ASrock z77extreme4-m PCIe 3.0 Problems

[TheDukester]

I recently built my first PC and I'm having problems with my mobo. It's an ASrock z77extreme4-m card and when I put my GTX 670 card in the PCIe 3.0 slot Windows boots and then slowly starts to freeze. I contacted ASrock tech support and they said to switch the link speed from Auto to Gen1 under the BIOS for the PCIe 3.0 slot. That solved the problem, but doesn't that mean I'm only running at Gen 1 speeds (8x)? Maybe I'm confused about that, but I feel like that's only a temporary fix and isn't actually solving the PCIe 3.0 problem.

Also, when I put the GPU in the PCIe 2.0 slot, I have no problems, so I don't think the problem is on the GPU end

My full specs:
Intel i5 3570-k
8 GB Ram
620w Seasonic S12II power supply
ASrock z77extreme-4m Micro
60gb OCZ Agility 3 SSD
500GB Seagate HDD
Windows 7 64-Bit

I'd appreciate any and all help!

 

[TheDukester]

I guess I should also mention that when I run GPU-Z it says that the GPU is running at PCIE 1.1 x 16 @ 16.1.1

 

[ko888]

It's a known problem with some Z77 chipset motherboards.

If there is a Gen2 choice instead of Gen1 for the PCIe 3.0 slot then choose it.

The only problem with the PCIe 2.0 slot is that it only has 4 PCIe lanes.

You can always return the motherboard and get a better one that doesn't suffer from that problem.

 

[TheDukester]

It's a known problem with some Z77 chipset motherboards.

If there is a Gen2 choice instead of Gen1 for the PCIe 3.0 slot then choose it.

The only problem with the PCIe 2.0 slot is that it only has 4 PCIe lanes.

You can always return the motherboard and get a better one that doesn't suffer from that problem.

Is this a problem with all ASrock z77 mobos? Or varies from board to board?
Also, there's no Gen2 option, so should I move it to the 2.0 slot? I'm not sure what would actually be faster.

The ASrock people are trying to tell me the BIOS for the 670 is at fault and needs to be updated, which I've contacted Galaxy just to make sure, but I'm thinking Asrock is deflecting and trying to convince me I don't need to return it

 

[ko888]

Is this a problem with all ASrock z77 mobos? Or varies from board to board?
Also, there's no Gen2 option, so should I move it to the 2.0 slot? I'm not sure what would actually be faster.

The ASrock people are trying to tell me the BIOS for the 670 is at fault and needs to be updated, which I've contacted Galaxy just to make sure, but I'm thinking Asrock is deflecting and trying to convince me I don't need to return it

No. It's only a problem with some Z77 motherboards when the Z77 chipset motherboards first appeared on the market. Even GIGABYTE has a model that experienced that same problem.

The problem would happen with any PCIe 3.0 capable graphics card inserted into that PCIe 3.0 x16 slot. The workaround was to go into BIOS and change the PCIe Gen support to the older 2 or 1 depending upon the option(s) available.

I believe you, that ASRock is trying to deflect blame.

The following person's problem turned out to be the ASRock Z77 Pro3 motherboard:

http://www.sapphireforum.com/showthread.php?29582-7850-OC-no-video-from-DVI-in-PCI-E-3.0-slot-(Asrock-Z77-Pro3)

 

[TheDukester]

Best answer selected by TheDukester.

 

[TheDukester]

Thanks so much. I'll contact customer service right away and get this all sorted out