New Zenith II Extreme can't Boot / POST with 3 or more GPU

[Oguzbir]

Just purchases 3rd gen threadripper 3960x on Zenith II Extreme
But I get Bios error D4 if I add more than 2 gpu cards

I'm NOT after SLI performance so no SLI cable needed. I'll use the graphics card for 3D rendering. So. their pcie connection speed / lanes is not important for me. they can connect even at 1x

I have tried all the cards in different slots. I tried disconnecting all HDD/SSD's
All the slots are working But until I add a 3rd gpu in the motherboard.
Motherboard gives and error and does not boot.
The LCD screen on the mother board tells me the code is D4

Can you please help me.
My ultimate aim is to run 4 gpu's at the same time.
I puchased a (PHANTEKS - 600mm Vertical GPU Riser Extender Cable) it's 16x riser cable
So, that I can use all the PCI slots with gpu's

Can I use 4 cards or 3 cards in the same system?
I think the RAM I'm using seems to be untested with this system.

What is the cause of this issue.?

[DJ_Datte]

Oguzbir wrote:
Hi

I solved my issue by turning on the 4G decoding feature in bios.
I can now work with 4 gpu's

But whenever or if I reset the BIOS, it will revert to the default OFF position where it still doesn't POST.

FYI

Hello,

I just came to the forum to ask for help / report the same exact issue. I've tried the 4G Decoding, what is your combination of 4G Decode and the 4G MMIO in PBS? (The help text in the Bios says they are related/dependant on each other).

I am trying to boot with 3 GPUs. I've tried to pull the m2.Dimm slot (which contains two nVMe SSD), I've tried disabling all PCIe devices in the Onboard Devices menu, I've tried the fail safe switch to disable the m.2 on the back of the board (smart feature, as it would not be fun to go to the back of the board for testing).

All items result in D4, with a occasional 95, but restarting when it stops on 95, results in D4.

Two GPUs has worked for weeks, in many combinations. Three GPUs does not work, I've tried these GPUs:

2x Quadro RTX 4000 /w 1x Asus 1660TI (Favored Combo).
Also tried
2x Quadro, Fury Nano.
1x Quadro, 1x 1660TI, 1x Fury Nano
1080TI, Quadro, Fury Nano (or 1660TI).

There is one other combo that I managed to boot, but it's not really what I want.
2x Quadro
1x 710 GT in the bottom x8 Slot (Quadro in first (Top) x16, and the following x8. Putting Quadros in the two x16, and the GT710 in the middle x8 does not work.

This was all done on the 0702 Bios. I've tried clearing the BIOS to see if it would help booting with "fresh init", no difference.
I've tried modifying the 4G Decode / 4G MMIO (tried the default (39) setting, the 48, 40 and Auto).

Finally, I tried 4 GPUs in my X399 Zenith Extreme v1, and, as expected, it booted on the first try with 2 Quadro, 1 1080TI and one Fury Nano. (The Slot layout on the Extreme II is horrible btw :(. the X399 is so much better).

Is there any ideas out there on what to try more?

Thanks.

[DJ_Datte]

Just posting to confirm, that i have now tried to pull all nvme drives at the same time, and I still can't boot on more than 2 GPUs. All slots work, confirmed by booting with 2 GPUs on various slot combinations.

[Oguzbir]

Hi,

I have no idea what 4G MMIO in PBS means to be honest. So I assume it's at default position.

I just enabled 4G Encoding . (as it is off by default)
Enabling that motherboard was able to POST with 4 GPU's OR 3 whatever the combination might be.
I used 1x 2080ti + 3x 1070 and the 2080ti is conneted via 16x shielded card extender.

I wonder why you cannot POST even by turning on the 4G decoding.

What's troubling is that I got no support from the support team or the kindly helpful Admin who asked me to remove every connected item.
but that's not what this card supposed to do does it?

I ended up removing everything no sata hdd, no m.2 no usb no nothing. I even turned off the every feature I can shutdown in BIOS
DID not work.

it's clearly not related what D4 error code suggests. Out of resources code.

Secondly the support team I've got in contact over email did not even tell me to turn on the 4G decode.
I hated that experience.

I personally use gpu's for rendering where the pcie speed is not highly important.
My 7 year old Rampage IV Extreme mobo was even able to run 5 gpu's with risers I had no 4G decode option on that mobo anyway. it worked perfectly


if you read earlier posts I'll paste what happened here as well.
I received a response from servicecenter_emea support team before I found a solution...

They asked me to do this:
in Bios... Advanced > Onboard devices and move the PCIE slots to Gen2 from Auto
which in it core suggesting to reduce the resources thinking that it would allow the system allocate more lanes to all the pci slots.
you can even limit the m.2 drives speed or the cpu-chipset conection.
but I found out that this is a useless attempt as well.
See if it works for you. but didn't work for me.

I can't lie. The system works great after enabling the 4G decoding.. But the support I got from asus was not satisfactory at all.

[DJ_Datte]

Reducing speed to Gen2 would not help, that is not how that works :p.

I figured out the D4 error. It is a resource allocation error. Ie, it can't address resources for the cards. By enabling 4G Decode, it has more space to assign resources.
.... anyway, as I was saying I figured out my issue, but there is still a bug somewhere in the bios 🙂

I had to also turn off CSM, at which point, I could boot with more GPUs. But, I was getting stuck on 97 or 99, which seems to be an error also for resources, but I/O resources (ie, USB etc). After trying out some different combos, I figured it out.

I couldn't boot with the Quadro RTX cards in the top two slots (Numa #0, if using Numa), because it seems that segment was running out of spots for USB assigments, which all Touring carrds have onboard (a USB3 controller). I could put in any two cards that don't have usb controllers, and it would boot. I could also put any Touring cards in the bottom two slots (Numa #1), which was good enough for me, but the bios still seems tight on resources. Disabling the integrated PCIe devices didn't help to make the machine work with 4 cards and two 2000-series cards in the top slots.

[palatins]

Just wanted to say that this thread helped out a lot as I had the same 3 GPU card posting issue and the 4G Encoding setting seems to have fixed that problem... although I'm not sure what other problems enabling that setting may cause, but I haven't encountered any as of yet. Thanks!

[Jason97m]

Make sure you have all 3 power cables on the motherboard connected. 2x8 pin and the 24 pin.