PCI-E wireless / network card isn't being recognized by motherboard anymore.

[Snazzymacguy]

Hello all,
So my wireless card (TL-WDN4800) was working fine before. It was in the PCI-E slot above the 16x. However, I had to change my GPU to the PCI-E 8x slot because it wasn't working properly in the 16x. After this, without even touching the wireless card, it stopped working. I tried reseating etc but still no luck. I moved it to the other pci-e slot and still nothing. When I go into my bios, my GPU (which wasn't detected before) is working fine and showing there (nothing wrong with the GPU anymore), but my motherboard ceases to recognize the wireless card in the pci-e slot. It says it is empty. Can anyone be of any assistance? My motherboard is an MSI Z97-Gaming 3. Please help!
Thanks in advance.

 

[joex444]

Per your manual on page 1-4:

The PCIe x1 slots (PCI_E1, PCI_E3) will be unavailable when installing an expansion card in the PCI_E4 slot.

Since your WiFi was in PCI_E1 and you moved your GPU to PCI_E4, the WiFi is now disabled because the lanes are shared. Your only choice is to move something to the PCI_E2 slot (the main x16 slot). If your GPU doesn't work there, try your WiFi card but quite honestly if your GPU isn't recognized in PCI_E2 then either the GPU or motherboard is faulty.

Also your PCI_E4 slot is a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, despite being physically an x16 slot. This is like a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot so you've got 1/8th the bandwidth for your GPU in that slot. This will affect your GPU's performance (though PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe 2.0 x8 offers enough bandwidth to not affect it too much).

 

[Snazzymacguy]

Per your manual on page 1-4:

The PCIe x1 slots (PCI_E1, PCI_E3) will be unavailable when installing an expansion card in the PCI_E4 slot.

Since your WiFi was in PCI_E1 and you moved your GPU to PCI_E4, the WiFi is now disabled because the lanes are shared. Your only choice is to move something to the PCI_E2 slot (the main x16 slot). If your GPU doesn't work there, try your WiFi card but quite honestly if your GPU isn't recognized in PCI_E2 then either the GPU or motherboard is faulty.

Also your PCI_E4 slot is a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, despite being physically an x16 slot. This is like a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot so you've got 1/8th the bandwidth for your GPU in that slot. This will affect your GPU's performance (though PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe 2.0 x8 offers enough bandwidth to not affect it too much).

Oh okay. Also, would having my GPU in x8 rather than x16 reduce performance? And how can I be sure it's either my GPU or MOBO that is faulty? Thanks for your reply!

 

[Snazzymacguy]

Per your manual on page 1-4:

The PCIe x1 slots (PCI_E1, PCI_E3) will be unavailable when installing an expansion card in the PCI_E4 slot.

Since your WiFi was in PCI_E1 and you moved your GPU to PCI_E4, the WiFi is now disabled because the lanes are shared. Your only choice is to move something to the PCI_E2 slot (the main x16 slot). If your GPU doesn't work there, try your WiFi card but quite honestly if your GPU isn't recognized in PCI_E2 then either the GPU or motherboard is faulty.

Also your PCI_E4 slot is a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, despite being physically an x16 slot. This is like a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot so you've got 1/8th the bandwidth for your GPU in that slot. This will affect your GPU's performance (though PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe 2.0 x8 offers enough bandwidth to not affect it too much).

UPDATE!!

I just switched the wireless card to the slot you said in order to make it work. Now it's functioning correctly. My GPU remains in the x8 and my wireless card (which is for the smallest pci-e slot) occupies the x16 - just slightly. Now I'm left with if the fact that my GPU is in x8 and not x16 will reduce my GPU performance. Is this the case? Thank you so much for your help so far!!!

 

[CountMike]

Not by much, depending on GPU it may even not show at all.