What is the proper method of driver installation for two 8800GTX video cards in a non SLI Dual Video Card configuration?I found a procedure that works after a fashion, but feel sure that it is not the best method. (see other posts under author, "rhodges").Thanks:RTH

Normal routine worked fine as per the attached reply to another post. My problem was that I did not have the SLI jumper on the two cards. I did realize that it was required even though I am not useing the SLI Provisions.Copy:FORGET everything else I have said!Unfortunately, finding information for configuring has been futile. Non-SLI Multiple Monitors seems to be totally ignored by NVIDIA (Three are four anywhere I could find including by a Google Search) In any case it sure was difficult for me to locate. Therefore, the trial and error monkey and bannana routine is the only way I know to find the solution.In my ignorance, I did not realize that the SLI jumper was required EVEN NOT IN SLI MODE!. I installed it and everything fell in place with no error windows, and a fruitful four monitor setup.The old standard routine for driver installation worked like a charm with both 8800GTX cards installed in my computer.1. Remove the NVIDIA graphics drivers with the Windows ADD/Remove provisions.2. Disconnect the internet connection2. Restart the computer in save mode canceling the found new hardware notifications (two).3. Run Drive cleaner (Particularly NVIDIA items).4. Restart the computer canceling the found new hardware notifications.5. Install the latest NVIDIA drivers. Yesterday, May 17, 2007 new version 158.22 drivers were put on the NVIDA download site. It is stated that they are WHQL certified, but when installed, the setup notification says that they still ARE NOT. I don't know if there is any difference in them from the previous 158.22 drivers uploaded a few weeks ago or not, but both seem to work well on my system.5. Restart the computer.6. Open the NVIDIA Control Panel and select SET SLI Configuration under the 3d settings.7. If you want multiple monitors select Do not use SLI technology.8. Open your display settings, enable all monitors, and setup your desired resolutions, refresh rates, and positions.So far, the above has resulted in beautiful results with no glitches. Along with the new SP1 provisions, FSX is doing great. For the first time I can even fly the Capt.Sim 757 in FSX with no problemsGood luck to all, and I apologize for such a lengthy, confusing, and frustrating ordeal.Respectfully:RTH

To be honest RTH, I think you might have a mobo issue. I never had to go through ANY of this and I don't need the SLI bridge either. I un-installed my old cards from within windows device manager reboot to safe mode run driver cleaner run crap cleaner run registry cleaner shutdown. I have used dual video cards for years and all I have ever had to do at this point was remove the old card or cards an pop in the new ones and reboot to XP. Cancel out of the found new hardware junk run my driver setup and it installs two cards. Reboot and then enable monitors 2&3 within display properties and I am done. This has worked without fail for years.Something else must be going on over there,Sorry for the hassles but glad it sounds like you got it working.-PaulPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E6600 @3.2 gigsAsus P5N32SLI-Plus2 gigs Corsair XMS PC6400 4 4 4 12 @810Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0

get my email?yikes, that was supposed to be a PM..sorry

Hey Ryan, I did. Marnie and I are just tying up some loose ends trying to get a wedding date and a hotel and then I will get back to you. It takes more time to respond to you than the 5 seconds it does to post in here ;)-PPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E6600 @3.2 gigsAsus P5N32SLI-Plus2 gigs Corsair XMS PC6400 4 4 4 12 @810Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0

COOL! Congrats!!

