Strange PCI-E slot on GA-M57SLI-S4

[badprogrammer]

Hi All,

I recently put together a new PC with following spec.

CPU: Athlon 64 X2 3600+
RAM: Corsair XMS2 6400 DDR2-800 2GB
Graphics Card: Gigabyte 7600 GS 512MB (GV-NX76G512P-RH)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 (Rev 1.1) BIOS F5

When I plug the graphics card into the first PCI-E slot, the PC powered up with a blank screen and followed by 1 long and 2 short beeps.

I tried to insert the graphics card into the 2nd PCI-E slot and it works perfectly in x8 mode as shown in nVidia control center.

At first I thought it must be a faulty motherboard, and to make sure, I borrowed an ATI x1800 from work to test it out.

However, it turns out the ATI card worked fine in first PCI-E slot so I thought it must be the graphics card problem then.

I return the graphics card to the computer shop but when they test it on a Asus P5ND2 SLI board and it worked fine...

Now I'm really confused, anyone got any idea on why this is happening?

I send this question Gigabyte support about a weeks ago using their online support form, however they haven't even read my question yet ...

 

[badprogrammer]

Hi,

actually in the manual, Gigabyte recommand people to put graphics card in first PCI-E slot so its certainly not the case with this motherboard.