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  1. Member
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    Hi guys/gals-

    I'm not sure this is the right section but I'm having an Extremely weird problem and I hope you guys/gals can help!

    The issue related to installing a new Capture Card (its PCIExpress).

    The issue relates to my GTX 470 graphics card(s).

    Here is the issue:

    I had SLI GTX 470's installed and working perfectly with no issues.. I then installed the Capture Card and noticed that my screen was scrambling when my computer first boots (all of the information is scrambled every where until it gets to where it says "starting windows 7"). Once the computer boots up all of the way into Windows 7 64bit, then the display is perfect.

    Here is what I what I have tried (some with success, others with failure).

    I took the SLI configuration out and updated the one card (i even swapped the cards to make sure it wasn't just one acting up). So the configuration was (1) GTX 470 installed in the top 16x PCIEx slot and (1) AverTV Media Capture HD DVR card in one of the 8x PCIex slots.

    For some reason having the Graphics Card in the PCIEx 16x slot and the capture card in an 8x slot causes this weird initial boot up scattering of information on my display.

    I can put my graphics card in the 8x slot and the capture card in the 8x OR 16x slot and everything works perfectly... but obviously I want to find out this issue so I can run my SLI again with this capture card..

    I have also exchanged the capture card with another brand new one (no difference), uninstalled drivers for both capture card and graphics card, then reinstalled .. no changes. etc etc.

    I'm out of solutions.. Can someone please try to help me with this weird issue.. I posted here because I figured it is a hardware issue somewhere.

    I wouldn't see why I couldn't run a graphics card in a 16x PCIEx slot with a capture card.. Its just a basic piece of hardware..

    Here are my PC specs as well:

    CPU
    i7 980x-Stock

    Motherboard
    EVGA x58 SLI3

    Memory

    12GB DDR3 Patriot VIPER

    Graphics Card

    SLI GTX 470s

    Hard Drives
    40GB Crucial SSD, 1TB WD Cavier Black

    Power Supply
    Corsair AX850 Gold Series

    Case

    Corsair 600T

    CPU cooling

    Corsair H70

    OS
    Windows 7 64 Ultimate

    Monitor
    27" ASUS LED 1080p & 22" LG LED 1080p
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  2. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Dual SLI display card and capture card are usually unrelated. Nothing to do with each other.

    What is your capture card?
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  3. Member
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    Originally Posted by edDV View Post
    Dual SLI display card and capture card are usually unrelated. Nothing to do with each other.

    What is your capture card?
    Hey, I have an AverTV HD DVR capture card. It is definitely the Capture card because when I take it out or uninstall it, then the PC doesn't have a bunch of scattered information when starting it up. The only way I can make it work is if I put One Graphics Card in an 8x slot and the capture card in the 16x or 8x slot.. Then it is fine.
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  4. Member
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    Sometimes adjacent PCI-E slots share a limited amount of bandwidth between them. Check your motherboard manual and see if this is true for these two slots on your motherboard.
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  5. Member
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    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Sometimes adjacent PCI-E slots share a limited amount of bandwidth between them. Check your motherboard manual and see if this is true for these two slots on your motherboard.
    What do you mean by this? There is a total of 3 PCI-E slots on it (1)16x and (2) 8x. If I put the capture card in the 16x slot and put the graphics card in the 8x slot, then everything is fine.. So technically I could probably mount the SLI graphics cards in the (2) 8x slots and the capture card in the (1) 16x slot, but I will lose speed and it will be a tight fit in there (some possible rubbing).
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  6. Member
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    Originally Posted by Ps3riiper View Post
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Sometimes adjacent PCI-E slots share a limited amount of bandwidth between them. Check your motherboard manual and see if this is true for these two slots on your motherboard.
    What do you mean by this? There is a total of 3 PCI-E slots on it (1)16x and (2) 8x. If I put the capture card in the 16x slot and put the graphics card in the 8x slot, then everything is fine.. So technically I could probably mount the SLI graphics cards in the (2) 8x slots and the capture card in the (1) 16x slot, but I will lose speed and it will be a tight fit in there (some possible rubbing).
    I remember looking at a motherboard recently where 2 PCI-E slots shared a fixed amount of bandwidth between them. The motherboard manual spelled out which combinations of cards could be used in the 2 slots. If one card took all the available bandwidth, the other slot could not be populated.

    Doesn't this board have any PCI-E 1x slots you can try? That is what capture cards are designed to use, although 4x, 8x or 16x slots should work too, under ordinary circumstances.

    Another possibility is the fit is better in one slot than another because tolerances are a little off.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 11th May 2011 at 00:51.
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  7. Member
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    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by Ps3riiper View Post
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Sometimes adjacent PCI-E slots share a limited amount of bandwidth between them. Check your motherboard manual and see if this is true for these two slots on your motherboard.
    What do you mean by this? There is a total of 3 PCI-E slots on it (1)16x and (2) 8x. If I put the capture card in the 16x slot and put the graphics card in the 8x slot, then everything is fine.. So technically I could probably mount the SLI graphics cards in the (2) 8x slots and the capture card in the (1) 16x slot, but I will lose speed and it will be a tight fit in there (some possible rubbing).
    I remember looking at a motherboard recently where 2 PCI-E slots shared a fixed amount of bandwidth between them. The motherboard manual spelled out which combinations of cards could be used in the 2 slots. If one card took all the available bandwidth, the other slot could not be populated.

