ATI Crossfire on Asus Striker Extreme

[ianho]

I'm sure many of guys have read about the unique HP Blackbird running ATI Crossfire on a Nvidia SLI mobo. It's unique coz Crossfire does not work on SLI mobos but HP has a special BIOS which allows it.

I had NBTD n decided to do this just now. I just flashed my Striker Extreme with the HP VooDoo Blackbird BIOS. Everything works perfectly after the flash. I can now choose to run my rig with SLI or Crossfire.


As u can see in this pic, the startup screen is no longer the Asus ROG screen. It's now replaced by the HP logo.








Screenshots of Nvidia Console with System Information showing the motherboard to be a Striker-HP. CPUz shows it with BIOS 5.05

Disclaimer: Dont blame me if ur rather expensive mobo dies on u during the flash. U do it at ur own risk.

[Chai]

This is interesting! hahaha

But you are still using 8800GTX?

[ianho]

Originally Posted by Chai

This is interesting! hahaha

But you are still using 8800GTX?

Ya I just flashed it this morning. Still using the 8800GTX in SLI. I have an ATI3870 in hand right now, waiting for sum1 to lend me their 3870 so I can try it out in Crossfire mode.

[Adrian Wong]

Wow.. That is interesting!!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get hold of a 3870 yet.

Hi Ian/Adrian

I read with interest on this post

Well, I took the plunge and flash mine with HP BB BIOS 5.06 that was recently released and installation of Vista 32-bit was fine.

However, when I tried to install the BB Nvidia driver, it reported error msg that my system does not meet the (hardware?) requirement. BB Networking driver installed without problem but the same error msg was reported on the BB drivers for Soundmax, SATA etc. One finding was that after I installed the Soundmax driver from Asus SE, I did manage to install the BB Soundmax driver over it but not for the BB SATA and Nvidia drivers.

BTW I am using 9600GT SLI and not sure if I need to use 8800GTX or Ultra as in the original setup and that the error msg is telling me that the new 9600GT SLI is not supported.

After googling for weeks, it was also reported that you need the BB ATI or Nvidia drivers and the trick to use newer ATI gfx is to update only the driver but leave the CCC untouched. However, I need to be able to install the BB gfx drivers in the first place!

Look forward to some good news on getting their DIY BB running or confirmation that I should give up trying due to some unknown hardware restriction that HP BB has that prevent this.

Regards,

Richard@Singapore

[generalRage1982hrv]

Originally Posted by ianho

I'm sure many of guys have read about the unique HP Blackbird running ATI Crossfire on a Nvidia SLI mobo. It's unique coz Crossfire does not work on SLI mobos but HP has a special BIOS which allows it.

I had NBTD n decided to do this just now. I just flashed my Striker Extreme with the HP VooDoo Blackbird BIOS. Everything works perfectly after the flash. I can now choose to run my rig with SLI or Crossfire.


As u can see in this pic, the startup screen is no longer the Asus ROG screen. It's now replaced by the HP logo.








Screenshots of Nvidia Console with System Information showing the motherboard to be a Striker-HP. CPUz shows it with BIOS 5.05

Disclaimer: Dont blame me if ur rather expensive mobo dies on u during the flash. U do it at ur own risk.

hehehehhe nice
i have one request could you send me a driver disc you have (if you have it for a HP blackbird)
(upload it to net over rapidshare please, that would help me allot)
any way i know some things how to run sli on cross board but
well i need HP original drivers (and those special addon you have in bios is two peg pcie so you can run it like that all new asus boards haves it but the problem is missing string in drivers)
or just upload bios here so i can take a look on it

Hi GeneralRage,

Bios, ATI driver, Nvidia driver etc. are available here:

"http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3 643454&dlc=en"

Let me know if you think the gfx drivers are card specific and hence the error msg when I tried to install with 9600GT SLI when only 8800gtx, Ultra and 2900xt are officially supported.

Will get my 8800gtx SLI setup this week to try again.

Regards,

Richard

[generalRage1982hrv]

well bios iso img is protected

Hi GeneralRage,

Newbie here and not sure what is meant by your statement on "bios iso img is protected". I downloaded the BIOS 5.06 which is an execution file, run it and it created a CD which I used to flash my Asus SE with.

Tried to PM Ian and Adrain but no response if they had successfully verified that such std Asus SE can run ATI after flash to HP BB's BIOS.

My problem is that I cannot install the HP provided BB's Nvidia driver with the msg like "The system does not meet the hardware requirement etc....". But since it was reportedly said by HP that there is no hardware difference in the mobos, I hope it is due to my use of newer 9600GT SLI that is the reported hardware issue.

Will update my progress with reinstallation of HP BB's Nvidia driver from HP sites with 8800gtx sli this weekend.

Any further advice would be most appreciated.

Regards,

Richard@Singapore

[generalRage1982hrv]

Originally Posted by richard_crl032

Hi GeneralRage,

Newbie here and not sure what is meant by your statement on "bios iso img is protected". I downloaded the BIOS 5.06 which is an execution file, run it and it created a CD which I used to flash my Asus SE with.

Tried to PM Ian and Adrain but no response if they had successfully verified that such std Asus SE can run ATI after flash to HP BB's BIOS.

My problem is that I cannot install the HP provided BB's Nvidia driver with the msg like "The system does not meet the hardware requirement etc....". But since it was reportedly said by HP that there is no hardware difference in the mobos, I hope it is due to my use of newer 9600GT SLI that is the reported hardware issue.

Will update my progress with reinstallation of HP BB's Nvidia driver from HP sites with 8800gtx sli this weekend.

Any further advice would be most appreciated.

Regards,

Richard@Singapore

i see you also have issues with duble/quad posting hahaahha
any way if you can send me only bios file from that cd to vjeran_mandic@techarp.com please do that
i need to see a string that enables sli/cross option