PCI Express 2.0 slots not working on M4A78T-E!

[Starshrieker]

CPU COOL ZALMAN|CNPS9900LED
VGA SAPPHIRE 100245L HD4850 512M
HD 640GWD WD6401AALS
PSU ANTEC|EA650
2Gx2 PATRIOT PVS34G1333LLKN DDR3
ANTEC NINE HUNDRED
ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 790GX/SB750
CPU AMD PHENOM II X3 720 BK AM3 2.8G
SAMSUNG SH-S223F 22X DVD Burner
Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit)

For my first PC build ever, things went smoothly for the most part but now something is
driving me crazy. All of my parts were bought off of newegg.com.

If I stick the Sapphire card in either of the two PCI-E slots on the motherboard before starting,
nothing shows up on the monitor. If I stick to the integrated Radeon HD 3300 graphics
that are on-board, everything works fine and I'm able to log into windows and go from there.

So, initially, I thought it might be a defective card, so I switched in a Geforce 7900 that came with an old Dell machine. However, also trying this for both PCI Express slots, I get the same result.

Everything else works fine... no beeping upon starting the computer up, everything loads fine, I was able to load Windows and install Catalyst drivers as well as motherboard utilities and drivers that came with the mobo. All of the fans start up, the hard drive, the power supply seems to be
keeping up. I just can't seem to utilize the nice new card I got

Any advice? Am I mising a fundamental BIOS setting? I can't believe two important slots are defective on one
brand new board, but I'm at a loss for what could be going wrong.

 

[cmichael138]

Does that MB require the HVP Switch Card to be inserted in one of the PCI-E slots if you're only using one card in just one of the slots?

 

[Starshrieker]

I'm not really sure what that is The motherboard didn't come with anything like that and there is no documentation regarding video card configuration in the included manual.

 

[mindless728]

there should be a little card that goes into a pci-e slot, you put it into the top slot for single cards (i have the M4A78-E, DDR2 version of your board)

 

[Starshrieker]

Hmm, nothing like that was included in the box.... can I obtain one of these somehow?

Is there a way to run a diagnostic regarding these PCI-Express slots to see if there is some sort of damage on the board, shorted circuits, etc.? Maybe that doesn't make any sense, I'm just running out of knowledge regarding this -_-. Thanks for the responses so far.

 

[cmichael138]

I downloaded your manual and did not see any mention of an HVP Switch Card. I id
see the following mentioned under the Newegg Customer Reviews if you want to give it a try:
"I bought the M3A78T-pro, so similar boards. I built the entire computer with video card installed and had the same problem. The default bios settings are to display though the on-board video, so connect your monitor to you mobo's video ports. then in the bios, change the default to PCI-E. then save and restart! hope it helps! "

 

[Starshrieker]

I was thinking of something similar, but the default settings in this BIOS seem to be by default the PCI-Express expansion slot. So tomorrow (have to do the family celebration thing today, yay holidays) I'm going to load up the computer using the onboard graphics like usual, get into the BIOS and switch the default setting to VGA/onboard, stick in the Radeon, restart and hope that everything works and that windows recognizes new hardware and the drivers, and then restart once again and switch the BIOS setting back to PCI-e.

If that doesn't work, I may have to return the board unless others have more suggestions :\

 

[Starshrieker]

So the above worked for me Started up the computer this morning, switched the default video setting on startup to VGA, shut down the computer, put the video card in, windows loaded fine and new hardware was recognized. From there, standard procedure of installing the drivers and switching the default setting in the BIOS back to PCI-e.

Thanks for the above response which set those thoughts in motion.... hope this helps others with a similar situation, I've read several cases now about faulty boards but score one for, er, user issues.

 

[cmichael138]

Glad to hear you got it installed and running. I also have the 4850 and love it. Enjoy yours.

 

[druinfly]

So the above worked for me Started up the computer this morning, switched the default video setting on startup to VGA, shut down the computer, put the video card in, windows loaded fine and new hardware was recognized. From there, standard procedure of installing the drivers and switching the default setting in the BIOS back to PCI-e.

Thanks for the above response which set those thoughts in motion.... hope this helps others with a similar situation, I've read several cases now about faulty boards but score one for, er, user issues.

Alright- So same problem different issues. In my case I almost think the pci-e slots are shot somehow.

M4A78T-E , msi ATI R 5850 stops being detected by mobo, send for the ATI R 6950 twin frozr II- install it, same thing the computer doesn't seem to be able to detect it. And believe me when I say I have tried almost everything.

I am not sure if anyone would be able to help- but to be completly honest I have gone way beyond toying with setting primary gfx settings.


One thing that was wierd was that when I set the PCI-E as the primary- the onboard still took primary/ and that doesn't seem to jive with what I read on here- I look into it, hopefully its just bcak'ed up and I won't have to prematurely invest in a new mobo.