Relegated to x4 pci-e slot on gigabyte ep43 m/b

[vanilla_rice]

As the title suggests, after almost 2 weeks of troubleshooting, i cant seem to use my 8800gt 512meg video card in the x16 pci-e slot on my ep43 gigabyte motherboard..

If I do, the computer eigther freezes on the first bootup screen, or freezes on the xp logo startup screen.. When i installed windows from scratch, it would boot up fine in the x16 slot up until I installed the nvidea drivers, soon after I started the driver installation I get a black screen with a flashing dos style prompt which is unresponsive, when i resart it freezes on xp logo...

When the computer was in the shop getting fixed, they tried my video card in another pc and it worked fine.. The card also works fine in the x4 slot, although graphics doesnt look as crisp as what my old abit ip35 motherboard did with less ram..

The computer place basically lied to me and said this motherboard has 2 x16 slots, and said it doesn't matter what slot its used in, according to the spec's it has a 4X and a 16X slot..

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2846

Can anyone shed some light as to why I cant get my 8800GT to work in the X16 slot, I feel as though i'm running a ferrari on diesel at the moment, and I play games like flight simulator X which I know require good graphics setups..

Thanks.

 

[Darth_Terra1]

Sounds to me that the PCie 16 slot is faulty, is your motherboard under warrenty or if you got it as part of a whole System is that still under warrenty if so send it back for a replacement. that MB does only have the one PCie 16 slot so the Pc repair store was wrong, if they charged you for their service then go ask for your money back as they haven't solved the problem.

 

[vanilla_rice]

thanks for the reply,

the motherboard is brand new..

I bought all my gear seperately, not as a complete package

I bought this new motherboard because my computer was freezing at various stages on bootup on the old abit ip35 motherboard I had, when i installed the new motherboard i still got this random freezing behaviour so I went out and bought some new ram.. still the problem existed..

Now I've just attempted to try the video card in the x16slot again (since i've had it back from the computer repair place) and when windows starts up there is alot of hardware detection going on.. but the one that concerns me most is "A problem occurred during hardware installation. Your new hardware might not work properly"
Also under device manager my drivers are missing under video card, even though they have been successfully installed when the card was plugged in the x4 slot..

I could go ahead and attempt to install the drivers again, but im almost certain ill wreck my windows installation as last time after installing them, my computer froze and after resarting it freezes on xp logo..

 

[nickc]

I would advise u to try to install the driver again, but first uninstall the driver u have. if it does not work this time, try to RMA the MOBO as something is not right with the slot.