Case messing up graphics PCIe slots?

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 16:00

Hi guys ,seems my working pc only worked one day and now i got the same problem with the position of my graphics card effecting the stability of my system that i had before i replaced the motherboard....

I've had a right good look in the case and to me it looks like the graphics card slopes down a little from the end where the DVI ports are towards the back of the card. I've seen this before and never had stability issues with it! Everyone knows when you build a system outside of the case and plug a graphics card in with any sort of heavy heatsink it will lean to that side slightly but it doesnt effect the stability of the system!

So why is this new replacement P8Z68-V motherboard glitching my graphics even on windows unless i stick a roll of sticky tape under it to prop it up a little where the power connectors are? Is my case to blame? It's a small case and i cant use the bottom PCIe slot because of the small size,here it is here.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-052-OK&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

One last thing,when i got my "new" motherboard replacement,the time was set to the current date and time,hmm?....im now very confused and replaced almost all parts in my PC,graphics card,motherboard,PSU. Does anybody know whats going on here? Im at my wits end......

VaderDSL · 13 Mar 2012 at 16:09

1) Any pics? I can't tell from your description how the card is behaving.

If the gfx card is not aligned correctly it's either the motherboard has been installed wrong, or the case is terrible quality and there is an inherent issue.

2) Still no idea what question your asking about the date/time. Are you querying why the replacement motherboard you received had the correct date and time?
If so the date/time tends to be stored on the BIOS chip and maintained by the small watch battery on the motherboard when not powered. In most likely hood it was set to the date/time either at the factory or perhaps when it was tested before being shipped to you.

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 16:19

VaderDSL said:
1) Any pics? I can't tell from your description how the card is behaving.

If the gfx card is not aligned correctly it's either the motherboard has been installed wrong, or the case is terrible quality and there is an inherent issue.

2) Still no idea what question your asking about the date/time. Are you querying why the replacement motherboard you received had the correct date and time?
If so the date/time tends to be stored on the BIOS chip and maintained by the small watch battery on the motherboard when not powered. In most likely hood it was set to the date/time either at the factory or perhaps when it was tested before being shipped to you.

Thanks for the reply,have a look here

http://forum.coolermaster.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15143&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=0

I know its not my case but these pics are showing the exact same issues i have with the alligment of my graphics card. Coolermaster had to their customers to RMA those cases and i saw a guy saying it broke one of his graphics cards and he had to RMA it :eek:

.

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 16:22

The pic of the card in the PCI slot in these pics are the same as the way my graphics card is sitting but not quite as extreme as that,like i cant see a big gap in the slot the way u can in that pic but its alligned the same way,sloping downwards. The first slot to break on the last board was the main PCIe slot,so i started using the x8 slot and after a couple of weeks i had the exact same problem with that too! Could the case have slowly wreckd my slots?

SupermotoMX · 13 Mar 2012 at 16:34

from what i can tell its just a very badly made case, if i were you, i would not screw the graphics card in, just put it int he PCI slot and prop it up with something it should still work fine, however be very very very careful to not move the case with the graphics card not screwed in, and well with cases you kind of get what you pay for

VaderDSL · 13 Mar 2012 at 16:34

Hmm ... odd, only thing I can think of is either the standoffs have been installed/drilled incorrectly from the factory. Some pics would be awesome just to see if there's anything we can spot.

Are the standoffs all installed correctly? Have you used the correct layout inside?

King Damager · 13 Mar 2012 at 17:31

Pics would definitely be the best help.

Immediate thoughts are:
Something might be causing GPU to short out?
GPU might have warped too much, or might not be seated properly?
PSU cables might not quite be correctly put in...

