Possible SLI Issue

Question

I finally bought some new games, so before playing I decide to do some routine work on my laptop. I cleaned the sinks/fans/vents, which I need to finish but my air broke :(. I driver swept and installed the latest drivers, etc. I installed Crysis 1 and Doom 3 BFG, yeah I'm behind the times :P, but you get Rage free with Doom, so made sense. Anyway Doom played fine, no issues at all, however Crysis 1 is presenting random slow downs, so I switched to Crysis 2 (which I have played up to 8 hours and no probs) and that too suffered slow downs. If Crysis 2 had been fine I'd have assume crysis 1 was maybe a bit much on Very High settings.  MSI AfterBurner is showing GPU 0 is hitting 89 then cooling off, then resuming, in a loop, however GPU 1 (right side of machine when keyboard up) is sitting steady, and 0% utilisation, I'm sure afterburner/kombuster used to show the temp of both chips rising, and going red, not just one.  The system reports 2 graphics cards, and reports SLI is enabled, but Card 1 (right hand side) seems to be essentially dead, the fan isn't even spinning up and every tool I try shows 0 activity.  Any suggestions?

DELL-Frank Lz · Answer

Hello, are you completely sure everything is properly connected? If there is no fan movement, and there was before, most likely something is not connected the right way.

Which video driver are you using? Dell or Nvidia

Thank you

Cenobitez · Answer

Hey Frank,

I don't think the fan has been working for a while as there was considerably less dust on that side than the other.

I haven't removed the actual graphics cards/assembly as yet, I am planning to repaste (when I get a day off work with nothing on) so they haven't been unseated.

What I cleaned today was the metal fins which lead from the fans to the case grills, and the actual fans.

I am using the nVidia driver as of today.

The temperature isn't high enough on Card #1 to start the fans, as card #1 doesn't appear to be being used, its temp has idled at 47 degree's after an hours gaming, while #0 is 79 degree.

I'm thinking the SLI cable maybe loose, but the system still detects SLI so I'm not sure.

DELL-Frank Lz · Answer

It is very unusual, rather maybe email us here: awsocialmedia@dell.com and include this detailed information. As well make sure you add your service tag and contact information. Thank you, we will reply asap

Cenobitez · Answer

Hey Frank, I'm off work on Saturday, got my sisters kids in morning, but hopefully evening I'll put a detailed email together.

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