Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 PCIE Problems?

[Graachus]

Greetings, friends.

I've recently purchased this lovely mobo (Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

and a new graphics card (Radeon HD 7750):http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131461

I also have G.skill 4x2G 1600 DDR3 RAM, a 1000 watt PSU, and an i3-2100 CPU.

The problem is, I just found out this board doesn't support any of the Radeon HD 7xxx cards (there's a VGA compatibility list on the Asrock site.)

So I tested another card (Nvidia 8600 GTS) which IS supported to see if it would work (thinking maybe it's the mobo and not my card) and it turns out this card doesn't work either...in either PCIE slot no matter how many times I try to reseat it.

I've disabled onboard gpu drivers, made sure the BIOS was set to recognize the PCIE card, tried the cards in both slots, updated the BIOS and all the drivers for the mobo, and still nothing. It will not RECOGNIZE that a graphics card is in one of the PCIE slot. Everything works fine except for video though

Is it possible that the PCIE slots are just defunct? Should I RMA the board for a replacement or outright return it? Would another motherboard support my Radeon HD 7750 card, or should I get rid of it too?

 

[Graachus]

I guess it's not so much "would another motherboard support my card" as it is...I feel unsure of my graphics card choice now that it hasn't worked with this board. I'm afraid it won't work in others, but other manufacturer websites don't have VGA compatibility lists available as far as I can tell.

 

[smorizio]

you have to take those list with a grain of salt..there done once when the board comes out and very few times do a vendor update that list. i eould look st your video card to see that all the copper finders are there and not damaged. I would also look at both pci slots check for any bent pins or foam or hair.

 

[Graachus]

Well that's good to know then. Thank you.

 

[hwm]

Well that's good to know then. Thank you.

I found the solution for problems with the asrock z68 extreme3 gen3 pcie video cards: For any video card with dvi or hdmi outputs, you have to use the dvi to vga or hdmi to vga converter dongle with the card; the pcie video card will only send out a vga signal until the drivers are installed. Hence, if you try to see the monitor through a straight dvi or hdmi output, nothing is displayed--and you've disabled onboard video, so you can't see anything.

Power off, install the card, make sure you are hooked up to a vga output (here again a dvi to vga converter dongle or cable), and the computer will restart showing the boot screen through the pcie card. You can then install the windows drivers, which will allow everything to display through both dvi adn hdmi outputs.

ASrock has taken a lot of flack over this issue, and it isn't faulty pcie boards--its just that their tech support folks don't know what to say. Here again, the board only outputs vga via pcie slots until windows drivers are installed... it will work, it is not a faulty board (90% of the time).