[SOLVED] PCI_E slot issue

[Casio11]

Hey All,



I am in desperate need of some help. I use my computer for work and some light gaming but without it I cannot work which will financially be dire for me and my family. So ANY help is so greatly appreciated.



Here is my system:

-Ryzen 5 3600

-MSI B450 tomahawk max

-Gigabyte 5700xt OC

-16GB of G.Skill Ripjaw

-EVGA 650 W Semi Modular

-Miscellaneous extra fans



Here are my issues:

- I built is 2 months ago and had no issues until recently. When I would try turning the system on it would not boot and the Mobo indicated a red error light at the VGA indicator. I would force shut down and try turning on again, this would take several times but it would turn on and be just fine. Then I noticed playing COD I would freeze in the ship but be fine once I got over the initial freeze. I updated the drivers and then Dev errored out of every single game, so I reverted the drivers and just dealt with the freezing.



I would also get random black screens from my monitors as if the displays were disconnected when I was in the middle of using them. After research of these issues it pointed to be a issue with my GPU. I planned on sending it to Gigabyte for RMA but needed to buy a replacement for the interim, which arrives Friday.



Today however the machine would not turn on (same red light VGA error) no matter how many times I turned it off then on. Out of desperation I tried moving the GPU from the PCI_E1 slot to the PCI_E4 slot. This worked and the system turned on. I did however notice that the FPS and rendering in the work software I use was dramatically lower / slower. This all while seeming to run a little warmer. I looked under the GPU and saw that only 2 of the 3 fans were turning.



I have contact MSI and they said the same thing as Gigabyte, send it in to RMA but that will take about 2 months. I plan on testing the new GPU on Friday in the PCI_E1 slot to see if that helps narrow down the issue.



So my questions, comments, begs of assistance are as follows:

-Any further test I can do to help determine issue

-If it is a PCI slot issue any way to fix via bios or anything

-I have read that PCI slot issues could actually be a CPU issue (I hope not)

-Would you recommend a different MoBo I could purchase to replace this Tomohawk max (cheapest option I see)

- ANYTHING you want to know or can recommend please let me know.



Thank you so much

-Cas



-Do you think i

 

[Unolocogringo]

wrong thread.

 

[Casio11]

wrong thread.

I am sorry. Could you recommend a better location and i will gladly move my post?

 

[Unolocogringo]

Sorry about that , my cat decided she would help out.
You are in the right place
Ran across the keyboard and everything was gone.. Was posting in another thread about the driver problems and it got posted here with her help.
Deleted it and wife called me for dinner.
Make sure you have 2 separate PCI-E power cables going to the card. Not one cable with 2 connectors.
Looks like you power supply is the CXM 650 model. It is one of their lower end models so running 2 cables will cut down on heat in the power supply and add stability to the video card.
Not a good power supply to pair with a R5 3600 and 5700XT.
The black screen is a known problem with new drivers.

The slot issue could be a lot of things.
First I would try a bios reset
Turn off power supply. press case start button to drain capacitors.
Use bios reset jumper or remove battery for 30 seconds or more.
place card in slot 1 and connect 2 power cables.
Try to boot computer.
Let me know results.

 

[Casio11]

Sorry about that , my cat decided she would help out.
You are in the right place
Ran across the keyboard and everything was gone.. Was posting in another thread about the driver problems and it got posted here with her help.
Deleted it and wife called me for dinner.
Make sure you have 2 separate PCI-E power cables going to the card. Not one cable with 2 connectors.
Looks like you power supply is the CXM 650 model. It is one of their lower end models so running 2 cables will cut down on heat in the power supply and add stability to the video card.
Not a good power supply to pair with a R5 3600 and 5700XT.
The black screen is a known problem with new drivers.

The slot issue could be a lot of things.
First I would try a bios reset
Turn off power supply. press case start button to drain capacitors.
Use bios reset jumper or remove battery for 30 seconds or more.
place card in slot 1 and connect 2 power cables.
Try to boot computer.
Let me know results.

Thank you for your response. I am unsure what you mean by case start button to drain capacitors.

I can and will try resting the bios jumper and battery.

As for the GPU power cable I will also try 2 separate cables, but not sure if that will matter as the same cable I am currently using works just fine when GPU is plugged into PCI_E4 slot. I did also yesterday update the MOBO BIOS and that made no difference, even tho the patch notes said it was to help fix PCIE compatibility.

