Urgent!! Possible graphic card failure?

[howardck]

Hi, I recently bought a N460GTX hawk (graphics card) with a P8P67 (Rev. 3.0) (motherboard).
Note: I didn't overclock anything.
However, over the past week the system failed to boot or sometimes not even POST.
I reseated the graphics card and it worked for the first time I start the computer. But on GPUz it says the card is running at PCIe 2.0 x1. So I restarted the computer and the same problem occurred.
I reseated the graphic card again and this time it gets into the windows, but the display started showing display error once I entered firefox. (bottom half of the screen show nothing and the computer froze, i.e. cannot move pointer or use keyboard). I restarted the computer, this time it froze right after the bios "beep" and show the connected hardware screen. Later I inserted my old Geforce 210 (MSI N210) graphic card instead and the system is working fluently.
I noticed that when the GTX460 was inserted, the graphic card was a bit tilted (too heavy?), could that be the cause of the problem? Or is the graphic card defective? Is it possible for the motherboard PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (blue) to be defective?

Anyone's kind help will be highly appreciated!!

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Whats your psu ?

 

[howardck]

corsair TX750 V2

other specs
Mushkin DDR3 1600
i5 2500k

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

is this your mobo http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/274398/asus-p8p67-pro-(rev30).html#tab:info ?

 

[howardck]

This one: http://ca.asus.com/en/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8P67/
btw, thanks for replying!

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Pffff, good one. I just hoped you had an underpowered psu or something. When it was in you did fasten it with the screw i assume, was it still tilted than ? Did you install the latest drivers ? Did you clean the old drivers ?
Can you try it in the black pcie, altough the blue should be the right one.
I feel the problem and solution could be in here but don't really understand this, maybe someone else does ? ; *The PCIEX16_2 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX1_1 slot, PCIEX1_2 slot and USB3_34 connector. The PCIEX16_2 runs at x1 mode by default for system resource optimization.

 

[howardck]

I tried it in the black PCIe, and yes GPUZ show it's at 2.0 x1
I fasten it with the screw, and it was somewhat tilted (downwards outer right corner, where the molex connectors are connected to the graphic card)

Correction: in the first thread I mentioned it worked in the blue slot once at x1, i remember it worked at x8 for one time

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

What about the drivers, did you clean the old ones and install the latest drivers ? I think because of the last line "the pciex16_2 runs at x1 mode by default", there should be a way to change that imo.
I'am afraid this is out of my league a bit; someone with bigger brains ; HELP !

 

[howardck]

just for everybody's info: PCIEX16_1 = blue; PCIEX16_2 = black

Here're some of the pics showing when/where my computer froze

froze in graphic BIOS (was trying to see if there's anything wrong in it)


froze right after POST



froze in windows



GPUZ readings:

GTX460 plugged into blue lane


Geforce 210 plugged into blue lane