GA-P35-DS3L pci-e bus width stuck at 1x with Asus EN8800GT

[hashbar9]

I know this is a fairly common problem... Posted in another thread about it and it was reccomended to me to post a new thread about it here...

The pci-e bus width is stuck at 1x no matter what i change in bios or drivers.

Ive tried reseating the card a different pci-e power connector. Nothing works.

The system actually seems really nice and stable aside from this one problem.

System:

ASUS EN8800GT
Gigabyte P35-DS3L
crucial ballistix pc 8500 2 gigs
OCZ stealth stream 600w


Is there a known fix for this? Any advice?

Thanks.

 

[Shadow703793]

Increase the "PCIe Express Frequency" from Auto to 100 Mhz. I saw your previous post here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/248422-33-pcie-compatability

We might be able to help you better if you give us more BIOS settings. Also read:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=29&post=245679&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=3&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
for OCing on the P35-DS3L.

 

[hashbar9]

Yeah i already tried every setting from 96Mhz through 111Mhz. Also I tried increasing the fsb voltage northbridge voltage and pci-e voltage each by .1V... didn't really wanna go above that.

Any other ideas?

 

[coronaz]

Have you got the latest BIOS version from Gigabyte.. might be an RMA..

 

[enewmen]

Also lower the FSB voltes (a little) and may need to overclock less. This is another reason for the PCIe going down to 1x.

 

[hashbar9]

Im not overclocking at all... Everything is stock. Theres no option to lower the pci-e voltage in the bios its either auto or +.1 +.2 +.3

I don't see how flashing the bios will help.... I have the F6 bios... Here's the description for the others... No mention of anything pci-e related.

F7a 2007/11/23

1. Beta Bios
2. Support Intel 45nm Wolfdale E8xxx series CPU

 

[Shadow703793]

Download GPU-Z and post the screen shots.
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

[night_wolf_in]

yeah, screen shot of cupz, n gpuz. n snapshot of ur bios MIT settings.

 

[hashbar9]

How do i take a snapshot of the bios MIT settings?

http://img514.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cpuzgpuzke3.jpg

I guess this form doesnt allow attachments?

As you can see speed stepping is enabled. Is that a problem? Im not really sure where to disable it if it is.

Also i set up the timings for my ram in the MIT to what they should be from stock (leaving them as stock made no difference on this problem so I may as well have it working properly right?)

How do i take a snapshot of the MIT settings in the bios?

 

[Shadow703793]

I'm not sure, but SpeedStep might be a problem. Also if you have another PCIe x16 card you might be able to see if that runs at x16.

 

[hashbar9]

disabled speed stepping didnt help.

 

[night_wolf_in]

alright. forget taking snapshot of the bios (usually done by digi cam). i looked at the manual just now, n the only thing which make sense to me, other than what u already tried is:

go to BIOS>Advance Bios Features> Init Display First> set to PEG

im not sure if the above insturctions will help u or not. but yes. set PCI Express Frequency to 100Mhz.

just for ur info. im using same mobo, but bios F4. n my 8800GT is working fine.

p.s. as shadow said, try using some other graphics card.

 

[hashbar9]

what does PEG init display do? Maybe ill try downgrading my bios to F4 or F5

 

[hashbar9]

Well PEG didnt help :/ guess ill try downgrading the bios next

 

[Shadow703793]

Try upgrading to the LATEST BETA BIOS.

 

[night_wolf_in]

why not trying ur GT in another mobo. n trying ur mobo with another graphics card.

the problem is either ur GT, or the mobo.

 

[hashbar9]

neither downgrading nor updating the bios helped.... im quickly running out of ideas here. I dont have access to another pci card or computer at the moment but this is a common problem that im 99% sure is the motherboards fault.

 

[hashbar9]

Here was gigabytes amazingly helpful response to my support ticket:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your kindly mail and supporting GIGABYTE.
About the issue you mentioned in your earlier mail, according to specification of PCI_E, Impedance in PCI-E 2.0 is 90 Ω and PCI-E 1.0 is 100Ω . In addition, the voltage in PCI-E 2.0 is 1.1V and PCI-E 1.0 is 1.2V. Basiclly, the changes are still in
resistance tolerance.

Besides, the VGA card have been test with MB with PCI_E 1.x & PCI_E 2.x
It should be o.k.

WOuld you try to load optimized default in BIOS and check the value blow:

CPU ratio and speed
PCI_E voltage
PCI_E speed.


At last, if you still have any further question or suggestion about our products/service, please do not hesitate to contact with us directly. We will try our best to help you resolve the problem ASAP.

I sent them a response but prolly wont hear back till feb 11th

 

[hashbar9]

go my hands on a friends 1900xtx to try and it had the same problem :/

 

[Shadow703793]

Looks like a bad board. RMA it.

 

[night_wolf_in]

yeah, it seems bad mobo to me.