PCIe x1...????????

[Heini]

I'm on my fourth Crosshair V Formula Z and am a loss to what it takes to get the PCIe x1 slot to work on these boards. Asus has been great about RMA's and sending new boards but is there something in the bios I'm missing or is the slot there just to occupy space?

[MeanMachine]

Definitely not there to occupy space Heini
Have you tried just one card at a time and switched, I'm assuming you are attempting to SLI. and checked your SLI bridge is well seated.
More explanation as to your problems might help. PSU Wattage, Bios Version etc

[Heini]

MeanMachine wrote:
Have you tried just one card at a time and switched, I'm assuming you are attempting to SLI. and checked your SLI bridge is well seated. More explanation as to your problems might help. PSU Wattage, Bios Version etc

PSU is EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 and all power connectors on the board are occupied, (main 24, cpu 8 & 4, 4pin molex for multi gpu). The bios is 2002 from the factory. I just got the board new yesterday through an RMA from another board that had the same problem. It's the fourth board with this problem. I'm using crossfire so no SLI bridge is needed. All of the parts on this board were pulled from a Sabertooth and working fine. When I built it last night I started with one stick of ram and one GPU. Next I tried the sound card in the x1 slot with no results but it worked in any of the other pcie slots. I gave up trying to get it to work in the x1 slot and added the second gpu.

[TheNerdBench]

Hello Heini,

Have you tried the sound card in another system; after four M/B replacements my money would of been on the sound card (sorry if I missed if you did try the card in another system).

Also are all the power connectors on the graphic card(s) populated?

This may be an be an "update issue" but you do have Nvidia-based video card listed in your signature which you would SLI 🙂

[Heini]

TheNerdBench wrote:
1-Have you tried the sound card in another system; after four M/B replacements my money would of been on the sound card (sorry if I missed if you did try the card in another system).
2-Also are all the power connectors on the graphic card(s) populated?
3-This may be an be an "update issue" but you do have Nvidia-based video card listed in your signature which you would SLI 🙂

1- Yes, all parts were pulled from a working Sabertotth R2 system and moved onto the cureent board. Built with minimum parts and added one at a time saving the sound card till last.
2- All power connections are good and have tried three psu's to be certain that was the problem.
3- The nVidia card in my signature is currently in the system and I don't have another to try SLI. With one GPU I can use any other slot for the sound card, except the PCIe x1. But when originally assembling the machine I was trying to work with a pair of R9290X-DC2OC's in crossfire. They worked well with the on board sound but I want to use the Essence even at the expense of sacrificing a GPU. Besides the Essence STX I've also tried a Xonar DX and a Blaster Zx and got the same results. I'm beginning to think it's related to the EZ plug for multi gpu's or the extra cpu 4 pin. Maybe it's too much power fro an x1 slot to handle?

[TheNerdBench]

Thanks for taking the effort to post the info back...I do remember this from other posts.

I am thinking the same as you...the sound card may be pulling too much power for a PCIe X1 slot when you have two GPUs installed?

[Heini]

TheNerdBench wrote:
I am thinking the same as you...the sound card may be pulling too much power for a PCIe X1 slot when you have two GPUs installed?

I built his board with one stick of ram, an FX 9590 and one GPU. All power connections to the board were occupied, even the EZ though I had only one GPU in and everything booted fine. I then added a sound card in the second PCIe 1x slot and it was dead. Moved the GPU to try the 1st PCIe 1x slot and it was dead too. No combination possible allows the 1x slots to be used. Something is killing the 1x slot immediately! I have found no one else with this problem but I've found no one else trying the same hardware configuration either. I do know that ASUS had the same results using the same hardware, that's how I am getting new boards. The good news is that with the one GPU in the first slot and the Essence in any other slot it's a great machine, I just can't use a sound card with SLI/Xfire.

[jeremiah]

Heini wrote:
I built his board with one stick of ram, an FX 9590 and one GPU. All power connections to the board were occupied, even the EZ though I had only one GPU in and everything booted fine. I then added a sound card in the second PCIe 1x slot and it was dead. Moved the GPU to try the 1st PCIe 1x slot and it was dead too. No combination possible allows the 1x slots to be used. Something is killing the 1x slot immediately! I have found no one else with this problem but I've found no one else trying the same hardware configuration either. I do know that ASUS had the same results using the same hardware, that's how I am getting new boards. The good news is that with the one GPU in the first slot and the Essence in any other slot it's a great machine, I just can't use a sound card with SLI/Xfire.

HI there, i had an issue with my sound card in a 1x slot aswell. for me it was because i had enabled the "extreme oc profile" in bios. if i reverted everything to default settings it would work. Do u have any overclocks? is everything in bios bios default?

[Heini]

jeremiah wrote:
HI there, i had an issue with my sound card in a 1x slot aswell. for me it was because i had enabled the "extreme oc profile" in bios. if i reverted everything to default settings it would work. Do u have any overclocks? is everything in bios bios default?

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have a winner! (maybe)
Though I didn't have ExtremeOC enabled I had the ram set at 2133 through the AMP profile. I shut down and moved the SC to an x1 slot and into bios for an 'optimized defaults' reset and when getting into Windows all was well. Went back into bios and manually set ram to 2133 and now everything is working as desired with one GTX 780 Ti SC ACX.

EDITED to add ...... Got the R9290X-DC2OC's in crossfire with sound card in PCIe 1x slot and all is well so far.

[JonTheHack]

Heini wrote:
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have a winner! (maybe)
Though I didn't have ExtremeOC enabled I had the ram set at 2133 through the AMP profile. I shut down and moved the SC to an x1 slot and into bios for an 'optimized defaults' reset and when getting into Windows all was well. Went back into bios and manually set ram to 2133 and now everything is working as desired with one GTX 780 Ti SC ACX.

EDITED to add ...... Got the R9290X-DC2OC's in crossfire with sound card in PCIe 1x slot and all is well so far.

You sir are a life saver, had exactly the same problem with a Xonar DX, I've got 2 x760 GTX's in SLI and 2133 ram and it's working fine now in the 1x slot after loading optimized defaults, then putting the settings back.....very very strange, thought I was going to have a x16/x8 SLI setup just to get the thing working, as it worked fine in the x8 slot above it.