Solved Asus M4N68T-M LE V2 won't detect external graphics card in PCI-E Slot

Hey guys, I was hoping someone could help me with a problem my friend and I are having with his new Motherboard.

He's running an Asus M4N68T-M LE V2 and while the rest of the board works fine, it just won't see his graphics card in the PCI-E slot. We've tried various solutions and none have yet to yield any results.

We've tried disabling the onboard graphics through device manager etc. The board also doesn't let you turn off the onboard from BIOS, only allows you to set the priority of the display adapters, which is set to the PCI-E first. It just won't show his card in device manager.

His spec is: Asus M4N68T-M LE V2. AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.4Ghz Black Edition. 4GB (2x2GB) Mushkin 1333Mhz DDR3 Ram. Nvidia Geforce GTS450 GFX Card.

I've also tried using my ATI Radeon 5750HD Card and still shows no detection.

We've been trying this for over a day and we just can't figure it out. Help please

One problem that is common when installing these big video cards into Micro-ATX motherboards is that you may not get the card to fully seat properly because some obstruction is holding it up.

Carefully check the entire card/MB area to see if there is anything that may be propping the card up.
Remove the card and re-seat it looking and listening carefully to hear the rear tang on the video card "click" into place.

Thanks for the reply. We have tried that already, but we will try again to make sure. There is little room but his card will just fit clear of any obtructions.

I had that happen on my Asus M2N68-AM SE2, in my case it was a defective Video card. It was the same deal as you describe, video defaulted to the onboard and the video card didn't show up in device manager. I'm currently running an Asus M4N68T-M V2 with a GT220 PCIe card, with no problems. If you are sure it is not the video card have a very close look at the PCIe socket for foreign objects. Also make sure there is nothing stuck under the motherboard or maybe a stand off in the wrong place causing a short to the mounting plate/case. Also if the Video card has an axillary power connector make sure you hook that up to the power supply. Are you sure the power supply has enough power for the hardware connected and that all the motherboard power connectors have the correct power cables connected?

Finally figured it out. Not entirely sure why but the board appears to not detect some cards (maybe higher end cards) since my friend tried an older card and the board found it and runs it no problems. It's a pity coz it's not a bad board. I'm running the M4A88T-M personally and its a great board. My friend will return the board and has purchased a different board. Thanks guys for your help

I was going to suggest maybe updating the BIOS, but looks like its going to be returned. I very happy with my M4N68T-M V2. The "LE" version looks identical to my board. I had a quick look at the specs and they didn't look any different from what mine are. I'm not sure if its one model up or maybe down from mine.

Update: Turns out the board was not faulty at all (which makes more sense than some cards not working ) It was my friends power supply, the PCI-E power connector was faulty which is why the board didn't detect since it wasn't powered sufficiently. Tried a Molex to PCI-E adapter and worked first time.

Sad irony is that after finally getting his system up and running, he played Bad Company 2 for 10 mins, then his PSU died lol.

Well, anyway, problem solved.

Thanks for help guys, pity I couldn't figure this out sooner, would have saved my friend money on additional motherboards. Oh well

Ugh. The bad power supply strikes again!

Congrats on tracking it down. Good work!

Just chalk it up as a learning experience. Its seldom ever easy to diagnose a PC problem. You got it fixed in the end and thats what counts. Free tech support is just that, free tech support, they get what they pay for. Your pride might hurt a little but you'll get over it.

Here's hoping the power supply didn't take anything else with it when it died. They have a bad habit of killing something else when they go (usually the motherboard), and unfortunately you can't tell until you hook up a new one.