Computer PCI slot not working

[thecharmed01]

Can you give us your motherboard model number and brand, and the PCI card model number and brand?

[mister.koz]

Ok geeks, enough about $20 wifi cards.

$hitey @cer laptop (what else could it be). Vista packs sad. UBCD4win runs OK. KSpeeddisk Ok on drive. Memtest86 packs sad after about 10 minutes (test 4). Removed faulty sodimm. Ran memtest86. Test 4 packs sad after about 10 minutes. Removed other faulty sodimm. Replaced with new one. Ran memtest86. Test 4 packs sad after about 10 minutes.........you get the picture. Knoppix runs OK.

Suspect faulty video card. Any easy way I can test the card?

Ever heard of Memtest86 giving false positives?

If you can remove the video card and mount it inside another computer yeah but be careful while cutting the motherboard, they are normally 10+ layers thick.

Memtest86 can't give false positives, all it does is ask the computer to load certain memory locations with values and then checks if they are what they should be... More likely your motherboard is playing up or the hard-wired ram is shite.

Asus are excellent at frying themselves in the power area, there's something about their batteries...

I would take the battery out and plug the power in, run memtest until it faults 10 times or 24 hours have passed (whichever is the quickest).

A couple of mates threw their batteries away and their laptop worked ok.

Check the voltage levels in your bios. Incorrect voltages will cause all sorts of problems (usually not permanent).

So glad i don't suffer windows anymore...

[mister.koz]

Oh and bin vista.... get xp or linux, just get rid of vista!

[The Pastor]

Can you give us your motherboard model number and brand, and the PCI card model number and brand?

Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L - motherbord
TP-Link TL-WN550G - wifi card

[Chrisnewtobikes]

Try reseting the mother board,some times works wonders.

[thecharmed01]

Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L - motherbord
TP-Link TL-WN550G - wifi card

Well looking at those specs, that motherboard has;
2 PCI Express x16 slots (Note 2)
2 PCI Express x1 slots
2 PCI slots

The card you stated is a PCI Card.

So you have 2 available PCI slots, I would be checking first and foremost that you have it in the right slots, that it's not in a PCIe slot by mistake.
Then try it in both of the PCI slots and make sure that it's not being recognised by either slot.

One thing I've seen a lot too is when people install the cards they dont always push them down far enough into the slot, they look and feel solid, but need to be mated right down properly.

Checking in an alternate machine might be worth a try, as is making sure you have the latest drivers and not installing from the supplied disc as drivers get outdated so fast....

Once you have checked those, I'd be tempted to hit up the store you bought it from and ask them to check it as faulty cards arent uncommon.....
I am also assuming you werent wearing/standing on nylon and grounded yourself before you touched/installed the card?

[The Pastor]

well looking at those specs, that motherboard has;
2 pci express x16 slots (note 2)
2 pci express x1 slots
2 pci slots

the card you stated is a pci card.

so you have 2 available pci slots, i would be checking first and foremost that you have it in the right slots, that it's not in a pcie slot by mistake.
Then try it in both of the pci slots and make sure that it's not being recognised by either slot.

One thing i've seen a lot too is when people install the cards they dont always push them down far enough into the slot, they look and feel solid, but need to be mated right down properly.

Checking in an alternate machine might be worth a try, as is making sure you have the latest drivers and not installing from the supplied disc as drivers get outdated so fast....

Once you have checked those, i'd be tempted to hit up the store you bought it from and ask them to check it as faulty cards arent uncommon.....
I am also assuming you werent wearing/standing on nylon and grounded yourself before you touched/installed the card?

yes i have it in the right slot (hehe)

i'll take the card back to the store on sat

[thecharmed01]

It's possible its been a dud card, good luck would be interested to see how you get on!

[Leyton]

If all else fails, Hit it!

[scracha]

If you can remove the video card and mount it inside another computer yeah but be careful while cutting the motherboard, they are normally 10+ layers thick.

Cutting the motherboard? Bugger that dude.

should be... More likely your motherboard is playing up or the hard-wired ram is shite.

It or the video card RAM I reckon.

Asus are excellent at frying themselves in the power area, there's something about their batteries...

You mean @cer?

I would take the battery out and plug the power in, run memtest until it faults
10 times or 24 hours have passed (whichever is the quickest).

Tried already with battery out. Tried latest BIOS.

A couple of mates threw their batteries away and their laptop worked ok.

Common on @cer Aspire due to their $hite BIOS. Often the laptop runs but suffers stupendous delays....drives users bonkers.

Check the voltage levels in your bios. Incorrect voltages will cause all sorts of problems (usually not permanent).

I thought mibby voltage levels meeself but there's fark all in the BIOS settings to play with.

So glad i don't suffer windows anymore...

End of the day it's wot the customers play on.



