I used to have 2 GTX 280 cards I ran in SLI. One went bad, sent it in on a RMA, got a GTX 285 for a replacement. No biggie, I can use the 285 and have a slight bump in performance over the single 280 I was currently using.....if that was only the case.

My newly returned GTX 285 was faulty. No matter the clock speeds I set or the driver I used, I was constantly bothered with some nvlddmkm error - which in return caused my computer to lock up or turn off a short time after the nvlddmkm error showed up.

To further my frustration I can no longer return my GTX 285 (nor my second GTX 280 should something happen with it) to the manufacturer because BFG has basically closed doors. So I was about to just shrug my shoulders, bite my tongue and move on with my life when a crazy idea popped into my head.

I spent over 4 hours researching, finding answers I needed and then finally copying the BIOS from my good GTX 280 and then flashing it to my faulty GTX 285. This basically caused my GTX 285 to now think it's a GTX 280....and it WORKED!....much to my surprise and the surprise of others on another forum that was following my posting and idea.

I now run a GTX 280 and GTX 285 (with a flashed GTX 280 BIOS) in SLI and it works!

I finally got around to doing some benchmarks with Metro 2033. I ran everything maxed out in DX10 @ 1680x1050. After a few test runs with SLI disabled, I get roughly 23.46fps. With SLI enabled I get roughly 39.27fps.

Also in 3DMark06 I go from 17.2K with SLI disabled to 19.1k with SLI enabled. I could get better results if I had a better (faster) CPU, but my Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.65GHz works plenty fine for my needs.

I'm content that I fixed my faulty GTX 285 problem. I don't get anymore nvlddmkm errors and I can run my SLI setup again.