How To: Enable SLI on pre-i7/i5 hardware

[oily_17]

any idea if all of those have to be patched?

Hopefully not ...or this could take a while and end up confusing for people, trying to figure out which hal.dll they have.

I know you can choose from about six different ones in XP by pressing F5 during setup.

 

[Solaris17]

are you saying that a modded uni processor hal.dll should just be copied over a smp acpi hal.dll ?

no but the one that the driver access's in in one spacific place and under one spacific name because you cant have 2 of the same filename in wondows unless its appended. so its kinda fool proof as long as the location of the one accessed by the graphics subsystem is in a uniform location between a certain OS. for example the hal.dll version spacifically accessed by the cards in windows XP may be in a diffirent location than in win 7 but as long as this location is the same between all versions of XP and all versions of 7. given the filename rules for any version of windows the Hal.dll replacment should be relatively simple.

 

[oily_17]

Same name but many different versions of the file.(dependant on hardware)

EDIT:XP choices

ACPI Multiprocessor PC

ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC

Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible PC

MPS Uniprocessor PC

MPS Multiprocessor PC

Standard PC

Standard PC with C-Step i486

Other

 

[Solaris17]

Same name but many different versions of the file.(dependant on hardware)

hmmm wait now im confused (my apologies iv been awake for like idk ludecris hours) are you saying that their are multiple copys? or that their are multiple versions? like for example if its multiple versions like..one version contains les information than the other and they have the one with a bigger size because they have "X" hardware that could become an issue. however if their are only 5 or so versions with one building on the one before it should be relatively simple to simply modify the newest version. im unsure if windows is similar to linux in thi. sense. but i do it all the time in linux. you can build or edit a new version of a file and even if the rest of the code isnt used it doesnt cause a problem/

 

[oily_17]

Different versions depending on whether the system uses multiple processors, an ACPI-compatible BIOS or APIC, etc

 

[Solaris17]

Different versions depending on whether the system uses multiple processors, an ACPI-compatible BIOS or APIC, etc

well then if windows allows file modification such as that which i dont see why it wouldnt as you can mod driver ini's by adding code to detect newer hardware (much simpler same principle) than just mod the HAL's (assuming windows allows this) with the extra code snippets needed to fool SLI.


say their are 5 for each version of windows the first thing that would be needed iff this process is indeed necissary would be to.


Detect the OS

Detect the hal in use.

Copy over moded HAL.

from what iv seen i dont think a simple program such as this would be that difficult. If you need the diffirent versions you could request a dump from current members. or simply collect them from the various OS's if not all versions are included and its too hard to get the HAL's from current members try here

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?hal

that is a direct link to some random version but if you search i dont think it will be too difficult to find the version needed.

 

[oily_17]

The editing of the hal.dll , I know nothing about that, which is why I hope it is easier than it seems to be.
Will have to wait and see how people get on with this method.

 

[Solaris17]

The editing of the hal.dll , I know nothing about that, which is why I hope it is easier than it seems to be.
Will have to wait and see how people get on with this method.

well if windows doesnt get upset about file mods by checking checksums or soemthing it shouldnt be that hard. linux does something very similar. say you take the file idk "memdisk" or "syslinux" you can add to the code base to extend the features of the file but at the same time legacy hardware can use it without using or needing the newer code without getting angry and saying its the "wrong version" know what i mean? id i hope these posts have been relatively readable i should really go to bed.

 

[raptori]

is there will be more simple way to be announced are you people working on simplifying it more ........ I'm reading this thread for 2-3 days and I'm seeing its not easy and may be risky ......... all in all great job.

 

[oily_17]

Although drivers for most hardware are contained in external files, core drivers (which are required to support the kernel) are compiled into Hal.dll

So if a uniprocessor hal.dll is patched it would not work on a multiprocessor machine??

Which is why anatolymik Tin was interested in server boards as well I think.

 

[Solaris17]

is there will be more simple way to be announced are you people working on simplifying it more ........ I'm reading this thread for 2-3 days and I'm seeing its not easy and may be risky ......... all in all great job.

yes their working on simplifying it.

