Question PC suddenly reports all PCI/E ports as empty

[PowerXtreme]

Hello I wonder if anyone could help me. The other day I removed my 980ti graphics card and my PCI Wifi card from my MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard, in order to make room to get my hand in the case to unplug my cpu fan. I was only reapplying thermal paste to the I7 4790K as the temps had been rising and it seemed overdue. both the graphics card and wifi card had been functioning perfectly fine prior to this but ever since I re-installed them on the motherboard they won't be detected in bios or device manager. No matter what I do or what slot configuration I try, when I check MSI Board Explorer, it shows all the PCI/E slots as empty. I've tried everything from checking for missing drivers, corrupt registry entries, cleaned the dust out of the case and today I took all the components off the motherboard, thoroughly cleaned it and reassembled it but no luck.

The GPU lights up and the fans spin but it's just not recognised (The fan speed isn't just a flat out constant speed either. It seems to adjust to temps as it would normally. Also, when I plug a HDMI cable to the TV, it recognises that a device is connected but there is no image . I find it hard to believe that both components would just happen to fail at the same time.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)? History of heavy use for gaming, video editing, or bit-mining?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Consider what is common to the failures/failed components: PSU being a possible culprit.

Another possible culprit is the motherboard. Doublecheck that all connections, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case connections are fully and firmly in place.

Use a bright flashlight to inspect for signs of damage.

Find the motherboard's User Guide/Manual. Review first then work through the manual step by step to ensure that everything is correctly installed and configured.

Hopefully just some error of omission or commission.