GA-790XTA-UD4 PCI problem

[alforan]

Any PCI cards I use in the  GA-790XTA-UD4 gets very very hot while it works fine in any other computers I own.

I mean any: from a  Terratec Cynergy 600 PCI, to an esi juli@ or a m-audio 24/96 and so on; after some seconds after power on they get very hot, while they work fine anywhere else.

Is there a problem with voltage and or frequency of the PCI slots?

Thanks in advance.

[absic]

Not noticed this with my own rig however, I am only using one if the PCI slots for a delta1010 sound card.
Could be the throughput of air within the chasis not allowing adequate cooling. Can you give the specs of case, psu, gpu, HDD's etc.?

[alforan]

This is a pretty new computer with:

Cooler Master 690 II
AMD Phenom II X4 965
GA-790XTA-UD4
G.SKILL DDR3 4GB PC1600 CL7
SEAGATE Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA2 ST31000528AS

I get the "hot PCI cards" with the case all opened after some seconds after power on. So it cannot be a air flow problem at all.

I thought of an out of specs PCI bus problem. Otherwise it must be my mb with a peculiar problem, sob

[absic]

Looking at your specs there is no reason why the PCI cards should be getting very hot. Is this something new that you have noticed or have you checked in previous builds?

It may sound a dumb question but PCI cards and PCIe cards do get warm, even hot when in use and they are not something people usually touch unless there is a problem and they want to remove one. Can you measure the temps they are reaching? It could be that they are running normally and that there is no problem at all.

[alforan]

Don't laugh, I finger touch them. Very carefully I put a finger on the chips.

I am not that lame. I build hifi amplifiers and electonic stuff as hobby since I was very young. I know they can be fried but I have no infrared thermometer atm :=)

Anyway the problem is still there. I try not to thing and see what will happen.

[absic]

Seeing that you are having other issues with this board ( http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,1386.0.html ) it might be worth getting it checked out, just to make sure there isn't an underlying defect.

You could raise an RMA with Gigabyte or go through your retailer. I know it is not what you want to hear but it might be a quicker solution for you.

Just a quick reference to your other post about installing the OS from a USB stick. It seems that a lot of people are encountering this particular issue. Despite much digging around on the internet I haven't yet been able come up with a definitive solution or even the probable cause as it seems to apply to both AMD and Intel based boards and also to other mobo  manufacturers.

[alforan]

You could raise an RMA with Gigabyte or go through your retailer. I know it is not what you want to hear but it might be a quicker solution for you.

Sob

I started a RMA procedure with my shop, but before dismounting my poor PC a last question:

is the PCIe voltage in the BIOS also responsible for the PCI voltage in some way? Because of the "normal" value is 1.8 volts, which seems to be "very high".

If the PCI voltage is also obtained from  the PCIe voltage setting in the BIOS, maybe a smaller value like 1.5 volts could make a difference with my problem.

Any ideas?

[absic]

It's me again.

Just checked my voltages for PCIe and they too are at 1.8 (which is system default). Looking at the block diagram for the board it shows that the PCIe slots come through the Northbridge and that the PCI slots are through the Southbridge. I am not sure if this means that the voltages are supplied at different rates as I am not an Electronics Engineer and I don't have a proper wiring diagram, sorry.