One of my video cards only works in a particular slot

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bertmoog

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May 20, 2017
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System:
MB: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132567
1060: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137095
970: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133620

Problem:
Brand new motherboard. The GTX 970 only works in the first AND third PCIe slot whereas the 1060 works in slot 1, 2, and 3. Windows does not even see the 970 at all when it's in slot 2, only the 1060. But when the 970 is in slot 1 and the 1060 is in slot 2, everything works fine. In my old ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0, both configurations worked fine.

Reason for this configuration:
* I want to install my 1050 Ti also. This is how I had my old setup. Unless the 970 is in the second slot, I don't get proper airflow for reasons that are extraneous to this question.
* I want to use the 1060 as my primary card.

Other facts:
* The BIOS detects that there's an NVidia Card in both slots
* The 970 fan runs.
* The card does not fully seat in the third slot (and still works) but it does in the second slot (and doesn't work).
* Only one display adapter is detected by System Manager, GPU-z, and NVidia utility.
* Yes, I have the supplemental power cable plugged in.

What I've done:
* Updated BIOS to most recent version (3402)
* Updated all chipset drivers
* Most recent NVidia drivers

EDIT:
With 970 in 1, 1060 in 2, and the 1050Ti in 3, it works perfectly, but the 1060 is being suffocated so I can't use this configuration except to test that they all work fine.
 
Solution
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Thank you all so much for your help, it's greatly appreciated.

So I finally figured it out. Windows apparently keeps track of drivers in each slot, though I don't know why. So each time I swapped the video cards, Windows would install a new driver, even though it's the same three cards, just in different slots. For instance, Windows installed a driver for the 1060 in slot 1, 2, and 3.

Windows couldn't figure out what the 970 was the very first time I booted so it installed a generic driver that wasn't even a Display Adapter and stuck it in "Other Devices". So when I put it in slot 1 and 3, it re-detected it and installed the correct driver and every time I swapped it from 1 to 3, it would recognize it and use the respective...
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fragzem

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Jun 6, 2017
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Why are you putting 3 mismatched video cards into one machine? Sorry I don't have a real answer, but I'm curious what you're doing with this setup?
 
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bertmoog

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May 20, 2017
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Ha... this is a Blender 3D rendering setup. I got the 970 last year and decided that I needed some more speed (some rendering takes days or weeks). So I got the cheap 1050 Ti which increased my speed by about 65%. Then I recently got the 1060. This is the most cost effective solution I can come up with right now.
 
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bertmoog

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May 20, 2017
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I did, and the 1050Ti and 1060 were recognized, the 970 was not.
 
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bertmoog

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May 20, 2017
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If I understand you correctly, with three cards installed, it operates at x8 x8 x4.
 
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fragzem

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Jun 6, 2017
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enlightening. thank you for responding. :) good luck!
 
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DRagor

DRagor

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Jan 23, 2017
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That may be the source of problem. Since CPU has only 16 lanes, with 3 cards it is x8/x4/x4. It would not be surprise for me if 970 would refuse to run on x4. However that is only speculation.
UPDATE: so if you put just 1060 and 970, it would be x8/x8. Does it work in that configuration?
 
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bertmoog

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May 20, 2017
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Thank you all so much for your help, it's greatly appreciated.

So I finally figured it out. Windows apparently keeps track of drivers in each slot, though I don't know why. So each time I swapped the video cards, Windows would install a new driver, even though it's the same three cards, just in different slots. For instance, Windows installed a driver for the 1060 in slot 1, 2, and 3.

Windows couldn't figure out what the 970 was the very first time I booted so it installed a generic driver that wasn't even a Display Adapter and stuck it in "Other Devices". So when I put it in slot 1 and 3, it re-detected it and installed the correct driver and every time I swapped it from 1 to 3, it would recognize it and use the respective driver for that slot. But every time I put it back into slot 2, it used the generic non-graphics card driver.

I finally took all the cards out and plugged my monitor into the 970 and Windows used it in 640x480. That's when I knew the wrong driver had been installed. So I went through Device Manager and found the driver and deleted it. There were NO yellow exclamation points so Windows thought it had been installed correctly.

Thanks again
 
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