View Full Version : Lost PCIe slot?
Okay here is my problem:
About a month ago my I7 2600k computer that has a 6990 and a GTX 570 lost the 570. I rebooted the computer remotely several times but Win7 didn't see the GTX any longer so I continued to crunch w/ the 6990. I assumed that the 570 died but that turns out not to be the case. I replaced it with a known good 5870 when I returned to Colorado and the computer doesn't see it either.
Tonight I removed the 6990 from PCIe slot 1 and put in the 5870 and it worked properly. I moved the 5870 to slot 4 and the computer didn't detect it. I then reinstalled the 6990 into slot 1 and the 5870 into slot 4 and once again the 2nd GPU wasn't detected. I then swapped the PCIe power cables going to the 2 cards and that made no difference either. Each time I have made a change I've deleted/swept/reinstalled the AMD drivers. The fan on the 5870 does run so there is some power to the card.
Besides making the assumption that I've lost the 2nd PCIe slot due to a defective MB is there anything else that I should look at?
2nd quesiton: another machine with 6G of memory installed is having memory troubles ... been crunching with it that way for 4 months. It is an I7 950 with 3 channels of 2G but reports 4G. If IIRC correctly the I7 can run with either 2 memory channels or 3. Am I correct in that or not. I'm assuming one of the sticks is bad.
Fire$torm
04-17-12, 03:13 AM
Okay here is my problem:
About a month ago my I7 2600k computer that has a 6990 and a GTX 570 lost the 570. I rebooted the computer remotely several times but Win7 didn't see the GTX any longer so I continued to crunch w/ the 6990. I assumed that the 570 died but that turns out not to be the case. I replaced it with a known good 5870 when I returned to Colorado and the computer doesn't see it either.
Tonight I removed the 6990 from PCIe slot 1 and put in the 5870 and it worked properly. I moved the 5870 to slot 4 and the computer didn't detect it. I then reinstalled the 6990 into slot 1 and the 5870 into slot 4 and once again the 2nd GPU wasn't detected. I then swapped the PCIe power cables going to the 2 cards and that made no difference either. Each time I have made a change I've deleted/swept/reinstalled the AMD drivers. The fan on the 5870 does run so there is some power to the card.
Besides making the assumption that I've lost the 2nd PCIe slot due to a defective MB is there anything else that I should look at?
2nd quesiton: another machine with 6G of memory installed is having memory troubles ... been crunching with it that way for 4 months. It is an I7 950 with 3 channels of 2G but reports 4G. If IIRC correctly the I7 can run with either 2 memory channels or 3. Am I correct in that or not. I'm assuming one of the sticks is bad.
For the PCIe problem there are two possibilities. The MB or the CPU. IIRC Sandy Bridge has the PCIe controller onboard. If you have another Sandy Bridge then consider moving the CPU to that system to test.
You are correct. The Core i7 can run on two sticks. I've had to use that setup with a Gigabyte MB.
Hi Bryan, curious if you got this sorted out yet? An interesting problem. I think the easiest way to test this would be to borrow an i7 from a friend or something and put it in the current mobo to test the second GPU. If it works, then the controller onboard the CPU is defective, and you could send it back to Intel for replacement.
Or...could try swapping out the mobo, and that would let us know by process of elimination if the mobo or CPU is bad in this case.
Fire$torm
04-18-12, 01:54 PM
Hi Bryan, curious if you got this sorted out yet? An interesting problem. I think the easiest way to test this would be to borrow an i7 from a friend or something and put it in the current mobo to test........
Not trying to argue with you DrPop but that might not be wise. If his MB caused the on-die controller to die then a good CPU in the same MB could suffer the same damage. The CPU usually cannot hurt a MB so it is better to test the possibly defective CPU in a good MB.
Just my 2%
Ah, thanks, hadn't thought about that. So you think his best bet is to try a new mobo and see the result? I suppose that's easy enough, I was just thinking it might be easier to swap out a CPU, but your way sounds less risky. :D
Fire$torm
04-18-12, 07:55 PM
Ah, thanks, hadn't thought about that. So you think his best bet is to try a new mobo and see the result? I suppose that's easy enough, I was just thinking it might be easier to swap out a CPU, but your way sounds less risky. :D
That was my thinking. I was under the impression that Bryan had more then one Sandy Bridge system so its just a matter of swapping the suspect CPU into the other "good" system.
