PCI Express slots stopped working

[jpdsc]

Hi,
1,5 years ago i build a PC for a friend with the following components:

• 
  Intel Core i5 3570K Boxed
  MSI Z77A-G45
  Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB OC GDDR5
  Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003, 1TB
  Cooler Master K280
  Cooler Master Seidon 120M
  OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W
  Corsair Vengeance LP CML8GX3M2A1600C9

After 1 year all the PCI-E slots did not recognized any GPU. I tried my own GPU and swapped the Power supply. The issue remained and the board was send to RMA.
A few weeks later he got a new Motherboard from the retailer. The model is different (a few USB less)

• 
  MSI Z77A-G43

2 or 3 weeks ago the issue started again. All the PCI-E ports are not recognized GPU's. This time i did some more troubleshooting:
Re-flashed UEFI BIOS
Disabled integrated GPU in BIOS
Remove AMD drivers from PC
Tried the GPU in my own PC > no problems found (did also burn test > no artifacts)
Other Power Supply
None of the above worked and now only the integrated GPU can be used.
The second time his PCI-E slot stopped working he was using the PC and playing BF3. He had alot if frame loss from 5 minutes and his screen went to standy.
This time we will not swap the board but buy a new one from a different manufacturer. In this case it will be ASUS or ASROCK.

Does anyone else have had this problem? Do you advice to change other components aswell to ensure that the issue will not come back?
Thanks in advance,
João

 

[InvalidError]

The PCIE lanes for the x8/x16 slots are provided directly by the CPU. If the slots mysteriously stop working, it could be a CPU-related issue.

 

[fudgecakes99]

Their are a few things to check for. If you have an older gpu, try plugging that into the mobo if that does work. It could mean the gpu's bad. If you don't have another gpu try asking a friend if you can plug your gpu in theirs. Try the same thing with the cpu. Then try swapping hdd's into an older rig with the gpu if you have one.

Process of elimination is your best bet, to try and track down the problem. I strongly doubt it's the mobo. I mean what are the chances of the same problem persisting on both mobo's?

 

[jpdsc]

The PCIE lanes for the x8/x16 slots are provided directly by the CPU. If the slots mysteriously stop working, it could be a CPU-related issue.

Thanks for this tip. I will keep it in mind.

 

[jpdsc]

Their are a few things to check for. If you have an older gpu, try plugging that into the mobo if that does work. It could mean the gpu's bad. If you don't have another gpu try asking a friend if you can plug your gpu in theirs. Try the same thing with the cpu. Then try swapping hdd's into an older rig with the gpu if you have one.

Process of elimination is your best bet, to try and track down the problem. I strongly doubt it's the mobo. I mean what are the chances of the same problem persisting on both mobo's?

Thanks for the tip.

I have tried to put my own GPU in the PC, it does not give any signal.
The GPU that came from the broken motherboard works fine in my PC...

I was thinking that i could maybe be an issue with the MSI chipset? The 2 motherboards are 2 different but from the same chipset and same product group. The last motherboard is just one with less USB 2.0 ports and no digital audio input.

 

[InvalidError]

I was thinking that i could maybe be an issue with the MSI chipset? The 2 motherboards are 2 different but from the same chipset and same product group. The last motherboard is just one with less USB 2.0 ports and no digital audio input.

There is no "MSI chipset" since MSI is using Intel's chipset which is found in millions of PCs. In any case, chipset should make no difference for your GPU since the GPU connects directly to the CPU: if you can follow the PCIE signal trace, you should be able to see them snake their way directly from the GPU slot to the CPU socket; the chipset does not get involved in CPU-GPU connectivity.

On SLI/CF motherboards, there may be buffer/mux chips on the PCIE signal traces though - to switch PCIE lanes between slots. Having those mysteriously go bad on two motherboards is highly suspicious and could point towards either a bad GPU or bad CPU damaging them.

 

[jpdsc]

I was thinking that i could maybe be an issue with the MSI chipset? The 2 motherboards are 2 different but from the same chipset and same product group. The last motherboard is just one with less USB 2.0 ports and no digital audio input.

There is no "MSI chipset" since MSI is using Intel's chipset which is found in millions of PCs. In any case, chipset should make no difference for your GPU since the GPU connects directly to the CPU: if you can follow the PCIE signal trace, you should be able to see them snake their way directly from the GPU slot to the CPU socket; the chipset does not get involved in CPU-GPU connectivity.

On SLI/CF motherboards, there may be buffer/mux chips on the PCIE signal traces though - to switch PCIE lanes between slots. Having those mysteriously go bad on two motherboards is highly suspicious and could point towards either a bad GPU or bad CPU damaging them.

Thank you again for your explanation on this issue.

Oke, so at this point can we also mark the power supply as posibility?
At this point i am not even sure howto explain to retailer that my CPU/GPU is broken.

What do you think i could do best at this point? I will have to buy a new motherboard and send the old one on RMA.