WITS END!!!!Success did not last long!1. When FSX started up, I found that the startup ribbon skipped or at least instantly rushed through "Loading Terrain" and reached its end shortly thereafter during startup telling me that Loading was complete. Unfortunately, it remained there for 30 mins. and never would complete startup. The ribbon looked complete, but never advance past that point.2. When FS9 started up, shortly in the startup routine, it shutdown with the old MS window telling me to send or not send a report.3. I removed my secondary 8800GTX.4. Both FSX and FS9 started up and performed normally in a two monitor configuration with the primary card.5. Reinstalled the secondary 8800GTX.6. Started up the computer and had all four monitors, however, I again had the error message upon bootup: "NVIDIA driver helper service version, 158.22 has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." Included was the traditional MS send a report or don't send a report. (Wish I had quit here, but doubt that it would have lasted - see below).7. Tried removing and reinstalling the same 158.22 version drivers again (May 17 drivers). Lost recgonition of the secondary card and third and fourth monitors.8. Finally, by removing cards separately, installing separate driver folders in the C drive NVIDIA folders for each card, and spearately reinstalling each card after driver installation was able to get the end result of step 6 above. (Worked but had the bootup error message)9. Later after I had shut down the computer and started it up again, I again lost the secondary card and attached monitors (without doing anything else except starting the computer).Each card/slot works fine with the other card removed. With both cards installed, if the secondary problem is there, the primary works fine along with the first two monitors.With both cards, when I have the problem, the secondary card has an explamination error mark next to it in the hardwaredisplay mgr.display adapter display. The SLI option is also absent in the NVIDIA control panel. The card is recognized as existing, but with a problem. In safe mode, the explamination mark is not indicated, and two 8800GTX units are shown under display adapters.Tomorrow, I will clean house, remove both cards, install a PCI card and start up the computer. I will then shut her down and start over, installing the 8800GTX's and drivers and see what happens.I will end this scenario in forums unless I get promising feedback from someone, or find a solution that lasts for a while. I apologize for taking up all of this space. I honestly thought I was getting somewhere. (Frustrated and discouraged? You bet!).Contact with NVIDIA is next I guess, although I never got a reply to my last communication.Respectfully:RTH

Final conclusions and resolution for anything that it might be worth to anybody:1. As others have said, a secondary NVIDIA PCI card will not work if the primary is an 8800GTX in a PCI Express X16 slot. By some miracle I got away with it for a relatively short time, but there is a conflict of drivers.2. ON MY SYSTEM, dual 8800GTX cards were not reliable either for some reason. Periodically recognition of the secondary card was lost. I thought maybe it was a temperature problem, but the secondary card really ran much much cooler than the primary which shows no problem. Either card ran fine as the primary. Either card intermittently failed as the secondary. Returned the second card to Newegg @ about a $100 loss thanks to restocking and shipping costs. Don't know whether it is a need for better drivers for the 8800GTX's, my Motherboard, or whatever, but I would not recommend a dual 8800GTX setup on a system with my board, SLI or separate.3. Purchased a VGA Diamond X1550Pro256PSB R secondary PCI card (ATI drivers, NOT NVIDIA) and she has been acceptable for expanding to three or four monitors for some weeks now. This also is not without a glitch, but one I can live with. Occasionally after a restart or startup of my computer this card also is not recognized, however there is a simple solution. I have learned that if I will simply turn the monitor off, then back on before restarting or starting the computer, everything always comes up with no problems. This will make the monitor power light turn from yellow to green with the No signal to the monitor window wandering on the screen until Windows reaches the final stages of startup where secondary monitors kick in.Respectfully:RTHASUS P5N-E-SLI MotherboardIntel E6600 Core2 Duo CPUZalman CNPS7700-CU RT CPU Fam4 GB KST DII800 MemoryWinXP ProNVIDIA VCG8800GTX 768MB Primary Video Graphics Card21

Hey Robert,I still think you have something with one of your slots on that mobo... The dual 8800 GTX should have worked fine and absolutely screamed. I am pretty sure that what you have now is going to fail at some point completely and you will have to replace the mobo. It happened to my last mobo, replaced it and haven't looked back.Glad you are up and running though, good luck,-PaulPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E6600 @3.2 gigsAsus P5N32SLI-Plus2 gigs Corsair XMS PC6400 4 4 4 12 @810Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0

Keep in mind the secondary card, in a non-SLI configuration, provides absolutely no video processing at all. Your best bet is to SLI the 2 8800s and drive 2 monitors from the SLI's pair. If you don't want (or the mobo won't support) SLI, eBay one 88 and spend $50 on a 7300.

