PCIe x16 x8 Question

when you plug the video card into the slot closest to the CPU you get no display but when you plug it into the slot closest to the PCI slots it works? is that correct?

RMA the board? Sounds like you have a bad PCIe slot.

From my understanding the (x16 x8) should only come into play if you were using 2 cards at the same time in SLI/CF.

Or you could always not use the sound card.

Yes, that is correct actually. The slot closest to the CPU is the one that is not working.

The board isn't new, I've just never needed to use that PCIe slot. It's maybe 2 years old.

The Onboard Sound is faulty on the Motherboard, which is why I'd like to use a Sound Card. I figured a $30 sound card is cheaper than a new Motherboard.

I had the same issue with a Quadro in my ASRock board. You need to go into the BIOS and set the vga/pcie slot/gpu/peg slot speeds to revision 2.0 or even 1.0. 2.0 should work. Its a conflict between the older card and the newer 3.0 speed revision.

The only thing I see in the Advanced BIOS setup that has anything to do with PCIe is "Init Display", which tells it where the display should launch from. My options are: PCIe x16, PCIe x8, and PCI. It was set on PCIe x16 and I have tried it on the other 2 options and I get no display.

I'm not seeing an area where I can do slot speed changes.

Thanks for your help.

Alright, so the slot I need to plug my PCIe x16 GFX card into is a PCIe x8 slot. Is there a way to make this work?

I'm a bit confused because a GTX560 is a PCI-Express 2.0 card. I think something is up with your boards 16x slot. You are getting LED's and diagnostic beeps when you plug it in and power it up in the 16x slot something is up. Is purchasing a new motherboard out of the question for you?

Hmm. No options for peg slot (pcie) speeds? That could be as I haven't used a Gigabyte board in some time. My guess is that is what is happening though. Yeah, the 560 is a 2.0 card, but some boards are set to run at 3.0 from the start. This does (as in my case) cause some compatibility problems. Could you post a photo of your options? Before you RMA, I would contact Gigabyte.

Right but his board has no pci-express 3.0 support his board came out before they put gen 3 into the boards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Buying a new MOBO is not out of the question, but something I'd like to avoid of course. When the GFX Card is in the x8 slot, it fires up just fine. When the GFX Card is in the x16 slot, it gives 1 long beep 2 short beep (meaning a problem with the monitor/display) and fires up as normal (just no display).

Perhaps my GFX card is not compatible with the x16 slot?

It is very unlikely that your card is not compatible with your motherboard. It is very good that you remembered the beeps I would go to Gigabyte with those and try and solve it through them because I don't know what your diagnostic beeps refer to.

If the soundcard on the motherboard has failed, the possibility of the PCIE16 slot dying is quite possible. Given the board has a failure I would suggest seeking warranty else replacing the board. From the pictures I would of thought you could plug the sound card into the bottom pci slot and you should have room for the VGA as it is not a triple width card. yes it will be rather close to the sound card but if you've seen sli/xfire setups some of those cards are squashed together and they still run ok. give the 560 isn't a 580 and should run cooler, I'd say you wouldn't have a problem.

dear lord man, update your BIOS!!!

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=...