And $hhhh about upgrading Vista to XP. I LIKE VISTA. There....I said it. My cheap as chips Toshy runs Vista and honestly, hasn't missed a beat. Boots up and shuts down quick as hell. I reckon most of the gripes with Vista were
a) pre SP1 it was a POS
b) legacy software crapping out
c) cheapskates trying to run it on 1GB on a Celeron with built in video card
d) folks using devices with poorly written win 2000/XP drivers
e) all the poorly thought out $hite buggy add-on software that pretty much all the manufacturers throw on laptops.......

hmm...
WTF don't Microsoft just make windows 7 64 bit only?
I reckon the "XP mode" will make everyone with starter / home premium editions very pissed off.

[mister.koz]

Cutting the motherboard? Bugger that dude.

It or the video card RAM I reckon.

You mean @cer?

Tried already with battery out. Tried latest BIOS.

Common on @cer Aspire due to their $hite BIOS. Often the laptop runs but suffers stupendous delays....drives users bonkers.

I thought mibby voltage levels meeself but there's fark all in the BIOS settings to play with.

End of the day it's wot the customers play on.

And $hhhh about upgrading Vista to XP. I LIKE VISTA. There....I said it. My cheap as chips Toshy runs Vista and honestly, hasn't missed a beat. Boots up and shuts down quick as hell. I reckon most of the gripes with Vista were
a) pre SP1 it was a POS
b) legacy software crapping out
c) cheapskates trying to run it on 1GB on a Celeron with built in video card
d) folks using devices with poorly written win 2000/XP drivers
e) all the poorly thought out $hite buggy add-on software that pretty much all the manufacturers throw on laptops.......

hmm...
WTF don't Microsoft just make windows 7 64 bit only?
I reckon the "XP mode" will make everyone with starter / home premium editions very pissed off.

Hehe, yeah i was kidding about cutting the motherboard

Memtest wont test the video ram even if it is shared because its reserved by the bios and is inaccessible.

Acer and asus are in the same boat in my head so i always get them mixed up

Vista is way to unstable, good or bad software, so is windows 7, windows xp or ce is the only one i will use. I am a fairly different user though. AND i am well aware that 90% of computers are windows but then the masses have a different level of use of computers to me.

Hence why i said i am so glad that i don't suffer windoze anymore Its slow, its buggy it has pathetic use of ram and cpu's and it messes the hell out of itself even if you aren't pushing it... i only have to format my linux desktop 4 times a year, windoze was 8 - 10.

If you like it and it works, thats great! My apps work on all platforms.

And ps the only way microsoft are going to keep up with osx and linux (for the geeks) is by doing what they said they were going to do with vista in the first place:

1. Build the kernel properly
2. Release ntfs2(64)
3. Introduce a compatibility layer instead of making the whole system legacy capable
4. using a REAL sql engine for registry
5. Making DRI properly instead of using it as an overlay to windows(98) forms

Oh and creating a better driver structure and bullying the manufacturers to use it properly.

[jonbuoy]

Hehe, yeah i was kidding about cutting the motherboard

Memtest wont test the video ram even if it is shared because its reserved by the bios and is inaccessible.

Acer and asus are in the same boat in my head so i always get them mixed up

Vista is way to unstable, good or bad software, so is windows 7, windows xp or ce is the only one i will use. I am a fairly different user though. AND i am well aware that 90% of computers are windows but then the masses have a different level of use of computers to me.

Hence why i said i am so glad that i don't suffer windoze anymore Its slow, its buggy it has pathetic use of ram and cpu's and it messes the hell out of itself even if you aren't pushing it... i only have to format my linux desktop 4 times a year, windoze was 8 - 10.

Formatting 8-10 times a year?? What do you do on them??

[Leyton]

Formatting 8-10 times a year?? What do you do on them??

Pr0n!!!!!!!

[avgas]

Vista is way to unstable, good or bad software, so is windows 7, windows xp or ce is the only one i will use.

Your kidding right.....
no?
ok try this
del sysconfig....
can do it very easily in xp (or an automatic script in xp....aka virus)
still not conviced - ok take your photos folder, try move (aka cut/paste) into a flash drive that is too small.....
when you fill that disk hit cancel - now find a bigger flash drive and move the same folder of C: onto it. Where are all your photos - oh there are some on that little drive, its ok I will just move them onto the big one.......oh shit.

Vista beta was fantastic - it wasn't until HP,FOXCONN and ASUS got it dirty little hands on it (and twist microsoft's arm) that it turned into the behemoth we have today.

Likewise i fear the same will happen to Linux. I have an older version on mint on my pc right now. Works great......just installed the new one on a friends pc......is this the beginning of the end. Don't even get me started on Ubuntu which is now as usable as 3.11.

Also why format when you can image?

[The Pastor]

an update,

I returned the card to the store, they tested it and it works,

they asked to see my PC so i brought it in, they also could not get it working.

They said maybe sp3 (im on sp2) might work, if not sp3 then a windows reinstal might help.

I kept the pci card, but have a usb one now, seems to be working great. (i bought a usb hub so i can free up some slots.)