Thanks Guys:I strongly suspicion that you may be right about my MB. You are right that she screemed with the dual 8800GTX's (as long as the secondary card was recognized). I will live with what I have for the time being until it starts bugging me again or dies (until the next upgrade).Sam, I am not sure I know exactly what you mean by "the secondary card, in a non-SLI configuration, provides absolutely no video processing at all". With the secondary card I was able to put secondary windows on third and fourth monitors for FSX and still have an acceptable frame rate for flying (again as long as the second card was recognized at all). I also use these additional monitors for running other combination displays. (i.e. One reference program on primary/primary (Monitor 1), word on primary/secondary (Monitor 2), another reference program on secondary/primary (Monitor 3), and an an internet reference or encyclopedia on the secondary/secondary (Monitor 4). It sure makes one's work easier when you are trying to access a number of sources for a project. I now do the same thing with my present setup, but of course the secondary card (PCI) is limited compared to the dual 8800GTX's. I also was not aware that you could run dual 8800's in SLI mode and "drive 2 monitors from the SLI's pair". Does this provide multiple monitor capability with multiple windows, only cloned displays or what? Are more than two monitors able be implemented? All other posts I have seen negate multiple monitor operation in the SLI mode. How do you implement this configuration in the SLI mode?I was able to run in SLI mode just fine as long as the secondary card was recognized. Once I lost it, I lost SLI as well and all indications were a single card operation until I could recover it. I fear the previous reply may have pegged it and a new MB may be in the works at some point in the future.Again, thanks:RTH

I think the weak link is your PSU. 2x8800 will draw at least 50A from the 12V rail, the BFG PSU has only a total 12V capacity of 75A:http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html...W50aHVzaWFzdA==George

You may be right. That probably would answer another occasional issure or two. I thought I had done sufficient research, but maybe not.Thanks:RTH

Here's an outtake from a previous post that describes multi Vcard, non-SLI setups.http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/05/pip...ared/index.html"The new Intel P35 boards are out now and we're starting to pickup some good reviews. As I was wandering through this one, I see a major point they discuss is this chipsets ability to provide only 16 PCI-e lanes from the north bridge. There are 6 more lanes available from the south bridge.Some mfgs are putting 2, full legnth, Vcard slots in the board anyway. Tom's describes the second slot will only have 4 (of the 6) south bridge lanes available and will Not be usable in SLI mode. The 68X series still rules here, but Intel's 32 lane X38 is only weeks away.Tom's describes that because SLI is not available, the second PCI-e Vslot can only be used to provide more monitor outputs. They go on to observe the second PCI-e slot sometimes is directly opposite a group of 4 SATA headers and would completely block these headers if a second maga-card was used. That's blocking 4 out of 6 of the board's SATA headers and a VerY big deal.However, they go on to observe this is really not a factor because the 2nd card would provide NO additional video processing and they can't imagine why such a massive Vcard would be used in a second slot. They say don't worry about this because the only function the second slot provides in a non-SLI function is additional monitor outputs and a smaller card is the appropriate device for this second slot.I was interested because this is just what I'm looking to do with the P35. So far, I think that Asus is the ticket. I like the wifi and the 3 PCI slots. Sure wish they'd get rid of that headpipe nonsense. Tom's says it's all show anyway and I need to get a big CPU cooler in there. Abit is yet to make a showing. We'll see."I had the same experience with non-SLI'd cards. There were visual differences between the two cards, but that was just the cards color temp bias, or other visual characteristic differences. Processing means AA, AF, or the ability of the second card to do work ("video horsepower"). The second card does not play a role here. It's just a monitor port. Dual monitors from an SLI pair. I assumed it would work. Oh well! IF you want muti monitors, consider another option . . . http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?...wse=〈=en-USThey're cheap. Get two.