To be honest, my first thought would be do a rebuild, but from what others and you have said, I'd go with the fact that yeah it probably is a case issue. To be honest, maybe get a new one? There are some cracking cases out there for about £40-50

kd

Ginger-Menace · 13 Mar 2012 at 17:46

i have a similar problem with my haf x case although not to this extent, my cards havent been shorting out (yet!) it would seem from your comments that my case is from a abad batch

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 18:02

Ok,i got it working now,but its acting all weird like my last motherboard only not quite so bad

I'll try to explain this as best i can untill i can get some pics.....you know when u do a build outside the case? I think they call it "bread boarding" to test a build before investing time in putting it all in the case....well when you do this theres nothing to keep the card properly upright as the weight of the heatsink pulls it to one side. If i leave my build like this i get weird glitches on the screen and a BSOD when trying to run games or just a grid of weird squares....

I can put a box between the graphics card and the wall and it pushes it back to a perfectly upright position....when i use the computer like this it seems to work fine. It's basicly like the way i had it in my case with the roll of sticky tape underneath the card to push the back end up a bit instead now its a box.

The card i have is a sparkle 460 GTX 1GB (with the crap purple fan) and when i look at it,it looks pretty bent to me on the side where the DVI ports are looks like its been pushed in so its at an angle,even the PCB looks bent in this area not just the metal plate around the DVI ports.(it was like this when i bought it)...the back end of the card is slightly warped,like hardly at all it just looks normal to me.

The card was meant to be brand new but when it arrived it had a missing cable and adapter from the box and the inside of the box had weird "stabbed" bits in the cardboard that the card couldnt have made when transporting and moving around inside.

The original 9800GT i bought when i built this machine still wont display anything on the screen although it used to work fine and overclockers tested it and said it works. So im left with all these possabilites of things that could be wrong but no proof of what it actualy is,its really doing my head in

Im thinking about paying the price to send my whole PC to overclockers and letting them try and figure it out for me if they do stuff like that because as much as i like to think im an expert in the feild of PC building this ones really got me confused and i already wasted money on a graphics card PSU fans,thermal paste but most importantly my free time has been consumed by this and i've not been able to play any games or do the things i want with my PC since the moment it was built. I've built PC's for myself my family my friends for almost half my lifespan and never encountered anything like this its actualy like the worst ever scenerio in PC building i ever heard of lol.

So do overclockers diagnose PC's sent through the post if i was to call them and arrange that? If they do then they would see first hand what i've been talking about for the last 3 months! I dont trust the big purple place or any of the independent computer stores in my area,just looking at them through the window is enough to put me off even thinking about giving them my computer!

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 18:59

SupermotoMX said:
from what i can tell its just a very badly made case, if i were you, i would not screw the graphics card in, just put it int he PCI slot and prop it up with something it should still work fine, however be very very very careful to not move the case with the graphics card not screwed in, and well with cases you kind of get what you pay for

This was the first thing i tried and it made no difference. Im going to try and get some pics up now of how i have it working then show you what my setup is like when its not working and even a pic of what i see on screen when its screwing up.

I'll do a couple of tests first then get the pics up,be back soonish.....

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 20:19

Card fully inserted

General view of my ghetto setup lol.

bent DVI ports/plate....

another of the DVI's

box wedged in like the roll of sticky tape i was using when it was still in the case to keep the card positioned correctly...

the box lol

LOL

This is the working config.......if i was to remove the box it would fail....

WTF is going on here????

VaderDSL · 13 Mar 2012 at 20:25

Next step is taking some pics of the standoffs and the motherboard positioned in the case, it all looks ok in the above pics, the bent io area is a bit worrying, but understandable if you've been trying to secure it in place when it hasn't fitted correctly.

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 20:43

VaderDSL said:
Next step is taking some pics of the standoffs and the motherboard positioned in the case, it all looks ok in the above pics, the bent io area is a bit worrying, but understandable if you've been trying to secure it in place when it hasn't fitted correctly.