    Doesn't this board have any PCI-E 1x slots you can try? That is what capture cards are designed to use, although 4x, 8x or 16x slots should work too, under ordinary circumstances.

    Another possibility is the fit is better in one slot than another because tolerances are a little off.
    Hey,

    The Motherboard has a slot called PCIx1_2 at the very bottom which is just 2 little pieces of plastic separated (instead of the others where there is a whole insert of plastic for the entire card to sit). I actually tried to put the card in this slot and it corrected the problem with scattering of information, but now Windows hangs completely on the "Windows Logo" (starting up). It won't let me go to safe mode either.. It just goes blank after it tries to boot up in Safe Mode.

    Also, since it says PCIx1_2 shouldn't that mean I have another x1 slot? I don't see any though.. I just see one labled PC1 and its just a long plastic slot.. Not with 2 indents for the card to safely clip into.

    EDIT: The other PCI-E x1 slot is the second slot, but it is covered by my HUGE graphics card . That's why I didn't notice it.

    This is very interesting.. It does seem like the card is meant to go in these slots.. It specifically says "PCI-E x1" slot and its design is for those slots as well.. so now we need to fix this hanging windows . :/

    Any ideas on this? I uninstalled the driver completely before installing the card into this slot as well.
    Last edited by Ps3riiper; 11th May 2011 at 01:46.
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  8. Does everything work ok after Windows loads, aside from the scrambled text at boot up? If so, then my advice would be to put everything back the way it was and don't worry about it.

    My guess it would be some sort of clock-frequency issue that is corrected once the windows drivers load. Probably not correctable from what you have described.
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  9. Member
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    Originally Posted by Ps3riiper View Post
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by Ps3riiper View Post
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Sometimes adjacent PCI-E slots share a limited amount of bandwidth between them. Check your motherboard manual and see if this is true for these two slots on your motherboard.
    What do you mean by this? There is a total of 3 PCI-E slots on it (1)16x and (2) 8x. If I put the capture card in the 16x slot and put the graphics card in the 8x slot, then everything is fine.. So technically I could probably mount the SLI graphics cards in the (2) 8x slots and the capture card in the (1) 16x slot, but I will lose speed and it will be a tight fit in there (some possible rubbing).
    I remember looking at a motherboard recently where 2 PCI-E slots shared a fixed amount of bandwidth between them. The motherboard manual spelled out which combinations of cards could be used in the 2 slots. If one card took all the available bandwidth, the other slot could not be populated.

    Doesn't this board have any PCI-E 1x slots you can try? That is what capture cards are designed to use, although 4x, 8x or 16x slots should work too, under ordinary circumstances.

    Another possibility is the fit is better in one slot than another because tolerances are a little off.
    Hey,

    The Motherboard has a slot called PCIx1_2 at the very bottom which is just 2 little pieces of plastic separated (instead of the others where there is a whole insert of plastic for the entire card to sit). I actually tried to put the card in this slot and it corrected the problem with scattering of information, but now Windows hangs completely on the "Windows Logo" (starting up). It won't let me go to safe mode either.. It just goes blank after it tries to boot up in Safe Mode.

    Also, since it says PCIx1_2 shouldn't that mean I have another x1 slot? I don't see any though.. I just see one labled PC1 and its just a long plastic slot.. Not with 2 indents for the card to safely clip into.

    EDIT: The other PCI-E x1 slot is the second slot, but it is covered by my HUGE graphics card . That's why I didn't notice it.

    This is very interesting.. It does seem like the card is meant to go in these slots.. It specifically says "PCI-E x1" slot and its design is for those slots as well.. so now we need to fix this hanging windows . :/

    Any ideas on this? I uninstalled the driver completely before installing the card into this slot as well.
    I looked at your motherboard manual. It doesn't say anything about a combination of cards can't be used together in the PCIE x8 slots, just what types will work in those slots: graphics cards, PCI-E x4 or PCI-E x1.

    Somewhere in the BIOS Setup, there is an Onboard Devices menu with settings that determine whether or not the PCI-E x1 slots are enabled. They are numbered PE4 and PE5. I don't know for certain which one corresponds to the PCI-E x1 slot that is not covered over by your graphics card, but I would guess that one is PE5. You could try setting it to "Enabled" if isn't already. Otherwise, I can't think of anything else you could try to stop Windows from hanging when that slot is used for the Avermedia HD DVR. You could also contact EVGA tech support or post on EVGA forums to find out if they know more about what might cause Windows to hang up when this combination of cards and slots is used together. Even if you don't want to use that slot now, you might want to use it later.
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  10. Member
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    Ps3riiper try taking all the cards out including graphics card ,plus take out BIOS battery.
    Then bootup youre PC(it might scream at you which is normal) then turn off youre PC.
    Then put your BIOS battery back in and put your graphics card back in the slot that you want.

    If all that fails try and get the latest BIOS update for your motherboard and make sure all the
    cards are flashed with the latest BIOS.
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