P8z68-v pro won't detect sapphire hd 6850

The fact that it can't use multiple different cards does point to the motherboard being bad.

You can potentially take the battery out for 15 minutes to see if that might fix it. It is possible some combination of BIOS settings were changed that disabled it and this would undo that change and force it to recreate all the settings.

There may be a "Reset everything to defaults" option in the BIOS that does a simialr thing too, but it is less likely to work. It is faster to accomplish, though, so it wouldn't hurt to try before you take the battery out for 15 min.

Other than that, your best bet would be to borrow a 3rd video card to test with. If it makes it through the above BIOS resets and 3 cards don't work in it, then I would just label it a bad motherboard.

Hey Raddinn! Thanks very much for the idea. I will try that. Maybe updating the bios messed something up. I had noticed that changes I made to the bios settings didn't seem to take properly. I don't have access to another video card but my older card worked ok on my older EVGA board. It seems trying to move up to a Z68 is not so easy. I will let you know what happens after I do the battery reset. Thanks again!!

Paddy

Sorry Raiddinn,
ASUS suggested I do as you said (didn't change things) and field strip to one HD and the video card (didn't change anything). The built-in video work everytime as does the PC as I am using it to answer you. ASUS also had me download their SmartDoc program. It ran as soon as I logged on to Win7 and stated I had no ASUS video card! It's right I have a Sapphire version of the HD6850. Those buggers haven't rigged this MB to only accept ASUS video cards have they? At 2 days old this MB goes back on an RMA I guess.

Thanks again, Paddy

They didn't do anything to the board to make it only accept Asus video cards, I can guarantee you that.

Tell me, is it possible you know someone who might be able to try your video card in their computer?

Hey! Tried a neighbor's video card (another AMD) and it was also a no go. I RMA'd the board back to Amazon for a refund. Call me an idiot but I bought an ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 from overstock.com for $22 cheaper than Amazon $188. The tech at ASUS who told me finally told me to RMA the MB to Amazon says "we are not having this kind of issue with the GEN3". I should have the new MB by the end of next week. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for hanging in there for me!! Paddy

I have heard good things about that board too, but then again Asus is generally a good brand regardless.

I will try to be around when you get the new board, but I will be travelling internationally so it may be slow on my end.

Now I am really mindboggled. I tried the Sapphire HD6850 in a friend's pc with a EVGA P55 motherboard with i5 and it worked perfectly. I just got the new replacement ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 motherboard for the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO and tried the HD6850 in it. The same thing just happened with BIOS set to PCIE/PCI, no graphics card detected so it defaulted to the built-in graphics. In Windows with the ASUS PC Diagnostics program it says the PCIEX16_1 slot is "In Use" and status is "OK", in fact, it says that for each of the three PCIE slots!!! I have the HD6850 in the 1st slot. I updated to the newest BIOS to no avail. Took the battery out for 15 min. nope. I have never seen anything like this before. I am using a Samsung SyncMaster T220HD and I used it on the card in the EVGA just to make sure that wasn't it. These ASUS motherboards just don't seem to detect Sapphire video cards. AGGGGG!

Did you try your friend's video card in your new motherboard?

I don't know why it wouldn't work really. Maybe there really is a problem with the P8Z68 line, though it seems kinda farfetched.

I have used Sapphire cards in other Asus boards with 0 problems, but I don't have one of those P8Z68 boards myself.

I have given up on the whole thing. Sapphire support on a potential compatibility issue was non-existant. ASUS support consisted of telling me that this 2nd Motherboard must have a bad PCIEx16 slot and/or the Sapphire card was not compatible that I should use their on-site troubleshooting guide. I spent much time trying to explain what had happened with two of their motherboards and two dirrerent video cards (AMD and NVIDIA) and they tell me the obvious and send me to their website!!! The video card and the 16MB of 1600 ram work fine on my EVGA motherboard so Forgetaboutit! Thanks for your help. I think Z68 is a work in progress.

Paddy

It seems that is the compatibility for PCIe gen 2.1/2.0 with gen 3 slots..
try inserting your card in
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black) *2

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/324184-33-need-advice.....

Thanks for the suggestion. I reied both video cards in all three slots on the ASUS motherboards and had the same negative results. I sent the motherboard back to the vendor for a refund and gave up. Paddy