The I/O - DVI area was already like that when i got the card its not due to the case. I layered some sticky tape over the metal of my case where the motherboard goes when i first got it to make it a bit harder for a short circuit to occur if the bottom of the motherboard was to touch the chassis(but those metal bits under the board are pretty sharp so if the case was warped it would probobly stab through eventualy)
Years ago i used to get a peice of cardboard and put it below the motherboard and poke holes for the standoffs so that it couldnt short circuit but i thought that was a bit extreme after a while but im thinking maybe its a good idea in this case because i only got 6 standoffs with it and the motherboard has 8 screw holes.......i have 4 of them at the corners of the board and another 2 in the middle but the screwhole in the centre of the board next to the PCIe slot had no standoff underneath it.....i can understand that this could possibly cause a problem if the motherboard was touching the metal but im 99% sure it isnt and still wouldnt explain why i need to have that box wedged inbetween the graphics card and the wall since its not even in the case... :confused:

lol,im really confused...

I'll get some pics of the case up soonish then i'll install the motherboard into the case and show you a couple of different graphics cards and how they sit when installed in the chassis and see if any of you guys can spot something wrong with it......I hope i get this fixed SOON! :eek:

Edit!**I just ran combuster and it was working fine and then i removed the box and slowly let the card settle to its "natural" position and the screen got corrupted.....when i moved it back manualy with my hand and stuck the box back the driver recovered ......i ran combuster again and its fine as long as that box is there! WTF?????

pgi947 · 13 Mar 2012 at 21:17

A guess from the box situation would suggest either something is loose on the motherboard or on the cards PCB.

Have you tried the card in another PCIe slot?

Starting to think perhaps cracked solder joint somewhere?

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 21:48

Standoffs for the edges of the MB and some sticky tape covered screws in the centre where the MB screw holes would be to stop the board making contact with the chassis if it was to be pushed down too much.......these are not fully screwed into the chassis so they stick up almost as much as the standoffs do and they are directly under the MB's screw holes so no chance of short circuit and should be a decent distance between the bottom of the MB and chassis......

I just realised after installing some other cards in the chassis that they are actualy positioned correctly when they are plugged into the PCIe slot,i thought the chassis was altering the card position but i guess it was just the bent I/O-DVI port section of the 460GTX that was making the card slant so much when screwed in....if i leave the card in the board without being "propped up" by the box i will get graphical errors.....

pgi947 said:
A guess from the box situation would suggest either something is loose on the motherboard or on the cards PCB.

Have you tried the card in another PCIe slot?

Starting to think perhaps cracked solder joint somewhere?

Yes i think so too but i dont know where it is,card or MB?. I will now try the card in another slot.......if i get the same behaviour in the other 2 PCIe slots does that mean its definetly the card thats broke?

pgi947 · 13 Mar 2012 at 22:04

If the same happens in another PCIe slot then I would rule out the MB for the most part. Don't have another GPU you could try, or perhaps borrow from a friend to try? Even access to another motherboard might come in handy.

Can be a real PITA these issues where you can't pin-point it to a single component.

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 22:53

pgi947 said:
If the same happens in another PCIe slot then I would rule out the MB for the most part. Don't have another GPU you could try, or perhaps borrow from a friend to try? Even access to another motherboard might come in handy.

Can be a real PITA these issues where you can't pin-point it to a single component.

I bought another P8Z68-V motherboard elsewhere so i could RMA my own board and then sell it on to my cousin when it got replaced but i have the exact same problem on this new motherboard too!!!(Thank god for distance selling regulation act!!! I'll be sending the new one back!

)

It all started months ago with my 9800GT not working on my motherboard.......i bought it from overclockers so i returned it because i tested 3 other ATI cards and each one of those worked fine!(3650/4850/6770)....overclockers replied back saying they tested the 9800GT and couldnt find any fault with it and charged me around 20 quid for testing it and sent it back to me......all i get with that card is a blank screen unless i use the x4 slot,it will work in the x8 slot as far as windows goes but if i load a game it instantly restarts my PC

Some people here said the 9800GT is underpowered anyways so why not buy a new card and said maybe its just a weird compatability quirk with that specific card/MB combination......so eventualy i gave in and bought a "brand new" 460 GTX for 80 quid from some store using the fleabay auction site....it arrived in a bad condition,bent I/O-DVI plate and the mini HDMI cable missing from the box,no molex to PCIe-6pin adapters and also weird damage inside the box that looked like somebody took a philips head screwdriver and stabed the cardboard in a couple of places.....there was nothing inside the box to stop the GPU from rattling about all over the place like every other card i bought....i'll post a pic and show you what i mean,i already got an RMA number for the 460 GTX...when i told the seller about it they were totaly shocked and blamed the postman.....he didnt even deliver it or try to and didnt leave any attempted delivery card and i had to argue with the woman in the postoffice for 15 minutes to get her to release the package to me without the attempted delivery card......so hmmmm.