 

[Unolocogringo]

What ever button you use on the case to start the computer.
The power supply has a capacitor that stores energy. That way your computer does not turn off every time the power blinks. You need to drain it or it will supply power to the CMOS for up to 30 minutes so that you can not reset bios fully.
The cable thing is up to you, It "could" be the cause of your problem .
If your video card is not able to get enough power through the PCI-E cables it will draw power through the motherboard . 2 separate cables are recommended for high power draw cards like yours.

 

[Casio11]

What ever button you use on the case to start the computer.
The power supply has a capacitor that stores energy. That way your computer does not turn off every time the power blinks. You need to drain it or it will supply power to the CMOS for up to 30 minutes so that you can not reset bios fully.
The cable thing is up to you, It "could" be the cause of your problem .
If your video card is not able to get enough power through the PCI-E cables it will draw power through the motherboard . 2 separate cables are recommended for high power draw cards like yours.

So I called MSI and they said that my me updating the BIOS that cleared it and it was not necessary to remove the CMOS battery. I also bought another GPU today to test things further. Same as my current 5700XT the 2060 does not boot my computer in the PCI_E1 slot but will in the PCI_E4 slot. This further points to a mad PCIE slot.

I am not sure how else to test it, but at this point it seems I need to just send my MOBO to MSI for RMA. This is very unfortunate because they said this would take 2 months. So I am trying to see what my options are to buy another MOBO for the interim and then returning it but no company offers that kind of a return window.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Next time buy Asus.
I have had 2 MSI boards die within three weeks time. First one lasted almost 2 weeks and the second less than a week. Luckily I was able to return both to Fry's and went home with Asus boards. Fry's is 1 1/2 hours drive from me, so still a pain.
Asus will ship a new motherboard and when you receive it you send in your old one. Called cross shipping.
Of course you have to give them your credit card information. That way if the old board is user damaged or still good they will charge for the new board. And ship your old one back to you.
One other thing to try, as this seems to be a problem with this board is to go into the bios and set PCI-E to 8x speed for the first slot.
Just what I have read on other forum posts.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Not sure about MSI boards but Asus reccomends setting Bios to defaults before flashing the bios.

 

[Karadjgne]

I don't think it's any of the above. I think it's a pcie issue with the gpu. The 5700xt is a pcie4.0 card, so in bios it's got to be set for Gen3 (B450 is a pcie3.0 chipset). That's getting bypassed in the second slot, but I'm assuming there's an m.2 NVMe ssd also attached? That shares the second slot through the motherboard chipset, not the cpu pcie lanes. So I'm assuming you didn't install the motherboard chipset drivers and are just using the windows generic drivers.?

 

[Casio11]

I don't think it's any of the above. I think it's a pcie issue with the gpu. The 5700xt is a pcie4.0 card, so in bios it's got to be set for Gen3 (B450 is a pcie3.0 chipset). That's getting bypassed in the second slot, but I'm assuming there's an m.2 NVMe ssd also attached? That shares the second slot through the motherboard chipset, not the cpu pcie lanes. So I'm assuming you didn't install the motherboard chipset drivers and are just using the windows generic drivers.?

You are correct about the 5700xt and me not setting the BIOS to 3.0. That being said I did buy a EVGA 2060 KO GPU to further troubleshoot and that is a PCIE 3.0 slot and same issues arise. It does not boot up when in PCI_E1 slot but does just fine in the PCI_E4 slot. This to me further illustrates its a PCI_E slot issue.

Also

Next time buy Asus.
I have had 2 MSI boards die within three weeks time. First one lasted almost 2 weeks and the second less than a week. Luckily I was able to return both to Fry's and went home with Asus boards. Fry's is 1 1/2 hours drive from me, so still a pain.
Asus will ship a new motherboard and when you receive it you send in your old one. Called cross shipping.
Of course you have to give them your credit card information. That way if the old board is user damaged or still good they will charge for the new board. And ship your old one back to you.
One other thing to try, as this seems to be a problem with this board is to go into the bios and set PCI-E to 8x speed for the first slot.
Just what I have read on other forum posts.

I actually ordered an ASUS ROG Strix B450 MOBO that will be here Monday or Tuesday to help with further trouble shooting. If that works out I plan to send my MSI board to them to RMA and then once I get it back sell it as that exact board is impossible to find right now for a good price so I am sure someone would be willing to buy it.

 

[Karadjgne]

Well hopefully that fixes everything, good luck 🍀