It seems to be risers that were making things difficult. I was about to order some new ones and then I remembered someone saying they just switched them around and got them working. Here's what I did:
1. clean install of windows in UFEI bios mode with all 6-cards plugged in
2. updated windows and all components including gpu drivers
3. paused windows update
4. used amd cleanup utility
5. used DD clean in safe mode
6. installed blockchain driver one card at a time in 16xpcie slot (two restarts per card)
a. if a card did not behave, this is where I tried another pcie riser until the card worked.
b. i then used what i thought was a faulty riser board with another card and all worked just fine (can't make heads or tails of this, but it is what it is)
7. I then plugged in each card, let it install and rebooted a couple of times.
a. this worked up to five cards. when installing the 6th and final card i get the BSOD.
It was stable running Cast-xmr and xmr-cpu, both overclocked and undervolted overnight. I shut it down this morning to work on card six.
Geez... is everyone having to go through these same hoops? I'm just about to install windows. Was going to do as much as I could with the VEGAs not connected (in the comfort of my living room) but if I need to install with all four vegas connected, I need to up and move to the garage...
There isn't any need for pain.
Here is a very decent overview guide, but it is tailored towards XMR-STAK. With minimal tweaks to the "StartMining" .bat file, you can get the same automated setup to run with Cast.
https://vegamining.blogspot.co.uk/And here are some screen shots I took which may or may not help your setup:
https://imgur.com/a/fuXnsOne of my Vega rigs is on a MSI X370 and I am simultaneously mining away with the Ryzen cpu using XMR-STAK-cpu. The other build is Intel using an older MSI Z97a board that I had.
Both are very stable at this point.
My experience: install all the Vega cards at once before installing the driver.
Go online to Microsoft and download the Fall Creators Update, which is free. I was stuck at 3 cards until I did this update. Working well for me, YMMV.
Do set a very large System page file.
Hi R0mi, thanks for linking the page. I've gone through the page and can still only get five out of the six Vega 64s working. Same situation, I get five running and when I try to add the sixth I get the BSOD. Ideas? Windows 10 updated. Ideas?