 

[anatolymik]

I GOT IT ON WINDOWS SEVEN x64

NOW I'M WRITING HOW TO INSTALL IT. WAIT FOR A WHILE FRIENDS.

 

[e.v.o]

How does the nvidia driver reads the SLIC string? (HAL.dll?)

 

[anatolymik]

How does the nvidia driver reads the SLIC string? (HAL.dll?)

SLIC reads as usual. But it's not hal.dll

 

[e.v.o]

A loader/emulation that catches the BIOS DSDT call would be the best solution i think:
- No one has to patch the BIOS
- would work with different versions

 

[Mussels]

A loader/emulation that catches the BIOS DSDT call would be the best solution i think:
- No one has to patch the BIOS
- would work with different versions

like the OEM activation hack for vista?

 

[e.v.o]

Correct. Maybe we can use the Vista Boot to achieve our goals?

--- EDIT

I think Paradox OEM BIOS Emulation Toolkit is the more sophiticated method cause it is driver that hooks up in windows. i will have a look at this one.

 

[anatolymik]

ATTENTION!!! ALL STEPS DO STRONGLY SUBSEQUENT:

1. Download of course (http://rapidshare.com/files/280870551/patch.rar.html)
2. Unpack in separate folder

3. run prepare.cmd

and last you should overwrite original hal.dll (windows\system32\), but you can't see when you are in win7. you should boot to another OS and there you may overwrite file. But you should get owner of hal.dll (windows\system32) and after this get rights to read/write and so on. also make backup file if something goes wrong.

P.S. I will go crazy if i patch some hal.dll from vista and so on. to tell the truth i thought i couldn't patch. certificate. damn it.

 

[anatolymik]

Also You Need To Disable Uac And Be As Administrator!!!

 

[anatolymik]

http://depositfiles.com/files/6qyukfe6l
new link
and another one http://letitbit.net/download/6837.626a3b82022eb44d8da800384/Patch.rar.html

 

[papatsonis]

Muchos Gracias , this hal.dll is for Win7 x64 i suppose or for Win7 X86 ?

 

[anatolymik]

Muchos Gracias , this hal.dll is for Win7 x64 i suppose or for Win7 X86 ?

for Win7 x64

 

[aGeoM]

ATTENTION!!! ALL STEPS DO STRONGLY SUBSEQUENT:

1. Download of course (http://rapidshare.com/files/280870551/patch.rar.html)
2. Unpack in separate folder

3. run prepare.cmd

and last you should overwrite original hal.dll (windows\system32\), but you can't see when you are in win7. you should boot to another OS and there you may overwrite file. But you should get owner of hal.dll (windows\system32) and after this get rights to read/write and so on. also make backup file if something goes wrong.

P.S. I will go crazy if i patch some hal.dll from vista and so on. to tell the truth i thought i couldn't patch. certificate. damn it.

Hi guys

I would like to tanks to all of you envolved in this project. a BIG


I tested the hal mod in Win7 x64, with an AMD 790FX board and 2 9800GTs (w/ SLI bridge), is a no go.
I managed to do all necessary steps to it activate SLI, DSDT patch, hall substitution, etc...

*Note: Everst and RW, reads the DSDT table from bios, not from registry.

Be well...

 

[sveetsnelda]

I GOT IT ON WINDOWS SEVEN x64

Nice work!

 

[sveetsnelda]

Hi guys

I would like to tanks to all of you envolved in this project. a BIG


I tested the hal mod in Win7 x64, with an AMD 790FX board and 2 9800GTs (w/ SLI bridge), is a no go.
I managed to do all necessary steps to it activate SLI, DSDT patch, hall substitution, etc...

*Note: Everst and RW, reads the DSDT table from bios, not from registry.

Be well...

I don't know much about the hal modification for Windows 7 64-bit since I haven't tried it yet, but I'm confident if you installed the modified NVIDIA driver right now, SLI would enable.

If you need the driver to load in its unmodified form (WHQL certified), anatolymik's solution is the only way to do it (so far), though.

Are you sure the HAL was actually replaced (and windows didn't recover)? Could you check the modified date and make sure?