Asus Z170 pro gaming

[Diagro]

Hey all.

I have an issue and I think it's the main board causing it, but am not 100% sure.

I have an Asus Z170 Pro gaming main board.

GPU at the start was a 1080gtx

Recently after an M2 SSD install I would get black screens which would rectify themselves. Windows would report a system failure caused by the Realtek audio drivers and a random hardware failure error code 141.

So I tried to do driver updates. Reinstall windows and all the things one would do incase it was a driver issue.

It then started to not boot, several restarts would be required to get the PC to boot up. It would hang on the GPU fault LED.

So... I presumed it must be an issue with the 1080gtx.

I bought a Vega 64 to swap in which unfortunately had the exact same symptoms.

Now... I can't get it to boot up with a GPU in ANY pcie slots at all.... I have to remove them, reset BIOS and then boot using the iGPU.

PC works perfectly with no GPU in a PCIE slot. Prime 95 for hours, memory test no errors...

I also went back to normal Data SSD in the hopes it was an issue with the SSD being connected to the main board.

I'm at a complete loss now.

Can a main board just simply have it's PCIE lanes die? Or would this be a CPU issue?

I

 

[Diagro]

update:

I pulled apart my system this evening.

I have a Thermaltake wall mounted case which uses PCI-E extenders to position the GPU in a nice place.

I removed the Extenders and plugged the Vega 64 into the top PCI-E slot. Booted it up and its been working perfectly.....

I then tried a brand new extender i have had since i bought the case (still in wrapping). It did the same. GPU LED hang.

Seems, the mainboard has lost the ability to use a PCI-E extender... :/ ehhhh