ATI lists 8GB of memory as the requirement for CFing cards. I don't see that having anything to do with the issues or the high temps but it is something worth noting.
I'd still like to know what driver version you're using. There are a few tools out there for driver removal but I can't recommend those and feel a good un-istall/reinstall is safer if you're interested in trying that.
I will fully and freely admit that I'm quite the tinkerer and after un-installing the drivers I would probably put the Sapphire in the top slot and the XFX in the lower slot with CF off and no bridge on the cards internally and see what they looked like after reinstalling the latest drivers. Probably a lot of unnecessary tinkering that may or may not change anything but like I said I enjoy trying things and that is where my mind takes me given what you've described.
Thanks for the advice mate, managed to get the sapphire working, uninstalled drivers and then went removing all files and then deleted all AMD/ATI folders in the registry and now seems to work ok after re-installing. running driver 12.1 and CCC 13.4.
That's interesting about the 8gb, did a bit of research and most people seem to be ok even with 4gb of ram with xfire.
Now that the sapphire card is working would there be any point in putting the XFX back in the second slot? if the power keeps going out I could corrupt my HDD.
Seems strange my PSU handles 1 GPU great never had problems before.