y's Rig Trouble Shooting Checklist

Hiya Folks, after 3 rigs (2 AMD, 1 nVidia) I've gotten to experience a tremendous amount of issues and I wanted to put together a list of things to try in the event things go bad. Here's a list of some troubleshooting steps during initial set up and modification. This is based on my experience in the crypto-mining-sphere, I'm certainly still learning, but thought it may be helpful to share in a list format instead of you going out and finding out about each thing forum reply by forum reply.

Before I begin, I have a message for anyone who's starting out... Don't let people bring you down on forums, just because you don't have 8 GPU running at 32mhs each does not mean you're doing something incorrectly! There will be a subset of people who for them this kind of thing is routine (because they have the expertise), or lucked out, who will just be like "oh, yeah I put them all together and pressed the power button, downloaded claymore and everything was fine."

Anywho - here's a hopefully helpful list!

Before the build, you should have...

1. Flash drive with Win 10 OS on it (you may need it again)
2. Flash drive with bios (if you're in LGA1151 land)
3. Extra risers

Questions to ask yourself if you're not seeing all your GPUs at the bios level.

1. Gen1 enabled?
2. If applicable (I think only for LGA1151?) have 4g decoding enabled.
3. Correct bios?
4. Have I had the patience to try each part at time to ensure there is no problem at the riser/gpu level? (i.e. if it comes down to it, try cards straight up on the board one at time, are they working?, go one riser at time, etc.)
5. Is everything plugged in?

Options to consider for drivers...

1. Use DDU to disable automatic installing of drivers and do it yourself?
2. Plug and pray (worked for me for nVidia on a one by one basis).

Help! not everything is being recognized (or Error 43)!

1. Before you freak out about drivers and the like, if you have the option, check if the PCI-E lanes are seen as occupied from the BIOS.

Modded Bios? If yes, then consider this first.

1. Have I correctly patched the drivers so windows does not automatically disable them at startup?
   Otherwise

Things to consider as well...

1)If you are going with the plug and pray method, walk away for 5 minutes. Windows 10 does some miraculous things when left alone.

1. Restart your computer, several times (yes, sometimes magic happens on the second restart).
2. Is the same card 43ing each time? - if scroll up again try to ensure hardware is working.

Help! nothing's coming up on my monitor!

1. Make sure your cable is plugged into the correct GPU, sometimes you will need to restart your computer.
2. If you've installed a way to remote in try it that way
3. Send the signal through the onboard graphics (I believe its PGI in bios), cable directly from the mobo to at least boot in to see whats going on, but don't leave it this way.

Help! My monitor is flashing after new GPUs.

1. Its probably normal, just walk away for 5-30m minutes, often times this is a good sign that your computer is actually doing something about something.

Help! My computer isn't turning on anymore!

1. Unplug your power supply wait a bit and try again.

Help! My computer isn't posting!

1. Make sure your bios settings are correct
2. Remove the new modifications and consider what you might have done incorrectly (drivers?)
3. If its a new build and you were going all in with all your GPUs plugged in, consider doing the 1 by 1 approach.

Some closing thoughts...
Don't be afraid to step back, reinstall windows and start from scratch.
Sometimes, things take time.

I'm still learning and getting better at this whole thing but wanted to share all my googling/learning/speaking to people efforts for those of you who are jumping on the mining train.

I'd be happy to help out in the replies if anyone thinks talking to me would be beneficial. Or if you have tip you want to share for the list, I can definitely add it (provided its not insane).

Cheers!

-y