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

[dotbatman]

This is the relevant entry from the DSDT table.

Scope (\_SB.PCI0)
{
    Name (SLIC, Buffer (0x9E)
    {
        "987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for GIGABYTE GA EX58-UD38432-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)"
    })
    Device (WMI1)
    {
        Name (_HID, "pnp0c14")
        Name (_UID, "MXM2")
        Name (_WDG, Buffer (0x14)
        {
            /* 0000 */    0x3C, 0x5C, 0xCB, 0xF6, 0xAE, 0x9C, 0xBD, 0x4E,
            /* 0008 */    0xB5, 0x77, 0x93, 0x1E, 0xA3, 0x2A, 0x2C, 0xC0,
            /* 0010 */    0x4D, 0x58, 0x01, 0x02
        })
        Method (WMMX, 3, NotSerialized)
        {
            CreateDWordField (Arg2, 0x00, FUNC)
            If (LEqual (FUNC, 0x41494C53))
            {
                Return (\_SB.PCI0.SLIC)
            }

            Return (0x00)
        }
    }
}

[ShadowFold]

Someone should send me another 8800GTS 320mb, I'd gladly try this on my 790GX

[e.v.o]

987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for ASUS RAMPAGE II EXT 3287-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)

987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for ASUS P6T Deluxe 0101-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)

987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for GIGABYTE GA EX58-UD38432-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)

987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for GIGABYTE GA EX58UD4P3287-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)

987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for DFI LP UT X58 T3EH8 0101-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)

987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for MSI X58 PLATINUM 0101-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)

Those are some of the codes... i also patched this one:

Method (WMMX, 3, NotSerialized)
{
CreateDWordField (Arg2, 0x00, FUNC)
If (LEqual (FUNC, 0x41494C53))
{
Return (\_SB.PCI0.SLIC)
}

Return (0x00)
}

--------

Method (WMMX, 3, NotSerialized)
{
CreateDWordField (Arg2, 0x00, FUNC)
If (LEqual (FUNC, 0x41494C53))
{
Return (\_SB.PCI0.SLIC)
}

Return (\_SB.PCI0.SLIC)
}

So it returns the SLIC everytime the function is called...

[Assimilator]

Can't that just be simplified to

Method (WMMX, 3, NotSerialized)
{
Return (\_SB.PCI0.SLIC)
}

Also, 0x41494C53 == AILS in ASCII, is that significant?

[e.v.o]

I also had that idea but didn't wanted to try it cause i really dunno how exactly this one works.
But from my ASM skills (lol) i would tell that it must be correct if you delete the If-Else statement and only return the value. I think it is far more safe to simply edit the return statement.

The driver looks for something else,.. but i really don't know what it could be.
We need someone who is into driver hacking and could tell us where the driver looks up the chipset?

[opieum]

The info you guys have posted have really sent things rolling. I am doing some research into where this would happen. I am in the middle of a move now so it might be a couple of weeks before I even get the chance to actually test anything.

I will be test this with a 790 chipset I got. That will be my initial test box for SLI on non nvidia. May as well do it on an AMD setup :P

[e.v.o]

I need some people for testing:

- If you have a ASUS, ECS, Foxconn or MSI Board with the following Chipset: P35, X38, X48, P45
- If you have two Geforce Series 8/9/200
- If you are willing to help me

--- EDIT
Also 41 49 4C 53 reads SLIA, cause rw-everything reads it big endian which is false i think.

[dotbatman]

SLIAuthorization?

[puma99dk|]

Originally Posted by e.v.o

I need some people for testing:

- If you have a ASUS, ECS, Foxconn or MSI Board with the following Chipset: P35, X38, X48, P45
- If you have two Geforce Series 8/9/200
- If you are willing to help me

--- EDIT
Also 41 49 4C 53 reads SLIA, cause rw-everything reads it big endian which is false i think.

hopefully i will get another 8800GT this week i will have to start of next month, and i will be willing to help if u can mod a driver for my Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 for Windows 7

[SilenceGER]

i have 2 8800gs and a Gigabyte EP 45 DS3.
could someone send me these mod drivers, because my two 8800GS are faster than my GTX 260.
i had the striker 2 formula before but nvidia chipsets are not good as chipsets from intel.

sry for my bad english

[Kenshai]

Originally Posted by SilenceGER

i have 2 8800gs and a Gigabyte EP 45 DS3.
could someone send me these mod drivers, because my two 8800GS are faster than my GTX 260.
i had the striker 2 formula before but nvidia chipsets are not good as chipsets from intel.

sry for my bad english

I wouldn't really say they are faster, they are comparable. My E6750 and 260 GTX matched a E8400 and Sli'ed 8800gs, Both E6750 and E8400 at same clocks. And I know that my GTX 260 is being bottlenecked by the E6750.

[C Mutant]

Originally Posted by e.v.o

I need some people for testing:

- If you have a ASUS, ECS, Foxconn or MSI Board with the following Chipset: P35, X38, X48, P45
- If you have two Geforce Series 8/9/200
- If you are willing to help me

--- EDIT
Also 41 49 4C 53 reads SLIA, cause rw-everything reads it big endian which is false i think.

System conforms to rqmts, msg me asap. L8rz Mutant

[egidio07]

Originally Posted by e.v.o

I need some people for testing:

- If you have a ASUS, ECS, Foxconn or MSI Board with the following Chipset: P35, X38, X48, P45
- If you have two Geforce Series 8/9/200
- If you are willing to help me

--- EDIT
Also 41 49 4C 53 reads SLIA, cause rw-everything reads it big endian which is false i think.

