[SOLVED] Graphic Card stopped working after installing another a wifi pci-e card, what did I brake?

[lpinho]

Hi all,
hope you can help me out.
I've got a PC built in 2016 that is used mainly to play games, I'm only a weekend gamer so, I never had the need to upgrade the system.

I recently moved from my apartment to a new home and I don't have an ethernet connection near the PC so I bought a new pci-e Wifi card for the PC.

I mounted the wifi card into the PC (PC was turned off) into a pci-e 1x and turned the PC on and got no signal on the monitor, I checked the cables, everything seemed fine but I noticed that the fans in the Graphic Card were not spinning.

I got an old VGA monitor, connected to the motherboards VGA output the PC was starting without any problem but after starting windows the graphics card was no longer available on the device manager.

I entered the BIOS and besides a warning that the 3V values were a bit lower, nothing else appears as an error (or warning).

I removed the graphics card from the pci-e 16x slot and placed the wifi card there, although windows is able to find the card, its unable to start it.

So, without a great chance of leaving my home due to COVID restrictions, how can I determine the what did I screw up.

- Motherboard seems to be working that I cannot get the graphics card or wifi card to work on the pci-e 16x slot

• The wifi card works fine in the other pci-e slots (I only have one pci-e 16x slot)
• I read the pci-e cable voltage and they all output values around 12 v

Can I, with a multimeter, software or anything around the house (no, I don't have a pci-e tester or an extra pci-e graphics cards) check what is wrong and buy a replacement unit?


CPU: i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz
Memory: 8 GB DDR3
Motherboard: H81M-C
Graphics Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X OC 4GB GDRR5
Wi-Fi Card: Intel AX200

Thanks,
Luís Pinho

 

[jojesa]

What's the model of the PCIe WiFi card?
A motherboard might not support the PCIe card version or it has to be manually set in the BIOS.
Does the BIOS have settings for the PCIe slot? See if there are options to select either GEN1, GEN2, etc.

 

[lpinho]

Hi jojesa,

thanks for your reply.

The wifi card is working correctly, its a Ziyituod WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 AX200 (https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B08M17M1FD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).
The graphics card is in place since 2016 and its was working without any problem.

The only option that I found in the BIOS regarding the PCI-E options is to select the default graphics card port, nothing else.

 

[Krotow]

H81M-C motherboard manual reveal funny things about IRQ sharing which may cause some things ceasing to work in weird ways:

PCIE x16_1 (GPU) is shared with PCIE x1_3 (long black PCIe slot at "bottom").
PCIE x1_1 (first PCIe x4 slot) is shared with LAN adapter.
PCIE x1_2 (second PCIe x4 slot) is shared with SATA controller.

In human language it mean that adapter card in 1st PCIe x4 slot may cause conflict with Ethernet adapter. Adapter card in 2nd PCIe x4 slot may cause conflict with drives connected to SATA ports. And adapter card in 3st PCIe x4 slot may zap your picture on screen. Though choice I said "may" because most decent hardware deal with IRQ sharing just fine. But some can't and you will never know before trying. Anyway you should try that WiFi adapter in both short slots before long slot at bottom. Or even better - if possible, try it in different computer with iGPU. Maybe thing is simply DOA.

 

[M3rKn]

try installing the wifi card into PCIE x1_2
BTW these cards also need to be connected to a USB header, a dongle should have been included

 

[lpinho]

Hi Krotow,
I'm a bit old school, in the 1st PCs build I had to define IRQ manually in the motherboard for each card or in DOS, but never had a problem like that in the last 20 years, but I will check it out, thanks for the heads up.

@M3rKn : Yes, I connected the wifi card to the usb (its just for the bluetooth), the wifi card and the bluetooth are working fine, its just the graphics card that stopped working

 

[M3rKn]

Hi Krotow,
I'm a bit old school, in the 1st PCs build I had to define IRQ manually in the motherboard for each card or in DOS, but never had a problem like that in the last 20 years, but I will check it out, thanks for the heads up.

@M3rKn : Yes, I connected the wifi card to the usb (its just for the bluetooth), the wifi card and the bluetooth are working fine, its just the graphics card that stopped working

and if you remove the wifi card does your GPU function normally?

 

[Krotow]

I'm a bit old school, in the 1st PCs build I had to define IRQ manually in the motherboard for each card or in DOS, but never had a problem like that in the last 20 years, but I will check it out, thanks for the heads up.

Sure. Had to deal with IRQ/address jumpers and switches in my first work years (damn it was almost 3 decades ago). Need to manually set address and interrupt number vanished long time ago. But sometimes old ghosts come up in weird ways. Usually when copycats who made particularly hardware forgot to include or finish something.

BTW these cards also need to be connected to a USB header, a dongle should have been included

Yes, it seems that they have built-in separate USB Bluetooth dongle which must be connected to free USB 2.0 connector on motherboard. I would call this weird choice (why not connect also Bluetooth over same PCIe x4 connector). But Chinese copycats are weird bunch.

 

[lpinho]

@Krotow, @M3rKn

I will clean up the PC and remove sata, wifi card and free one RAM slot and test this (I think I already removed the wifi card afterwards, but I do it again, just to make sure)

The bluetooth connection is a cheap way to add a feature to a wifi card using a chip usb controller If it works, why fix it

 

[M3rKn]

the last time I installed a wifi card was for my niece... everything went fine but a week later her pc wouldn't post
no signal each time she would turn it on
I came over with an extra monitor and cables but same issue with different monitor
I wound up pulling the GPU & wifi card out, reinstalling them & then the system posted normally, its been good ever since

 

[lpinho]

Hi guys,
thanks for all the tips, just removed both cards, remove on memory stick, I even tried without the DVD (yes, I still have one of those) and without the SSD and HD.
Then I just connect the graphics cards. [no spin, no hdmi signal]
Then I added the SSD, HD and DVD [no spin, no hdmi signal]

So, I just added everything else and the result is always the same
Any tips on how to be sure that the problem is on the graphics and not on the PCI-E x16 slot?

Thanks again for all the help

 

[Krotow]

So after playing with external WiFi adapter you got non-functional motherboard? Or PSU gave a way? Interesting It asks for a question - are your computer is plugged in wall at all? And PSU power switch (if it have any) is in "ON" position? If yes, you can fully disconnect PSU from anything except wall. And do a paperclip test to be sure that PSU at least can turn on. If PSU doesn't turn on then it was so ashamed that died and must be replaced. If it does turn on, then Power On switch in case is broken or disconnected. Or motherboard or some other connected device gave a way and got shorted.

Shorts in PCIe slot are reliably detectable only with PCIe testers like this or this. Folks with Cinderella syndrome may try that with a multimeter and zooming lens.

 

[lpinho]

Hi Krotow,
the system is bootable and I can get into the OS, the only thing that is not working is the graphic card or the PCI-E slot.
That pci-e tester looks nice, I might buy one, seems accessible.

 

[Krotow]

Then remained options are to test graphics card and WiFi adapter elsewhere on another computer capable to run them.

 

[jojesa]

Hi jojesa,

thanks for your reply.

The wifi card is working correctly, its a Ziyituod WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 AX200 (https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B08M17M1FD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).
The graphics card is in place since 2016 and its was working without any problem.

The only option that I found in the BIOS regarding the PCI-E options is to select the default graphics card port, nothing else.

I had a similar issue with an ASUS Z270H mobo. I had to change the PCIe configuration in the BIOS.
It could be the setting in the BIOS or the PCIe card is not compatible.
Go into Advanced>System Agent Configuration>NB PCIe Configuration.
Try changing PCIEX16 speed to Gen1 or Gen2.