Z77P-D3. PCIE x16 does not work

[RadiatoR]

Hi!

Yesterday I bought Z77P-D3 (Rev 1.1, BIOS F7) and found the following issue. When I insert my video card Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 in main x16 pcie slot (top one), the mb does not detect it. In case you disable onboard (CPU) GPU, BIOS gives 1 long and 3 short beeps. At the same time, if I insert the card into x8 slot it is detected and works. I tried to change different settings in BIOS (specify generation, changing Init Display First option) with no success. Could you please help me to resolve the issue? Does my MB need to be replaced or fixed?

CPU: i5-2500K 3.3 GHz (no OC), RAM: Hynix 12 GB 1333

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

It is hard to say exactly what the problem is caused by but I would suggest trying to update the BIOS first to the latest version available. Please post all your hardware too.

[RadiatoR]

It is already updated. I had F5 version, and updated it to F7. That was the first thing came into my mind.

CPU: i5-2500K
FAN: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
RAM: Hynix DDR3 1333, 12GB
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5
HDD: Samsung 1TB, Seagate 2TB
DVD: Pioneer 212D
PSU: Chieftec 650W

Actually, it was the upgrade. I was replacing CPU and MB (had AMD before). All that hardware perfectly worked without any problems with MB on 785 AMD chipset. MB had pcie 2.0 x16 slot.

Also, I tried to reinsert the CPU, cause on russian forum I've found that such kind of behaviour can be caused by bad CPU socket (not pciex). However, that didn't help.

Currently GPU installed on the second slot and works fine. Onboard (CPU) GPU works without any problems as well.

[ysw521]

you may need to check CPU socket pin closely and carefully.
make sure there is no pin damaged.

[ysw521]

i mean "bent pin" of cpu socket

[RadiatoR]

Well, checked and tried to reassemble everything twice. All the pins looked fine to me.

Today I carried MB to service. Guys also checked the sockets and did not find anything strange. We'll let you know the results.

[RadiatoR]

Service replied, that everything is fine. Their GF-s work. Any suggestions?

[Dark Mantis]

If it works for them but you still have a problem I would suggest checking your motherboard outside of the case to make sure there is no short to the chassis.

[Wentworth]

Service replied, that everything is fine. Their GF-s work. Any suggestions?

Unfortunately Hynix memory is not compatible with most SandyBridge MTB, the voltage is not stable enough according to Intel and is overheating to supply a 1.5 volts workload.  The memory adressing might be compromised and the latency is most probably up to the ceiling.  SandyBridge are 32nm technology and would support mem up to 1.65 v but not under 1.5v.

If you have installed the embedded video you might encounter problems with installing a discrete card.  Please disable the onboard graphic in the BIOS and plug your monitor into the DVI on the graphic card than turn the computer on, you will have either a 800 x 600 resolution or 1024 x 768 but this will change when you install the Radeon drivers.  Because you have installed the card on an 8x slot does not mean that you will reach better results using a 16x slot.  All graphic cards under 16Gb only needs 8x. The new cards will have a better bandwith available for PCIe 3.0 IvyBridge an Haswell MTB and i5 and  i7 35xx series. Further more, they will only use 12x out of 16 under PCIe version 4 just around the corner when Haswell will be on the market.  An 16x is capable to render streaming up to 32GB, a long way from now.

Cheers