I have p35 asus, two 8800gts 512...
mail me: cog76@tiscali.it

[anatolymik]

Originally Posted by e.v.o

I need some people for testing:

- If you have a ASUS, ECS, Foxconn or MSI Board with the following Chipset: P35, X38, X48, P45
- If you have two Geforce Series 8/9/200
- If you are willing to help me

--- EDIT
Also 41 49 4C 53 reads SLIA, cause rw-everything reads it big endian which is false i think.

I'm ready to test

[benben010103]

I'm using a asus p5k mobo, 2 8600gt gfx card and yes i'm very willing to help you as i'm finding out how to run sli on my mobo too! you can email me at benben010103@hotmail.com

[KainXS]

I think this thread is dead ^^

[e.v.o]

If there would be more people willing to help .. but under those conditions .. no way

I'm also writing my diploma thesis .. so i have no time too

[EGOvoruhk]

Originally Posted by e.v.o

If there would be more people willing to help

What do you need exactly?

I'm very intrigued in this "project". If you, or someone were to pull it off, I'd gladly make a small donation

[sveetsnelda]

Hey everyone. Sorry to bump an old thread, but I wanted to post some information for anyone else who is doing the same thing I am (trying to get SLI to work on other chipsets). I ended up with a P45 board and two 9800 GTX+ cards, and it's upsetting that I can't use the the capability that the hardware has, just because someone is money hungry. To me, its like the "pet peeve" I have with vendors locking down cell phones. If I pay for the hardware, I should be able to use it.

Anyways... I've been doing a lot of research and messing around with SLI compatible BIOSes, NVIDIA's control panel software, and different versions of drivers. Once I found the WMI function call buried in the DSDT tables & decompiled it back to ASL, I googled the contents of the string and it led me to this thread. Since I conveniently have a roommate with an X58 SLI board (EVGA X58 Classified), it helped me narrow things down a bit further. This gives us a better idea of what parts of the NVIDIA "cookie" string actually matter.

Here's what I've found so far (aside from what has already been mentioned). Let's use this string for example:

"987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for ASUS RAMPAGE II EXT 3287-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R)"

To make it easier to explain things, I'm going to separate the string into sections and make some names for them. This doesn't mean that I know exactly what they are, however.

"987134512781"

Beginning Serial - 12 Characters

"Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for "

Genuine string - 51 Characters

"ASUS RAMPAGE II EXT "

Motherboard identifier string - 20 Characters

"3287"

Middle number - 4 characters

"-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-"

Copyright string - 55 Characters

"765289891023"

End serial number - 12 Characters

"(R)"

Registered trademark string - 3 Characters



The whole string totals 157 characters. The code in the ACPI tables allocates 158 characters in some BIOSes, and 157 in others. This probably isn't relevant, but worth noting.

1. If I modify the "motherboard identifier string" to be a different board, SLI is still enabled. Example - "ASUS TESTTESTTESTTES"
2. If I modify the "motherboard identifier string" to be a different manufacturer name, SLI breaks. Example - "EVGA RAMPAGE II EXT "
3. If I modify the "middle number" part of the string to "1234", SLI breaks. As long as the number is "0101", "3287", or "8432" -- it works.
4. If I modify the ACPI tables on my non-SLI board (Asus Maximus II Formula) and add this WMI function call, SLI still doesn't work.

I'm fairly certain that we just need to know what the "middle number" part of the string means. I'm guessing that it somehow translates to an identifier for the chipset on the board, but I'm not sure. If I were better with assembler, I could trace it and get more information.

I've still got quite a few more things to try, but I figured I'd post here in case others had more ideas (or if this research would help someone else).

[Mussels]

that middle number is probably some kind of hash/CRC check based on the mobo manufacturer.

Mobo model + hash number have to match, or no SLI.

[sveetsnelda]

I'd agree with that if changing that number would break it. I can use 0101, 3287, or 8432 on the EVGA board.

[Mussels]

ok, strange. i'm not sure then.

[TiN]

Hello here. I'm in SLI wanting group too.
So... I've just tried to extract ACPI tables from next bioses:

ASUS P5B Deluxe (AMI) <<< Extracted and decompiled successfuly.
ASUS P5N32 (AMI) <<< Unpack tool don't want to open it
Gigabyte P965-DQ6 (Award) <<< Extracted and decompiled successfuly.
Gigabyte N680SLI-DQ6 (Award) <<< Extracted and decompiled successfuly.

I'm almost sure, there is another SLI check here too.

Foxconn Bloodrage (Award) <<< Extracted successfuly. Don't want to decompile
Foxconn FlamingBlade (Award) <<< Extracted successfuly. Don't want to decompile

But for foxconn mobos I can see in extracted ACPI DSDT tables next:

\._SB_PCI0SLICB

Þ987134512781Genuine NVIDIA Certified SLI Ready Motherboard for FOXCONN BLOODRAGE 3287-Copyright 2008 NVIDIA Corporation All Rights Reserved-765289891023(R) [ÂJWMI1_HID
pnp0c14 _UID
MXM2 _WDG
¶<\T¡îÜ-N¦wÓã*,LMX¶-WMMXÊj
FUNCàÓFUNCSLIAä\/_SB_PCI0SLICä

So, I think that 3287 isn't vendor related.

Also Gigabyte N680SLI-DQ6 have SLI support, but have no any strings with SB_PCI0.SLIC etc..

[JrRacinFan]

I foudn this the other day. Unsure but it might help in the cause.

[sveetsnelda]

Interesting... Where'd you find that?

I'd also like to add that the "_WDG" field under the WMI1 function is a GUID. It's F6CB5C3C-9CAE-4EBD-B577-931EA32A2CC0