Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

[GriffontheRock]

To all,
I've built two machines previous to this one so I'm not a total noob and I have taken this build completely apart after the first attempt to put it together to ensure connections were properly done.
I find myself in the same predicament as a few of the other posters on this forum. I'm building a new PC with a Z68 Ext 7 Gen 3 MB and it will not recognize my EVGA GTS 570HD video card. I can get video with the internal VGA. I disabled the IGD in the bios, but not in windows hardware manager, updated to the latest bios on the site and drivers available, but when I try to boot up with that card or the card in my current PC all I get is a black screen. Not even the Asrock splash screen appears. I've attempted to insert the card into the PCIe 3.0 slot and one other with no luck. I did submit a trouble ticket on the asrock site but I hear that can take awhile to get an answer so I thought I'd try here. Any help that anyone could provide would be appreciated.
Other info: can't insert the card into the uppermost slot due to the liquid cooler radiater being in the way, running Win 7 64 bit, 16 G of RAM, 120 GB corsair SSD, 1000W cooler master PSU, corsair H80 CPU cooler. Have not hooked up any other devices to the machine yet except mouse and deyboard.

[SaphireX]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

Just to verify...You have your GTS 570HD inserted in the PCIe Slot # 2 (which is the PCIe 3.0 X 16 one just below the lettering Z68 Extreme 7 Gen3) and you even tried the latest "beta" UEFI/BIOS and still get no video out but using the IGPU your system runs fine. What is the make/model of the "card in your current PC"? Since that also does not work when you tried that and if it's a pre-500 series card then most likely there is something wrong with the PCIe #2 slot on your board or your are not seating the card properly and adding the extra power connections?
Please post back'
SaphireX

[GriffontheRock]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

SaphireX,
It was the #2 slot that I had it in. I must have reseated that card a couple dozen times. You know the drill, doesn't work, shut down, take it out, go back to the onboard video, mess around with the bios, shut down, put it back in, plug in both power connectors...
I downloaded and flashed the beta bios that didn't seem to help either.
The other card I tried was a Radeon 5850 that works like a champ in my old computer.
I finally got it to work today in the number 5 slot. Really not sure how it happened. Same settings I've been trying.
Going to download one of the utilities soon to see what type of readings I'm getting from it. I think CPU-Z is one I've seen on here a lot. If you know of one that will tell me how it's performing I'd appreciate it.
I know the card should be in slot 2, the asrock recommended slot, but if it works at this point, I'm happy. Until next weekend that is when I have time to mess with it again.
Still if you have any fixes or recommendations to get it to work in that #2 slot I'd appreciate it.
I'm not so sure that I've been clicking on the right stuff in the bios. You know a lot of the examples out there show the old bios and the names of things have changed in the UEFI.

[profJim]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

Download GPU-Z v0.5.9 from Download TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.5.9 | techPowerUp

[SaphireX]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

The PCIe #5 (PCIE 2.0 x16 slot) is used for PCI Express x4 lane width graphics cards. So besides what profJim advised d/l-ing GPU-Z to look at bandwidth. I recommend Aida64 to ascertain what BUSS the PCIe Slot # 5 was assigned and if indeed you are getting 16X or 4X bandwidth.

The only other issue that might creep up is IRQ's and potentially PCIe slots that might be disabled by using PCIe slot # 5. From the manual -> "1. If you want to install one graphics card only, we suggest installing it on PCIE2 slot; in this situation, PCIE1, PCIE4 and PCIE6 slots will be disabled."

So it is unknown what PCIe slots are disabled since you are using PCIe #5

Then again if down the road you decide to go SLi then PCIe Slots 1 and 4 are the choices. But if you decide to upgrade to an Ivy Bridge CPU to make use of the 3.0 X 16 bandwidth then the only 3.0 slot is the PCIe slot #2 and if there is something wrong with that slot then you will kick yourself for not RMA-ing the board during the usual 30-day seller period...

Keep us in the loop as to what GPU-Z and AIDA64 reveal

SaphireX

[profJim]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

Another option is to configure MSI AfterBurner's on screen display (OSD) to display some graphics information while running many games, benchmarks or demos. The attached picture shows most of the options that can be displayed.

[GriffontheRock]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

Thanks all. I ran CPU-Z tonight and it said the card was running at x4 bandwidth. My thought process is going something like this. If it works in one PCIe slot it should work in all of them if the board were good. I'm gonna contact new egg per your recommendations and RMA it. Thanks for your time and assistance. Hopefully I'll only be back on here to get overclocking assistance. Although my next issue was going to be this dag gone multiple boot thing that is going on.
Peace
Griff

[profJim]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

Good luck, let us know how your RMA and replacement board works out.

Please add your hardware list to your forum signature, including brand and model numbers. This helps to eliminate errors and confusion and let's us quickly see the information we need without hunting through the thread. Keep in mind that we are helping many others at the same time and some threads have similar hardware setups. Look at hardware list styles in the forum and choose a style that is easy to read.

[GriffontheRock]

Re: Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 and VGA issue

Done.