Maximus VII Formula Broken PCIe Slot

[I_HateEwoks]

Hey guys,

A little backstory first. I first owned a Maximus VI formula that I purchased back in August of 2013 and had two (2) EVGA GTX 680 Classified GPUs connected to it in a 2 way SLI configuration. All was good until I moved out to California for about 4 moths for work and had my PC shipped across the country. When it arrived I found my case was all broken and some of the components inside were damaged (filed a complaint with UPS, but lost even though I had insurance on the package). The main component that was damaged was my motherboard. The second PCIe slot seemed very loose and I would get no video out on it when having a GPU only connected to that slot or in SLI mode so I just used 1 GPU until I moved back to NY. Not knowing that these boards come with a 3 year warranty I purchased another one in 2014 around Christmas time, this time it was a Maximus VII Formula. All was great with this board, I again had my 2 EVGA GTX 680 classified's in 2-way SLI configuration. One day at school (2015-2016 school year) I was playing Counter Strike and my PC locked up and was completely unresponsive and had to use the Reset button to get my PC to reboot. When I rebooted I saw my SATA configuration for my RAID was showing as failed/Not bootable. I shut down, disconnected my drives and reconnected them and they were showing as PASSED/Bootable at that point. After that it worked fine for a few days and did it again. I checked my event logs and it was crashing on the display driver and was causing my computer to lock up.

I came home for the 2016 winter break and I was troubleshooting the issue with my step dad and found out what the issue was. I guess the weight of the card broke pin #48 on the second PCIe lane, which is a Hot plug detect pin that is near the end of the lane towards the clip that holds the GPU. This slot is a x8 slot so only the first half have a full set of pins and then way in the back is this lone little pin holding the lane in place. When we inserted a pin into the hole with the broken pin I was able to get a constant beep on our volt meter as it made contact with the board, but wiggling it caused the beep to stop as it separates. I also had my board lying down with both my GPUs plugged in and ran Furmark. The first card does not budge as the entire lane is filled with pins and is a pretty sturdy lane. When I wiggled the second card my PC would lock up exactly like earlier in the post. Using a magnifying glass we could see that the pin is completely free from the board and is causing my instability to run 2 cards.

Has anyone else ran into this issue? I understand that the GTX 680 classified cards are not the same dimensions as the PCIe standard and are a little heavier (I think), but why would the lane be so flimsy for an enthusiast board?

Should I start up an RMA process with ASUS about this or go through Amazon since that where it was purchased?

Thanks guys!

[NemesisChild]

I've always wondered how the weight of these higher end cards would affect the mobo PCIe slots over time.
Personally, I have not experienced any problems, even when running with SLI configurations.
I will never ever use a ribbon SLI bridge again, here's what I've been using for about a year now:

http://www.evga.com/articles/00919/EVGA-Pro-SLI-Bridges-V2/

I'm a firm believer that these sturdy SLI bridges add support to the graphic cards and help distribute the weight.

Check with Amazon first regarding their return policy.

Good luck!

[I_HateEwoks]

NemesisChild wrote:
I've always wondered how the weight of these higher end cards would affect the mobo PCIe slots over time.
Personally, I have not experienced any problems, even when running with SLI configurations.
I will never ever use a ribbon SLI bridge again, here's what I've been using for about a year now:

http://www.evga.com/articles/00919/EVGA-Pro-SLI-Bridges-V2/

I'm a firm believer that these sturdy SLI bridges add support to the graphic cards and help distribute the weight.

Check with Amazon first regarding their return policy.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply!

I was using the ribbon cable that did come with the mobo, but only because my 3-way SLI bridge from EVGA would not fit this mobo. I used to use the 3-way even with my old 2-way SLI setup as it was really sturdy.

Unfortunately I don't think Amazon would be on any help as this was purchased 2 Christmas' ago and well over the 30 day period for RMAs so I think I will need to go through ASUS customer support on this.....

I honestly don't feel comfortable dealing with ASUS customer support as I have seen how bad they can be. My step father had an ASUS Striker Extreme and he had to RMA it and took him well over 7 RMAs to get a working mobo that didn't have liquid spilled on it, warped, chipped or had a water block bracket epoxied to it.

[NemesisChild]

I hear ya, good luck with the RMA!

[I_HateEwoks]

NemesisChild wrote:
I hear ya, good luck with the RMA!

Have you had any experience with ASUS RMAs before?

[NemesisChild]

I_HateEwoks wrote:
Have you had any experience with ASUS RMAs before?

No sorry