Sorry guys I haven't had any time to get on. Having just gotten back to CO we've had tons of stuff to do ... like getting the mail forwarding straightened out, get the garbage turned back on etc etc.
1st ... I finally got a chance to look at the I7 950 computer that was appearing to have a memory problem. It turns out that it had a Win7 problem. When I would reboot the machine remotely it would come up but right after launching a program it would start with an error message that Win Explorer had stopped working and was restarting ... it would do that over and over. If you launched a program fast enough that program would stay up and run but all the icons etc would cycle (appear/disappear) as Win Explorer did its restart/fail/restart. CPU-Z had reported there only being 4G of memory so I figured that was the problem. I was quick enough 1 time to get MSI AB and BOINC started so I was able to set the clocks and start crunching. After that I could no longer get into the machine remotely. I could control it from another network machine running BTasks. So for 3 months that machine just did its thing with 2 GTX 570s.
I tested memory and couldn't find anything wrong so I did a clean Win7 install and the machine is purring now!!! Nothing wrong with the memory and CPU-Z now showing 6G.
On the I7 2600K, I did an online chat with ASUS. The guy said that I should do a BIOS update because there are some known "instabilities" with Win7. Personally I doubt that a machine that had been working for 6 months and had had no Win7 upgrades done would suddenly have a problem but I guess it is possible. I will give that a try in the next week or so. He offered to issue and RMA to me but I declined for the present time and said I don't want to shut it down for several more weeks.
So, my plan of attack (assuming the BIOS doesn't fix it) is to order another MB. That will tell me if the CPU or MB is bad. If it is the MB then I will RMA the current one and when it comes back I will replace a Q6600 with a I7 2600k. I've been wanting to do that anyway. If the CPU is bad then I will order a new one and then send the old one back to Intel. In the case of a bad CPU I will have to also RMA the old MB to make sure that it didn't kill the CPU.
Anyway that is the current thought process.
Thanks for the help guys! I really appreciate it!
PS, I really really need that PCIe slot. Right now I only have 7 available and I have a GTX 570 and 2 5870s without a home. Worse yet, I RMAd a 5970 and the replacement is on the way back. The last one they replaced with a 6990 but since those aren't available I'm hoping they send a 7970. If that happens then I will have to pull a running card to make room :))
Fire$torm
04-19-12, 03:44 AM
You are the "Man with a plan.........." :D
I do hope it all works out.
F$
Alright! Awesome on the RAM problem being fixed easily enough. :) Please keep us informed on the PCI-e lane dropping problem, because I'm very curious to know the cause of that one. Will be some good info to tuck in the cap for later, I'm sure.
Oh, and on the GPUs issue - I think the only real solution here is you're just going to have to find space for another rig to put them all in!!! :)) :D hehehe
Mike029
04-20-12, 11:09 AM
Worse yet, I RMAd a 5970 and the replacement is on the way back. The last one they replaced with a 6990 but since those aren't available I'm hoping they send a 7970. If that happens then I will have to pull a running card to make room :))
We can only hope that they upgrade you. What manufacturer? Asus?
No, XFX. For AMDs I've always bought XFX because they offered a "lifetime" warranty :) I'm probably one of the reasons that they only offer a 2 year warranty now ... I've sent bunches of cards back for fan failures. The 2 5970s have been replaced multiple times and I had concluded I would never own another dual card. Last fall they replaced 1 of them with a 6990 and that card is a jewel ... they were smart enough to put ALL of the VRMs under the heat sink so heat isn't an issue like it was on the 5970.
Mike029
04-22-12, 09:13 PM
No, XFX. For AMDs I've always bought XFX because they offered a "lifetime" warranty :) I'm probably one of the reasons that they only offer a 2 year warranty now ... I've sent bunches of cards back for fan failures. The 2 5970s have been replaced multiple times and I had concluded I would never own another dual card. Last fall they replaced 1 of them with a 6990 and that card is a jewel ... they were smart enough to put ALL of the VRMs under the heat sink so heat isn't an issue like it was on the 5970.
SO, your the one!!!! [-X
I' love my XFX cards. Wish they kept the warranty..
Yeh, me too! The XFX customer support was great!
Me too. I have a 9800 GTX and a GTX 260 and they are both the oc'd version as well as being the "refubished" one. They have performed like champs for over a year except for fans going out. I also have a 780i SLI mb that has power many a different video card with nary a hiccup. To bad they got away from making them.
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