Am i just really unlucky and bought a faulty "refurbished" 9800GT from overclockers that somehow they tested and found to be working on one of their motherboards and then bought another faulty 460 GTX?

I want to send the whole PC back to overclockers since i bought all the parts from them and let them figure it out for me,it would be worth the money because i've already wasted a lot on this build

I wish id just waited untill now to buy a pre-built system instead of doing it DIY for £600 just before xmas. Does anyone know if overclockers can do this for me? id pay for postage of course,i just want it to work

BarBrawllin · 13 Mar 2012 at 23:01

BTW i tried it in the x8 slot and i get weird graphics glitches unless i do the box thing,but in the x4 slot it seems to work without any help from a box.....so make of that what you will lol. This happens on the new board and the old one so i think i can rule out the motherboard. I'll be phoning overclockers tomorrow and asking if i can send the whole PC back to them to see if they can figure this out,i dont want to use any local place because TBH they are all lying scumbags

lol.

EDIT* I basicly just begged overclockers to take back my whole system and diagnose it at my own expense in their customer service section so i'll update this again with more info once i hear back from them and find out whats wrong n stuff

I hope they take it back! Thanks for replies BTW. I guess now i've ruled out the motherboard/chassis as a problem as a replacement board of the exact same model doesnt work either so its got to be my CPU/RAM and if its not that then its the 9800GT and the 460GTX that are both FUBAR since 3 other ATI cards work perfectly on the old board and the new one that im sending back to that evil purple place since it didnt make one bit of difference!

BarBrawllin · 14 Mar 2012 at 12:32

Well i've not recieved an RMA number yet from overclockers but i did get a reply from one of their employees(who has a sexy PC btw i just had a look on project logs lol) and he asked if i have the original order numbers and said he can only accept back parts i bought from OCUK so i guess they wont be diagnosing the 460 GTX for me since i got that on that well known auction site.

I've took the new motherboard back to the evil purple place with a print out of my online order and the debit card i used and they have refunded me, i thought id have to send it back to them by post but they said on the phone that i can go to the store as long as i have the original card that was used to pay for it and a print out of the receipt so thats saved me some time and effort!

So now i feel somewhat releived as i know the guys at OCUK will definetly figure out what the problem is! in hindsight,i should have asked if they could do this for me from the start,it would have been worth the postage and testing fee and saved me a lot of time and effort. I never thought id say this but from now on i think i will only buy systems pre-built or custom built by OCUK,its more expensive but at least you have some sort of security when it comes to a situation like i am in now and dont have to wait ages for RMA's.

Almost 15 years of building PC's without a hitch and then something like this comes along and kicks me in the guts lol,its changed my perspective on things. Maybe if im rich and famous one day i'll build my own again,from now on im just sticking to graphics card replacements lol.

BarBrawllin · 15 Mar 2012 at 03:16

I reckon the 460 GTX is broken considering the bad/bent condistion it arrived in with no foam padding to stop the card moving around all over the inside of the box and not the motherboard since 3 other ATI cards i tested work on the motherboard and i can jiggle them about in the PCIe slot with no problems. if the PCIe slot was loose id see the same behaviour on those cards too. And the 9800GT i got from here thats advertised as "refurbished" i doubt its actualy working properly even though overclockers tested it and said it did. i can run MSI afterburner on it for quite some time but if i go to play an actual game it crashes almost instantly,im lucky to get about 30 seconds out of it. i can get it to be detected by the motherboard if the BCLK frequency is between 102mhz - 103mhz but if i change it to default of 100 or lower its just a blank screen.....

Sending them both back and buying a 480 GTX and see what happens......