PCI-slot issue on the P67-UD4 motherboard

[PaulWog]

Hi,

So my problem is this (it's about my PCI slot as opposed to graphics card): I have a Radeon 6970 graphics card in my P67-UD4 motherboard, and no drivers but the ones on the disc that came with the graphics card will work. No drivers from AMD's website will install (Windows 7 64-bit). I've tried reformatting and fresh installing, I've used driver sweeper, I've tried installing the disc drivers then upgrading, I've tried installing specific individual driver packs as opposed to whole driver packs, I've tried just about everything you can think of.

So I wanted to pin-point what my problem was. Not being able to update to the newest graphics card drivers was (and is) bothering me. So I took my 6970 graphics card out of my computer, and plugged it into an alternate computer in my house. The only difference between the two computers is the motherboard, and the processor. Other than that, both computers use the same power supply, same RAM, same hard drive, same operating system, etc. Anyways, I went to install the newest drivers on the card on that alternate computer, and VOILA! It worked. Immediately. No problems. So I driver swept it, and tried another driver; again, it worked wonderfully.

So I went back to my computer, plugged my graphics card in, and yep back to the same old problems.

I've determined the issue has to be in the motherboard itself. I have tried using the F3 bios, F4 bios, F6 bios, F7b bios, and F7 bios. None of which correct the problem in any way. I've had one blue screen of death attempting to update the drivers on this computer (for the graphics), and every other time I just get "driver installation failed", or no message at all (and the drivers simply don't work/install).

I'm lost as to what to do. When the time comes and I get to return this motherboard (since there's the recall due to the SATA2 ports), I am strongly considering switching to a different brand. I already had troubles with an Asus Pro 1155 motherboard (I had to RMA it since its multiplier was somehow locked and the tech who looked at it at NCIX was even perplexed), and I switched to the UD4 motherboard; other than this PCI slot issue, everything has been wonderful... but for a $370 graphics card to be limited to older drivers... well... that's reason enough for me to try another brand if there isn't some sort of fix on the way

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I noticed that you said that you had tried a lot of different BIOS versions. Did you get them to install correctly as there has been a problem with the original BIOS and utility and it needed some special steps to update compared to normal ?

[PaulWog]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I noticed that you said that you had tried a lot of different BIOS versions. Did you get them to install correctly as there has been a problem with the original BIOS and utility and it needed some special steps to update compared to normal ?

Oh ya installing the BIOS has been really quite easy. I have managed to put whatever BIOS I want on the motherboard without any issue.

My issue simply has been that the PCI slot (or controller or something) will not properly allow drivers to be installed for my graphics card. Through process of elimination (by using a system with identical parts, except different motherboard/processor combination), I have found that the motherboard simply has to be the issue.

Another issue I'm getting is when I boot up, sometimes randomly windows will take close to 2 minutes to start up (as opposed to the regular ~30 seconds, since I'm using an OCZ Vertex 2 120GB solid state drive). This problem is random and sporatic and happens even after reformatting (whether it's a fresh install with no drivers, or after I've updated every driver and set everything up). Of course using the SATA3 port.

A final issue I'm getting (and I can't pinpoint what it is, so I can't blame the motherboard), is Starcraft 2 will freeze up occasionally. In addition to weird boot times and drivers not updating properly, I can't help but think the motherboard could be the issue (possibly communication with the graphics card isn't quite proper and resulting in some issues). But I know that at least my originally described issue (drivers not installing) is certainly pertaining to the motherboard. I presume there could be some sort of combination problem (one problem on one piece of hardware, one on another) causing incompatibility, but it's still a problem none-the-less which I haven't managed to fix yet.

[Dark Mantis]

Well it's not a problem that has been on the forum before so I think that it might well be a hardware issue and as such your best recourse would be to RMA the board back to your retailer.