Just installed my old sound card and now my GPU stopped working, HELP!

[witches_jelly]

So I recently built a new computer, all going well aside from getting a dud GPU initially and RMAing it. Got it in the mail yesterday and installed it as well as my old sound card, putting it into the lower of the 2 PCI slots. At first the sound card wasn't working and my computer wouldn't detect it(though the light on the card was on) and I was unable to install its drivers. So I tried reseating it and my computer was able to detect it. After installing the drivers and restarting my computer I was greeted with a blank screen and my monitors power light was indicating no signal, looking in the case I saw that LEDs that light on the GPU were out and the cards fans weren't spinning. I switched to the integrated graphics and finished the install of the soundcards programs and tried restarting and again it didn't work. I'm not sure what to do or even were to start in figuring out what happened and how to fix it.

My specs are
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
MOBO: Asus P8Z68-V Pro
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 570 SOC
CPU: i5-2500k
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
PSU: CORSAIR AX750
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion

I had this posted in another section of the forum but I think hear would likely be a better place to ask for help. Below are 2 follow up posted of what was going on that I'd posted in the original thread. Adding it hear to hopefully make the situation more clear to make it easier to figure out whats happening.

Ok now I'm just confused. I had shut down my computer for the time being(was gonna log on and check this thread later) when I realized I'd forgotten to check my email so I turned it on.... and no signal to the screen from the integrated graphics.... and now mysteriously the GPU is back up and running. What the heck just happened???????

Ok now its not working AGAIN! The computer went into sleep mode and when I woke it up the GPU had stopped working. Its fans are going full speed right now but the lights on top of it are off again and its not sending any signal to the monitor. Anyone have any idea what is going on?

:edit:

I tried shutting it down and turning it back on to see if that would fix it and it didn't GPU came on for a short time then shut down, giving me no signal from either the mobo or gpu. After restarting again after that since there was nothing I could do at all I got signal again from the mobo and the gpu is once again off completely. :|

 

[4745454b]

Try the SC in a different PCIe slot. Probably some odd IRQ issue.

 

[witches_jelly]

Try the SC in a different PCIe slot. Probably some odd IRQ issue.

What is IRQ? The only other PCI slot is directly below the GPU and from the looks or it I'm not sure it would fit without the fans hitting the sound card. I'll give it a try later though.
Another thing I've noticed. With the BIOS set to use the integrated grpahics, the GPU is now running(though still not outputting a signal) consistently every start up, its lights are on and the fan is going though I get nothing when I plug my monitor into it.

 

[witches_jelly]

Ok swapping it into the top PCI slot seems to have fixed the problem. Thought there is worryingly little room between them now. The exposed center fan is spinning about only 3mm above the sharp solder points on the top of the sound card which makes me nervous. Is there any sort of risk of having them this close from a cooling standpoint? Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could possibly get it working on the lower PCI slot? Having it down there gives them a nice 2 inches or so of separation which I'd imagine must be better for it cooling wise.

I'm also still curious as to what an IRQ issue is.

 

[4745454b]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+IRQ

It will decrease the cooling for sure. You'll have to decide which is better to use.

 

[witches_jelly]

I'd looked it up by I didn't really understand it which is why I asked. Do you have any idea what I can do to get it working in the lower slot?

edit

Ok so out of curiosuty I tried just switching the SC back to the lower slot. At first I didn't have sound until I did a restart, sound is now working and at the moment so is the GPU, could there maybe have been just a bad connection? Or possibly the BIOS was incorrectly set? After getting the GPU working again I'd set it from iGPU to PCI/PCIe, coule it have possibly been on the wrong setting before causing problems?