 

[InvalidError]

I would say the PSU is improbable since practically no sensitive electronics in modern PCs is powered directly from PSU rails - everything uses point-of-load regulators which are usually surprisingly rugged against mild abuse. A PSU misbehaving badly enough to affect low-power local regulators to the point of damaging circuitry further downstream would likely cause multiple other system-wide issues. You could reduce the likelihood of the PSU being a factor by trying the lowest-power GPU you can get your hands on.

The part that bothers me most is how the problem temporarily went away after swapping the motherboard out since the motherboard provides little more than the copper interconnect between the CPU socket and GPU slot. This seems to indicate there is something wrong going on at either end of the PCIE links.

You could try putting a Celeron on your next motherboard replacement. If the motherboard fails again, then that would leave the GPU as the most likely remaining suspect. If the motherboard does not fail, then the problem might be with the CPU. If you put the i5 back in and the motherboard fails, that would confirm the CPU as the cause.

Troubleshooting through parts swaps can get frustrating but it is still much less expensive than a 15GHz scope with matching differential probes.

 

[jpdsc]

I would say the PSU is improbable since practically no sensitive electronics in modern PCs is powered directly from PSU rails - everything uses point-of-load regulators which are usually surprisingly rugged against mild abuse. A PSU misbehaving badly enough to affect low-power local regulators to the point of damaging circuitry further downstream would likely cause multiple other system-wide issues. You could reduce the likelihood of the PSU being a factor by trying the lowest-power GPU you can get your hands on.

The part that bothers me most is how the problem temporarily went away after swapping the motherboard out since the motherboard provides little more than the copper interconnect between the CPU socket and GPU slot. This seems to indicate there is something wrong going on at either end of the PCIE links.

You could try putting a Celeron on your next motherboard replacement. If the motherboard fails again, then that would leave the GPU as the most likely remaining suspect. If the motherboard does not fail, then the problem might be with the CPU. If you put the i5 back in and the motherboard fails, that would confirm the CPU as the cause.

Troubleshooting through parts swaps can get frustrating but it is still much less expensive than a 15GHz scope with matching differential probes.

Thank you very much for the help.

I am going to get the celeron processor and a new motherboard and test it out.

How long would you advice me to test it untill it's safe to say its the processor or GPU (if the mobo breaks again).

Thanks

 

[crispykiller96]

I would say the PSU is improbable since practically no sensitive electronics in modern PCs is powered directly from PSU rails - everything uses point-of-load regulators which are usually surprisingly rugged against mild abuse. A PSU misbehaving badly enough to affect low-power local regulators to the point of damaging circuitry further downstream would likely cause multiple other system-wide issues. You could reduce the likelihood of the PSU being a factor by trying the lowest-power GPU you can get your hands on.

The part that bothers me most is how the problem temporarily went away after swapping the motherboard out since the motherboard provides little more than the copper interconnect between the CPU socket and GPU slot. This seems to indicate there is something wrong going on at either end of the PCIE links.

You could try putting a Celeron on your next motherboard replacement. If the motherboard fails again, then that would leave the GPU as the most likely remaining suspect. If the motherboard does not fail, then the problem might be with the CPU. If you put the i5 back in and the motherboard fails, that would confirm the CPU as the cause.

Troubleshooting through parts swaps can get frustrating but it is still much less expensive than a 15GHz scope with matching differential probes.

Thank you very much for the help.

I am going to get the celeron processor and a new motherboard and test it out.

How long would you advice me to test it untill it's safe to say its the processor or GPU (if the mobo breaks again).

Thanks

Sounds like the CPU is defective the CPU controls certain parts of the motherboard including the X16 Slots get a cheap Pentium and try again good thing is there cheap and you can keep it as a test cpu if you have any similar problems in the future the bad news is if the CPU has destroyed the motherboard which I have never heard off you would have to RMA it again and test it yet again with the Pentium :-(

Joe

 

[InvalidError]

How long would you advice me to test it untill it's safe to say its the processor or GPU (if the mobo breaks again).

Since the problem reoccurred after three weeks from swapping the motherboard out, I would say maybe two month.

 

[JSDoep]

Okay guys idk if this will help anyone, but i accidentally figured it out. My psu made a very funny noise this morning, so i swapped it with another cheap psu i have laying around... from there the display didnt show anything from the gpu. I thought it couldve been the psu, and i wanted to buy a new one anyway, so i ordered one. I then went back to using my other cheap psu. I tried everything, but no luck. I even put in another gpu, still no display, only display output from the onboard. When the pc was off and plugged out, i held the power on button in for 15 seconds and still no luck. I put in my personal gpu, but this time i inserted the the vga from the onboard, as well as the hdmi from the gpu into my monitor. no display came on (source was on vga), so i changed source to hdmi and voilla! Please note im not an idiot, i tried this before but it didnt work... only when i inserted both, the pc displayed from the gpu. I restarted it a few times and its booting up perfectly yet again!

My rig: i5 3340
Asus H61m-e
16gb ddr 3 Ram 1600mhz
450w psu (for now. Ordered a 500w antec)
Zotac GTX 1050ti

Hope this helps!!!!