Steam Bioshock -- will only run on secondary video card

Just downloaded Bioshock (full) from Steam.

I have two video cards-- an 8800GTX and an 8500GT to drive the 3rd monitor.

Bioshock has some peculiar behavior-- it will ONLY run on my secondary 8500GT video card.

If I disable secondary monitors (which I always do when I game, for the most part), I get a black screen on my primary monitor. Game seems like it’s running, sorta, but nothing on the screen. I can CTRL+ALT+DEL to task manager and kill it.

Even if I disable the 8500GT in device manager, I get the same black screen on my primary monitor when I run Bioshock.

Framerates are abysmal when Bioshock is running on the 8500gt as you might imagine. Is there any way to configure Bioshock so it uses the PRIMARY video card attached to the PRIMARY monitor? Dubya Tee Eff, developers!

I’ve never had this problem with any other game… (?)

Tried installing the new/beta NVIDIA drivers, no change in behavior.

I found the config files but I see no place to specify which video adapter is used. I tried running in Windowed mode with the window moved to the primary monitor, but performance is just as bad as on the 8500gt.

Am I gonna have to physically disconnect the 8500gt to play this game?

Tried installing hotfix KB936710, which is a SLI (multi video card) patch, but no change in behavior. Oh well, it was a long shot anyway.

Perhaps a stupid question, but what if you physically swapped the boards?

It works if I physically remove the 2nd video card.

Who do I blame for this outrage? Microsoft? The game developers? My parents and my shoddy upbringing?

Check your BIOS. Does it have pci-e slot 2 listed as primary?

Also maybe try setting “single monitor mode” in the nv control panel.

Isn’t there a section in the config files where you can select the display by name?