apply the ATI Control Centre after. Worth a shot!

 

[gendoikari1]

Nope, Low VGA didn't do anything. I'm going to put Catalyst 10.10 on a USB thumb drive and try to install those through Startup Repair.

 

[Rik55]

Are both cards are in pci-e1 & pci-e3 (that's the blue slots). cos pci-e2 will default to a x1 slot with crossfire.

 

[gendoikari1]

Yeah, both of the cards are in the blue slots (I waited 2 weeks for a long enough Crossfire bridge). I tried installing drivers from Startup Repair, but it didn't work. Also, the only working system utility (CPU-Z) on Mini XP said that the first 5870 had stock clocks of 850/1200, while the second one is at 13/3200 for some reason.

Edit: I also tried System Restore to 2 hours before installing the two cards, but it did nothing.

 

[gendoikari1]

Somehow, taking out the second GPU, rebooting, and switching verbose boot to normal boot meant that I could boot normally. I put the second GPU back in, reconnected and rebooted, and it works now. Thanks for the help.