Frustrated and Angry: The Cursed Motherboard.

[wingsofzion]

Ok, i've been building systems for 5 years and i have NEVER had this issue. Last year i purhcased parts for a new PC. The three major suspects are the Asus Maximus mobo, soun card, EVGA 8800GTX vid card, Thermaltake Armor case. Everything in the build went fine unitil it came time to put in the Sound Card and video card. When i placed the sound card in first i noticed that once seated into the slot the card didn't align properly with the PCI slot. Looking for the outside is noticed it didnt even touch the expansion bay at all. In order for me to do so i had to bend the card forward for it to stick out of the slot but by doing this the card comes out of it's pci connection slightly to the point where it's crooked. I thought "maybe it's the card" since this was one that came with the mobo, so i seated the graphic's card in... same issue. I unscrewed the mobo and reseated it, checked the spacers to see if anything was off and rescrewed it back in, same issue. The case had these plastic snap on kits for the expansion bays to snap hardware in place, i had to take these off because with the crooked nature on the cards they didnt fit them properly and just caused more issues. I took apart my work PC, the last PC i built, and seated that mobo into the case and saw the same issue again. So after 6 hours of looking staring, cursing, unscrewing/rescrewing and fighting the temptation to drink my sorrows away, i decided to do what i didnt want to do which was bending the cards upwards so they can fit into the expansion slot and screwed them in place. What this did was made the cards look as if they were seated in real crooked and i really was not confortable with this but i had no choice (couldnt RMA the case cause i purchased it new from a store that went out of business 6 months prior).

Flash forward to today. Had the oppurtunity to get a sweet case, the Thermaltake Armor Plus. Finally i can build this PC the wait i feel comfortable with!. So i go and dismantle the old PC and place the mobo into the new case's removable mobo tray. The mobo seats perfectly. Now when i went to put the first card in it's as if the REVERSE happen!!! Now the cards couldnt even fit into the mobo. The mobo was seated extremely close to the expansion bays as close as it could and when i placed the sound card in it was as if the case was toooo foward, the card would not go in because the groves the expansion slot didnt line up with the sound card. I unscrewed the mobo and rescrewed it in. SAME ISSUE. At this point i was ready to put all my parts underneath the tire of my car and just run them all over while laughing hysterically. I removed the springy retention brackets from off the expansion bays to get more space and forced the card in. Doing that made the card sit AGAIN at an angle and didnt align with the expansion slot. So to fit in i had to place the bend the expansion bay's frame towards the card and while holding it, screw it in place. This is NOT right, i know it isn't. Yes, as a builder i know we have to do some things to get certain things to fit in right but this extreme incompatibility has me stumped. "Ok where's the question?" you ask. Reading this, do you possibly think my motherboard is the cause? I ruled it out when i did the test with the first case but now the same issue again with a second case? The only constant here is the mobo. I t hought "well maybe the screw holes are off somehow" but they screw in perfect. So why is it that when it comes to putting in hardware i have the drastic disalignment with TWO CASES. Any advise would GREATLY be appreciated.

 

[roadrunner197069]

You obviously havent built many systems in 5 years.

The only thing it could be is you are not installing the standoffs at all or not installing them right.

Take some pictures and someone here will tell you what your doing wrong.

Take one with mobo out of the case and another with it in and cards installed.

 

[jitpublisher]

Hmmm. Never heard of this. But if the board won't line up correctly after 2 cases, there is either something wrong with board, or it is not mounted correctly. There is not much else it could be. Does the I/O plate line up and fit perfectly with the board and case?

 

[stoner133]

ATX Standard is just that a standard that both the motherboards and cases are made to. The board will fit the case, now some motheboard trays are made to accept more then one mounting patteren so they can use micro-atx boards as well. You board also may not use all the mounts in the ATX standard due to the layout of componets on the board. I hate to say it but this is assembly error you using the wrong set of mounting holes to mount the board to the case.

 

[Ancient_1]

Are you trying to put a pci card in a pci-e slot?