9800gx2 sli only red flimmering/flickering driving me insane

Fathom216 · *Last edited by Fathom216; 07-08-2009 at 01:16.*

Alright, so I have a pretty weird and extremely annoying problem with my 9800gx2. I've had this card since it was released, and it's been great up until recently. A month ago it started flashing red during sli compatible games, but it only did it for a little while and then it went away. I didn't think anything of it, until 4 days later it came back. That's when I realized that when the 9800gx2 is not in multi-GPU mode, it works fine, no red nothing. When I want to use it in multi-gpu mode for games like DoW2 or UT3 where I get increased performance, its usually fine, only until recently the red flashing came back and it won't seem to go away.

I updated the drivers, mobo, everything. I sent it in to a local pc repair shop; all the parts are running as they should be, and the computer passed every stress test. I can't take a screenshot of the red flickering, and the flickering goes away in windowed mode. The fact that it goes away for weeks and then comes back is perplexing as hell. I'm completely out of ideas. Here are some photos I took with my camera to show what i'm talking about, but obviously a video would have been more ideal. Just look at these pics and then imagine it flashing so horribly that it makes you feel like you're about go blind.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y61...6/problem1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y61...6/problem3.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y61...6/problem2.jpg

Any help is greatly appreciated.

spajdrik · 07-07-2009, 10:22 | posts: 1,058 | Location: Czech Republic

I looked over net, and maybe problem is with SLI interconnect bridge, which im not sure if can be exchanged on this kind of card normally.
Maybe contacts also need to be cleaned, where you plug bridge.

Fathom216 · 07-07-2009, 10:35 | posts: 15

The PC tech guys checked to see if anything around there was dirty, and they didn't find anything. It's pretty clean, I checked it myself. Maybe I should reseat it again, but I seriously doubt that'll do anything because I felt it and it's really secure.

Only thing I can still think of is that something is wrong internally with the card, but I don't know how that could have happened. The red thing is completely random too, like I said. It was gone for 2 weeks until it came up again yesterday. And it might go away again for a week tomorrow, who knows. If something did happen to the card, what could have happened to cause such intermittent behavior? The ONLY mishandling I've ever done with it is slightly overclock it in the nvidia CP (since I have an nvidia 790i brand mobo that can do that sort of thing) over the last year, and I change the fan speeds every time the computer starts because it defaults to 0% instead of 60% which is how I like it.

spajdrik · 07-07-2009, 10:38 | posts: 1,058 | Location: Czech Republic

Yeah, well alot of people got same problem, but with older cards, but solution to this exchanging sli bridge or they just bough new gfx card

Fathom216 · 07-07-2009, 10:42 | posts: 15

I don't think I have an sli bridge, since this card is seated alone. I'm not too savvy on the hardware side though so I might be wrong. Software i'm good at but the parts... I just bring it into the pc place near my house for that.

If there's no solution then i'll just run games at single gpu mode. It's not like there's a lot of PC games coming out these days anyway, and the ones that do come out aren't too demanding. I'm only gonna be using this desktop for another 6 months and then i'm leaving for school, just gonna use my laptop then.

TeX_UK · 07-07-2009, 17:14 | posts: 1,505 | Location: Geordie Land

I just gave up on my 9800gx2 after 5 RMA's in 3 months BFG are sending me a gtx 275 OC to replace it which will do me untill the GT300 is released if it works...

morbias · **Memory**: 6GB HyperX @1600 6-7-6-18

The SLI interconnect is internal to the card, between the two PCBs. Try setting SLI mode to SFR instead of AFR. If it's the SLI interconnect then you should now have half the screen rendering correctly, the other half will be fubar.

Fathom216 · 07-07-2009, 19:03 | posts: 15

How do I set it to SFR?

Fathom216 · 07-07-2009, 19:04 | posts: 15

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeX_UK

I just gave up on my 9800gx2 after 5 RMA's in 3 months BFG are sending me a gtx 275 OC to replace it which will do me untill the GT300 is released if it works...

Mine is a year old, could I still get a replacement?

TeX_UK · 07-07-2009, 21:36 | posts: 1,505 | Location: Geordie Land

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fathom216

Mine is a year old, could I still get a replacement?

It depends on the cards brand & where you live. BFG give lifetime warranty if you live in the USA outside the USA you get a 10 year warranty.Like you I've had the gx2 since release & worked great untill Feb of this year

.

Fathom216 · 07-08-2009, 01:15 | posts: 15

No one else has advice? Nothing I can do besides replace the video card?

BlooHook · 07-08-2009, 10:51 | posts: 418 | Location: Jax, FL

That's all I could suggest. I've had problems with this particular card 3 times over and none of the options suggested worked outside of exchanging it out for a working card. Luckily I've got two good ones now. Hopefully they'll stay that way...